At the 4th ICUUW Convocation this past September, women from all over the world met, talked, and dreamed of the world we wanted for women and girls. This is the defining purpose of ICUUW: improving the lives of women and girls. At lunch one day the ICUUW Outreach Committee, of which I am Co-Chair, sat talking. What are we dreaming of? What do we want to reach out to and bring home to the ICUUW? As we talked, we realized our dream was for Liberal Religious Women from all over the world, young and old, to be connected and to have common, life-changing experiences.
Dr. Maureen Porter had given an inspiring speech to the assembly. One of the areas that she works in is Service Learning. This is where a group of varied individuals from different countries, communities and classes come together to work on a project, not for themselves but for another community. As the work is accomplished, how decisions are made, how relationships are built, how the project is impacted by the varied styles and tensions of participants is material for learning, growth and understanding. The question was raised – What if the ICUUW developed an International Service Learning Pilot Program? We were in Transylvania – I remembered a conversation I had had with Bishop Kovács of the Hungarian Unitarian Church. He asked me if I knew how we might begin having Unitarian Universalist American Youth and Hungarian/Romanian Unitarian Youth exchange programs? The Outreach Committee contacted Bishop Kovács and we have been working on a program that would bring American and Romanian young adults to Pittsburgh and West Virginia to explore service learning in a local setting.
After the pilot program, our dream is to replicate the program around the world – Transylvania, the Philippines, Kenya, India, Europe… Just think if part of becoming a Liberal Religious Adult encompassed the possibility of traveling and working with liberal religious emerging adults from all over the world? Our faith as an association of congregations and liberal religion all over the world would be changed, deepened and more connected. This is the world we dream about.
We will need to write grants, accept applications, select the first teams of leaders and participants. Sound exciting? Want to help? Contact Rev. Denise Tracy