Our Mission is to promote understanding and awareness of Animals as fellow Sentient Beings in line with the 7th UU Principle, and to provide Animal Advocacy Ministry, Education, and Support to our Members and the Church Community as a whole.
UU Animal Ministry (UUAM) Meetings are held on the 4th Sunday of each month at church. We meet for socializing around 12:45 pm, with the meeting starting at 1pm (good to check the activity board by the info desk in the Eliot Center). All are welcome!
Our in-person meetings are temporarily on hold due to circumstance. Please watch for Animal Ministry emails if you want to connect or comment. You can also Email Directly to us with any ideas/suggestions and your thoughts are encouraged!
Normally we rely on having an information table downstairs in Margaret Fuller Hall after services to chat, where we share our space with the Community for Earth. We look forward to being together again one of these days to be able to offer a wide range of informational materials.
Our email list is accessible at Google Groups You can also sign up in-person at our table on Sundays when services are being held at the church.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/UUAnimalMinistryPDX
Info about the national UU Animal Ministry. http://www.uuam.org/
Events:
Our Holiday Vegan Potluck was a great success with guest performer Daniel Redwood there to share his memorable tributes in song. Attendance was the best yet for the annual event, with more than 70 multi generational people taking part!
More about Daniel Redwood “Songs of Social Justice”
Singer-songwriter Daniel Redwood has performed at the National Animal Rights Conference, Northwest VEG’s Compassionate Thanksgiving, Chicago VeganMania, the Conference for Animals and the Environment, at many churches and animal sanctuaries. His most recent album is “Songs for Animals, People and the Earth”. (See his music website) He and his music were part of the educational film, César Chávez: Respect for All.
Other Recent Events:
Turn Your Passion into Action!
Took place Friday, October 11, 6:30 PM, Eliot Chapel
Brought to you by:
UU Animal Ministry PDX, Animal Rights March Portland,
Veggies Do It Better, Fur Free PDX
Event Description: Are you ready to get active for animals but don’t know where to start? Do you have questions about civil disobedience, activist rights and animal law? Then join us for informative talks and an interactive panel discussion with activist Jenny McQueen, Lewis and Clark Law School Animal Law Clinic Director Kathy Hessler and Clinical Professor of Law Aquatic Animal Law Initiative Fellow Amy Wilson, moderated by Chelsea V Davis of Veggies Do It Better. This evening will be sure to leave you feeling empowered and equipped to turn your passion into action!
The next day, October 12th, members of our UU Animal Ministry proudly participated with our banner in the 2019 “Portland Official Animal Rights March” with plenty of public support
(link to photos)
Video of our previous event!
As an example of what we have been doing over the Summer, on Friday, August 17, we were so fortunate to have 3 amazing speakers describe their versions of Animal Activism. The following video includes talks by Cheyenne Danner, Brian Posewitz and Michael Prikryl followed by an interactive Q&A panel moderated by Chelsea V Davis, who heads the group “Veggies Do It Better” and leads a consortium of Portland area animal activist groups. The UU Animal Ministry was a co-sponsor of the event.
Each of these people come from unique backgrounds but they all converge in agreement on the need for giving voice to compassion for other life.
Here’s a guide:
Introductions: Keith Iding, Chelsea V Davis
0:02:40 – Cheyenne Danner
0:20:20 – Brian Posewitz
0:44:25 – “VeganoMike” Michael Prikryl
1:09:53 – Panel Q & A: Chelsea V Davis, Cheyenne Danner, Brian Posewitz and Michael Prikryl
Click on this space to review our May 10 ‘Science Matters’ talk:
More Previous Events:
Our UUAM Holiday Vegan Potluck held Dec 30th had over 60 Guests!
Thanks for Your Support!
We hope you were able to attend the sermon that same day presented by Resident Intern Mira Mickiewicz on
Listening to the Earth, link provided here!
The sermon was a very inspiring affirmation of our Seventh Principle and the very real connection each of us carries to the Earth and all its creatures. We recommend it, 24 min. Thanks Mira!
Dr Will Tuttle at First Unitarian:
(click this poster for a video of the event!
The following was cosponsored by the Animal Ministry and Community for Earth:
A Presentation and Potluck was held on April 15th, nice turnout and a very impressive compassionate presentation from Jenny Brown!
We also loved hearing from members of Youth for the Voiceless, who are working so sincerely to reduce all forms of oppression.
A Co-Sponsored Event with Community for Earth that took place this past February:
Our Oceans are being Trashed!
What’s the latest on all that plastic swirling around in the ocean? Not good! Portland hosted an international conference on ocean health, and one of the presenters, author and researcher Charles Moore came to First Unitarian. Captain Moore, as the head of a research vessel and organization, Algalita.org, was made famous by his discovery of the “Great Pacific Garbage Gyre” and his popular TED talk. How big is this problem and what can be done about it? Click the link above to see a video of his visit. Co-sponsored by Community for Earth and the Animal Ministry, with help from folks at St. James Lutheran Church.
Interested in our Events?
We’re always looking for new projects and activities. Want to help? If so, please let us know!
Examples of Other Previous Animal Ministry Events:
Film and Talk on Animal Sanctuaries – Sunday Jan. 21, 2018. View wonderful heartfelt and non-graphic recent film about Animal Sanctuaries, “Called to Rescue – Redefining Our Barnyard Story” followed by a talk and Q&A by Wildwood Farm Sanctuary Manager and Veterinary Technician Shauna Sherick. This was a rare chance to find out why people choose to create and run a farm animal sanctuary, and to have someone so capable in our midst to share some great stories and answer all our questions. We will definitely be visiting Wildwood Sanctuary as a group in the near future, and you are invited to come with us!
KBOO (90.7 FM in Portland) Monday, May 23rd, 2016 – Voices for the Animals (http://kboo.com/media/49535-animal-ministry-unitarian-church). 11:30am to 12pm. In this episode of VFA, Courtney Scott interviews Keith Iding and Janice Clark of First Church’s Animal Ministry.
Join us for a talk by British author Alex Lockwood. Alex Lockwood (http://alexlockwood.co.uk/) —writer, educator, and activist working in the fields of literature, creative writing, media, and the environment—critically explores the relationship of the body to animal activism. Link to info about Alex’s book, The Pig in Thin Air – An Identification (https://lanternbooks.presswarehouse.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=479879) Thursday, July 21, 2016. Eliot Chapel, 5:00 to 10:00 PM. More info to come.
Animal Sanctuary service/volunteer day Sunday, August 14th, 2016 This is our annual volunteer trip organized to support the “Creating Connections “ 2016 Auction. This year we’ll be heading to Wildwood Farm Sanctuary (http://wildwoodfarmsanctuary.org/) in Newberg, OR.
Factory Farming Awareness Coalition presentation— October 2016 (exact date TBD). 1:00 PM in the Old Chapel, A1088, with Katie Cantrell.
Discussion with The Humane Society of the United States’ (HSUS) Faith Outreach and the Save Endangered Animals Oregon campaign. Sunday, May 15, 2016. We offered refreshments and discussed the role that people of faith play in animal protection along with ways we and our congregation can get involved in this and other areas. About 25 people attended.
Earth Day 2016 Tabling & the Wheel-of-Chance Sunday, April 17th. Families stopped by after service for snacks, information, and to spin the wheel for fantastic prizes and awesome opportunities. For a selection of pictures from a previous year’s event – click here.
Free Film Event. From Suffering to Satori February, 2016. Eliot Chapel. Premiere by Portland filmmaker, Courtney Scott. In this documentary, the Oregon Zoo becomes a stage where questions about our relationship to animals are pondered. World-famous resident elephant, Packy, plays a central role as Scott leads us through her growing awareness and concern about all we take for granted in our nature-dominant culture. The film is a conversation with two dozen specialists who bring focus to the disparity between our assumptions and the realities of how we treat the other residents of this world.
Holiday Potluck Potluck lunch of foods that are vegan following the church service. December 27, 2015, in the Buchan Reception room. Celebrating community and a healthful plant-based diet. The meal stimulated our palates and gave us the opportunity to meet new people and re-connect with current friends.
Out to Pasture Animal Sanctuary service/volunteer day Sunday, August 9th, 2015 This is our annual volunteer trip to Out to Pasture organized to support the “Extending Our Welcome” 2015 Auction. Pictures from this trip – click here About 25 of us from First Church donned some outdoor clothes and headed down to Out to Pasture Animal Farm Sanctuary (Estacada, OR) for an afternoon of service work. We did light farm-work (previous activities include shovelling, painting, feeding non-human animals, washing water bowls, sorting herbs, etc.). This is a family friendly event. We carpooled. It’s a great opportunity to support the Church financially and get outside with a nice group of people to do some volunteering. The time with the animals has been animal therapy for some (way better than a zoo!). Snacks provided.
Earth Day 2015 Tabling & the Wheel-of-Chance Sunday, April 19th. Please stop by after service for snacks, information, and to spin the wheel for fantastic prizesand awesome opportunities (TBD). For a selection of more pictures from last year’s event – click here.
Your Ecological Foodprint: Eat Like A Prius Every meal we eat gives us the opportunity to influence the future. Factory farming, which supplies most of what Americans eat, is our biggest source of pollution, greenhouse gases, land and water use. Community for Earth (CFE) and the Animal Ministry invite you to a free talk presented by Peter Spendelow, DEQ Natural Resource Specialist, and president of NW VEG. Healthy snacks available 12:30–1pm; Questions and discussion follow. Seating is limited. Sunday, Apr. 12, 1–2:30pm, Channing Room.
Interested in joining a small reading group with people from Church? If so, please let us know. We haven’t decided on our next book yet.
The first book we read was The World Peace Diet – Eating For Spiritual Health And Social Harmony
Visionary author Will Tuttle’s #1 Amazon bestseller, The World Peace Diet, is a transformational guide to living in alignment with our inner wisdom, and the loving kindness and compassion that are our true nature. We’ve been born into a culture that indoctrinates us from birth to disconnect from our spiritual values and our innate sense of justice, and to deny our inner knowing that all animals are sentient—they have feelings, intelligence, sensitivity, and consciousness, plus a physiology that feels pain. Just like us, they seek to be happy and to avoid suffering. Yet when we participate in the routine mistreatment of animals required by daily meals of animal flesh and secretions, we deprive them of their happiness. The World Peace Diet is a comprehensive roadmap that awakens us to the devastating ramifications of our food choices—to animals, other people, the environment, as well as our own health, spiritual sensitivity and consciousness. The book empowers us to bring our actions into alignment with our spiritual, ethical values by making conscious vegan choices based on compassion, justice, kindness, nonviolence, and mercy to animals. We hope you’ll join the Unitarian Universalist Animal Ministry group for a discussion of The World Peace Diet, which will be led by Beth Redwood, a certified World Peace Diet facilitator.
Author’s site (Will Tuttle, PhD) World Peace Diet (Powell’s) World Peace Diet (Multnomah County library)
Holiday Potluck Lunch Join us for a potluck lunch of foods that are vegan following the church service on December 28 in the Buchan Reception room. We can gather and set up at 12:30 and share lunch around 1:00. Bond with vegans, vegetarians, and veg-curious people as we celebrate community and a healthful plant-based diet. This meal will stimulate your palate and give you the opportunity to meet new people. Please bring generous dishes to share: a main dish, side dish, salad, or dessert; a card listing its ingredients; and a serving utensil. If you come by yourself, figure the amount to serve 8-10; increase the amount by 4 servings for each additional person in your party/family. Please bring only plant food: no meat, eggs, milk products, honey, gelatin, etc. Everyone is welcome to attend! For more information email Christopher, vegantinkerer@gmail.com.
Out to Pasture Animal Sanctuary Service Day 2015 Sunday, December 21st. We’ll be gathering together after second service to carpool together for those who want to). Lets plan on leaving the Church around 12:30pm. It’ll be a relatively small group of us and we’ll have the sanctuary to ourselves. “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret” screening. Eliot Chapel, Sunday, November 2nd. Light snacks. FREE. About 120 people came for the film & we had some good discussion afterwards. Co-sponsored by the Animal Ministry and Community for Earth (CFE). Event listing on Facebook – here.
Cowspiracy is the ‘game changer’ film that demonstrates the huge impacts of animal agriculture on our environment against a backdrop mystery of why this information has taken so long to attain a higher priority within mainstream environmental organizations. Sources of the film’s statistics can be found here – http://cowspiracy.com/fact-check/ Cowspiracy
Tabling at Portland VegFest 2014 September, 2014. More pictures can be seen here.
Out to Pasture Animal Sanctuary Service Day 2014 Saturday, July 19, 2014. Organized to support the Lift Our Spirits auction at Church. We carpooled to Out to Pasture Animal Sanctuary (Estacada, OR) for an afternoon of service-work/volunteering. They needed help painting (fences, pig houses, buildings) and other light farm-work to make the place look nice for their annual open house. We had the sanctuary to ourselves and had a good day. If you’d like to go on a future service trip like this, please get in touch. More pictures – here.
Out to Pasture Animal Sanctuary Service Day 2014
Earth Day 2014 Tabling & the Wheel-of-Chance — many people stopped by for snacks, information, and to spin the wheel for fantastic prizesand awesome opportunities (eg., one of four $25 gift-certificates generously donated by Food Fight grocery; super-tasty fair-trade, organic, vegan, local (Seattle), chocolate bars, …). For a selection of more pictures from the event – click here. We’re interested in hearing how people/families did with their commitments. If you’d like support/community in following through with a commitment, then please feel welcome to connect with us.
Film: Speciesism Screening of the filmSpeciesism – April 26th, 2014. Food (generously donated by Loving Hut) and discussion followed the film. Free. Event listing on Facebook – here. If you were one of the 80 attendees and would like to contribute feedback or a review, please get in touch.
UUAM-Out to Pasture 2014 Group picture from our volunteer/service day at Out to Pasture Animal Sanctuary in Estacada (2013).
UUAM meeting 2014– join us March 2014 meeting
