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On the occasion of Thoreau’s 200th birthday, Religion News Service offers an explanation of Thoreau’s philosophy of Transcendentalism. Tracing its roots to Unitarianism in New England and the Transcendental Club founded in 1836 by Ralph Waldo Emerson, its notes that Unitarian Universalists are the most direct descendants of Transcendentalists today. (Religion News Service – 7.12.17)
More coverage:
“How Henry David Thoreau still surprises, 200 years after his birth” (New Statesman – 7.14.17)
Congregational activism in the news
Members of the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood, New Jersey, joined more than 150 indigenous persons and climate activists at Lake Henry in Mahwah, New Jersey, for a demonstration that they say could become the state’s version of Standing Rock. The activists gathered to protest what they describe as a triple threat from fossil fuels: proposed pipelines, oil barges on the Hudson, and fuel-transporting “train bombs.” (The Record – 7.9.17)
The Rev. Erik Carlson, minister of Bradford Community Church Unitarian Universalist in Kenosha, Wisconsin, led a candlelight vigil to mourn the lives lost in a tragic murder-suicide, and to once again call for an end to gun violence. “The ground upon which we now walk is tainted by the loss of innocence," Carlson said. "We as people of faith have a responsibility to [respond to] hatred with love, to violence with peace, to fear with hope." (Kenosha News – 7.12.17)
When the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie, New York, chose to show its solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement by displaying a banner on its building, it also shared the news with the community. Members said their decision reflects the fellowship’s commitment to engage more actively in the difficult, ongoing struggle to end institutionalized racism that still plagues our nation and our communities. (Poughkeepsie Journal – 7.10.17)