Faith In Action

Local Community

UFPC supports our local community by hosting the Prison Book Program, conducting annual collection drives for Interfaith Social Services and Father Bill's place, participating in the City of Quincy Prayer Breakfast, actively representing at QPride, and responding to timely calls for assistance and witness in our city and the South Shore.

We support the Black Lives Matter movement, locally and nationally. Our members have hosted BLM vigils in Quincy Center and have attended BLM rallies around the country.

United First Parish Church was a founding member in 1996 of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO). Members of our congregation have worked on projects to improve affordable housing, and nursing home and health care reform.

Social Justice Action

Our Social Justice Action Committee organizes and coordinates the active involvement of the Congregation and its members in local, district, national, and international projects for peace, compassion, and social justice. Check the Event Calendar for upcoming meetings and events.

Denominational programs

Our Congregation supports the Side with Love campaign, a public advocacy campaign of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). The movement uses community activism, social networking, and media outreach to counter fear and harness love’s power to challenge exclusion, oppression, and violence based on sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, race, religion, or any other identity.

Our congregation contributes annually to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee's (UUSC) Guest at Your Table campaign, an annual fundraiser to support national and world social justice. Our congregation has earned the designation of a “Creating Justice Community.”

Our congregation has been a UUA designated Welcoming Congregation since 2006. We are proud to offer a welcoming and safe home for our gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender community and families.

Congregational Life

Our Congregational Life Committee provides opportunities for members to get to know each other better, to support one another in times of need, to reach out to newcomers, and to become involved in the life of the church.

Outreach and Social Justice

The Social Justice Action Committee organizes and coordinates the active involvement, in study and action, of the Congregation in local, district, national, and international projects for peace, compassion, and social justice. The Committee serves as liaison and coordinates programs between the Congregation and various local, district, and continental units of the Unitarian Universalist Association which have a social justice focus, as well as other religious groups. Please see the Faith in Action page for an overview of our work.

The mission statement of United First Parish Church states: Grounded in love and guided by compassion, we are called to raise our voices and take action for truth and justice, equity and peace. We manifest this by participating in activities of the Social Justice Action Committee and by following our own hearts to take action as individuals.
United First Parish Church’s vision for the year 2023 includes having strong and collaborative relationships with community partners whose work aligns with our mission. We manifest this when we connect with local organizations and faith communities, participate in or support their work, and join forces for the greater good.
Our Unitarian Universalist principles call us to affirm and promote the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. We manifest this when we take action for climate justice, protection of the environment, and animal rights.

Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network

BIJAN is a non-profit organization that helps immigrants who have been placed

in detention by ICE (BIJAN helps their families as well). Would you be willing to drive an immigrant to an

event? (a doctor’s appointment, or an appointment at the ICE office in Burlington, etc.) If you are, go to their

web site: www.beyondbondboston.org and scroll to the bottom of their home page. Click on bit.ly/joinBIJAN

and fill out the volunteer form.

If an immigrant is placed in detention by ICE, a call is sent to BIJAN’s Hot Line. Information is gathered and

given to the appropriate person who can help. The Hot Line can be done from home. (The use of a smart

phone is necessary.) If you would like to help out by doing a shift, email Sarah Kianovsky at

sarahkianovsky@gmail.com.

Do you have a spare room in your house? If you would like to host an immigrant for a few days who was

released from ICE detention on bond, email bijan.accompaniment@gmail.com. If you would like to give

support to an immigrant when he is brought to court, fill out the volunteer on BIJAN’s web site or email

Christine Swanson at ceswanson4@gmail.com. Next September, a series of events that will support

immigrants/immigrant justice will be announced.

Find out more

UFPC in the community

UFPC shows support for Black Lives Matter

August 9, 2015 was the one-year anniversary of Mike Brown's death in Ferguson, MO. On behalf of the Outreach Committee, John Reed and Ann Marie Willer co-facilitated the Chalice Circle on that date and led a discussion about White privilege (which we now know to call light-skinned privilege). 21 people attended the Chalice Circle.

The Chalice Circle was followed by a 45-minute silent vigil in front of the church. Several passersby noticed our "Black Lives Matter" signs and talked to us. Photos from the vigil were posted on the UFPC Facebook page and Twitter feed, as well as on the individual Facebook pages of several members and were seen as far away as Seattle. John Reed submitted a photo to the Quincy Sun.

A sincere thank you to those who participated in the Chalice Circle discussion and those who stayed for the vigil. Ten people with signs on the front steps of our church made an important statement about racial justice that morning. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world." (Margaret Mead)

Welcoming Congregation Milestones

On October 22, 2017, the Social Justice Action Committee hosted the Sunday coffee hour to celebrate milestones in UFPC's 11 years as a UUA Welcoming Congregation. Thank you to all who volunteered to make the event a success: Sarah Belfort, Lynne Courtney, Wiley Cox, Susan Curran, Lee Forest, Sharon Gamache, Melissa Gavazzi, Lisa Howe, Marie-Louise Jackson-Miller, Kendra Litvany, Sherrie Noble, Leslie Simpson, and Ann Marie Willer.

Reflections on Advocacy and Activism

At the Outreach Committee meeting on Sept. 27, we took time to reflect on our first exposure to or awareness of social justice issues, advocacy work, or activism.

I'd like to invite everyone reading this to pause for a moment and think back. Was there a person or event that first raised your awareness?

I'll go first...my second grade teacher got my class involved in raising money for the protection of baby harp seals that were being hunted in the Arctic. We canvassed the lunchroom asking for donations. It was my first awareness that I could do something to help a problem that was geographically far away from me, and also my first awareness that other people would help if asked.

What's your story?