Living at the Intersection of Faith and Justice

About the Community Outreach Ministry Teams
The Community Outreach Ministry Teams (COMT) were created to further the ministry of Unity Church in service to the larger community.  The projects listed here have been selected as opportunities through which the congregation can engage in service, education, and advocacy to the larger community through outreach ministry. Contact Pat Haff, Coordinator of Community Outreach Ministries by email at pat@unityunitarian.org or by phone at 651-228-1456 x126 for more information about any of the teams and projects listed below.

Affordable Housing Ministry Team
This team is committed to public policy advocacy that will lead to systemic affordable housing change by partnering with other congregations through the Metropolitan Interfaith Coalition for Affordable Housing (MICAH). The team sponsors direct service opportunities through Habitat for Humanity and Project Home and offers congregational forums on issues of homelessness and affordable housing.
 Project Home: “I was hungry and you fed me…”  During the month of January, Unity Church becomes ‘home’ each night for homeless families in Ramsey County.  Project Home is coordinated by the St. Paul Council of Churches to provide overflow shelter for homeless families when the beds at the Ramsey County Family Service Center in Maplewood are filled to capacity.  Over 100 Unity volunteers are needed to participate in this ministry of hospitality, helping to provide a safe place and comfort to homeless families with children during their stay at Unity Church. Contact unityprojecthome@gmail.com.

Evergreen Projects Ministry
The Evergreen Projects at Unity Church hold monthly food drives for Sharing Korner Foodshelf   located in Frogtown, provide meal preparation at Family Place, a day center for homeless families and support the Jeremiah Program that has a St. Paul community residential campus for low-income single mothers and their children.  The Evergreen Quilters Group provides “joyful fundraising” for the team projects through the making and selling of handmade quilts.

Mano a Mano Team (Spanish for “Hand to Hand”) Ministry Team
The Unity Church Ministry team supports the work of Mano a Mano International , a non-profit organization founded in 1994 by Segundo and Joan Velasquez, long-time members of Unity Church. It is dedicated to providing health care, building of clinics, public education, roads, and safe water supplies in impoverished communities in Bolivia. The program strategy is to obtain donations of surplus medical equipment and supplies, destined to be discarded here, and transport them to one hundred facilities in Bolivia where local communities manage the clinics and health care needs.

Partner Church Ministry Team
The intent of the Partner Church Team is to develop a mutually rewarding relationship between the Unity Church community and that of our sister church in Homorodszentpeter, Transylvania, in Romania.  The area of Romania, which contains our sister church, is the birthplace of Unitarianism in Europe.  This partnership was begun in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime made such associations possible. Since then individuals and small groups from Unity Church have visited the village and have hosted visitors from the village.  Pilgrimage trips from Unity Church have included visits to historical sites relevant to Unitarianism.  

Racial Justice Ministry Team
This team began their efforts in the fall of 2007 by initially taking time to reflect on what white privilege means in their lives and then how Unity Church members might connect to people of color in the larger community and particularly to interracial community churches.   Along with other interracial, interfaith activities, team members have worked with neighboring churches to plan and participate in the “Faith Float” at the Rondo Days Parade for the past three summers.  

Restorative Justice Ministry Team
The Restorative Justice Team engages team members, the Unity Congregation and the broader community in healing conversations and activities.  This team is currently partnered with Amicus, which is a Minnesota non-profit organization focused on improving public safety by helping inmates and ex-offenders through positive relationship building, restorative justice practices and individualized transition services.  The team works with Second Chance, a coalition of over 50 local organizations that advocate for fair and reasonable laws, policies and practices that allow those who have committed crimes to redeem themselves and contribute to their communities to their full potential.


Other Outreach Social Justice Projects
Generosity Ministry Team
This team facilitates the giving of the weekly Sunday Offering to non-profit organizations working for the greater well being of our communities.  Congregational input forms the core of this giving process, as church members are encouraged to recommend potential recipients and to provide information and experience with those recipients.  This team meets monthly to review and recommend recipients to the Unity Church Executive Team for approval. 

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
With more than 47,000members and supporters, UUSC is an organization that advances human rights and social justice in the US and around the world.  The four focus areas of UUSC are rights in humanitarian crisis, civil liberties, economic justice and environmental justice.

Education Ministry
This outreach ministry works with the St. Paul Council of Churches/Support Our Schools mentoring project at Michelle and Barack Obama Community Service Learning Elementary across the street from the church.  This past year, 25 people from Unity Church served as mentors for 5th and 6th grade children at the school. Volunteers are asked to commit to working with a student in reading and/or math once a week for the 2011-12 school year. To sign up or for more information, please contact Pat Haff by email at pat@unityunitarian.org or by phone at 651-228-1456 x126.

Holdeen India Program (Emerging Ministry Outreach Team)
Holdeen India is a long -running program of the Unitarian Universalist Association.  The Unity Church ministry is composed of an informal group of congregants who are interested in beginning a Community Outreach Ministry that would support the work of the Vidayak Sansad Project, an organization that works to promote human rights and education among the most oppressed peoples in Maharashtra, India.  They are planning a pilgrimage to India in March of 2012.  This project features opportunities to teach English in a girl’s school in India and Unity Church members, Laney Ohmans and Wendy Harris have both traveled to India for this teaching project in the summers of 2008 and 2009. 

Urban Agriculture: Paradise Team  (Emerging Ministry Outreach Team)
This is a group of Unity Church members assembled to talk about the possible creation of a Community Outreach Team focusing on the spiritual dimensions of urban gardening and farming and the ways it is possible to make a paradise in one’s home, church, or neighborhood.  This could include communion through growing, preparing and serving food; gardens as a sanctuary for respite and connecting with the natural world; the cycles of human birth, growth, death, decay and rebirth replicated in the garden; and gardening as a thrilling way to pray, practice and praise. 

Whole Farm Coop
Buy meat, cheese, produce and more from local, sustainable farms and pick it up at Unity Church! Order from http://www.wholefarmcoop.com or call 320-732-3023 by the second Wednesday of each month. Orders will be delivered to Unity Church on the third Wednesday of each month.

Peace Coffee
Peace Coffee is available for purchase in the Parish Hall on Sundays following each service.