President’s Corner with Tom Loughrey

This is an important year for all of us, with federal, state, and local races, and issues to address. 

How we get our news influences so much of our opinions about what’s going on in the world, how we are impacted, affected, and maybe what we may be missing. I depend on friends and colleagues to help me with the issues that don’t make the headlines and front pages, but may have a more immediate effect, particularly with regard to issues of justice, such as climate, race relations, economic injustice, voting rights, and more.

I’m interested that one of the questions to potential jurors in the criminal trial of a former president focused on where individuals get their news. It is a New York trial, so it is no surprise that The NY Times is a prominent news source, along with CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. Some of these are my own primary sources, along with several other news sources I subscribe to. I am surprised at the responses, which included X (formerly Twitter), and even TikTok.

While I value the conversations and insights from friends and family, they come with their own biases and proposals for dealing with the issues. So how do we focus on what’s important, what’s true, or what’s opinion? 

This is when I start to make my decisions based on who I trust more, their agenda, and their resources. This leads me to UUJMCA. Our focus is California and the role UUs play on justice issues that affect us right here at home. As an organization, we can play an important role for UU congregations and members by focusing on local and statewide issues, bringing attention to issues where we may have an impact, and shed light on issues that may otherwise be overlooked.

UUJMCA is working to assist congregations by identifying resources, providing programs, services, and creating spaces for our community to live out their commitments to justice work.

In an effort to allow us to focus more on programs and service as well as reduce our overhead costs, the UUJMCA Board voted to outsource much of the clerical functions, such as bookkeeping, database management, website management, and more. This moves that kind of work (all of which is necessary) away from our Executive Director and brings on a team of professionals to assist us in our justice work. 

We have selected BridgesUU to handle these administrative functions. BridgesUU is a service provider for UU communities and organizations, including congregations, assisting each with administrative work and freeing leadership to focus on mission, vision and their ministries.

The UUJMCA Board is looking forward to improving our congregational connections and program services with this new relationship. If  you would like to make a commitment to UUJMCA and our ministry of justice please do so by Clicking Here and considering making a monthly (recurring) contribution.

Please feel free to contact me at president@uujmca.org with any questions, concerns, requests or other interests that you may have.

In service,

Tom
Tom Loughrey
President, Board of Trustees
UUJMCA