Read on and be informed about the work of UUJusticePA. Our newsletter masthead photo is of the back of the Capitol in Harrisburg. Our Capital is a beautiful, opulent building but also hides a lot of corruption. We are working to change that reality. Our newsletter will be published and e-mailed to all of our supporters early each month. If you want to include an article, please contact
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Vision Statement
Pennsylvania UUs are aware of justice issues and are called to speak and take action that leads to a better Commonwealth.Mission Statement
UUJusticePA educates and communicates with our congregations and partners to inspire action. We promote our values to policy makers to advance just legislation. We advocate for fairness and transparency in the democratic process.Guidelines Related to Strategy
and Tactics in our Coalition Work
Approved and Adopted by the UUJusticePA Board of Trustees on July 11, 2017. The Board of UUJusticePA-UUPALM has been discussing some of the opportunities and challenges we face as a faith-based advocacy organization in today’s context of heightened civic participation as well as a political context that in some ways is becoming increasingly hostile to dissent and protest. On the one hand, this is a great time to energize current and potential UUJusticePA members and engage with them in a growing number of grassroots efforts for justice. We as UUs welcome this new mood of dissent, public participation and protest against unjust policies, practices and laws. On the other hand, there may be, particularly at the federal level, and in some cases the state level, of officials looking more critically at pressure from below.
We are called to work for justice as UUs and thus we are called to act as partners in broad coalitions with those who share our passion for positive changes in policies and programs. Given the increased interest in mobilizing for change, and given the intransigence of officials within centers of power, there will most likely be a growing number of instances where the coalitions within which we work see non-violent civil disobedience as the most important and effective tactic needed to gain public attention and move decision makers.
We would like UUJusticePA-UUPALM Team Leaders and Members to use their UU values and their best strategic thinking in such instances and to feel free to agree or not agree to join in civil disobedience as the specific case may require.
We would also like you to be aware that there is a need to safeguard the legal standing of UUJusticePA as a non-profit, and therefore to understand that choosing to engage in civil disobedience should be a freely-made individual choice and cannot be seen as an action endorsed or authorized by UUJusticePA as a whole. This distinction protects UUJusticePA from potential threats to our non-profit status, which in turn protects our ability to raise the resources to educate, advocate and provide staff support for our advocacy throughout Pennsylvania.
UUJusticePA can and will support through leadership training the development of expertise in all advocacy tactics, including the most effective forms of non-violent civil disobedience. Such training is distinct from planning or authorizing specific actions. The decision to participate in an act of civil disobedience is ultimately a decision of an individual citizen and not under the authority of UUJusticePA. UUJusticePA as an organization will not engage in any overt planning of an act of civil disobedience nor pay fines, bail or legal fees of any UUJusticePA members should they face arrest and possible legal action.
