Posts Tagged ‘Knoxville’

Day 14: Create an Outpouring of Love

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Today is Day 14 of the Thirty Days of Love. Today’s action is to join our response love network to offer messages of support in the wake of tragic acts of violence. Click here for resources, family actions, and more! Click here to sign up for the daily Thirty Days of Love emails.

When I first heard about the shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin last summer, I couldn’t help but remember a parallel act of violence four years earlier at my own congregation, the Tennessee Valley UU Church (TVUUC). In both cases, a man with a gun and an agenda targeted innocent people of faith.

But along with the recollection of heartbreak and loss, I also carry with me the memory of the incredible flood of love and support that we received from our local community and from across the country. All around our church there are things folks sent to let us know we were loved.

With the events at TVUUC in mind, thousands of you responded to the shooting at the Sikh temple last summer in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. SSL supporters wrote over 2,000 messages of love and support to the Sikh community there. I think that anytime there is an act of violence targeting people because of their identities, we can and should reaffirm a message of love and a vision of a country where we all belong.

In that spirit, Standing on the Side of Love is gathering a network of people to send messages surrounding victims of violence with an outpouring of love whenever incidents of hate occur. From the shooting in Oak Creek to the recent arson attack on a mosque in Joplin, we can ensure that victims of senseless acts of hate know that they are loved.

Click here to sign up. We’re also searching for inspiring names for our response network, or “love team” and would love your help. Love Ambassadors? The Love Squad? What helps us best convey that we are here in spirit with those affected by a tragedy? Send your ideas to love@uua.org.

In the wake of violence and tragedy, let us lift up voices of love and compassion. Sign up for the response network today and help ensure that whenever and wherever acts of violence occur, we can surround the victims with an outpouring of love.

In faith,

Rev. Chris Buice
Tennessee Valley UU Church
Knoxville, Tennessee

PS: We hope your congregation is participating in Share the Love Sunday! We have compiled some helpful resources for planning your service, taking a collection to support the Unitarian Universalist Association, and discussing what it means for your congregation to stand on the side of love. Thanks for your generosity on February 17!

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Standing on the Side of Love with Sikhs Across the Country

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Standing on the side of Love at vigil in support of the Sikh community in Sacramento after two Sikh men were shot last year. (Credit: Mary Helen Doherty)

In the wake of the tragic shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin at the beginning of August, Unitarian Universalists and other interfaith partners have made a tremendous showing of solidarity across the country. In addition to the candlelight vigils that were held around the nation, half a dozen religious leaders representing the Shoulder to Shoulder campaign, including Unitarian Universalist Association President Peter Morales, held a press conference to respond to the violence and voice support for the Sikh community. What an incredible outpouring of love.

Here are just a few of the places where UUs are making news:

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Send Love to the Sikh Community

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The message below went out on Monday, August 6, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

“As we move forward in the weeks and months ahead, we must do more than express compassion. We must reflect on what conditions make repeated acts of deranged violence possible and take action. The killings we keep witnessing in America are symptoms of a culture that is too tolerant of hatred and too reluctant to restrict access to deadly weapons.”

–UUA President Rev. Peter Morales, in a statement about the tragic murders this weekend at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin

When I was fourteen, my Unitarian Universalist youth group and I traveled to the neighboring town of Oak Creek, Wisconsin to visit a Sikh temple. Yesterday, I was horrified to learn that six of these community members who welcomed a group of rowdy UU teenagers with open arms were murdered. Never could I have ever imagined that something so violent and hateful could happen a mere fifteen miles from my childhood home. The gunman has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center and others as a “frustrated neo-Nazi” and white supremacist.

Will you join us in creating an outpouring of love for the Sikh community? Click here to send words of prayer, compassion, and love to the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin.

As a born-and-raised Unitarian Universalist, the news of this tragedy evokes memories of July 2008, when the Tennessee Valley UU Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, was attacked by a lone gunman with hate in his heart, killing two. The impact was felt by UUs the world over. The astonishing outpouring of support that the Knoxville UU community received from their broader community paved the way for the creation of our campaign for love and justice.

In the wake of this tragedy that strikes so close to home, let us reach out to our Sikh neighbors in compassion and love, welcome them into our hearts and our prayers, and show solidarity with a community that has been so brutally attacked.

Please join us in sending love and compassion to the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin. Click here to send your message today.

In faith & love,

meredith ga

Meredith Lukow
Program Assistant
Standing on the Side of Love

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Remembering Tennessee Valley UU Church: A Note from the Former Director of Religious Education

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Brian Griffin

(Photo courtesy of Shawn Poynter/Metro Pulse)

Dear Standing on the Side of Love,

Today is the third anniversary of the attack on Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. I served as TVUUC’s Director of Religious Education at that time, and I spent 20 months dealing with the aftermath before moving on. Even so, there are times when that day seems to be with me still, just behind me, like an endless movie playing somewhere nearby. At such times I find peace in a myriad of ways, and for this I am grateful. One source of peace is the Standing on the Side of Love website. I find little bits of healing simply by clicking through the pages and reading the stories and knowing that thousands of people are working to stand against the violence and hatred that killed my friends, shocked our congregation, and wounded the spirits of the children in my program.

This week I published for the first time some of my thoughts about that day, and I wanted to share a link to your readers:
http://www.metropulse.com/news/2011/jul/20/then-and-now-author-brian-griffin-tvuuc-shooting/

But most of all I just want to say thanks. The work you do is far more powerful than you can possibly know. The old lapsed Southern Baptist in me wants to say that Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger are smiling down on you.

The UU in me says, hey, maybe so.

Brian Griffin, Former DRE, TVUUC

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Love is the Spirit of this Campaign

3 Comments | Share On Facebook| Love is the Spirit of this Campaign Share/Save/Bookmark Jul 27, 2011

Rev. Chris Buice

Rev. Chris Buice is a minister at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee

The message below went out to Standing on the Side of Love supporters on Wednesday, July 27, 2011. You can sign-up for these emails here.

As the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church marks the anniversary of the shooting in our sanctuary on July 27, 2008, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Norway as they mourn losses on an unimaginable scale.

In Knoxville, we lost two lives — Greg McKendry, a big, burly man with a heart of gold; and Westside congregation member Linda Kraeger, a scholar with a dry wit and a mind on fire. Thanks to the actions of brave members in the pews, we did not lose a single child. Our prayers are with the people of Norway who are suffering the heartbreaking loss of the young.

There is no comparing the scale of our losses. Even so, the parallels are unsettling. A man’s anger at extremists turned him into an extremist. In a fury to prevent terrorism he became a terrorist himself. This is what hatred can do to any of us. Hatred can blind us so that we do not see the humanity of others and the sacredness of their children. We are perpetually in danger of becoming like those we hate.

It is a paradox that good can come from evil. Acts of hatred can inspire an outpouring of love. Our congregation and the Westside congregation are empowered by the many people across the country who have become part of the Standing on the Side of Love campaign in the aftermath of our tragedy. Together we are re-envisioning the politics of our time.

In our statement of principles and purposes we affirm that we are inspired by the “words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.” This campaign invites us to live lives grounded in that spirit.

In East Tennessee, we carried our Standing on the Side of Love banner in the Martin Luther King parade and in a community effort to offer a positive alternative to neo-Nazi rally. We marked the national Standing on the Side of Love day with a community interfaith forum to reclaim civil discourse on polarizing issues. With our neighbors in the Oak Ridge UU Church we voiced our opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill seeking to ban open discussion in our schools. We hosted a teen-led rally where the message was “It’s Okay to Say Gay.” We have been inspired by the stories we hear around the country of congregations making a difference in their communities which can have ripple effects around the world.

On July 27, 2008, our congregation was everyone’s congregation. The trauma we experienced was felt throughout our denomination. We received cards, letters, paper cranes, messages of love and support from around the world. Our congregation has found healing in this love and reaffirmed our commitment to act in the world in ways that are congruent with this outpouring of compassion. “Love is the spirit of this church” read the banner put up in our front lawn by two members in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Love continues to be the spirit of our congregation and the spirit of this campaign which is touching lives around our country and the world.

It is new day, July 27, 2011, filled with new possibilities. So I will end by saying to you words I share with my congregation every Sunday, words adapted from a familiar hymn: “Prophetic church the world awaits your liberating ministry, go forward in the power of love, proclaim the truth that makes us free.”

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