Holidays & Justice

While you are getting into the spirit of the holiday season, here are several opportunities to participate in social justice and environmental justice events here at BUF in the coming days.  Our address is 1207 Ellsworth Street  Bellingham, WA 98225.

As I learn of more, I will add them. To make sure you receive our posts, type in your email address in the "Follow by Email" box to the right.

Friday Nov. 28, 2014  7 PM: Native American Heritage Day Concert

Join us at 7 PM for an amazing evening with all Native performers.  


Free admission, however donations welcome and appreciated. Spend your evening in community on this national day of greatest greed.  You will be moved!!


This is the second year that BUF has hosted this event. Last year's concert was wonderful and I fully expect this year's to be even better.


Hope to see you there!

Sunday Nov. 30, 2014  10:30 AM: BEING LUMMI - Past, Present & Future

In recognition of Native American Heritage Awareness month, our Sunday service will take us through a journey of "Being Lummi".  Lummi elders, leaders, and youth will speak to us through the Voices of the Past, the Present and the Future.  

Join us and our Lummi friends as we share a brief time together exploring reflections of where Lummi has been, where it is now, and where it looks to go in the future. 

Speakers will include: Lawrence Solomon, Councilman Jay Julius, and Councilwoman Shasta Cano-Martin

Performers: The Jefferson Sisters, and Swil Kanim

Tuesday Dec. 2, 2014  7 PM: 4th Annual Abundance Swap

Bellingham continues an alternative holiday tradition by offering a community gathering

to celebrate our abundance and offer an alternative to holiday shopping.

People bring 3 - 5 new or gently used gift-like items to give away and go home with 3 - 5 gifts to give for the holidays. Children are encouraged to attend.  Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult.  You may bring a finger food sweet treat to share.  Participants are responsible for taking home items that are not chosen.

Sponsored by BUF SEJC (Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship's Social & Environmental Justice Committee) and Jill MacIntyre Witt.

Doors open at 6:30 PM and swap is from 7 - 8 PM.

For more, visit the Abundance Swap Facebook event page.

Thursday Dec. 4, 2014  7 PM:  And the Journey Continues . . .

Join us to hear the sharing of stories from the Totem Pole Journey this summer.  

Posted by Linda Fels, SEJC Communications

Announcing the 2014-2015 SEJC Executive Team!

• Susan Thurn, Chair
• Kara Black, Vice Chair
• Marsha Buly, Secretary
• Todd Jones, Treasurer & Finance Chair
• Sarah Edwards, Ministry Action Teams Chair
• Carl Nyblade, Nominating Chair
• Linda Fels, Communications Chair

We now have a system in place to handle requests between committee-as-a-whole meetings which only occur 3 times a year.  Whether it is for a co-sponsorship, with or without use of our building, scholarship or donation request, call for volunteers or statement endorsement, we now have an SEJC Request Form.  Either click on the link here or find it under our SEJC Page at BUF.org.  When you submit the form, it will automatically be sent to our committee chair who will forward it for discussion and vote by the executive team.  Please allow at least a week for us to process your request.

SAVE THE DATE:  Our next meeting of the committee-as-a-whole is scheduled for Sunday September 14, 2014 in the BUF Library.  We begin at noon with a lunch potluck.  Call for agenda items will go out soon.

BUF Social & Environmental Justice Committee (SEJC) is donating $200 to the 2014 Totem Pole Journey.  Would you like to join us?

Our NACC (Native American Connections Committee) action team is raising $4,000 this month to pay for food for the 5 people on this 23 day 6,000 mile journey.

This year's totem pole journey is in response to the many fossil fuel projects throughout the U.S. and Canada - the Keystone Pipeline, the Kinder-Morgan toxic tarsands pipeline (Alberta to ports in BC) and the coal/oil/gas export projects throughout the Pacific Northwest.  These projects will have significant and adverse impacts on Native and non-Native communities, alike.  

This year's journey is entitled: Our Shared Responsibility: The Land, The Waters, The Peoples.

Check should be made out to Lummi Nation Service Organization (which is a 501c3 arm of Lummi Nation) with memo: 2014 Totem Pole Journey

Mail check to: Beth Brownfield, 3820 Fielding Ave, Bellingham WA 98229. 

For more details on the back story . . .

Deb Cruz and Beth Brownfield are working with Lummi Nations Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office which Jewell James heads.  He is a most generous and knowledgeable man, and a master carver.  After 9/11 he carved three totem poles, over a three year period, which he donated to the three attack sites (NYC; Shanksville, PA; and the Pentagon).  He did this to help heal the victims family and to help heal this country.  He has donated poles to schools that Lummi children attend, to Moles Funeral parlor that does most of Lummi funerals, to Whatcom Creek in the memory of the boys who lost their lives in the gas explosion.  He is currently carving a pole for Oso landslide victims, and another for the family of Billy Frank Jr. and his Nisqualli Nation.  (These are all gifts from Jewell, not funded by Lummi Nation).

Last year he carved a pole "We Draw The Line" which went from Bellingham to the Powder River Basin where the coal will be mined for the proposed Coal Terminal at Cherry Point.   He brought the pole back along the railroad the coal will travel, stopping at Indian Reservations, and towns.  He spoke with the people all along the route.  Media coverage of this journey was reaching 20 million people with the message that Coal Kills people, animals, plants, and cultures.  20 million people might seem like an exaggeration but it isn't as USA Today, Indian Country Today, Huffington Post, national TV and radio stations, small town newspapers and news media all covered this journey.  The pole returned to Bellingham and then up to Vancouver BC to a First Nations People on the Frasier River whose coal terminal is ruining their fishing grounds and contaminating their crab and fish.

Blog post submitted by Linda Fels, SEJC Communications

Test Post

We, the BUF Social & Environmental Justice Committee (SEJC), affirm and promote peace, justice and equality through action, education and raising awareness within our community and the wider world.

We are a combined Social Justice and Green Sanctuary committee. As a whole we meet three times a year, with the dates set a year in advance.

Much of our work is performed by Ministry Action teams.