From the Archives …

Forty years ago, in 1984, the Social Concerns and Outreach Committee, under the leadership of Walt McMahon, was reactivated. The Church reported that it wanted “to encourage service and more effective expression of concern and social action to supplement the more introspective focus on personal concerns that has been dominant in recent years.”

As Rev. Beth said in a recent sermon, history may not always repeat but it does rhyme. In the early 1980s, social action in Urbana – and in our church – included support for refugees fleeing wars supported by U.S. policies in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The then-titled U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service treated those refugees like criminals and often deported them back to the countries they had fled to save their lives. Clergy and others formed the Sanctuary movement in the U.S. to shelter people and help them safely move across the country. 

Some members of our congregation were concerned about legal issues to the Sanctuary movement and were reluctant to become involved. In time, as national support for Sanctuary grew, UUCUC cooperated with CUECOS (Champaign-Urbana Ecumenical Community of Sanctuary) and the UU Service Committee to help refugees living in our community.