Our mandate is an integral part of the constitution of CUSJ, adopted at the CUSJ Annual General Meeting in Mississauga, Ontario, May 19, 1999.
CUSJ relies on its network of volunteers across the country to dialogue, critique political positions, and strategize about how best to take action in the world. We publish a newsletter, discussion papers, and this website. We can offer a worship service or a workshop for any congregation that wants to learn more about an issue or about social justice work. We develop partnerships with like-minded groups that may be working on the same issues as we are.
Anyone, anywhere in the country, can volunteer their gifts for CUSJ. We need volunteers to:
- Send photos of Unitarians in action and service.
- Be an issue monitor for an issue that you know well. Issue monitors prepare backgrounders to educate the board and the membership, write briefs, and draft letters on issues to present to politicians or corporations.
- Draft a letter for the board to consider for publication.
- Update or develop the website, or train others in web skills.
- Help with JUSTnews, including photography, writing, updates from your congregation’s social action efforts, editorial or distribution tasks. Email Leslie Kemp at justnews@cusj.org.
- Sit on our Board of Directors, particularly if you live in the Maritimes. Directors from across the country meet by Zoom, once a month.
- Attend the meetings of one of our partner organizations, and keep us informed as to what they are doing.
- Become a congregational liaison to CUSJ, to inform us of social justice activities in your congregation. You could also bring requests for group action, and communicate CUSJ’s activities to your congregation to enlist their support.
- Become a youth or a young adult liaison, similar to a congregational liaison, but focussed on activities for the under-30 crowd.
To contact our president to share your ideas on how we can live out our mandate, please email president@cusj.org.