This Week in Social Action Ministry

The Social Action Ministry (SAM) at First Parish comes from our Unitarian Universalist faith based on the values of love, justice, community and responsibility. We do this within the supportive environment of our broader church community and the mission of First Parish “…to act on our values to serve the larger community and create a more just and loving world.”

Criminal Justice Advocacy

Senator Will Brownsberger, Senate Chair of the Judiciary Committee, was one of the speakers at last year’s community forum held at First Parish. Click here to find out what he is working on and to learn about the measures now being presented in our state legislature for criminal justice reform.

Amnesty International News

“I wanted to share with you [an excerpt from] this wonderful press release from the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights regarding our letter writing a couple of weeks ago. Great work feel good, it makes a difference. I will keep you posted on further developments and reports from the EU delegation.”  ~ Al Jacobson

PARIS 28 February 2017 (VCHR) – In preparation for a visit to Vietnam by the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights from 20-24 February 2017, members of Amnesty International in Boston launched a letter-writing campaign to urge the EP delegation to press for the release of prominent Buddhist dissident Thích Quảng Độ, Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), currently under house arrest in Saigon.

Alvin Jacobson, who coordinated the campaign, informed the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) that he sent a parcel of 70 individually signed letters to Pier Antonio Panzeri, Chairman of the EP Subcommittee on Human Rights and head of the delegation to Vietnam to his office at the European Parliament in Brussels before the delegation’s departure to Hanoi.

For the full press release, click here.