Dear Supporters and Friends of the UU Legislative Ministry of New Jersey:
It is with great pleasure that I join with the Board, Legislative Task Force Chairs and other leaders of the UU Legislative Ministry of New Jersey my first week as the new full time Executive Director of the UULMNJ.
This congregation-supported nonprofit–a combination of our deepest UU spiritual values with a “roll up our sleeves and let’s make it happen” attitude–has come a long way since it began in 2009. Under the guidance of past and present lay and clergy members, and the able leadership of the Rev. Craig Hirshberg as the most recent Executive Director, the UULMNJ has become a loud and influential voice for progressive social change in New Jersey: stopping the use and abuse of solitary confinement, pressing for Equal Marriage for gay and lesbian couples, confronting and calling out racism in all its guises, income inequality and immigrants’ rights…the list is long and compelling.
And it doesn’t stop now. Quite the opposite. We continue to stand and press and sing and visit legislators and cosponsor bills and speak out in our congregations so others know what remains at stake in our democracy and our neighborhoods.
I am beyond pleased to have this job and to grow my own soul as we work to make New Jersey a more humane place to live. We have such a unique and important role to play as a faith community in the larger world. We bear witness. And we speak out for justice.
I look forward to meeting many of you in the months and years ahead. I hope you will join me and our dedicated Board, Task Force groups, talented staff and many volunteers to speak out for the values that guide and join us together in something better and bigger than we would otherwise be.
If I or the UULMNJ can be of any help to you, your Social Action/Social Justice Committee, your ministry or congregation please let me know.
In faith and abiding hope,
Rev. Rob Gregson