Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Encyclopedia
The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) is a non-profit
, nonsectarian
associate member organization of the Unitarian Universalist Association
that works to provide disaster relief and promote human rights and social justice
around the world.
UUSC was founded in May 1940 as the Unitarian Service Committee with the intended purpose of assisting European refugees endangered by Nazis persecution. The founding director was Robert Dexter
, who had served in a diplomatic role for the American Unitarian Association for more than a decade and had been moved, in particular, by the plight of refugees in Czechoslovakia, a country with a large Unitarian congregation. The organization established an office in Lisbon and the first American Unitarians to be posted there were Rev. Waitstill Hastings Sharp
, a minister of the Unitarian Church in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, and his wife Martha
. Later, Rev. Charles Joy, Elisabeth Anthony Dexter
and Noel Field were recruited to work in the organization's Lisbon and Marseille offices and they, along with many refugee volunteers, expanded the relief and emigration programs. The Sharps were posthumously honored by Israel
in 2006 as the second and third Americans to be added to the list of Righteous among the Nations
.
The organization’s first board of directors was chaired by William Emerson
, dean of the School of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. Other board members included Harold Hitz Burton
, mayor of Cleveland, Ohio
and a future Supreme Court justice
; Percival Brundage
, senior partner in the Price Waterhouse and future budget director for President Dwight D. Eisenhower
; Louise Wright, chairwoman of the voters department of government and foreign policy for the League of Women Voters
.
Today, UUSC is active in coordinating relief efforts around the world and investigating reports of human rights abuses. UUSC has four program areas: Rights in Humanitarian Crisis, Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, and Civil Liberties. Its recent activities have focused on the conflict in Darfur
, organizing volunteers to help survivors of the Gulf Coast hurricanes, workers rights and the human right to water
. The organization is also active in lobbying corporations engaged in business with governments that it has identified as abusing basic human rights.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, nonsectarian
Nonsectarian
Nonsectarian, in its most literal sense, refers to a lack of sectarianism. The term is also more narrowly used to describe secular private educational institutions or other organizations either not affiliated with or not restricted to a particular religious denomination though the organization...
associate member organization of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association , in full the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in North America, is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations formed by the consolidation in 1961 of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of...
that works to provide disaster relief and promote human rights and social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
around the world.
UUSC was founded in May 1940 as the Unitarian Service Committee with the intended purpose of assisting European refugees endangered by Nazis persecution. The founding director was Robert Dexter
Robert Dexter
Robert Dexter was the founder of the Unitarian Service Committee, which during World War II was the most significant program of any American church in the rescue and assistance of Jewish refugees and the victims of Nazism in Europe.-Early life:...
, who had served in a diplomatic role for the American Unitarian Association for more than a decade and had been moved, in particular, by the plight of refugees in Czechoslovakia, a country with a large Unitarian congregation. The organization established an office in Lisbon and the first American Unitarians to be posted there were Rev. Waitstill Hastings Sharp
Waitstill Sharp
Waitstill Hastings Sharp was a Harvard College graduate and Unitarian minister. He was the son of naturalist author and professor Dallas Lore Sharp and Grace Hastings and a descendant of Thomas Hastings who came from the East Anglia region of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634...
, a minister of the Unitarian Church in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, and his wife Martha
Martha Sharp
Martha Ingham Dickie Sharp-Cogan was an American philanthropist who, along with her husband Waitstill Sharp, helped hundreds of Jews to escape Nazi persecution by sending them off through Czechoslovakia-Social Work:...
. Later, Rev. Charles Joy, Elisabeth Anthony Dexter
Elisabeth Anthony Dexter
Elisabeth Anthony Dexter was a social historian who contributed the longest-lived service in southern Europe on behalf of Jewish refugees of any American churchwoman during World War II.-Early life and career:...
and Noel Field were recruited to work in the organization's Lisbon and Marseille offices and they, along with many refugee volunteers, expanded the relief and emigration programs. The Sharps were posthumously honored by Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in 2006 as the second and third Americans to be added to the list of Righteous among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
.
The organization’s first board of directors was chaired by William Emerson
William Emerson
William Emerson is the name of:* William Emerson * William Emerson , Unitarian minister, father of Ralph Waldo Emerson* William Emerson , British architect....
, dean of the School of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. Other board members included Harold Hitz Burton
Harold Hitz Burton
Harold Hitz Burton was an American politician and lawyer.He served as the 45th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, as a U.S. Senator from Ohio, and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was known as a dispassionate jurist who prized equal justice under the law.-Biography:He...
, mayor of Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
and a future Supreme Court justice
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
; Percival Brundage
Percival Brundage
Percival Flack Brundage was a director of the United States Office of Management and Budget from April 2, 1956 until March 17, 1958.Brundage was born on 2 April 1892 in Amsterdam, New York, the son of a Protestant minister....
, senior partner in the Price Waterhouse and future budget director for President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
; Louise Wright, chairwoman of the voters department of government and foreign policy for the League of Women Voters
League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...
.
Today, UUSC is active in coordinating relief efforts around the world and investigating reports of human rights abuses. UUSC has four program areas: Rights in Humanitarian Crisis, Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, and Civil Liberties. Its recent activities have focused on the conflict in Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
, organizing volunteers to help survivors of the Gulf Coast hurricanes, workers rights and the human right to water
Right to water
- Introduction :The number of people lacking access to safe drinking water is 884 million and more than 2.6 billion miss a basic sanitation.When taken as human right, the right to water places certain responsibilities upon governments to ensure that people can enjoy "sufficient, safe, accessible...
. The organization is also active in lobbying corporations engaged in business with governments that it has identified as abusing basic human rights.