After many years of servant leadership, Judy Bonner has
retired as chair of our Justice Action Ministry.
She has done so in order to focus her social justice work
on her long-time passion for racial justice and to spend more time with her
immediate family.
As is the case with all great leaders, Judy made sure
that her committee was not left without a dynamic new leader. She put out a
call for the Justice Action Ministry’s next generation of leadership and Ramsey
Laing answered the call. With that, Judy’s clinic in how to lead a committee was
completed.
Physical evidence of Judy’s past contributions to 1stUUPB
abound. The Peace Pole just outside the Sanctuary, the yellow congregational t-shirts, the Black
Lives Matter banner, the JAM newsletter, and the Jam Facebook page are examples.
Programmatic evidence also abounds, including the monthly community-grant collection and the
scholarship program. Her persistent
efforts to get good turnouts for the Gay Pride Parade and the Martin Luther
King parade are two more examples. And,
of course, we can’t forget her annual arm-twisting to boost our Congregation’s
contributions to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. We, and she, won a
national award for that.
I am sure that Judy would object to us giving her sole
credit for those marvelous accomplishments. And she would be right. In most of
the preceding examples, other 1stUUPB members were equally responsible for success. But Judy empowered them. That is what made her such an exemplar of
servant leadership.
As Larry Stauber,
one of her major partners, put it, Judy stands out, not only for her personal
dedication to social justice, but also for her, “sense of the best way to
accomplish social action and her instincts for effective organizing.” Or as
Paul Coleman, another partner, observed, “ Working with Judy opens eyes. She is
careful that emerging leaders channel their most constructive energies into
effective, consistent action. This means hearing our objections and facing
doubts so that no one feels herded or misused”. A final perspective is provided by Rev C.J.
McGregor’s recent letter of appreciation. In his words, “To fully honor our
Unitarian Universalist faith we must understand that faith must be partnered
with action. Judy Bonner models this in all areas of her life…. Judy has led
our Congregation in creating a beloved community through creating opportunities
for us to answer the call to justice.”
Passion, pro-action, patience, persistence and standing
on the side of love. Those were some of the hallmarks of Judy’s servant leadership of 1stUUPB’s Justice Action
Ministry.
We can expect more
of the same as she now sets out to lead us into a more intensive involvement in
the campaign for racial justice and does so as part of Ramsey Laing’s Justice
Action Ministry team.
