Guest at Your Table - A UUSC Project — Sierra Foothills Unitarian Universalists

Building Beloved Community in Placer County and the World

Guest at Your Table

General Information

SFUU has begun to participate once again in the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s (UUSC) Guest at Your Table program. Guest at Your Table (GAYT) is UUSC’s annual intergenerational program, which raises support for, and awareness about, key human rights issues here in the U.S. and around the world. Each year UUSC features the stories of 4 different “guests” who lead organizations that are partnered with UUSC. Guest at Your Table is an opportunity to celebrate grassroots partnership, support human rights, and learn about just four individuals that UUSC works with – the “guests” in Guest at Your Table. The Social Justice Committee now brings this program to SFUU in the spring.

How the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Began - a Story for All Ages

What is Guest at Your Table?

Join members of SFUU’s Social Justice Team as they share the stories of the 2023-2024 Guest at Your Table guests.

U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Here is a simplified list of the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

What are human rights?

2024-2025 GAYT Theme: ‘Expanding the Welcome Table

Since it began in 1975, the Guest at Your Table program has introduced generations of Unitarian Universalists to our grassroots partners working for justice around the world with your support. This church year, we are celebrating Guest at Your Table’s 50th anniversary with the theme “Expanding the Welcome Table.” The theme was inspired by the hymn, “Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table.” Originally created and sung by enslaved Black people in the United States, the hymn celebrates God’s welcome, a joyous hospitality to be enjoyed by all.

The historical and cultural context of this beloved hymn matters because it is a song that is rooted in the hope, defiance, and imagination of the community that birthed and nurtured it. This song, in its many evolutions, speaks to the need for accountability and justice as well as healing.

As we transition into our 50th year and five decades of partner-centered advocacy and activism, you will meet:

  • Young climate activists in the Marshall Islands helping their communities heal from the destructive legacy of nuclear testing by the United States while envisioning a sustainable future for their people;

  • LGBTQ+ leaders in Ukraine offering resources and companionship to the queer community impacted by Russia’s full-scale invasion;

  • Haitian academics researching racism’s impacts on the experiences of migrants of color in the United States; and

  • Trans organizers forming networks of safety and welcome for trans and gender expansive people forced to flee unsafe communities and states. 

In addition to these partners, around which UUSC’s work is centered, this year will also feature stories from UUSC board members, staff, and even the founder of Guest at Your Table as a UUSC staff member in the 1970s!

more about this year’s 4 guests:

Haitian Bridge Alliance: Suleyman Wellings-Longmore, a legal fellow with the Haitian Bridge Alliance, researches the ways racism is impacting the experiences of migrants of color in the United States.

Queer Svit: Anna-Maria Tesfaye is the co-founder of Queer Svit, an organization offering resources and companionship to the queer community in Ukraine who have been impacted by Russia's invasion.

Jo-Jikum: Konea Ishimura is a climate activist from the Marshall Islands who, along with his colleagues at Jo-Jikum, helps his community heal from the destructive legacy of nuclear testing by the United States while envisioning a sustainable future for the Marshallese people.

The Pink Haven Coalition: The Pink Haven Coalition creates networks of safety and welcome for trans and gender expansive people forced to flee unsafe states in the United States.

Supplemental Haitian Bridge Alliance Videos

Haiti Is in Crisis. So Why Is The U.S. Deporting Haitian Migrants?

Haitian Migrants Face Language Barrier On a Mandatory CBP App

What We Will Do at SFUU

Boxes for the program and brochures detailing the stories the guests are first distributed during a kickoff worship service (February 23, 2025), and remain available at church if you were not here that Sunday. Set the box at your dining table and read your guests’ stories. Show your support for their human rights work by placing a contribution in the box during each meal (or whenever you are moved to do so). The act of making a donation during at least one meal each day makes your advocacy of the work that the UUSC does a deliberate practice. Slipping just a quarter into the slot each meal will add up to a sizeable donation by the end of the program (usually a 4 to 6 week period)! At the end, write a check for the total and bring it to church on on a date to be determined (stay tuned) as we celebrate the Guest at Your Table journey!

Gathering Guest at your Table Funds on TBA (alternative date = TBA)!

On our end date, baskets will be available to collect the GAYT donations during SFUU’s Sunday Service.

Here’s What to Do:

  • Open up your box and count up what you have accumulated.

  • Write a check for the amount, payable to UUSC (or if you prefer, you can make it out to SFUU with GAYT in the memo line).

  • Cut out the white side of your box and fill out the information in that square (your name, and contact info if you want thanks from the UUSC; also put down our congregation and indicate how much you are donating)

  • Bring your check and the completed information square to church for collection.

  • If you are pressed for time, then you can bring the whole box, but it will save us both time and effort if you bring a check instead (thanks)!

  • We will send the checks to the UUSC for you. 

Not Going to Be at Church on the the end date?

  • No problem, you can bring your donation and information square the following Sunday

  • OR, you can send it to UUSC directly (Guest at Your Table - UUSC, PO Box 808, Newark, NJ, 07101-0808) – you can even donate on-line and avoid using a stamp.

Your Social Justice Team thanks you for your commitment to the work of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee!

Shelter Me (Sweet Spirit of Light and Love)
Looking for respite in your fight for human rights? Listen to this meditative song by Lea Morris.