The Rev Stephen Shick, senior minister at the Unitarian Church of Marlboro and Hudson in Marlboro, Mass., has written a book designed to, as he says, “inspire and sustain activists and others who are working for a better world.”

Be the Change: Poems, Prayers and Meditations for Peacemakers and Justice Seekers is published by the UUA’s Skinner House.

Shick is founding director of the Unitarian Universalist Peace Network and former director of U.S. programs for the UU Service Committee. He draws on his four decades of activist experience to offer motivation and encouragement to those just starting out in social justice work as well as reflections and insights for veteran justice-seekers. The book includes quotations from Jesus, Shakespeare, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Rachel Carson, Maya Angelou, and others.

He notes, “I offer this book to those people, to you, who look upon the carnage of war, the cruelty of poverty, and the destruction of our environment with open eyes and simply say, ‘We can and must do better.’ This book is for you, the ones who, despite fears and limitations, give hope and courage to all of us by the way you live. It is dedicated to you who have a pestering need to love more boldly and live more courageously so that others might live better lives.”

Be the Change is $12 from the UUA Bookstore, 800-215-9076.

About the Author

Don Skinner

Don Skinner is editor of InterConnections and a member of the Shawnee Mission UU Church in Lenexa, Kansas.

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