Our UUCM book group will begin next week, one section on the afternoon of Sunday September 17, and the other on the evening of Monday September 18. The Monday evening group is now full, but openings still exist for the Sunday group. We plan to meet the 3rd Sunday and Monday of each month. The reading list will include books on race and social justice, works of fiction by women of color, and books with a spiritual and/or religious theme. Jenn Stiles will lead the Sunday group and Michael Glenn will lead the Monday one. The group is open to everyone in the UUCM community. People enrolled in the groups can switch times in any given month if their schedule requires it.

Our first book will be the best-seller by Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy, a powerful true story about the redemptive potential of mercy, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice. Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machinations, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. To join the Sunday group, please contact Michael at michaelglenn01@comcast.net or Jenn at jennmstiles@gmail.com.