So, uh, what’s the connection between Flaming Chalice International and the Hysterical Society?

If you’re thinking “FCI doesn’t seem that funny”, you’re right.

The how-did-this-connection-start story starts awful, but it ends well, I promise. Really well.

In the fall of 2015, I opened Facebook and my heart sank.

My friend had been thrown in prison, on the other side of the world.

Without thinking I read the story out to my partner, and when I looked up my 12 year old kid was staring at me, with his face in shock. He knew Mwibutsa (Fulgence) as well—they’d hung out together on Mwibutsa’s last visit to Canada.

“But he didn’t do anything”, Eric said. Because he lived in a world where people only got punished when they did something wrong.

Rev Mwibutsa (Fulgence) and people from in and around the Unitarian Church in Burundi had been documenting human rights abuses in the pro democracy protests. That’s not doing something wrong. That’s doing something right.

A day or two later, Eric published a website, helping coordinate efforts to get Mwibutsa released—there was a Facebook group, people were writing letters, and Tet Gallardo (of this group!) started a petition that gathered thousands of signatures. Eric figured what he could do was create a hub for all the pieces.

I watched what he was doing with mixed feelings. I was proud of him for getting involved. And I had this sinking feeling in my gut because I was pretty sure this wouldn’t end well.

It did end well.

These photos were taken in 2019, during the first FCI fundraiser. Eric, myself, and Mwibutsa (Fulgence)--now safe in Canada with his wife and son--now work alongside UUHS group members every November to raise funds for those that Mwibutsa was forced to leave behind.

I wish I could tell me from seven years ago, wondering if all the fuss had any chance of working, that sometimes you win one.

Sometimes you win BIG.

Post script: So, one of the reasons I’m cautious about telling this story is because, well… It’s a story about learning to fight injustice that is very focussed on my family and not on the person experiencing the injustice. It’s true that this is where the connection started, but it’s not the whole story. Here are those same events, from Fulgence’s perspective.

By Liz James, Mirth and Dignity Board President. (Mirth and Dignity is the legal organization that, among other things, runs the UU Hysterical Society).

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Interested in learning more about FCI’s role in Mirth and Dignity? Check out “How Mirth and Dignity got its name”, or start the story right at the beginning with “Wait, What’s the Connection between Mirth and Dignity and Flaming Chalice International?” or go straight to those rivetting governance tips with “Learning from FCI” and “Not my potatoes”.

Interested in learning more about FCI’s work? Check out “The Not-a-Church we helped build”, or “How Flaming Chalice International got its Name” Or check out FCI’s website. We particularly recommend this story about Mwibutsa’s mother. It’s really beautiful.