To search for resources that support March's Soul Matter theme of Transformation, toggle the red arrow below and search for Spiritual Themes of: Transformation, Change, Endings, Beginnings, Searching.
Toggle to filter resultsAvailable filters:
Changing a filter will refresh results (and remaining options) immediately. Searching by keyword or changing the number of items per page requires use of the "Search" button.
Displaying 1 - 50 of 173
-
When someone lists Unitarians or Universalists, they usually name white men. Never anyone Black like me.Reflection | By Connie Simon | February 28, 2024 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #8thPrinciple, #BlackHistoryMonth, #BlackLivesMatter, 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Generations, History, Identity, Race/Ethnicity, Self-Respect, Truth, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarianism, Universalism, Worship -
From the beginning, the story of Black people in America has been told through the lens of white supremacy.Reflection | By Bev Spears | February 21, 2024 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #BlackHistoryMonth, #BlackLivesMatter, Generations, History, Justice, Race/Ethnicity, Truth, Worship -
If you’re seeking sacred Black “text” in our tradition, you have to examine the way our Black ancestors lived.Reflection | By Takiyah Nur Amin | February 7, 2024 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #8thPrinciple, #BlackHistoryMonth, #BlackLivesMatter, 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Anti-Oppression, Covenant, Generations, History, Identity, Living Our Faith, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarianism, Universalism, Worship -
Spirit and Breath, create an openness that violence has constricted.Reflection | By Melissa Jeter | October 4, 2023 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, Anger, Body, Earth, Healing, Race/Ethnicity, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Worship -
I cannot assume anything when you welcome me into your spaces with suspicion and fear.Poetry | By Kristen L. Harper | March 15, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #8thPrinciple, #BlackLivesMatter, Anti-Oppression, Justice, Oppression, Race/Ethnicity, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Let us be grateful for the vital force that wakes us and moves us.Reflection | By Melissa Jeter | January 25, 2023 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Body, Generations, Love, Race/Ethnicity, Worship -
Every time we open ourselves to one another, we become more human.Reflection | By Tania Márquez | December 14, 2022 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Children, Christianity, Community, Generations, Inclusion, International, Race/Ethnicity, Worship -
I rise on the shoulders of ancestors whose names I can not know.Reflection | By Glen Thomas Rideout | September 14, 2022 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #8thPrinciple, #BlackHistoryMonth, #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), America, Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Direct Experience, Family, Generations, History, Oppression, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Self-Respect, Unitarian Universalism, Worship -
If you’re trying to build a worship service that's anti-racist and decenters whiteness, you start in one spot.Leader Resource | By JeKaren Olaoya, Erika Hewitt | September 2, 2022 | From WorshipLabTagged as: #WidenTheCircle, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Anti-Oppression, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Leadership, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism, Worship Tips -
We have to keep finding ways to widen the circle of care and concern.Reflection | By JeKaren Olaoya | June 22, 2022 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Acceptance, Anti-Oppression, Hospitality, Identity, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism, Worship -
Discomfort /in the name of holy wholeness / Bring all of ourselves / in the name of holy, of wholenessPoetry | By Kiakiali Bordner | May 23, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Activism, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Justice, Leadership, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Purpose, Race/Ethnicity, Solidarity, WorshipWeb, Worship -
There’s never been a time in the United States history when black rebellions did not spark existential fear among white people.Reading | By Michelle Alexander, Leslie Alexander | May 12, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), America, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Freedom, History, Juneteenth, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, WorshipWeb, Worship
-
We can plant the seeds of love and justice in the world.Time for All Ages | By mandi huizenga | March 29, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #8thPrinciple, America, Anti-Oppression, History, Humanism, Justice, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Slavery is made to sound as if it happened in a prehistoric age instead of only a few generations ago.Reading | By Clint Smith | January 27, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, History, Oppression, Race/Ethnicity, Violence
-
White supremacy illuminates the exceptional instead of blaming the system.Reading | By Clint Smith | January 27, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Anti-Oppression, Generations, History, Race/Ethnicity, Violence, WorshipWeb, Worship
-
We have come here today to remember what some are intent on making us forget.Affirmation | By Addae Ama Kraba | January 10, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: History, Justice, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Race/Ethnicity, WorshipWeb, Worship -
I was leaving my mom in another world, located far away from mine.Reflection | By Mike Adams | October 6, 2021 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: History, Identity, Indigenous American, Indigenous Peoples Day, Race/Ethnicity, Worship -
In order to be welcoming, the systems of power and privilege in our spaces need to be actively dismantled.Reflection | By Shannon Lang | September 29, 2021 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #8thPrinciple, #BlackLivesMatter, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Diversity, Equity, Hospitality, Humanism, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Worship -
The 8th Principle is about actively dismantling racism.Reading | By Shannon Lang | August 23, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #8thPrinciple, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Humanism, Integrity, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism, WorshipWeb, Worship -
To see how we fight still after entire lifetimes of struggle—and then to tell us to be more polite is just plain cruel.Reading | By Ijeoma Oluo | June 30, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #8thPrinciple, #BlackLivesMatter, Anti-Oppression, Humanism, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Do we who are UUs really believe in the values of our faith enough to enact to them in bold, clear, and unequivocal ways?Reflection | By Takiyah Nur Amin | June 23, 2021 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #8thPrinciple, #BlackLivesMatter, 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), America, Anti-Oppression, Conflict, Direct Experience, Division, Equity, Justice, Living Our Faith, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism, Worship -
Your individual niceness is inadequate to deal with the brutality and the viciousness of what white body supremacy has done to my people.Quote | By Resmaa Menakem | April 20, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, Anti-Oppression, Body, History, Race/Ethnicity -
This reflection was part of Side With Love Sunday 2021.Homily | By Julica Hermann de la Fuente | March 10, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #30DaysOfLove, #BlackLivesMatter, #SideWithLove, 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Equity, Humanism, Justice, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Multiculturalism, Power, Privilege, Race/Ethnicity, Relationships, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, WorshipWeb, Worship
-
We in the developed world are like homeowners who inherited a house on a piece of land that is beautiful on the outside, but whose soil is unstable loam and rock, heaving and contracting over generations, cracks patched but the deeper ruptures waved away for decades, centuries even....Reading | By Isabel Wilkerson | February 22, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Anti-Oppression, History, Race/Ethnicity, WorshipWeb, Worship -
I've adopted the practice of spiritual reconnection with my ancestors to heal intergenerational trauma.Reflection | By Jabari S. Jones | February 10, 2021 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), America, Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Direct Experience, Diversity, Generations, Healing, History, International, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Transformation, Trauma, Worship -
Black Queens saved our democracy. We owe them a great deal.Reflection | By Carol Thomas Cissel | January 20, 2021 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: America, Democracy, Humanism, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Women, Work, Worship -
Can you imagine what it was like to be inside of that house, afraid that it might fall all apart from the destructive force of the wind and the rain, from the whole storm?Time for All Ages | By Karen G. Johnston | January 7, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Community, Interdependence, Justice, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Relationships, WorshipWeb, Worship -
The person who enjoys privilege always knows less about the person who lives under the weight of that privilege than the people who are actually under it.Quote | By Ta-Nehisi Coates | November 24, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Justice, Power, Privilege, Race/Ethnicity, WorshipWeb, Worship
-
Learning to love all of me—including the parts I used to be scared of—made the fear go away.Reflection | By Ndidi Achebe | October 28, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, Family, Mental Health, Race/Ethnicity, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Worship -
At the core of American racism is the belief that the things we the Blacks desire, the fact that we the Blacks desire, are perversions.Reading | By Imani Perry | October 27, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Anti-Oppression, Challenge, Character, Imagination, Race/Ethnicity -
I do not believe the acts of oppressors are my people's shame.Quote | By Imani Perry | October 27, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Culture, Direct Experience, Generations, History, Humanism, Identity, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Self-Respect -
I was born nine years after four little girls were killed in Birmingham, Alabama, and two other boys later the same day.Reading | By Imani Perry | October 27, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, History, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, WorshipWeb, Worship -
The drug that says that whiteness is what matters most about white people is what makes so many of them think that is what must be protected at all costs.Quote | By Imani Perry | October 19, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Race/Ethnicity -
Black men are not a species. They, you, belong to humanity.Reading | By Imani Perry | October 19, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Character, History, Race/Ethnicity, WorshipWeb, Worship -
None of us would be here were it not for those who lived and won a fight that they were not meant to survive.Reflection | By Daniel Gregoire | September 23, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, Direct Experience, Family, Generations, History, Humanism, Justice, Living Our Faith, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism, Worship -
Spirit of light and love Spirit of resistance Spirit of generosity That which serves as our conscience in this work That we do to dismantle white supremacy To empower the marginalized To insist that black lives matter, matter We have been angered We have been saddened We have been pushed to the...Prayer | By Margalie Belizaire | August 13, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Race/Ethnicity -
It often feels like we’re shouting into the void. It was a gift to be reminded that sometimes someone is listening.Reflection | By Jodi Cohen Hayashida | July 8, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Activism, America, Belief, Democracy, Direct Experience, Imagination, Justice, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Solidarity, Truth -
I learned the hard way that there is a deep difference between the Jesus that Black folks worship and the Jesus that white Christians worship.Reading | By Austin Channing Brown | June 27, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Christianity, Direct Experience, History, Power, Race/Ethnicity, Religion -
Sheltered in our homes, Or going to work, at risk, For week after week after week, We’re edgy, tired, a little raw. We are tender, vulnerable, Open. A little more open than usual. Those of us who are white, Who, before, might have been distracted Who, before, might have been too busy Who, before,...Prayer | By Ellen Quaadgras | June 17, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, Direct Experience, Race/Ethnicity, Solidarity -
Our conversations about the history of our country—the actions of our ancestors—can be made new and relevant and understandable. We can and must have these conversations.Reflection | By Heather Rion Starr | June 17, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Activism, America, Children, Direct Experience, Generations, History, Humanism, Parents, Race/Ethnicity, Responsibility, Secular, Unitarian Universalism -
May we all remember how inextricably we are linked in this fight for justice and freedom.Reflection | By Otto O’Connor | June 10, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Direct Experience, Generations, History, Justice, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Pride Sunday, Race/Ethnicity, Responsibility, Secular, Solidarity, Unitarian Universalism -
Deep in the shadow of night, down near the crossroads and cemetery gates, with bitter liquor and cigar smoke wafting, I greet you. Clad in white, upon the floor before shrines, following the names of the Ancestors being uttered, I greet you. You are the sacred and righteous rage of my people.Prayer | By Byron "Tyler" Coles | June 2, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Activism, Anger, Awe, Direct Experience, Generations, Indigenous American, Meaning, Power, Race/Ethnicity, Relationships, Secular, Wonder
-
I come from a long line of strong Black women. My grandmother used to share stories about how she caused “trouble” in town when a white man hired her to put up the displays in his store window. At that time, all the Black women in town worked as domestics in the homes of white ladies, or in the...Reflection | By Rayla D. Mattson | February 5, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Friendship, Generations, Integrity, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Truth, Women -
Ironically, Americans who self-identify as not racist—whether they're conservatives, moderates, liberals, radicals, progressives—they don't realize… that we are connecting ourselves to a history of slave traders who self-identified as not racist (although they didn't use that term). We're...Reading | By Ibram X Kendi | January 16, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), America, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, History, Identity, Juneteenth, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Oppression, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity -
When you’re the only black man in a sea of whiteness, purses still get clutched, and people still cross the street, and hellos still get lost in the void.Reflection | By Adrian L. H. Graham | January 15, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Fear, Identity, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Relationships -
Can we strive to have the grace to back away when our presence doesn’t feel like safety?Reflection | By Misha Sanders | November 13, 2019 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Discernment, Humanism, Privilege, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Unitarian Universalism -
On August 25, 1619, the ship the White Lion arrived at Point Comfort, now known as Fort Monroe National Monument in Hampton, Virginia. The ship contained enslaved Africans. This is the first recorded arrival of Africans in America....Affirmation | By Kristen L. Harper | October 10, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), America, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Direct Experience, History, Juneteenth, Oppression, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity -
A common "issue" in anti-racism work is the use of the term culture of white supremacy or white supremacy culture, which many people view as charged, controversial, or even deeply offensive. Sometimes there are even challenges/dismissals from people in positions of power/authority about it....Reading | By Carolina Krawarik-Graham | August 15, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Humanism, Identity, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Secular -
Non-Indigenous people who seek to reconnect with the earth must be wary of the dangerous problem of spiritual theft. On the one hand, we have much to learn from Native peoples about this land and about what it means to honor our relationship to the land. We must take our lead from those who have...Reading | By Myke Johnson | July 25, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Anti-Oppression, Earth, Earth-Centered, Indigenous American, Race/Ethnicity, Responsibility, Seven Principles, Spiritual Practice -
It is time to throw out our exceptional identity and humble ourselves... We have always done good in the world—it is in our DNA. The question is, are we ready to do better for our own people? Because the world includes every person in our faith—many of whom have been micro-aggressioned right out...Reading | By Marta I. Valentín | June 25, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Humility, Identity, Inclusion, Living Our Faith, Multiculturalism, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism