Paula Cole Jones 0:04 And religious educators are often leading the way. So you have to pay close attention to what's happening in religious education in your church, or religious educators. While the Commission on Institutional Change was doing its job, they were eager to do the work. And they're part of the institution and didn't want to wait three years before the report came out. And so through the Office of Faith Development, Lifespan Faith Development, a project was started to develop an accountability tool, and assessment tool to use in religious education programs. So my conversation is not about the tool, but it's about saying that I had a chance to work with Sheila, over a period of time while we developed that, and we develop the relationship. But I developed an understanding and an appreciation of the work that she was doing in her congregation. As a result of that, in my home congregation gave our eighth principle team a grant, we proposed developing a curriculum for teaching what we call Jubilee kids, those anti racism training for students of religious education. And I asked Sheila, if she would develop that curriculum because I was familiar with what she was doing. In her home congregation, she allowed us my introduction to you, as she is here out of out of a deep respect and appreciation for her commitment. And one that's very much grounded in the faith as well as anti racism and anti oppression work. And with that Sheila I want to turn it over to you so that you can give your presentation we'll have, how long do you say your video is? Sheila Schuh 2:14 It's exactly 30 minutes. Exactly. 30. Paula Cole Jones 2:17 Okay, so let's take about 30 an hour and a couple. We may not have a lot of time for questions, but I think that you will really value what you'll hear tonight, and we're gonna record it so you will be able to listen again. Okay. Sheila Schuh 2:34 Okay. I just want to say a couple things. Before I started, there's three interview questions that I asked all of the children and youth who volunteered so you'll see them broken up. Some of the kids refer to spiritual survivor and that's our junior high program. It's a six, six to eighth grade program that we've been running for about seven years and it has the Jubilee Junior High embedded in it, as well as OWL and some of visiting other churches. So you'll hear the kids refer to that because that's their program orientation. Okay, and I've mixed in, in the mix is elements from children's worship and some pictures from Jubilee. So those are just kind of sprinkled throughout. Okay, I'm gonna share my screen. Can you see that? Yes. Okay, here we go. Unknown Speaker 3:39 [Singing] We are building a new way, we are building a new way. We are building a new way, getting stronger every day, we are building a new way. Unknown Speaker 4:26 It's important because, right dismantling racism and oppression, oppressions, people will be more accepting, and people will probably feel more welcome in the church and in other communities. And by seeing it in the church seeing grace, like the lack of racism, in people not being oppressed, we can bring it to other parts of our lives as well. Use it as an example to build on. Unknown Speaker 5:02 I believe that everyone should have equal opportunities. Kind of like the first principle how it says that there's inherent worth and dignity in all people. And no one should get special treatment just for the color of the skin or get unfair treatment, everybody should be included. Unknown Speaker 5:23 Obviously, the injustice is in the world and the unfairness in society are, are things that need to be addressed and the effects and until those things are fixed, we can't achieve kind of a community that is that is that can I guess? support support, everyone in it, I guess, is it's always felt like common sense. to, to adjust these issues, Unknown Speaker 5:56 because everyone deserves a fair chance at life. And because it will help our communities and a large population of the world be treated fairly and have what they deserve. Unknown Speaker 6:11 The eighth principle is important to me, because I feel like we should have diversity, and that nobody should be like, mistreated, just for how they were born, or how they look. And I feel like racism is a big is big in our society, a lot of people are harmed by racism. And I feel like we really need to stop it, because it's not good. It's not good. It's terrible. Right? It's a huge deal. I feel like everyone should be trying to stop it, like, make it so that we are learning and trying to stop it. Unknown Speaker 6:52 The reason it's important to me is because I believe everyone should be treated equally. I think that it fits really nicely with the first principle, like the inherent worth, and dignity of every person. And I guess I, I guess I feel like we're all kind of on this earth and in this life together. So we should work towards building a community who support spans across cultural and racial divides. We're all working together. Unknown Speaker 7:20 I think it's important because like, building, like community is important because coming together and unity is one of the key steps in solving problems, whether big or small, which is reflected in the first principle of the Saba, which is pneumonia, which means unity. Unknown Speaker 7:42 in church, we say that we're an inclusive, welcoming church. But if you look around in the congregation, you don't really see that many people of color. So if, if we adopt the eighth principle, that may make them feel more welcome and included. Like, if we adopt the principle, they may be a little shy at first, because it's like this new announcement that we're making. But eventually, they're, they'll begin to feel like truly welcome here, stepping stone, Unknown Speaker 8:29 the way that I live out the principles is how the, when you read them through the eighth principle, that's the way it should be. And so it's important because it really puts into words what I think our faith should be doing, and should, what our purpose really is in the world, not just our faith, but our faith into action. And so I think the eighth principle puts it into writing that that's really what our faith is about. It's obviously not enough because you need to live that out. But it is intentional about really making it clear that that is what the purpose of Unitarian Universalism is. Unknown Speaker 9:29 Racism isn't a good thing to have any communities. And it's a good idea to dismantle it, to replace it and see that we're all the same. We're all equals. And that even though is kind of risky, maybe different. We're all the same on the inside. One person. We can all be kind to each other. In the community where everyone can be accepted. Unknown Speaker 9:59 Cause If we don't, people, such as Daniel, and George Floyd will get killed more than if we don't. And police were originated from slave catchers. So we shouldn't have slave catchers trying to hurt people. Well, the eighth principle is important to me. Unknown Speaker 10:27 Because I believe that we need everyone in society to not be treated less, because of a certain aspect of their self, like their race or their gender identity. Unknown Speaker 10:40 I think it's important that as a UUA community, that we can be able to gather together without any fear of like, prejudice that this person like, excuse me, first of some of something or something like that. I think it's important because sometimes even like out of this, it's hard when you don't feel welcomed in a space. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 11:15 we are working to be free, we are working to be free, we are working to be free of hate, greed and jealosy. We are working to be free. Unknown Speaker 11:51 I feel like the biggest piece has been omitted the Jubilee, Jubilee Jubilee. And we've learned about how, like, different races out really genetically different. We're all human, Unknown Speaker 12:09 well, and RE kind of learned that our community is responsible for the people within our community, and kind of taking care of each other and making sure that everyone's needs are met. And everyone kind of feels safe within the community Unknown Speaker 12:32 knowledge or bother many, how they handle things differently than us, actually, with the part of the principle when it doesn't only address kind of society as a whole, but, but into like, looking at yourself individually. Um, yeah, a lot of people don't recognize that, that not being racist, is not helpful. Because the reality is that, that everyone is has their own racial biases and, and stereotypes, that, that it might not be their fault that they have, kind of, been been brought up in, in a society where, where these were kind of inserted into their minds. But but its still there, and I guess, ignoring them and refusing that there is very unhelpful, I think RE kind of cultivates a very good atmosphere for conversation. And, and, and putting your, your own individual experiences out there. And it's a good kind of exchange of ideas that that built up by and built up kind of a good way good ways to look at other other people's perspectives and and have more empathy and be more more knowledgeable about what other people experience that feeds it that kind of feeds into a lot of things, including I'm becoming more more knowledgeable and more I guess I'm aware of racism and racial issues Unknown Speaker 14:42 a lot. And my experience Personally, I went to Jubilee kids, which part of RE, Yeah, I'm pretty sure which we learned about racism. In spiritual survivor, we've learned about racism and just all around in particular, Learn about it. Like, it's one of the big things that we learn Unknown Speaker 15:04 about. definitely been learning. And I guess you've been just kind of establishing a basis of Okay, this is what is right, in a way like, Yeah, I don't, I don't remember as much. It's been a while since I was in the younger youth already. But like for youth group, we've talked about anti racism. And so social and racial justice a lot, and I guess before would have been like respecting everyone's differences, particularly remember that the skits that the older kids would perform when explaining the greater good project and the organization's that people would donate to. I think that definitely helped me learn to learn a lot about like racial justice and all different types of justice to been, like, just just knowing that out there, in Rochester, there are groups that are helping to support people who have needs greater than us, like, this is out there. And there are things we can do about it. Unknown Speaker 16:08 Well, we're currently doing the loner challenge, which is where you try to be inclusive of people who may not be feeling included. We learned about microaggressions. And, and all our, in our format of like, inherent bias in Unknown Speaker 16:36 implicit bias, it's helped because we've gotten to look at different cultures, and explore different things. And it's taught important lessons and stories about people who've thought like that, and why we should think like that. It's important because it shows us up. Like, people have been thinking about this. But especially during our spirit, spiritual survivors, we've all learned up close about unfairness that has happened. And it's tough, right, but like, it's tough to see it, because we don't like thinking about it. But it shows us what we need to think about and that we need to stop this solitary confinement things that we were talking about. And like the person who got sent to jail for stealing a backpack, Unknown Speaker 17:21 I think RE has definitely given me a lot of different perspectives. And I've learned a lot about other cultures and other people and other ideas that aren't usually that aren't in the mainstream. And I think that you always have to start with knowledge, and being aware of everything else in the world. And so I so RE has really helped me with that. And I think it also creates a lot of my RE group leaders have been no matter what we're talking about, that idea of social justice, and race, comes into the conversation and is included in the conversation. Because it is so intertwined in everything we talk about in religious education. So and I think that's the real point of this. It's not making, it's not making a whole separate thing be like, okay, on this Sunday, we're going to talk about but it's really making it a part of what we talk about every Sunday and what we do, and not just do in church, but what we do outside of church. And I think part of living out the eighth principle has become like that social justice youth group that we have. And really starting to making sure that we're not just teaching our youth these things but we're also teaching them how to take action. Unknown Speaker 19:16 That's where I learned the eighth principle from also discussing racism in REs love that. And also, it continues to talk about it which needs to be learned how it should be dismantled, and we can dismantle that if we all work together and we all have stories in our ear about the different cultures because like I was curious and they have 100 different cultures. How do you remember like, all of the different cultures and different thing in the seven countries and also I did, you will leave so that as long as you remember, like, things out racism. Unknown Speaker 20:02 It's helped me become like wiser and knowing of more cultures and more beliefs and more like experiences. And it also has taught me to respect Unknown Speaker 20:12 others. Well, I mean, ever since I started attending services at First Unitarian, and ever since I joined youth group I've been made aware of, I've been made more aware of racism and white privilege. So it is helped me like, First Unitarian has helped me educate myself is my white privilege to help others or after George Floyd died, back in May, or June. During youth group, we had a session where we discussed ways to combat racism in our community, and that one has stayed with me, Unknown Speaker 21:06 it's helped me understand some communities that I am not part of, and how to support them. Like, I'm obviously not a person of color. So I can't like, say anything on behalf of them. But I've learned how to support them and work with justice for all sorts of groups. Yeah, so that will help us make a better community. Unknown Speaker 21:41 It just like on the news, and my parents tell me about it, we can see, we can start with, we can be Unknown Speaker 22:24 like, it could be very helpful. I don't think it could really cause any damage or hurt anything by employment. Say, if Unknown Speaker 22:33 you don't think that, or if you if you don't want to address the issue, or don't think that addressing that issue is important. It's kind of like you're pretending it doesn't. It's not important enough to work on and it doesn't exist, really. So by kind of ignoring or not thinking about adopting the principle, it's almost like, it's not important enough to you. Unknown Speaker 23:01 I thought, you board or something, or most of you places adopted the principle. So why shouldn't they? Unknown Speaker 23:11 Don't be right. Unknown Speaker 23:13 Yeah. So you think that it's this is kind of hard for me to answer because I, I haven't actually talked with anyone who, who is kind of who hasn't kind of accepted the principle added to the list of the seven. So I don't I don't know what what their reasoning is for that, because I can't really think of any reason why it shouldn't be part of the age, when you look at our church and the churches I visited in the area. Um, you know, it's a very accepting place and but the amount of diversity is not, not it's not great. So, I don't know, it seems like, like if we want our congregation to become more representative of kind of people, more more representative, I guess. Then the general population in Rochester, for example. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 24:46 Especially because actual kind of action and execution of things comes after, when it's explicitly said Unfortunately, sometimes long after but It won't happen at all. I mean, even even though our Unitarian Universalism and our church has actively kind of supported a lot of what the business will stand for, um, I think there's a long way to go from there. Unknown Speaker 25:23 I would say, you guys should adopt this principle, it's important. And it matters to our society, and how we will learn about things, and that it would be important to have it at every church, so not so not every so every church would be anti racist, and learn about racism and try to stop racism. I feel like I've learned about it, and I will try to teach it throughout my life. Y'all, you people, if you're listening, you should have taken the eighth principle. Sheila Schuh 26:06 But what are your thoughts about the, you know, us continuing to develop programming throughout your life? for it, Unknown Speaker 26:14 I feel like it would be good for the next generation or more people to learn about it, I feel like it would be important to them, so they can stay antiracist. And Unknown Speaker 26:27 well, after recognizing the need for the next step towards building a culturally supportive community, is to say we're going to try to do it, let's work towards it. And if we all work together to create this community that actively works to dismantle racism, within ourselves and within the wider community, like that's a crucial step to creating a world where no one's afraid, no one has to feel less than anyone else. everyone's seen as equal. And I really stand for that, this is the thing that needs to happen. So let's do it. And stand out we're going to do it is next step towards doing it. Unknown Speaker 27:10 If we build a more inclusive community, that can affect everyone, like the butterfly effect, like if one person's happy, their happiness may spread in the form of a small kindness or small action. And then with everyone feeling welcome, that would be a great thing to have in our church, I just feel like we should adopt the eighth principle, not only for our churches benefit, but for all the churches around the world that aren't necessarily even first you. Because then not only will the kindness be contagious, our churches may start to adopt the eighth principle to Unknown Speaker 28:01 it's important, even if you're following it to declare that you're following it, because it helps people like it helps the movement. And I'd say that, if they're not following that, they need to get with the times, basically, and they need to help. They need to help the change because they have, if they have power, and are able to like, talk to people and like sway public opinion, then I say that they need to start supporting this because it's important, and it helps the world. Unknown Speaker 28:32 There are people in our church who aren't as supportive of it and involved in the work as others. But But I haven't had conversations with people who are really opposed to it. I think, I mean, even some of the sermons that I do, Unknown Speaker 28:48 I tried to bring that idea of social justice to our mostly white and sometimes older congregation. But I think I would probably have a conversation around the principles. And when you really look at I mean, the principle and the inherent worth and dignity of every person. That's not just a saying that you can say, Oh, yeah, I believe that you really have to be able to say that every part of your life and every action that you take demonstrates that that what you believe, and that you're not holding a system that doesn't believe that. And so, and maybe this is just me being naive that I know there, everything is complicated and can't be there, the more and more socially aware again, everything is everything as a consequence and everything isn't great for everyone. But if you're going to commit to our values, then you have to be intentional about what actions you're taking, and what those say about your values. And, and that if you don't, yeah, and that it's very, if we're all about inclusivity, at least to me, and you, you, Unitarian Universalism. So if we're going to say that we are, then we need to make sure our places are not only inclusive, but welcoming and safe. And if what Unknown Speaker 30:47 the BIPOC community of Unitarian Universalism is saying that they need this, in order for Unitarian Universalism to be welcoming and safe, then that's what we need to do, that they Unknown Speaker 30:57 should adopt it and they should they made it that they should make that a priority, because it's a really important principle to adopt. So if that was around, asking about, like, if we observe the racism in our people I live, I live because it's like more of a higher class neighborhood because it would have better paying jobs. So then there would be more, it's like black routines in my school, the story sort of different cultures in their different religions, the way that they see things and how they are to help you think or when like, some person is talking someone one way and so on, is thinking about in a different way, and how I can sort of see behind local, their opinions and the way that they're thinking, Unknown Speaker 31:47 I would say that, that in order to have a society where everyone is treated equally, and no one feels any hate, we would need the eighth principle. So then we can take those steps to becoming a better community, that it's important to open your mind and learning more about others and, like, respecting, Unknown Speaker 32:12 and, like you know, having more knowledge can make you wiser. And it can really help like the community and others around you. Unknown Speaker 32:23 So that way, people or in our community are dying and the cops aren't in line about it. Yeah, and pepper spraying innocent protests starts and handcuffing somebody in and pepper spraying a nine year old child who was handcuff, they need to act, we need to change the system. Unknown Speaker 33:03 Learn new. Paula Cole Jones 33:14 Just wild right? Everyone's wild, some of you may have even needed tissues. And that's okay. Because if we're really honest about what we're watching, what we're hearing, you have got to feel something crack open. So if if you're in that space, you know, I got a little bit of weakness in the corners of my eyes. That's okay. I honor the young people and and show the work that you and your congregation are doing. Thank you for being that incubator that holding place for the next generation of you, us. Okay, so I know everyone wants to ask questions, but we have another presentation. Innovative presentation, Jen Blosser is with us. And Jen. So you know, when you contacted us and talked about your project, it really resonated because I went to an escape room. With was with a staff team. And it was just wow, it was so exciting. And so when you said you did well, I was all in Yeah, what's this about? So I can't explain this. The escape room other than a team of people work together through all of these clues to solve the problem. So you got to work your way through the escape or almost this this houses building and they're very challenging questions. You can't do it by yourself. You need input. So Jen has created an escape room to teach the eighth principle. Brilliant is that I'm not gonna say a lot more Jen, please. You know Introduce yourself and share with us, you can share your screen and take us as far as you can and about a 30 minute period. Okay, that's fine. Thank you so much. Jen Blosser 35:12 So yeah, I'm this, to kind of give you a background on where this all came from. I know some of you here are religious educators. And I don't need to tell you how incredibly difficult our work has been over the past year, and trying to create engaging programming that is actually feeding people and that people are joining in with and especially our kids who are doing school virtually in many cases and are like just completely fried, completely fried. So I'm I was, I was looking for a way to come up with a fun project, it started out having nothing to do with the law at all, it was just gonna be something fun and escapism, and a cool thing to do. But I am a religious educator, and we couldn't just have fun when we have an opportunity to make it about learning something. So it became focused on the eighth principle. And, you know, I think what's really important to name as far as why I chose the eighth principle out of out of anything is that antiracism work is vital, it is particularly vital right? Now, it's central to so much of what is going on in the larger work of our faith. And we tend to have this sort of mythology that like, oh, the youth are magical in their future, and they're just oh, they're so great. And they are. And it's our responsibility to train them to be these leaders, right, they don't have these tools, inherently, we have to teach them that. And I think that, you know, working with them on the eighth principle and helping them really understand where it comes from, what it's about. And then how they need to make it manifest is crucial to that wonderful future work that we that we want them, you know, to have and to build. And so that's sort of why among other things, I leaned towards focusing on the eighth principle. So as far as why I chose to make something, why I chose an escape room, like Paula said, it's an activity where you have a team of people who are going to come together and try and solve a bunch of puzzles and unfold a narrative, the narrative and escape room is really important. And if you've done one, you're probably familiar, like you're finding little clues, little pieces of a story. In the case of our escape room that is that I'm talking about called Project Octave, you are trying to unravel the mystery of a strange message you have been sent to the congregation. And I'll show you a few of these things in a minute. So the the congregation gets this strange, mysterious message and you are appointed to a committee to try and help figure out what's going on. So the person hosting this really has to sell it because normally when you ask people to join a committee, it's a little hairy, but you know, so you get them on this committee and they're gonna, they're gonna help figure out what is the the mystery behind this strange message. And as they go through the escape room, they pick apart some of the some key moments of the narrative, some key things that contributed to the to the formation of the eighth principle, or key moments that are designed to resonate with them. For instance, we I used Christina Rivera story as part of the hiring crisis of 2017. And I encourage I will, you know what, I can share a link in the chat a little bit later when we do q&a to talk more about that. But Christina Rivera endured a lot of hateful things in the in the fallout from the hiring crisis, and she wrote a brilliant blog post, to talk about it all directly from her perspective, and that her story is incredibly powerful. And so with her permission, I took snippets of that story and her her posts to share. So that's the sort of material that that the youth uncover as they go through. So there's these meaningful stories that that resonate with them about some of the larger issues of the anti racism work we need to be doing within our own walls of Unitarian Universalism, let alone the outside world as well. Um, and the other reason like with escape rooms by design, they require teamwork and we know That when you're really, really engaged with something and you're working with your friends on it, and you're and you're doing it as a team, the things that you learn and the things you experienced stick with you. And so part of what's great about an escape room setting is that each member of the group is going to be using there is going to be approaching the puzzles in a different way. So in all the test groups I had, it was really interesting to watch different people shine at different puzzles in different moments throughout the the progress of the game. And that collaborative experience lends itself really well to meaningful discussion after the game. So I with help from fabulous colleagues put together a discussion guide that follows the game, there's a couple different activities, it's really important to note, like, this isn't some sort of comprehensive eighth principle curriculum. That's not it. The idea of this is a really engaging activity that allows folks to, to have a fun time to learn things they probably didn't know, on the onset about history of things within our own UU community tied to the eighth principle, and then afterwards to take away something that makes them go ha, and to lead them through conversation to open that door so that deeper, more meaningful conversation can take place. And so the final part of of this coming together and trying to make this project was that I really wanted to make sure it's something we could share. I think, again, I'm speaking for pretty much all you religious educators, we're always looking for a way to collaborate, we're always looking for a way to do outreach, I don't think any of us could really do our jobs if we didn't have some sort of awesome network where we were asking each other questions all the time and getting input. So part of the goal here was to help strengthen our collective capability by adding another tool to the mix and and offering something that that folks could could use. And I have to say that I'm deeply grateful for a whole host of people who helped and and give input on that, too. So as far as the mechanics go, like if you're listening to this, and you're just like, Oh, I really, really want to be able to do this in my congregation. Hopefully, it is really straightforward. I have just officially launched the website for access for this today. And I'm getting the first feedback from folks. But there is a website, projectoctave.org. And all you have to have is a Google account or an account that is linked to Google services. And to run the game, all you need to do is be able to access a thank you, Bruce, I was just typing it in Thank you. All you do is you get access to a Google Drive folder. And everything you need to make the game happen is on that Google Drive folder. So this is easy to run. Anybody can to can get the host guide and learn how to host the game and then you're off to the races and you can have that game and that experience. And yes, I think that's our my my main info about what was going on. I had really hoped to be able to have a youth here with me to talk to you about their experience playing but our scheduling did not work out last minute. I will say that I I've tested this game with several three different groups of adults who got just as much out of it as the youth did. So I don't think that this is a youth only tool. Please feel welcome to use it with the grownups too. And the youth that I've tested it with everyone has been really engaged and I've been delighted to see and hear different conversations through the play with different groups different people found different things interesting and and enlightening. There were different aha moments. So it was really encouraging and I I'm looking forward to hearing what it's like once this hits the great wide world. So I will if you'll permit me real quick. Just show folks what we're dealing with when it's the website. Let me pull this up for you. I will share my screen. So the website has two pieces. You can There's a membership area for folks who have completed the game. And then there's the How to host site. And this has everything you need. There's some advice on preparation, and then clicking here will take you straight to the project octave files, so that you can access the game, it's really straightforward. We also have a resources page that has lots of links, lots of videos, lots of stuff for the host to brush up on their eighth principle, know how, and also to share with folks who play. And then for the members, there is an area where you can add your mark on a map of folks who have played the game. And you can add your mark to be to become part of the part of the project. So it's all really inclusive, it should be very easy to access. And I'm really looking forward to working with folks and and hearing from folks how this unfolds as a tool in the larger user community. So that's, that's the game my friends, thank you so much. I really appreciate being able to share it with you tonight as well. Paula Cole Jones 46:34 Thank you, Jen, you're not gonna give people like a little, little more taste? And you don't have to? Yeah, I mean, you have a little more time if you want to do that. I can. So about like a one thing. Jen Blosser 46:51 Okay, how about we do Hang on, let me pull it up. I was I'm, I don't want to give. Paula Cole Jones 47:00 You don't have to. Okay, you can choose your audience now. Jen Blosser 47:07 I will show the our opening. I'm so sorry. Now I have to pull it up. I'm going to show you the opening file. And so this is what happens when folks first get into the game. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 47:34 And they need to share again. Jen Blosser 47:36 Yeah, let me pull it up when folks first access the game. Paula Cole Jones 47:46 And after you do that, and we'll open it for questions and comments. Jen Blosser 47:50 When folks first access the game, the committee that the setup of the game is that, you know, as the host of the committee, you have everyone together, and then your screen gets taken over by Oct bot, which is just you but you turn off your camera, and you operate strictly through the chat so that you can guide your players. And the first file your players can access is this it says begin. And it's impressive how long it will take them to figure out to click here in this garbled speech down at the bottom. But once they do, they will be taken to the opening. Slide the pretty much the whole game revolves around the Google suite. So Google Slides, PDFs hosted on Google Drive, etc. And so they have to click through and they will learn that project octave has delivered this bizarre message to the entire congregation via email. And then there's our little clause that they must not speak to anybody outside of the committee about the code so that if you are going to do this with multiple groups, because I wouldn't recommend I recommend three to eight players, you can stretch it to 10. But the more players you have, the fewer folks will get to participate and like at once the conversation will will kind of jumble it up and it can take much longer it should be about an hour long game, you get introduced to och bot who is programmed to guide them through the process of the game. And then they have to access the principles file, which is a locked file in their folder. And the key to accessing it is here, but I'm not gonna let you look at it too long. And the reason is to I have I've seen already that I've got a lot of educators on here that some of which I'm I'm gonna like show them this in a little bit. So I don't want to show you though. It's going to be a very exciting project I think. So and I am very lucky to have Jakarta and Ola Ola. lend her voice to a video for the for the game that really speaks to the the metaphor we're making between an octave and the eighth principle, which I, I can go ahead and play that if you would like. Paula Cole Jones 50:17 Yes. Okay. Unknown Speaker 50:22 Let me play that for you. Paula Cole Jones 50:23 There's a question. Does everyone join the game by zoom? Jen Blosser 50:32 Yeah, so you could probably use a different platform. I don't use other platforms, though. I have written this to be used with zoom, I had an A question from a colleague about whether or not you could do it on like Google meets, you probably can, I don't use it. So I wouldn't know. But I'm sure if you played around with it, it requires screen sharing, and chat. So really, as long as you have those tools, you should be fine. So you may want to play around a little bit. As far as ages and everything go, I am recommending 14 and up sort of the general youth age, I think it's after you review materials, it's up to your discretion, what age you deem it appropriate, you can see everything in the host files. So you know whether or not you you know, what you would like to Paula Cole Jones 51:19 what people play on their own? Or do they need a minimum minimum number, Jen Blosser 51:25 you have to have someone host the game, you could do one, you could have one player, but I think it would be a take a while. And it can be very challenging, you really want to have the conversation and folks examining it in different ways and, and lending different thoughts to it. So to get the, for someone who is going to be a host to get the idea of it, they could go through it on their own, just to experience to know what the different pieces are. Yeah, and there's like a big host guide, where I've tried to make sure everything is listed and described. So just reading through the host guide that walks through all the puzzles, you should have a solid idea of how this plays out. So it should be really straightforward, but I'm going to share this video with you now. Paula Cole Jones 52:10 Just let me ask one more question before you do someone asked is this only for congregations that have adopted the eighth principle or can other congregations do this Jen Blosser 52:22 Oh, this is for this is for everyone. Um, I think it's really great whether your congregation is talking about the eighth principle or not, like I'd say it's a fun way to get people talking about it. It's fun for people to review it. So yeah, it's it would be for anyone if you're in an environment where you would like to talk about the eighth principle and again does not have to be for youth. Adults I have played with have had an awful lot of fun with it. So this would work great even if it is just you and some of your pals that you want to talk about it with one of you can host so yeah, so this this video will explain the metaphor why it's called Project Octave. And if you want to play and you don't want to skip ahead, you know what I'll just stop the video before it gives you the code nevermind, I Paula Cole Jones 53:12 can control that. I have the power. Unknown Speaker 53:18 Hello, my name is Chicharon Ola, roya blue beloved and former organizer for teams and cofa. If you are watching this video, you have received a message from project octave. Many have come to me before trying to figure out what project octave is and why it targeted their congregation. I cannot give you all the answers. Those are answers you must discover for yourselves. But I can tell you this. an octave like the one you just played is a natural phenomenon. Considered a miracle of music. It's a point where a math and music intersect the doubled frequency of one pitch creating the same pitch only at a higher vibration. play the notes at the start and end any octave and the sound will always be beautiful. These little miracles of music can only exist However, when we play them. While they are always true and always constant, we must act to give them life. There is another natural phenomenon, a miracle of humanity. It to centers on harmony. And it too is true at all times while relying on us to make it so it is the beloved community as envisioned by Dr. Maria Martin Luther King Jr. powerful enough to envelop all living beings on this planet. In the beloved community, racism, and all forms of discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice will be replaced by an all inclusive spirit of kinship. This beloved community is always true. But just as one must take up an instrument, and sing, to give life to the miracle of an octave, one must take action, and use the voice to give life to the miracle of beloved community. Go now, I have given you what information I can. There is one more thing I can offer you. Jen Blosser 55:51 But you don't get to know what it is yet. So Paula Cole Jones 56:00 we're satisfied and curious, right? Bruce Pollack-Johnson 56:05 And somebody asked, How long has it typically typically taken if you had like half a dozen people playing it? Jen Blosser 56:12 So every time I have run this game, now I've had eight test runs. And every time it's taken an hour, I think the longest was an hour and six minutes, and we had anywhere between five and eight players. Paula Cole Jones 56:27 Great. Okay. So Bruce, can you. Okay, spotlight, Sheila, and Jen. And let's open up questions. Now. In the meantime, you'll get to ask your questions. And we'll see how we work through this. But I would like for you to also engage in the real time, thank you notes. So you can put your comments of appreciation in the chat to Sheila her, her church and to Jen and her church. So will that'll be playing out while we get the questions. Now, let's say how do we do questions? Do you all we've been through this before? Do you all know how to raise the little blue hand? If you let's say click on participants, right. And then at the bottom, oh, to the left to the right panel at the bottom, it'll say raise hand. And then you'll come up in order on the screen. And that's the easiest way, not the only way. But the easiest way for us to manage questions. So you can put some in the chat, but the chat might move kind of fast, and we might lose some. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 57:48 We have a question from Dar stellars. You want to unmute yourself? Yes. I Unknown Speaker 57:55 was just wondering when you play the game, do you have to know that UU history? Unknown Speaker 58:00 No. Okay. Jen Blosser 58:01 No, you can come in having no I mean, it helps if you know some general things like that you like that we have a general assembly. You know if you know some general things, but the the host of the game as Oct bot can supplement any info needed in the chat. It's a super versatile role. So you you don't need to know thing. Unknown Speaker 58:23 Okay, thank you. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 58:25 And Joan is next on the list here. Unknown Speaker 58:29 Thank you. I want to know how to share that info. all by itself. Unknown Speaker 58:40 I think generating the interest is the huge first step. And we had a little discussion last Sunday. And folks, were generally not familiar with the eighth principle project. And I just want an easy way to get the short word out and let it grow. Paula Cole Jones 59:04 So we'll have to give Jen a chance. You don't have to be on the spot. Give her a chance to think that one. It would be a great trailer. Unknown Speaker 59:13 Yeah, we can Unknown Speaker 59:15 Exactly. Jen Blosser 59:16 truncate that video and and have it without these spoilers at the end. Paula Cole Jones 59:21 Yeah, right. Great. Thank you. Jen, is it okay, if I comment on what I talked to you about in terms of logo? Oh, sure. Yeah. So I think Jen has found the perfect logo for the eighth principle. And that's the chalice with the eight in it. Yeah. And so we're figuring you know, the chalice are people do such creative renderings. And so we are going to invite people to do some artwork around the eighth principle logo, which would be the chalice and the eight in the center. Okay, so just wanted to put that out there before we get too far along. Go ahead, Bruce column the next question. All right. Unknown Speaker 1:00:16 Katrina, Unknown Speaker 1:00:17 sorry, Unknown Speaker 1:00:18 I'm sure. Unknown Speaker 1:00:19 So my question is, do the participants each have a degree of familiarity with each other or with teams from neighboring congregations be able to do this without knowing each other? Jen Blosser 1:00:31 No, you can have folks that that don't know each other, it's suggested that you have a covenant at the start. So when you when you start playing, and you are not a robot, before you turn your camera off to transition in that role, which is explained in the guide, you take a moment to say, okay, you know, team, this is what our covenant is going to be, so that you have some basic outline of how players are going to interact with each other before the game starts. So I think that's going to be an important part of you, if you're, if you have a group that is not real familiar with each other, having some sort of covenant and going over some some ways to be together and work on it will be crucial. Unknown Speaker 1:01:12 That's wonderful. Thank you for that answer. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:01:15 And Paula, maybe this would be a time because I know a number of people have had to disappear to mention that our next gathering is going to be on Wednesday, March 24th. So the same date, same number, just to get it on your calendars at the same time 8pm to 9:30, Eastern Time. Paula Cole Jones 1:01:41 Experts. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:01:42 And I think next we've got Adrian summer lot. Unknown Speaker 1:01:48 He, first of all, fabulous. Jen, I just wanted to say it's awesome. Do you think we could do this as like I said, it could be multi generational, I'm thinking like, as follow ups, because we have like, we're doing a congregational read of Caste. And is there a way to do some healthy competition? You know, amongst, you know, parents versus youth, you know, sort of thing? Unknown Speaker 1:02:09 Yeah, probably. Jen Blosser 1:02:10 I mean, I, the timing, whether or not you time, the game is kind of up to you. It's not a game. That's about beating the clock, it's about unfolding a narrative, right, which is super fun and important. Yeah. But if you're going to turn it into a competition, you could totally add time into it or something, you know, I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's ways to do it. And I think the only thing to be mindful of is who is in the room when you do the game, because they are going to be confronted with like, documentation of horrible racism. And so you want to be careful who's in the room so that you don't have people who are going to hurt each other and that experience? Unknown Speaker 1:02:49 Yeah. Which segues into my question for Sheila, which was, you know, sometimes one of the things I hear as an educator, is pushback in the congregation from adults who have kids and adults who don't have kids that, you know, are we giving them too much and the ugliness of it and, you know, really hard images, you know, and things that have been hateful that have happened. And so hearing these kids talk about, you know, coming from slave patrol, and those sort of things, I think is really impressive. And I am just curious about how you might have handled that pushback. Sheila Schuh 1:03:24 I honestly have not had any. Unknown Speaker 1:03:27 Wow, Sheila Schuh 1:03:29 I have one parent contact me and say, we're teaching our kids too young, or we're teaching them too much, or I have not had anybody. Not even worship or anything. Unknown Speaker 1:03:44 So that's really that's a whole different can of worms, which I'd love to hear about at some point, which is, what are your ministers and your congregational team doing to lay that foundation? Because that it really is it's a collaborative effort to make those things happen. So thank you. Unknown Speaker 1:04:03 Great. Unknown Speaker 1:04:05 Laura ball. Unknown Speaker 1:04:07 Welcome. Hi, again, again, um, Unknown Speaker 1:04:10 I was wondering, Sheila, if you are willing to share your video for it, make it available in some way else? So we're filming this, right? Paula Cole Jones 1:04:27 Yes. And I'll work with the Central East region staff or trim where we need to, and then make it available as a link. And some of our work is being posted on the LeaderLab. So it'll always be accessible for people. So yes, give us a few days or maybe a week to turn it around. Unknown Speaker 1:04:53 Thank you. Unknown Speaker 1:04:54 Welcome. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:04:54 I go ahead, Sarah. Unknown Speaker 1:04:58 Hi, Sheila. Paula Cole Jones 1:04:59 Are you was at Jubilee in Washington, DC when you were doing Jubilee kids and still working through it, is it still a weekend only program to go with Jubilee when that happens again? Or have you made it into a curriculum that's available that we can do with for longer? Sheila Schuh 1:05:16 Yeah, so right now. So right now it's 10 sessions long. And you can do with that what you will in terms of how to how to use it in your congregation. But this coming up, I'm going to pilot an in home version of it so that you can do a portion with you with child parent for the younger, not for junior youth Jubilee, but for the Jubilee kids. So you and your child would have like a sort of mini webinar and do some of the activities and then come together. Either you could do it in your congregation or, for us, we're going to do it in an outdoor space. That's what we're going to pilot coming up to try to fix it up for people in terms of what you need in your congregation. And now we also have one of the issues that Paul and I had talked about was making sure that people had enough grounding, to run the curriculum. And now we have leading the culture change, Renaissance module going on right now I'm in that pilot, so that hopefully, if you're wanting to run Jubilee kids or junior youth Jubilee, we would have, you know, that kind of offering for the leadership of whether it's the director, or the minister, whoever's running it, or overseeing it have some grounding. That was the missing piece for us before in terms of rolling it out. Like we just didn't want to roll it out without any kind of guidance or grounding for people to run it. Paula Cole Jones 1:06:50 Hello, I also want to share with links, you know, over the years, there's been a lot have been talking a lot of different places I can remember in a youth group many years ago. Why is anti racism not treated like OWL? Which is a perfect question. Yeah. And so Sheila designed it, and modules where it could be like, or inserted as OWL. Now, this is just thinking, not institutionalized. But the point is, when you hear those young people talk, this is just as important as the work that we do around healthy sexuality. I just keep saying, what the heck are we waiting for? You know, why? Why are we waiting? And so that's my question. The other piece is, we are at a point where we do have some resources now. And so the, you know, I'm sure that that question will come up, Susan Larson, you're still on I'm sorry, if I'm pushing the envelope here. But this is important, is so important. And it can be we can we can begin to move it more through the system so that it becomes a part of curriculum are so becomes the norm. I just hope that we don't wait much longer to do that. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:08:28 Go ahead, Denise. Unknown Speaker 1:08:35 I just wanted to ask, we're currently reading Caste. And we were thinking about how much of our history we don't really know, and it's not taught in school. And is there an RE program that fills some of these gaps and says, Jubilee kids go over some of the history that we never learned as kids. Sheila Schuh 1:09:03 Are you talking about in terms of the area of the United States right now? Paula Cole Jones 1:09:09 Yes, Sheila Schuh 1:09:10 yes. So in Jubilee kids, there's a session on time travel. And in person, you would have a rainbow parachute, and you pretend you're time traveling, and every time you come to a different map, and the kids have to look at the map and figure out what map is it. And so one of the maps is all tribal names, without any distinctions of the states. One is, you know, at the time of slavery, there's so the different maps help kids orient to, oh, this is actually the history of the place where I am. in a way that's not you know, it's not showing them pictures of massacres or anything but the reality that racial oppression has happened throughout the history of this country. And and the Jubilee kids is, is right now being piloted, it's not an actual program yet. Unknown Speaker 1:10:14 It's an actual program, it's just that we couldn't roll it out without a plan of terms of how to help, how to make sure that leadership had a significant grounding enough to run it. So it's a 10 session thing, I have it and I'm waiting. Basically, my hope is to offer something at GA that helps to roll it out in terms of like your the things and to have multiple formats, depending on what your needs are. So I'm actually piloting a different version, I'm piloting this in home, park with the in person part, so kind of a hybrid model that you could run. So like, if there was a webinar, my hope was that if there's a webinars that are with a multicultural team, and you're in a congregation that has only mostly white leadership, and it's really hard to find people to run in with a multicultural team, that you would have that actual piece, you know what I mean? So you could kind of reserve that part of it, at least for your community. Unknown Speaker 1:11:21 Thank you. I hope that helps. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:11:24 Thanks, Denise. I'm Barbara Clark. Unknown Speaker 1:11:28 Yes. Unknown Speaker 1:11:29 I'm Sheila. I was just wondering what the age range was of the children who and youth who participated in the video? Sheila Schuh 1:11:41 Yes. So I'm the youngest person was one of the children and with a yellow background. And he's a third grader, I think. Unknown Speaker 1:11:54 Wow. Sheila Schuh 1:11:55 Yeah. third grader, some of those are mostly sixth graders. fifth and sixth graders. And then the older youth, you could tell, right? Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:12:06 How old were the like the the young woman with the glasses? How old? Is she? She's High School. Unknown Speaker 1:12:13 Oh, my is one of our seniors. She's actually a pretty serious, significant advocate in our area. Cuz she talked about doing a sermon. So yeah, tell from looking at her that she wasn't older than high school. So yeah, she's a worship associate, too. She does. meditations and stuff. Thank you. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:12:35 And, Michael? Unknown Speaker 1:12:38 Yeah, I'm, I'm very intrigued about with the escape room. And I both want to participate. And interested in hosting in my congregation. I'm wondering if there's somebody who has the capacity, since you don't have to know each other. And you can be anywhere in just maybe adjust for time zones, if someone's willing to host an event for people who commit to being hosts. In other words, they would go through the experience. And someone, basically, someone's investing the time in that group of people to lead them through it into the escape room? Because their understanding is that, that that each of the people on that who are participating is going to go off and host other people in their congregation. So I'm putting that out there as an idea. And I don't want to get an answer right now. But if somebody decides to do that, and it can be sent out to the email list for this learning community that if you want to do this, here are some possible times you can sign up and we can. Anyway, that's my idea. I hope it becomes a reality. Jen Blosser 1:13:41 Yeah, it's a cool, um, Thank you, Michael. I'm kind of doing this with a with some colleagues through collegial spaces. But because this is a pretty accessible thing, it would be great to do it with, you know, to make it more available. So you don't have to be on the LREDA page to do it, per se. Unknown Speaker 1:14:01 Great, thank you. That's all the hands that I see. Does anyone else have a question? For Jen or Sheila? See some more now. Barbara? Taylor. Unknown Speaker 1:14:17 Yes, um, I have not made it onto the email list. So I'm hoping I put it in the chat. I hope that that can be added to the email list. Unknown Speaker 1:14:28 All right, Paula, you got that. Paula Cole Jones 1:14:34 If you're not receiving the emails directly drop your name in the chat somehow. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Other people as well. Your email. Some have been input your congregation there to. Some people have been added to the list since the last mailing so you might be on the list already. But drop it there and your congregation. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:14:58 Thank you, Barbara. And Rick? Unknown Speaker 1:15:01 Yes. Are there any plans to possibly adapt this so that it might actually be utilized by other denominations in the future? Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:15:13 Which this are you referring to? Unknown Speaker 1:15:15 Oh, I'm sorry, the the eighth octave program and for the breakout room, I know that we're looking at an issue that is UU but because racism is affects everyone, I was just wondering if there might be some future in that possibility. Unknown Speaker 1:15:41 Eventually, I mean, the escape room itself is strictly about the eighth principle of UUism. So it's pretty heavily anchored into this faith. That's not to say that it couldn't be used adjacently. But it is really speaking about our principles as Unitarian Universalist. So it is pretty heavily anchored into UUism. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:16:08 But I think that a lot of what Sheila has done is probably more generalized generalizable, is that true? Sheila? Unknown Speaker 1:16:17 Your principles are grounded in it at different points. But I think it's probably more generalizable than that. I mean, what are UU stories? That piece, you know, whatever setting it would be in, you could substitute that tradition or that organization's history. So some of the pieces you could actually clock in and out, like, there is a section where you would add your own churches history history, like I'm doing the like ice by walking your church or in your city. So like those things are would be, you know, just wherever you are. Unknown Speaker 1:16:59 Thank you, Jackie. Hi, sorry, Unknown Speaker 1:17:05 if I missed this, but I just wondered, how is the escape room game? assess? How do you access it? Unknown Speaker 1:17:13 You want to use it? Unknown Speaker 1:17:16 I keep forgetting. I'm muted. Sorry. So website is Projectoctave.org. Unknown Speaker 1:17:24 Which we'll see if I can beat boosts. Projectoctave.org. And everything, there's a page on there says how to host and you just go there and you can you can get all the files. Unknown Speaker 1:17:41 Okay, thank you. Unknown Speaker 1:17:44 And I think Well, we've got a couple more, maybe hold off on further ends, just in case we run up to our 9:30 time. But if we have a little more time, we can encourage peg, would you like to ask a question? Unknown Speaker 1:18:00 Yes, I was, um, I was wondering about the Jubilee kids. And I thought that it was a weekend workshop and a gathering. Together, but, and there was something about a map. But I didn't really I wasn't clear about what the activities were. And I was wondering if there's a website that talks more about it. Sheila Schuh 1:18:27 I don't have a website made. But it's a 10 lesson curriculum, basically. And so you could stretch it into 10 weeks, or you could stretch it into a weekend, however you wanted to run it. And if you want more information, please reach out to me. I'm happy to send you like what the list is and even have a conversation about it. Unknown Speaker 1:18:47 Okay, thanks. Sheila Schuh 1:18:48 That's kids, the junior youth Jubilee is different. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:18:55 And Adrian, Unknown Speaker 1:18:56 Sheila, could we have you share your email so Unknown Speaker 1:18:59 we can contact you for that? Unknown Speaker 1:19:02 I just had one more follow up question about Jubilee kids. You were talking a little bit about maybe being able to roll something out at GA. And something about webinars for facilitator, since we know facilitation, especially from the OWL model is so key. Do you think there might be a snippet or something that could be shared with leadership to help start thinking about who those facilitators might be who you'd want to be able to get to make sure that they could attend ga or make it a priority for these webinars? Because and like maybe what sort of foundation? those sort of people might need as prerequisites because that's things like we'd like to start thinking about sooner rather than later. Especially right now, when people have a little bit more flexibility to attend things because everybody's virtual. Well, a lot. Unknown Speaker 1:19:54 A lot is right. Unknown Speaker 1:19:56 Right. And that's why we haven't been able to release the curriculum sooner. Because we were trying to coordinate with the UUA, like leading the culture change Renaissance module, or taking Jubilee adult would be sufficient grounding just to run it, if that's what you mean. So to make sure that there's some kind of group process for that person to at least feel grounded in anti racism in our within Unitarian Universalism. Thank you. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 1:20:23 that's, that's kind of what I'm looking for. Yeah, more more along that. Sheila Schuh 1:20:27 But not such a huge thing that you know, it's inaccessible. That's the problem is we need to have accessibility and I'm trying to work at that. Unknown Speaker 1:20:40 Thank you. Paula, is there anything else that you were we need to communicate before the final reading? Paula Cole Jones 1:20:49 No, I just want to thank everyone, can we put it back on on gallery? Can you in the spotlight, you see each other? I just want to thank everyone for coming out and listening, you know, great ideas need audiences, right. So for coming out and listening and supporting and sharing your enthusiasm, and Sheila and Jen, we want to really thank you for your brilliance and your generosity, right, and bringing your your gifts and your tools here to the larger community, you all are helping, you know, helping us to move in the direction that we we hope to one day, the embodying across the association. So thank you very much we value you. This is just the beginning. This is a place where you can help to launch some of these wonderful ideas. So Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:21:50 the infrastructure that's needed to implement the principle, it's awesome. Paula Cole Jones 1:21:57 Yeah. And we want everybody to really take to heart You heard the voices of youth, we've been trying to bring you voices of different communities, ministers, BIPOC. community, youth, this is so so important. Because even in your congregations as you work toward adopting the eighth principle, there's always, you know, questioning and maybe some resistance to it. And, you know, it's like, Can we get out of our own heads long enough to hear from other people and really to work at building an inclusive community, instead of just arguing and defending our own position? Right. So is this just important, and we think that these videos can help other people to listen to a broader spectrum of interests and Unitarian Universalist. It was just important, we will keep trying to make these resources available to you. We have a Facebook group where you can access some of these, you can also kind of engage a little bit, we announced our meetings there, and whatnot. So feel free to plug in and get involved. And we thank you again. And Bruce, thank you as always my partner in crime. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:23:19 Thank you. You're welcome. Paula Cole Jones 1:23:21 You're gonna close us out, right? Yeah, we're Unknown Speaker 1:23:23 gonna close out with some words from Cornell West, the 2015 were lecture. I just want to be personal tonight, because I come from a black people for 400 years, terrorized, traumatized, stigmatized. But the best of our tradition is what? generating the Love Supreme of a John Coltrane, the love ethic of a Martin Luther King Jr. The love sensibility of a Frederick Douglass and Ida B Wells Barnett, and in the music of a Stevie Wonder. What is it about these people that in the face of being terrorized, they continuously dish the love? That's partly what Charleston is all about. These folk don't come from the sky. They come out of a tradition, fundamentally committed to love In the end, no matter what the situation is. May we go in that spirit of love and move mountains? Paula Cole Jones 1:24:26 That's right. Thank you all. Have a good night. Bruce Pollack-Johnson 1:24:34 Thank you. See you next month. if not sooner. Transcribed by https://otter.ai