Rev. Sunshine Wolfe 0:05 Greetings. My name is Reverend Sunshine Jeremiah Wolfe. I serve as congregational life staff in the Central East Region. I offer my Greetings and blessings to you today, as I do this video on Easter Sunday morning. I want to take a little bit of time to talk about a situation that's been going on across Unitarian Universalist congregations. We've seen it in all parts of the country, but most especially in the south, and in parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania. And I'm sure beyond that. And that is that we've had some safety incidents, surrounding protests and things like that. And as we all know, it is a difficult time that we live in, folks are experiencing all kinds of violence in the world, some of which may come to our congregations much of which will not. And it can create all kinds of fears and anxieties, some of them legitimate, some of them may be a little far out, some of them not possible at all. And so we want to give you an opportunity to think realistically about how to care for your congregation, to have the tools that you need to address the most pressing concerns and let you know that we are doing things to help you prepare as well. So the first thing I'm gonna say is that my professional experience before I was in ministry, in religious education, was doing risk management as a case manager working with homeless men in Tucson, Arizona. And so I had some prior experience and then becoming a religious educator, of course, you have to know all kinds of things. And then as an Interim Minister, I found myself serving congregation after congregation who found themselves trying to wrestle with what does safety mean, when you are a liberal voice in a very conservative part of the country. And so from all of that experience, I know a few things. One is your worst fear is probably the least likely thing to happen. And so to kind of hold whatever your worst fears are, oftentimes, we hear folks being concerned that they might get bombed or that there might be an active shooter situation. And while those are possible, we've had those incidents at our churches in the past, it has actually not the most likely thing to happen in the coming months, weeks and years. In recent months, we have seen protests for the most part of two varieties. One is someone comes into a worship space, and disrupts worship. And then the other is that we see folks protesting outside of our buildings. And the third one is seeing zoom bombing happening in our gatherings. For example, we had a couple of congregations exterior experience zoom bombing at an information session on abortion rights. In Ohio. We had a congregation in December, who had a school that was hosting a drag story hour and armed protesters showed up with the Patriots and the probably showed up and and protested outside. None of these had significant harmful incidents, though they are jarring and psychologically disturbing to experience. So we know that this isn't an increase we've seen just in Ohio and Pennsylvania, about 10 or 12 incidents, the southern region is experiencing even more than that. And we want to make sure that you're prepared. And the first thing to know is we are working on a conference that will give you some practical tools, as well as some regular meetups with congregations that have experienced harm or threat. And so if you're from a congregation that is experienced that please reach out to me and we'll get you connected with communities that are experiencing the same. In this situation, there are a few basic, and they may seem like really simple things to do. But there are some really basic things you can do to help prevent, or at least quickly respond to some of these incidents. We have shifted from calling things safe congregations to safer congregations because the reality is, there's absolutely nothing anyone can do to completely prevent all safety concerns. That said, you can do many things to make sure that you're prepared, that you're able to respond quickly, and to reduce the likelihood of incidents. One of the first things we know is someone who is intent on causing disruption doesn't typically like to be noticed right away. And so one of the first things you can do, if it's Sunday, especially is make sure everyone's wearing their nametag and that if they are not wearing a nametag that they've been greeted by someone. That way every person who comes in the door has been noticed. Now, first time visitors oftentimes don't want to be noticed other than a hello, they just want to kind of attend service and leave. So don't make a big deal of it, but just say, Hey, have you We ask that everyone wear a nametag? Do you have a nametag and, you know, just kind of make sure that they're welcomed and greeted in that way. And the nice thing about name tags is it helps people who have a hard time remembering names and other things. So it's, it's a good practice to get into anyway. The other is to make sure that there's always someone in the hallways, or near the front door, and then any other exits are actually locked. And a lot of our congregations have actually taken to locking the front door, about 10 minutes into the service, which is fine, as long as there's someone at the front door who can welcome folks, we also recommend that it be two folks. So that's nobody's stuck alone in case someone is intent on causing an issue. And so just being really observant of your space, of knowing who's there. The other thing is to keep in mind what happens during the week, not just Sunday morning, but when other groups are visiting. If there's only a few people in the building, keep the front door locked and have someone let folks in for meetings rather than just leaving it unlocked and opened. And have some protocols for you know, if something were to happen, folks know how to lock down or kind of get into a secure location. Generally speaking, you're not going to have major concerns. But again, just a bit of awareness, and a few little steps like that can do a lot to really increase awareness. If you have zoom meetings, we encourage you to review our zoom bombing skills. And there will be a link to that, with this video. The basic things to make sure that if someone's running a meeting, there's a second person who can control all of the things, make sure that share screen is only available to hosts and co-hosts. Make sure that you know the people are coming in. And if you don't, that you can easily isolate them into a breakout room if needed, or those kinds of things to make sure that you know who the person is. Just a few things to make sure that folks know you're observing, and that you have control over the Zoom Room. And that if need be that there's a tech person whose sole job is to shut things down if things get out of control. So these are a few things, there are many others. We've heard a lot of conversations about, should we have an armed guard or those sorts of things. And actually, you don't really need that. If you take a few basic steps to just kind of make sure that someone is observing, you'll be okay. And then there's some deeper skills we can teach you about what to do, should there be an incident and look for that information down the road or you can reach out to your congregational life staff in the Central East Region. I'm the safe congregations rep so you can reach out to me, and I'll be happy to answer questions in collaboration with your field staff person. The thing that I want you to hold is that yes, things are intensifying right now. There's a lot going on around abortion, there's a lot going on around trans identity and drag shows and all kinds of things. And that isn't going to go away anytime soon. What we also know is that we're not alone in this. You have other congregations you can get support from. We're not even the only denomination experiencing this United Church of Christ has also seen a significant increase recently. And then we have congregations and communities that this has just been the norm. For example, in Jewish and Muslim communities. This is not unusual. So we're not alone in this. I think the biggest thing is to know that you are not alone, that your UUA, that us on staff, that your fellow congregations are all here to support you and make sure that you're cared for. And for those of you from marginalized communities that are currently under attack right now, please know there are communities of support. Please reach out to us we have a bi monthly or bi weekly gathering for religious, for lay leaders of color, we have support for trans and non binary folks, there's a lot out there for you. So you are not alone in this. I want to close this by offering you a blessing. And just to say that you are whole and holy, and that we as Unitarian Universalists have a long history of being people who resist harm and fight for the rights of others. So may your congregation be cared for. May you continue to be a light in space that needs to say, oh, that's where I go to be a beacon where people can go and know this is a place that is home. May you find care and support and may you reach out when you need it. May you know you are loved. May you share that love tenfold into a world that desperately needs you, your presence, our values, and our commitment to the sacred world. Blessed be. Go in peace.