Hello. We're in the car. Don't brings To my knees. She shot me up. Take it. But it's, I love see face, daylight. It's more than just a, but she's really temping me. Do you think I'm Foolish That she might be it, that the love is real, that the shoe might fit? She might just be my everything to be on beyond space and time after life. Will she have my kids? Will she be my wife? She might just be my everything. I wanna bring her. I think, like I know that grandma, she was, she makes me feel at Home. I'm get to death. That she might be it, that the love is real, that the shoe might fit. She might just be my everything beyond, beyond space after life. Will she have my kids? Will she be my wife? She might just be my everything. Deion I ready, I give Love. Good evening and afternoon everyone. As we gather in this space. And I see the numbers are still increasing and we expect they will continue to increase quite, uh, a bit more as we are together. I'm the Reverend Byron Tyler Coles, and I want to give deep thanks and appreciation for you all joining us here in this moment, as is our custom and practice as a people of faith. As Unitarian Universalist, I invite you into this moment of prayer and meditation with a chalice lighting. If you have a chalice nearby, go ahead and grab it. If not, that is okay. As our youth have taught us, we can light chalice with our hearts, with our hands, and with our minds. Oh, yes. And I love the, like, thumbs up in your palm too. Thank you for that, Kimberly. So in this time together, we Kendall our chalice with these words, blessed spirit of love and life, you who are the end breaking of this moment. You who are care and compassion. You who are the prophetic fire, which calls us onward to know love and mercy, heaven on earth, which is the beloved community guard and guide our spirits in this time of heartache and strife as we care for ourselves and our community. May we be emboldened in this mur moment to serve faithfully, to serve boldly, and to go with one another to all places and spaces in which love must and needs to be proclaimed in this moment in time. For we are not weak, we are strong for we are not alone. We are many for our hearts may be shaken, but our hearts of full of your love. For all those things spoken aloud and held tenderly in our heart, we pray, Asha. So be it. And amen. Amen. Reverend Tyler takes me to church every single time. Thank you. Greetings everybody. Ashley Harran, she her pronouns. Uh, I am the organizing strategy director at the Unitarian Universalist Association, where I lead the team that holds side with love and all of our outward facing justice campaigns as an association. Um, and I, I'm gonna serve as our mc this evening a little bit. Um, I'm so grateful to see so many folks, and I wanna just tell you as we get started, a little bit about the origin story, um, of this conversation. Um, and it begins with the last several years and, uh, in particular the last several months as we have seen an increase in, um, Unitarian Universalist congregations, specifically being targeted by right wing extremists, by, um, white Christian nationalists, by any number of groups that are coming after us because we are loud and out in public, um, in particular in support of trans folks, of the drag community, of people who have uterus as and are in need of abortions. Um, and it's time for us as a faith, uh, to take it seriously. Um, and calculating risk, understanding what's happening, being prepared, um, to keep one another safe is only possible to do in a way that is in line with our values when we take the time to do some reflection beforehand. And so this evening, um, we are going to do some of that together. We're gonna, um, start by acknowledging that trans and non-binary and queer folks, people of color, disabled people, any number of communities are spiritually, physically, and emotionally at risk all the time. And, um, that our congregations are often safe spaces for that, uh, that group of folks. For many groups of folks who can't access safety in day-to-day life, um, we offer, uh, at least we aspire to offer real and radical welcome. Um, and we offer to be, we, we aspire to be good partners in our communities. And so, um, the we that we are talking about always includes trans and queer people. It always includes disabled folks, is always includes, um, black, indigenous, and people of color. So when you hear us use that word, we, we are talking about our congregations, which we understand to include, um, especially in these moments. Um, all of those folks. We also understand the we to be broader than just people who are members of Unitarian Universalist congregations. We understand the, we is much bigger than that, and that we are doing the work of, um, liberation of collective safety, of mutual aid and care as a radical act and a demonstration of our faith in the midst of a world that would, um, you know, destroy entire communities of people. And so the we that we are talking about extends beyond our congregations. We're also trying to hold, um, the balance of the fact that some of us inhabit identities and bodies that have the ability and the moral calling right now to take greater risks than others. And some of us have bodies and identities that are, um, much more at risk and so need to be protected. And so, among us, between us, our aspiration is to create safety, to create care, to create preparation, and to create grounding. So this evening we're gonna share some trends with you that we are observing, um, with regard to white Christian nationalists and other white right-wing threats against progressive religious institutions and organizing. We're gonna share examples of experiences, um, that Youu congregations and organizations have recently had. I know that several of you on this call have had those experiences. Um, we are going to help familiarize you with some concrete resources for doing security planning, risk, risk assessment, and discernment community mapping. Um, and we are hoping to create some connections among folks here because part of the strategy of the radical right is, um, terrorism to instill terror and fear and a sense of isolation, um, among and between us so that we don't recognize that, um, in fact, it is a very small majority minority of people, um, who are out there with these belief systems and they are real loud. And so we need to remind each other that we are in it together. So I wanna start this evening, um, by sharing a short quick excerpt of a video from Carrie McDonald, who is the executive Vice President of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Carrie made this video to sort of talk about really big picture, um, some of the conversations that Uua leadership is having with partners with other religious institutions and denominations, um, and other folks. So I will share my screen momentarily here. Let's get to the right place. One moment. Okay. And here is Carrie. Hi, I'm Carrie McDonald, executive Vice President of the Unitarian Universalist Association. I'm a multiracial, light-skinned person in my thirties, dark curly hair, pulled back with clear glasses, clean shaven, blue shirt, and I'm sitting in front of a closed window with a plant over my shoulder. And I wanted to give you an update on some of the conversations we've been having internally at the Uua about the very serious issues around safety risk, uh, and threats in our congregations and among EU leaders that are a result of us being so publicly supportive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, uh, non-binary and queer folks. And of course, we're not just inclusive, but we celebrate the full spectrum of gender and sexuality, that it is a sacred gift, uh, given to each of us. And so in this time of rising, uh, right wing nationalism and white supremacist activity, it's not a surprise that our congregations, our leaders, our people can be targeted. The Uua has always had a safer congregations team that helps with things like building security or pandemic security. Um, but now we're seeing a rise in the number of threatening incidences and risks that our congregations are encountering across the country. It's not just in any one part of the country, even though it's concentrated in some very conservative areas, but it really is across a huge swath of the United States. So what do I mean by these kinds of threats? Well, that includes harassing emails, phone messages, sometimes vandalism internet posts, um, where we're being targeted or called out or dragged on Rightwing media, um, targeting by rightwing religious groups as well as paramilitary groups. Some of the, some of those are, are groups that we would know the names of, like the Proud Boys. And, um, and again, this is largely around L G B T plus issues as well as the spectrum of gender, um, reproductive justice, sexuality issues as well. So we've been reaching out to our partners, faith-based partners, secular partners, groups like the United Church of Christ, um, the, um, the Poor People's Campaign, showing Up for Racial Justice, uh, the Southern Poverty Law Center, uh, just trying to understand, are they observing the same things we are, which of course they are in their own context, the rising number of anti L G B T Q threats and harassing behavior. And we wanted to understand more about their best practices or what they're learning, what they're working on. So what are we learning in these conversations? Well, the first is that we're just gonna have to get better, unfortunately, at thinking through safety risk security for our congregations, for different groups of folks within our congregations. Um, and for, in fact, many of our leaders, uh, I wanna pull apart in that the difference that we're starting to talk more about between harassment and threatening behavior and actions that are causing a direct threat or they communicate a direct threat of violence, um, or intent to, to harm. And I think that it's easy to see the whole spectrum that that that really encompasses, you know, it's all coming from the same place, but the way that we respond is different depending on who is it actual at immediate risk versus who is being, uh, you know, receiving messages that are really hurtful that can cause harm, but don't, as I say, cause an immediate danger. So that's the, that's part of the distinction that we have to get better at thinking through, because when we're talking about, um, the ways that we are proudly pro l g, BT Q in our communities, then the response looks very different. And that's very different from if we're being, um, targeted by an armed protest or, uh, someone's threatening to come and, um, disrupt our Sunday services or, or bring violence to our community. So with that context set, um, we're gonna hear some very specific, uh, observations from around the EU universe, um, across the US in particular, um, and for, and then we're gonna hear some, some very specific incidents that have already happened in our EU congregations, and we'll move from there into how do we respond, how do we get better, as Carrie suggests. So first I'd like to turn it over to my colleague, the Reverend Dr. Megan Foley, to talk a little bit about, um, some of what we're seeing at a national scale. Hi folks, I'm Megan Foley. Uh, tonight, the hat I'm wearing, I believe is the, um, deputy Director of Congregational Life for the Uua hat. Um, so I wanna talk a little bit about what's hap happening nationally, maybe in a place near you as well. Um, I'm also the regional lead for the Central East region. And here in our region, we're seeing, um, a, a decent amount of worship disruption. We're seeing some, um, harassment by mail, um, but mostly worship disruption and also disruption of events like drag story hours and stuff like that. Um, I personally live just outside of Washington DC in Montgomery County, Maryland, which may well be the most liberal place on earth. Even there, the Proud Boys came to a local, um, drag brunch to protest. And I wanna say that as, um, a way of a point that I'm gonna be making in a second, because you'll be hearing a lot about, you'll be hearing good, good case studies from particularly the southern region around places where the state itself is turning against our folks. But even for those of us who are sitting in places that are more comfortable, which can be a lot of our New England heritage folks, um, or in the Washington DC area, or, you know, along the, the West Coast. Um, I know there's not, there's a, there's a, a, a welcome opportunity to read the paper and kind of clock your tongue and think maybe that's not something that we need to worry about or think about. Um, and I don't want to say the sky's falling all around us. That's not the intention here. My intention is to say that we are a community and that planning is now important. Um, and not just for our, our friends and neighbors that, uh, you'd have to drive a bit to get to, but for ourselves as well. So we're hoping that you'll be able to plan, that you'll be deliberate in thinking through where you, um, where you may need to make some plans and, and learn some new things, and to be in solidarity with our people who are all around the country and may need to you even move, right? So we're in our congregations taking care of families who are in situations where they may need to relocate eventually, and we may need a network nationally where we can, we can help folks with that. This is an opportunity for courage. But I think one of the things we'll learn about today with the good folks from side with love who are really experts in this field, is that it's also an opportunity for learning. Like where, where's our particular gifts that we can bring, where's our particular lane that we can offer a thing, um, but offer a thing in a way that is re responsible and keeps folks, um, in community and, and, and safe. Um, I work for the congregation life department. So if you ever hear the term primary contact or your regional staff, that is our department, um, across the region, if you do not have any idea what I'm talking about right now, I invite you to check out this link, um, that will direct you to your contact people. We can be, we work together with, um, side with love folks. So there's a couple of on-ramps into learning more about planning and what to do with folks. And, um, either, either through your primary contact, through your regional staff or through side with Love will get you to the same, um, the same resources. And we are working as a team that to support our congregation, that is what we are here for. So, yeah, I look forward to talking to you soon. And my, my very fantastic colleagues are holding down the for, in the Southern region are gonna help us with some more case studies and, um, and some safer congregation tips. So whoever's next, please start talking cause I forgot. Thanks, Megan, it's me. Hey, Natalie. I'm next. Um, uh, my name is Natalie Briscoe. I'm the lead for the southern region, and I reside most of my time in Austin, Texas. Uh, Austin, Texas is the capital city, uh, of a very, very red state. Much redder than we had hoped or anticipated this upcoming cycle. Uh, those of us who, um, work in culture change in Texas had really hoped that, um, we were looking at a Georgia situation, a a very purple situation coming into this cycle, and it did not occur for us. Instead, it went, um, quite the other way. Uh, so we are, um, in, in much a state of a lockdown, just, just as many of the other states are, uh, in the south, uh, suffering the onslaught of some fairly horrible legislation, not just, um, targeting, uh, the drag events, but, um, people with uterus and, uh, children in general are school. The school system and corporal punishment are up as well. Uh, so, so when, um, we were talking about what's happening in the south, there, there is a million of horrible, uh, attacks from, uh, from our, from our elected officials, um, that we continue to call just in general the atrocities. So, uh, in working against the atrocities, uh, yes, and certainly, um, uh, uh, all of our bipo folks in, in the south as well, um, uh, are under attack. And, and recognizing in this moment the intersectionality that that occurs, uh, when you hold up more than one identity, uh, and, and live and call one of those states home, um, we have had a rash of receiving direct death threats to several of the ministers, uh, especially in, um, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Miss Mississippi. Luckily, uh, as of right now, none of those direct death threats where the minister was named or the church was named have come to a direct act of violence. So we're grateful in that case. Uh, many of the other congregations have been targeted online, uh, through various social media, uh, smear campaigns. There have been several acts of vandalism over the, the last several months that have, we've also seen an uptick in that. Uh, congregations have experienced y um, people, uh, many of them young and white and male coming into the congregation on a Sunday morning with the intention of disrupting the worship service. Uh, again, luckily, no, none of those, uh, actual events have resulted in an outward show of extreme violence. Those folks were able to be escorted off the premises in a fairly peaceful fashion. Um, and then, uh, and then of course, uh, the, um, the legislative actions have called us all to capital cities to protesting where, uh, we've encountered many, many counter protests in the, in the south. Uh, the Unitarian Universalist congregations are often the ones who are responsible for holding the pride events, uh, during the month of June or during the month of October, uh, because we often delay to October because it's hot, and we don't wanna be outside having a parade in, in 115 degree heat. Uh, so to be more hospitable often in October. Um, and, uh, and so we've, we've had to, uh, the congregations is the we there, the congregations hosting the great events have often had to interact with the city to get permits to, um, ask for security from, uh, policing municipal police. And that has often, as Ashley said, uh, been met with many roadblocks, uh, policy interventions. The city's not wanting the pride events, not offering the proper support, not pushing the paperwork through so that the pride event can go on. Um, in, in, in one case in Florida, it got delayed, um, from the first weekend in June to the very last weekend in June. And that permit is still pending. So we're unsure if that, uh, event will be able to continue on. Um, so overall, through, through all of these, uh, all of these case studies and all of the things that are happening, um, when congregations contact congregational life of, of which I'm a part just like Megan, um, the overarching question is we feel that there is a threat right now. Obviously, we're seeing it and we feel unprepared in our congregation to take it on. We don't know what we are supposed to do. We don't know if we should be, um, just, uh, out in the streets. We don't know if our pride flag is enough. We don't know if we should be hosting drag events. We, we don't know what we should be doing. Um, so how do we prepare? And so I would suggest, um, in addition to the multitude of resources that you're going to receive, uh, along with this email, um, that you consider the, the following things in order for preparation. Um, first, consider your policies at your congregation. One way to be out loud and, and come really on, on the side of love here for, uh, our, uh, the folks in our communities and beyond who are under attack, um, is to make a comprehensive policy statement within your congregation so that your congregation understands where you are coming from and how you can support them. Um, so a policy is simply a, a statement that's used for making a decision. Nothing more than that. Um, so your statement used in making a decision in this case is a very definitive value statement. It, it can be used to communicate to your congregation and beyond, uh, where you are, uh, in, in your support of, uh, marginalized folks and, and the incarnation of love that we know you to be, um, after your policy, then you'll need to get your procedure, which is the enactment of that policy. What happens when you have the threat? What happens when you need to come to the aid of folks, uh, how will these events progress? Will you, um, you know, participate in other, uh, events as a congregation and so forth. Um, and then finally, to educate your congregation on those policies and practices and policies and procedures and practice, practice, practice, practice them, um, so that no one is surprised if an event happens. And then finally, to when thinking about your risk management, your, um, awareness of what's happening to lean into your partnerships and I, I call 'em your pals. Find who your pals are in your community, lean into the partnerships that you already have as resources. Um, become rooted in those partnerships, not just with other EU congregations. It's not just with other u CCC congregations, but, um, organizations that are also on the side of love where you are, um, so that you can garner that sort of support. So, policy, procedure, practice, and partnership. And, and once again, I will just say please contact, uh, your congregational life staff. If at any time you need help in discernment of any of those four things, we can certainly, uh, talk with you. Um, go through your policies and procedures as they are, look at opportunities for partnership and give, uh, several resources, um, that again, uh, you'll get at the end of this webinar. And with that, I would love to pass it to my southern region staff, uh, compadre, Reverend Tyler Coles, who will talk more about, uh, those resources. Indeed. Hello again, everyone. I'm the Reverend Byron Tyler Coles. I use the he pronouns member of Congregational Life in the southern region, as well as portfolio holder for the region, safer congregations, and a member and representative of that team this evening. Along with all of the great wisdom and insight that have been shared by, uh, my colleagues here, I want to encourage folks to, uh, think about as they go into the weeks, months, days, and years ahead, whether it be worship or a community event to think about before, during, and after, particularly before, during, and after, from a, a standpoint of, or a position of congregational preparedness, understanding that we're moving away from a space and place of fully understanding that about safety, knowing that safety is experienced and understood in a variety of ways. And we can never ensure something is fully safe for any given person. But what we can do is as faithful communities, we can be prepared for certain situations. So in the resources that I have shared once more, uh, side with love slash responding to threats, the middle section, you will see, uh, an area called security and planning resources. Now, these are a variety of resources that we have found and identified as being really, uh, abundant in the kind of insight that they can provide resources that, uh, extend from helping congregations think about their physical plant, the buildings, I know many of our congregations have walls made of full windows, right? Or there are, uh, 101 doors into the space. So to think about what is the, the physical safety of your building, are your greeters and ushers trained in, um, deescalation and other safety practices that can actually greatly lower, um, situations of risk that where we might not have to go as far as worrying about direct conflict or even, uh, alerting the authorities, knowing that our communities hold a variety of values around calling the cops. We understand this, and this is a conversation that has to be deeply engaged in your conver con congregation. So before, during, as, uh, Natalie lifted up, who are your pals calling your people? Who are you in solidarity with? Those are the moments where our friends, our comrades, our compatriots, our beloveds are here with us and we are there with them that we can do some of these great prophetic events. Following that, you'll have to think about aftercare or what comes after, right? What spiritual care giving do you have ensued? How do you communicate about what has happened? How do you make sure everyone is okay mentally, physically, and spiritually? This will be wrapped up and reflected in your policies and procedures. And again, that section within the resource that I just shared holds a lot of that information that we strongly encourage. Check it out. Think about your building safety processes, thinking about what policies and procedures you already have in place. And if all of this feels just like way, way too much, cuz in all reality, it is too much. None of us should be think having to think about this at this moment in time, right? Uh, reach out to the safer congregation's portfolio holder for your region. So if you're a Southern, uh, region person, just gimme a holler, but know that if you don't know who it is, just reach out to anyone on your staff team and they'll get you squared away. Beloved, we are in a hard moment because the reality is things have always been hard, but we will know liberation in this generation if we truly believe in the power that we hold within one of us. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you Tyler and Natalie and Megan. Um, as we said early on in this webinar, we understand that, um, when we say we, of course we mean our neighbors, we mean our communities. Um, we mean queer and trans folks, disabled folks, bi PC folks, and those people are both inside of and outside of our congregations. So, um, for example, we have been in deep conversation with our colleagues in Florida, for example. Um, we have several, um, trans and non-binary religious professionals who are both themselves under attack from the laws and also serving communities, um, including other trans and non-binary people in those communities. So, um, to talk a little bit about how we balance this sort of outward facing prophetic action with the care that we are giving our own people within our congregations, um, I wanna turn it over to my dear colleague Adrian Ballou, to talk a little bit about that, that work. Hey everybody, this is Adrian Ballou. I use they and them pronouns. Um, my role at the UUA is I'm the L G B T Q and Gender Justice Programs coordinator. And, um, I do a whole bunch of different things here at our uua, but part of what I do is I hold, um, ministerial care and support and pastoral care and support. I'm not actually a minister, but I do work with a lot of folks who are, um, obviously, and, um, I hold care and support for folks who are trans and non-binary, as well as, um, overall pastoral care and support for lgbtqia plus communities, um, within neoism, as well as, um, thinking about ways that we can connect with others who also need this care. Um, I support the uplift trans and non-binary monthly gatherings. Um, I work with Reverend Jamie Yandel on a pastoral care group space for trans and non-binary folks, as well as, um, collaborating across the board with some of my awesome colleagues in congregational life. And I both love to get folks different things that they need. Um, I know that many of you know, or can probably guess that things are really hard for trans folks in our lives right now. Um, and, um, a lot of people are struggling, are in crisis and are facing life or death type of situations. Um, it's, it's really, it's, it's a lot. And I think a lot of folks who aren't directly in community with trans folks may not understand how, how much of an upheaval these laws are having on many folks' lives. Um, in our spaces, we're seeing an increased need for pastoral support as well as an increased need for pa like practical support. People need to find work, they need to find housing, um, if they're moving somewhere else, or sometimes they need to be able to keep stable housing where they do live. The kinds of discrimination and hardship that we face in general has just increased, um, in the past few months. So within that context, um, one question to ask yourselves is how can we support trans and nonbinary you use, who already are in our congregations? What kinds of things do they need? Um, what are they looking for? Are some of them leaving this congregation and moving somewhere else? Are some folks coming into your congregation who you maybe don't know before, um, because they're moving from a different place, how can you support them? Um, one really great place to start is to check out the 2018 Trust Report. Trust is the Trans Religious Professionals Organization in our denomination. And, um, one thing that I think is a really important statistic that came out of that report is that only 28% of trans people feel fully included in UU congregations. And I'm sharing this statistic not to have everybody feel, I guess, bad about it, although, I mean, it's not a great statistic, but because I want us to be clear about where we're at in terms of inclusion and care for folks. Now, that report was five years ago, thankfully, of course, some things have changed, um, and also a lot hasn't changed, right? So there's a lot of work to do internally around ensuring that our congregations are places that we really do want to welcome trans and non-binary folks into, and we can be proud of welcoming them in. Um, so there's a lot of resources that I'll share in the chat around that. We've, we've built a lot of those across r u Uua. Um, there's trainings, there's readings, there are folks you can talk to or consult with about it. Um, and that's one branch of things to do. The other branch of things to do is, is how to respond in this moment, um, both for our trans and non-binary community and for your local community and nationally. Um, how can you provide direct support and mutual aid for folks who are struggling right now? Um, and this question can have a lot of different answers, right? I think both have talked a little bit already about how you can decide and, and think through where your own gifts are and apply those to meet this urgent moment. We are totally at a point where, yes, you should get people's pronouns right. Please do, please work on those things. And also, um, if you're, if you're choosing between doing a training on pronouns and spending that same hour to, um, doing direct work to make sure that maybe some direct fundraising work or, um, advocacy to try to keep at least some housing, um, at a lower cost where you live or working to make sure that trans folks are getting connected with jobs. Those kinds of practical things, um, are going to really help in this moment a lot. Um, we'll be talking more about this as the, as time unfolds. Please set up for si si love up uplift action, where we'll keep you uniformed on these things and do spread the word about our ministerial offerings for folks as well. Thank you. Thank you Adrian. And yes, so many resources being shared in the chat, as you've seen, a lot of these are compiled on that page, but many that Adrian named are at other places on the Uua website. So we dropped a few links. I'm sure Adrian will drop a few more. We will be following up this webinar with a follow-up email that will include, um, all of these links. So don't feel like you have to grab everything right now. Um, I wanna take a couple of minutes here at the end to talk about, um, some, some of these Organizee questions, um, and some of the other resources that we wanna highlight for you. Um, as I said, Ashley Horan, she her pronouns. I am the organizing strategy director at the U Uua. I lead the team that runs side with Love and all of our outward facing justice ministries, including our four intersectional justice campaigns. Love, resist, create, climate Justice, you The Vote, and our newest campaign Uplift Action for L G B T Q, gender and Reproductive Justice. So, um, we are often in the position of, um, helping folks do some of these assessments that, um, my colleagues have talked about, about understanding what they have to offer in a particular moment, um, who they are in partnership, who they should be trying to get into partnership with, et cetera. So I'm gonna run through a few of these things, um, with y'all. And, um, I'm gonna start by sharing my screen again. Here we go. So one of the first things, um, that we at Side with Love are encouraging congregations to do is to spend some time now before, um, the threat is at your door, having conversations about risk. Um, and we don't just mean from the sort of like church mutual insurance perspective about, you know, how to lower risk and profile, we mean, um, how comfortable are you as a congregation with risk? Are there, um, big divergences among people who are really trying to, um, avoid any and all risk, including, you know, maybe not being out in public about certain things because they're concerned and folks who really want this community to be in front. It turns out that when we don't have internal agreement, that is also deeply rooted in our values, um, we get in pretty big trouble when we, uh, when the asks start coming, when there is a critical moment, and folks are asked to join us. So, um, this document that I'm sharing here on my screen right now is a guide that we created through Side With Love. We call it our Risk, courage and Justice, facilitating congregational risk discernment conversations. Um, we actually developed this last year, uh, as a way of helping congregations as they were beginning to respond to the Dobbs decision and thinking about ways that they could show up for reproductive justice. Turns out these conversations are really great to have regardless of what the justice issue is in a particular moment. Um, but this is literally a template that is designed for facilitators to invite folks into conversation in your community. It might be that you do it with, um, your board of trustees. It might be a full congregational conversation, but there's a, there's literally a lesson plan here, a facilitation guide for inviting people into a spiritually grounded conversation about what your congregation is prepared to do, as well as what you're aspiring toward. Maybe you're not quite ready to take all of the risks that you might wanna take yet, um, or maybe there are really good reasons why now is not a moment. But what the intent of this guide is, is to help folks be on the same page around realistically understanding what your congregation is and is not prepared to do so that when critical moments arise, you know what you can say a credible and accountable yes to and what you can say no to. Um, and part of partnership is being able to show up in those ways. Speaking of partnership, um, we want to also share with you our side with love, uh, template for community power and relationship mapping. Um, we understand that not only do we need to have a sense of what we bring to the table, who the people in our congregations are the human infrastructural spiritual assets that we bring to the table. We also need to really deeply understand and, um, be in relationship with our communities. And many congregations have not yet done this work. Some part, you know, they have partnerships, but they feel a little bit haphazard. Some are longtime partnerships, some are maybe with emerging organizations. Um, some partnerships feel like they may be out of date and not actually around values alignment anymore. So again, this is a guide, um, to help folks have those conversations about mapping. Um, there's an introduction to what that means, um, but then there is, again, another facilitation, um, guide here to have those conversations, what to look at, um, how to have those conversations with either one of your justice teams or with a leadership body like the board of trustees or even the whole congregation. Um, and the idea, again is to help us get to clear, um, shared consent, uh, as well as, um, the ability to make promises that we can then follow through on. These are wonderful conversations that can be really powerful for congregations in these moments. Now I wanna share with you a few other resources that are not side with love, uh, or u u a resources themselves. Um, excuse me, I'm trying to toggle tabs and windows here. The first is, um, from the cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Um, we can have discussions for a long time about our United States government and all of the issues therein. Um, they know how to do an assessment and, uh, I am grateful for this particular resource. Um, this is, uh, a self-assessment for houses of worship, and it's a very comprehensive way of thinking through all of the places, um, where your congregation should be having, uh, clear plans around the things that Natalie and Tyler talked about earlier. Safety plans. Um, this is a, this is a portal where you enter some data, you do reflection, it gives you a printout at the end of it. If you're looking to get started in these conversations, this is a great place to begin. Again, all of these resources are linked on that page that we have shared with you. They will come out later. I'm doing a real quick review here. Um, there are also some really excellent organizing resources coming out right now, in particular around how we host pride events, public events, drag story hours in a way that keeps our community safe. So I wanna highlight this one in particular, um, just released about a week ago from the folks at the Western States Center. If you're not familiar with their work, they do really incredible work on, um, far white right wing extremism and, um, the intersections of all sorts of, uh, extreme ideologies on the right, right? And how the left. And those of us who believe in collective liberation can respond. This is a beautiful guide. It is very simply, um, written. All you have to do is go to this website. You can download your copy now just by entering your email. Um, it has some very clear guidance for, you know, if you are the congregation, um, who is maybe in your region, the one that holds pride, or, um, you're trying to enter into a multi-faith partnership around doing some sort of public action or witness. Um, this is a great place to start, especially if you have less experienced organizers, um, in among you. This is a great resource to begin with. We've also talked a lot about, um, security, right? Like, what do we do if there are these sort of outlier incidents where either somebody is coming to harass or even make a threat of physical violence against congregations. Um, the time is now to have conversations around what your values are as a congregation, um, around involving law enforcement. We know very clearly that many people, many communities are made less safe by police presence rather than more. And so, in particular, as we are talking about, um, events that are led by and for queer and trans people, bi PC folks, um, it is good to have these conversations early on, um, around, you know, what happens if somebody shows up? In what circumstances would we, if ever call the police, um, do we have a relationship? So I have an example, um, where, you know, we had a congregation, um, that we talked to recently that said, you know, we had in our policies that we would call the cops if we had disruptors come in. And then we hosted, um, I think it was like a local L g B group who said, uh, we will not hold our event in your congregation if anybody would call the police. And they backed out of that until the congregation could make a guarantee that they wouldn't call the police. On the flip side, I know of another congregation that recently hosted a drag story hour, um, with largely, uh, drag queens who were, um, bipo folks who said, if you don't call the police and agitators arrive, we have to have clarity that you will call the police in this case. Um, so having these conversations in advance is extremely important. Um, often the most dangerous thing can be if people have conflicting ideas of what will happen. And so, um, while we hold a, uh, an abolitionist ethic outside with love, while we believe that actually the institutions of policing and incarceration don't make us safer, safer, we still live in a country where there are not, um, robust and vibrant alternatives all the time. And so, um, in the context in which we live, which unfortunately involves a very deep and broad, um, criminal punishment system, we have to make choices that are sometimes not as pure as we might like them to be. And what really matters then is that we have already established relationships of trust and consent with our own members, with the people who are most likely to be made less safe by police presence and with our partners in the community so that we all have agreement and clarity around, um, how we are seeking safety. This page that I'm showing you right now, um, is a uua page alternatives to calling the police. There are a lot of really excellent discernment questions on here, many links, um, to begin having these conversations. And there's a guide again to sort of talk through with your leadership about, um, what you believe, where you are and, um, what the best options are in your context. So, um, again, I wanna just refer everybody back to this page of resources. We are continuing to, to build this out. You will receive again, um, an email with a summary, but most of these links are already on this page. This recording of this call will also be on that page soon. What you see here at the top is the video of the last conversation we held about this, um, at the beginning of June. Some of you were at that with us as well, but we'll have both videos on here. Um, I think we have crammed a whole lot of information sharing at you for the last 48 minutes. Um, so I actually wanna take a moment. I'm gonna stop sharing my screen here and, um, invite folks, uh, if you have questions to either enter them in the q and a section or, um, in the chat here. And let's see if there are any that are already in here that I wanna come back to. First of all, I'm seeing, um, questions about, you know, deescalation trainings of a variety of natures, whether it's like intervening in an active shooter situation to sort of general, um, deescalation. There are several resources on that linked page, um, for trainings that folks have recommended. Um, a thing that I will say, and I'll invite my colleagues to chime in a little bit about this is that, um, the, the kind of trainings that you might get and who you might turn to as partners in thinking through security and safety will really vary greatly from place to place. So I live in Minneapolis, for example. Um, unfortunately because the police keep murdering black people in our city, um, we have developed a deep and, um, very effective, uh, community run, um, infrastructure for organizing, for protests, for mobilization. And there are, you know, there's a deep network of, um, protest medics of dispatchers of marshals of, um, folks who do security outside of the, of, of the policing system. And so, you know, anytime somebody holds an event that feels like it might attract white supremacists, there's a deep bench of people to call in. And, you know, it includes Antifa and the Black Lives Matter folks and any number of other organizations, that's the contact in Minneapolis. Um, the context in other places is different. Uh, we recently had an incident at a congregation where, um, the proud boys showed up and then the anarchists showed up and neither of them was in fact in relationship with the congregation and they literally got in a fight in front of the congregation. Uh, and you know, it really depends on where you are, but again, relationship is paramount in these colleagues. Did anybody wanna add anything to that about, around sort of relationships and security in your own communities? I'm seeing the ask around love to have a two or three times a year virtual tag up with everybody to share tips, best practices, guidance. We are talking about that. Um, especially now that we have an unfortunate, uh, number of congregations that have been through this in some way or another. Um, at Side with Love, we have a practice of running what we call communities of Praxis, um, in our organizing where we invite folks who are all working on a particular issue, whether it's reproductive justice or decriminalization or democracy to come together. And I think we're beginning to have conversations about what that would look like around, um, confronting white Christian nationalism and supporting our congregations. We don't have that in place yet, but thank you for that suggestion and know that we are, we're working on it. Any congregations having police officers during Sunday morning services? Anybody wanna speak to that? I can. Uh, it is indeed a thing that's we are seeing, I think I know of two, uh, occasions of congregations hiring, uh, plain clothes off duty cops. So a very like traditional, uh, security system that our, our practice most often I have seen them being hired, um, right after a particularly blatant, atrocious and rather overtly scary situation of online doxing or, or threats happening. So I have not seen a prolonged presence, we haven't seen a prolonged presence of cop based security as of right now. I would also say that, um, lots of communities are having conversations again under the, um, the realities of the, of the current policing system about, you know, if they are, if there is, are credible threats of, um, armed folks showing up. Is there a difference, for example, between hiring an off-duty officer, hiring, um, private security, um, in some places there are, um, people who share similar politics who might show up and do that kind of protection, um, but who are not actually police. Um, it's very contextual. Uh, and Tyler, I also wanna just tag this question for you. Are there any congregations that have really excellent safety policies around this stuff too? Are there examples that we could share? Not to my knowledge. Uh, that doesn't mean they don't exist yet, right? Most of the congregations I know are literally actively building out policies in this very moment. Uh, and your safer congregations, um, staff can help you do that. Yeah, I'm seeing that note Jay about in your congregational context, L G b LGBTQ Q and bi PC folks are supportive of the police. Straight white members are against it. That varies dramatically from congregation to congregation's gonna be very contextual. So I don't think we can make monolithic, um, comments about any of that. But again, um, what matters is that before you are in a situation in which somebody has to make a call, um, that you have consensus about what people have agreed to, whether it is in fact calling the police, what you are doing to mitigate any risk that those police pose to people in your community, um, or whether it's calling somebody else, what, you know, how you're gonna respond in those moments, um, and paid armed security presence. Yes, there are some, there are some congregations that have that. And in fact, I wanna just lift up that our Jewish siblings, because they are so often, um, under threat and very real threat. I mean, I'm, I'm speaking to you tonight from Pittsburgh, where I am for our general assembly, where the, um, tree of Life congregation that experienced such a horrific, uh, massacre several years ago is located. Um, our Jewish siblings have had to think about this all the time for decades and decades and decades and have come, you know, depending on their politics and their, uh, relationship with police to, to different conclusions about this. But we have a lot to learn from them around how we consider these things. Um, and we are not the first to encounter these things, uh, as we well know, whether it's church burnings of black churches. Um, and I wish we could say that that had stopped, uh, you know, 50, 60 years ago, and it hasn't to Jewish congregations to, um, mosques that are continue to be under attack. Many of our houses of worship have had to, to figure this out. Um, and I think it speaks in large part to the privilege that many of our congregations have, uh, as as a whole, that we have not had to fully flesh this out. And so now is a wonderful moment for us to be doing that work. All right, other questions here. How do we put greeters at ease? That may be the first line of defense in the event of a potentially violent threat training, but there also appears to be some reluctance to hire a police officer, even a plain co officer to be present. So, um, again, this is gonna be contextual in your congregation. Um, Natalie, I wanna, do you wanna share the story? This is my favorite. Yeah, so we have a congregation here in the South that, um, for all the reasons did not want to, uh, have a relationship with the local municipal police nor the county sheriff, uh, at this time. But they do have a really great relationship with, uh, a former Navy Seal who was the first out Navy Seal. Uh, and so that person and his husband run a security system. So we all, um, give thanks and praise for the gay Navy Seals and we wish we could find more of those folks, uh, for us to hire and, and help us feel secure in our, in our congregations With it. We all had those folks in our congregation. All right, I am scrolling through things here. Um, we are, I don't see any more questions right here, but, uh, again, we wanna just invite everybody to reach out to us at the Uua. Um, you've heard from us across several departments, um, and all of us are holding pieces of this work and are, are, we are learning as we go, right? Um, we don't pretend to be the experts in all of this, although we do have, um, a national scope and some resources to offer. Um, we wanna just end on a note of reminding us that the reason that we are having these conversation is, is because Unitarian Universalist values and the kinds of communities that we aspire to build are life giving lifesaving and life affirming. It matters. It matters that our communities are there. It matters that we do the work to be as welcoming and inclusive as we can when folks come in. It also matters that we show up in public, in solidarity with our partners, even if those people are never gonna walk through the doors of our congregation. And when we can show up knowing who we are, knowing what our values are, knowing the kinds of risks that we are willing and not willing to take, we can be, um, the best partners that we can be. And that is our hope. Um, we are a small denomination, but we can have an outsized impact. Um, and we are known for being the people who show up. And so let us be worthy of that reputation. Let us show up in the midst of all of the hate out there and, um, bring our message of love and not just our message, but our actions and our solidarity on the side of love. I wanna thank my colleagues for being with us this evening. Thank all of you and we will, um, send out the recording and these resources very soon. Be well, be safe, be love. Take care, everybody.