Lauren,

Welcome to the MidAmerica Region's monthly congregational leaders conversation series. I'm Lauren Wyeth, one of your congregational life consultants and MidAmerica's faith development specialist. I'm a white person in my mid 50s with curly shoulder length dark blonde hair and tortoiseshell glasses and I use she or they pronouns. From October 2024,through May 2025, MidAmerica Regional Staff will host a monthly congregational leaders conversation on an emergent issue, hopeful development or pressing concern in Unitarian Universalism. Most will be recorded and available for viewing after the event as well, like the one you've tuned in for here.

We are in a time when religious communities are in flux. The conversations we're having now will shape the future of our faith in significant ways. And so we set out to bring our whole hearts, our open minds and our yearning spirits to the task of meeting this moment and imagining a way forward together.

If you are a lay or professional leader in a UU congregation or community, be it in the role of clergy, board member, welcome team volunteer, administrator, youth group advisor, small group facilitator, religious educator or another capacity. We're glad you've found us. These conversations are generally held on the second Tuesday evening of each month and are facilitated by myself and the Reverend David Pyle.

Your experience and perspectives are valuable to the whole body as we face what is and cast a vision for what may be. Equally valuable are your attention and witness as others share their experiences and perspectives. Should you want to join us live for one of our upcoming conversations? Please register through the Mid America web page www.uua.org/midamerica/events. There's no cost to attend. Next up, you'll learn a bit more about our speakers, and then we'll dive into the conversation. Thanks for joining us and welcome.

So I want to introduce my colleague on the Unitarian on the UUA staff, Nicole Pressley. Nicole Pressley serves as the Director of Organizing Strategy for the Unitarian Universalist Association, where she spearheads the Side with Love initiative. As a black queer organizer and seasoned communication strategist, Nicole has committed her career to grassroots mobilization and capacity enhancement in areas such as labor, economic justice and reproductive rights. In 2020

the Center for American Progress recognized her as one of the faith leaders to watch. Nicole earned a BA in African American Studies from Northwestern University and resides on the west side of Chicago. Nicole, thank you so much for being willing to come and have this conversation, which I think is really timely and important for our congregations and for our faith movement. It's good to have you with us. Thank you.

Thank you. 

So I want to start with the first question really being to give you a chance to talk about what is happening right now. What are you seeing as an organizer, as the director of the UUA's, you know, really, arm of prophetic witness within with the organizing strategy team, what are you seeing in how, how the what's the way I'm looking for the right way to say it, how our values are encountering the world, and how the world is encountering our values in these very dangerous times.

Yeah, thanks for for having me here. And I feel like, just to start with,

I am going, I'm a very candid person,

and I'm a person that likes to give it to you straight,

but I want us to all remember that,

you know, we're we are in a contest,

and to use the words of James Baldwin,

not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. So I'm glad to spend some time with you here to face all of the things the realities of what is happening and also the realities of what is emerging. What is the antidote? Because even in some of the hard things we may discuss today, it is important for us to remember that nothing is inevitable. As soon as we think that all is lost and that we should pack it up. That is how we lose. There are so many, many beautiful events happening.

So I want to talk about, I think, primarily, three things that I'm noticing, kind of some examples of that, and

how we respond and how we react.

So one of those things is we are absolutely seeing the consolidation of power

in the hands of the few instead of the hands of the many, which I'm sure, as you know, is a standard for all authoritarian regimes.

But with that consolidation, we also have to remember that while the power is being consolidated in the hands of the few, they don't actually all agree or necessarily all like each other.

Or know what to do with it once they have it.

Or know what do with it, and so we're seeing fractures, right? We're seeing things like

Vivek Ramaswamy being, you know, ousted from the inner circle earlier on, around his ideas around immigration. We saw the ousting of Matt Gatez, his his nomination after a public outcry and an advocacy because there was, there was there was no good PR there that was going to make that that viable.

And that is important, because a lot of our work is about casting a better vision and practicing that vision, and some of it is just tactical, of exploit their fractures, right? Where they do not agree, where they do not like each other, where there is an opportunity, we actually have to take all of those opportunities so that they crumble while we are assembling our own power. 

I love that image of of looking for setting the larger vision, setting the and looking for the place where we can make the fractures even wider than they are naturally. So yeah, thank you. 

Yes. The second of course we are seeing every day is the subversion of the rule of law with manufactured consent of the people, right? So while they are absolutely working outside of any constitutional order,

they still, at present, have to manufacture consent. They have to say, This is what the people wanted. And we are seeing folks from an array of political ideologies actually being clear that that is not, you know, that is not what they want. So whether it is from being clear that, in fact, this administration did not get a mandate that, in fact, the majority of the people did not want Trump elected, or if it is

the fact that, like, they're not responding to any of the needs that they campaigned on. 

Right.

Any any time that we can be really clear on this. This is their agenda. This is what we want, and establish that broad coalition that is like against what is happening is absolutely crucial. And another part of that is, I'm sure many of you see have seen either graphics or have

read many, many books on fascism, many of which that amplify this rally cry of do not obey in advance. Do not in advance. And we have to get into a posture of non compliance. And that is going to mean a lot of different things for a lot of different people. But fundamentally it says, Here's what they want to do. We are not doing it, or we are going to create the things counter to it. They do not want bodily autonomy in this country. We are going to fund people's abortions, right?

They want to deport millions and millions of residents in this country. We are going to join ICE watch actions. We are going to protect sensitive places. So anytime they are whatever conditions they are trying to create, we create the.

Counter condition. We do not have to wait to pass legislation to organize. It is a both, and we want to have laws and have respect and acknowledgement of those laws to protect people, but we also, as people of faith,

can do it ourselves. That's what organizing is about, is creating the world that we want to live in.

And

And in particular, you know, the I don't think it's been publicly announced yet, but we'll, we'll, we'll say a little bit here about that. The UUA is looking to join with other faith communities in a lawsuit related to protecting the rights of of congregations to to not be violated by immigration, you know, immigration enforcement officers. What? What are some of the opportunities that we're seeing emerging in our relationship with other faith communities and in speaking, in speaking truth in these times? What are I mean, that was, that's one example of one of them. Are there others that that you know you and organizing strategy are working towards? 

Yes, interfaith organizing is incredibly powerful because while we have there are many faiths, many of us agree on some basic principles, right? Of human worth and dignity of justice, of freedom.

And we are, in my opinion,

the best and most strategic storytellers of that work. We know that a big part of the

power structure to consolidate this power has moved through Christian congregations, particularly ones that subscribe to a white Christian nationalist ideology,

and people still think that there are no faith people, There are no progressive people of faith that are offering an alternative, and so now is the time to be loud, to be clear about what we believe, because people are seeking that out. And

the unit of power and organizing is people. So if we are not inviting people into an alternative vision,

we we are losing. And that is happening a lot in our

state action networks. Iinterfaith groups are banding together to do know your rights trainings for congregations and for communities. Folks are coming together to support trans youth. People are coming together to protect our libraries and our schools to make sure kids are safe.

And it's one of the,

I would say, most powerful and in many ways, safest places to do this work, because people still trust people of faith,

right? We are not a political party, right?

We don't have this like give us the power we are, in fact, saying we can share this power, so many more people are inclined to to trust us, to trust faith communities that can actually do this work.

It also strikes me and tell me if you agree that, or if you don't that, in some ways, you know, the authoritarian style of flood the zone, of create as much chaos as possible, to keep people as off balance as possible, to keep people waking up and looking at their phones about what crisis or chaos is happening today, as if it's a damage report on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. The, the in some ways, organizing, deep organizing, being in relational communities within a congregation, being in partnership with communities that you know in their area, or the UUA being in partnership is kind of the antidote, antidote to that, that chaos theory keep everybody off balance. Because if our center is In relationships that we are building with one another, then the chaos that's coming, we're responding to that together. You know, that's the. So, if you're if that's if that's true, how are you experiencing that the progressive, the religious progressive community is supporting one another through this time of of flood the zone, chaos.

Yeah, faith communities keep us steady and keep our eyes on the prize. This is why most social movements in the United States

happen to be powered by faith communities and we often forget  about both our power but our skills and our assets. Whether it is from a protest or a direct action, just the presence of whether it is prayer or song, that can actually ground people, keep people safe, keep people focused, keep people nourished, is absolutely essential, because we do not pretend that this isn't hard work. We don't pretend that this isn't scary work, but it is far less scary, and, in fact, a whole lot easier when we are all together. You know, as my mom would say, many hands

make light work.

But I do think I want to speak to the obviously, we know the fast pace

actions are there to both destabilize to keep us in

a defensive mode, but it's also a test, right? It is a test to see how far they can go right, without broad public outcry. If they executed every single thing they wanted to do truly, all at once, they know they would actually build the coalition. We need to defeat them immediately,

and we need to know that and actually do do it anyway. The thing that they're actually trying to not create, which is all of us, is getting together and saying, absolutely not. And here's what we're going to do. We need to do that now and then the last thing, because I think it just has to be said and be very clear

your despair is not serving anything.

Spending six hours a day on watching the news at the end of the day. Did that get you anywhere? Did that welcome one person into your congregation? Did it welcome one other person to to take an action with you? It probably made you less inclined to take an action yourself.

So really, just be mindful about where you're spending your time and where you're putting your energy.

It is amazing when you're actually like, Oh, I just went out and flyered the community and did know your rights training. I supported a fundraiser for this abortion fund. When you're actually doing the thing that builds what we want to see in the world, you feel better. You are impactful, and we'll crave more of that instead of just watching the train wreck. Just like in traffic, if we're all rubber necking and watching the train the train wreck, no one's moving, and we have to absolutely be moving at this time. 

So you've gone to a little bit of my next question, but I want to ask it explicitly. What do you think this time asks and requires of us as Unitarian Universalists? What do you think that this time is that we're called to in this moment?

I think there are two things, but they're absolutely related, which is, do not go it alone.

We individually do not have the power to stop this. We collectively have the power to stop this. And so when I say don't go it alone, I mean you as one person, you need another person. You as one congregation, you need another congregation. You as a couple congregations need a community organization to be in a coalition that has been doing this work for a long time.

For better, you know, or for worse, none of this is new. People have been deported for a while. Yes, the scale is different. Yes, the threats are higher. We have seen this, you know, reduce access to abortion for decades. It is worse. So there is there is not one thing that is currently happening where there is no organization and no group of people who haven't been working on it for decades, now is the time to build the power not to create our own things. So don't go it alone. And then so in that don't go it alone.

Seek partnerships from Legacy

coalitions, community organizations, and ask how you can, one ask how you can be of service.

And many communities are in crisis, so be prepared

for them to maybe not have an answer for you immediately.

The other part is understand what you have to offer, and that is what we talk about with asset mapping.

I work with people who have organized for years and many coalitions. I come and say, Hey, I organize, you know, a national community of Unitarian Universalists. How can we help? And they're like, I don't know, or like, oh, we can have a Minister join

a press conference. But then when I say, we have this many congregations in these zip codes, do you need space to hold your meeting? Many of our congregations do childcare. How can we help share the work? Are you having meetings where your base needs childcare? Where? Where can we support with that? Do you need access to tech? We know many of our congregations right are set up to do virtual hybrid worship, when you start making it clear of the tangible things that you can offer. Do you need, you know, we have done bail support. Do you need a congregation's choir outside the jail every single night, singing, making sure the press is continuing to run the story about you know, folks who have been, you know, put into jails or prisons because of political action. We have to get clear about our power and our assets and put that out on the table to coalitions and partners that are doing the work, and say, here's what we can do, and then we have to be ready to move it. Because it is not, you know, other people's jobs to know absolutely all the things that we have and can offer. That is our job, and that is something we can start right now all the time, to be ready to be useful.

You know. Thank you, Nicole, you remind me of, of, you know, something, a dynamic I've seen in our congregations before that I worry about, and that is that you know, the desire for us to be immediately, to be leaders, right? The desire for Unitarian Universalism. And what I'm hearing you describe more is the need for us to come in to this work from a place of being some of the good and maybe even the best followers, right? To come because, because leadership is already in existence on all of these issues, because none of these issues are new, right? None of these challenges that they're, how do we become good followers? How do we become the best supporters? How do we come in and and put, put the the resources, the capacity, the the the care that we have behind other movements is that kind of what I'm, I'm hearing you as, and that's a faith calling. I think that's, that's, that's a thing, yeah, so go ahead.

Yeah. I think that absolutely, I think one, given the sensitive nature of many of the issues and many of the actions that absolutely need to be taken, if you are you know the new kid on the block, you have to build trust, right? We don't. We do not go from

being in our congregations to housing and asylum seeker overnight, right? That is, that is not a reality.

What we do is we say, Hey, here's what we can do, what is useful for you, and you build the relationship. No one hands over their organization, their people, their resources, to folks they do not know. And the reality is that a lot of the immediate need, um, is very sensitive, is going to require a lot of security. Um, and if that relationship hasn't already been formed, there's no skipping a step, right? There's no just jumping into it.

And I will say this right now, we've seen particularly membership based organizations of people that are directly impacted, whether it is trans folks, people seeking abortions,

immigrants, those organizations are so incredibly busy.

They are tending to immediate people who are immediately impacted. The spiritual care, building safety for them.

There are real ways that we can flank and support them. The small actions matter be like, we are going to feed your office, right? We are going to support your workers. We are going to any tangible offering you can give them that creates more ease for them is absolutely essential while they're

dealing with a very real crisis, and are working 24 hours a day, because that is the that is the pace of people

on on urgent things. So I would say really think about, how can you be of service to the people doing the work? What are the tangible and concrete offerings

that you can make. And so much is learned when you start, at the start, when you start or understanding how folks organize, why they've taken particular actions.

We are in a moment of political repression, and these organizations have been through political repression

for a long time, whether it is in this country or other countries,

and so sometimes, how they do their work, you will immediately understand why they're doing it that way, but it is because they know better, like it is because they've developed the systems to do the work in such a way they keep themselves and other people safe.

well.

Well. And I think this brings you know this. This is a way that Unitarian Universalists and you, if you're already in relationship with organizations, it's the same question. It's the same what do you need in this moment? How can we be of service? How can we and really following the guidance of those that have been working in these fields and many of our congregations have been working in fields as well. So So I would love your thoughts about moving it towards the practical, practical advice for a congregation. If you are a congregation that doesn't have a lot of connections, let's start there a lot of connections into movement based organizing that is responding to the particular threats of this time and of this regime. And what are some practical advice that you might give to a congregation about how to make those connections in their community with organizations that are doing the work of protecting people that may be under threat right now.

Yes, one is to, you know, we always use lovely, fancy terms in organizing, which is like, one is right, community mapping. Literally, just

start with Google. If you truly don't know, what are the immigrant organizations? What are the LGBTQ organizations? Find a place to start, and you can do one of two things. You can pick up the phone and call and say, Hey, I have a congregation of 33 members. We're trying to figure out how to help. What can we do.

Also, because, like I said, people are are busy. Organize your congregation to join the thing. If you see, they have an event coming up,

get 10 people from your congregation to go.

They are not going to be waiting on you. You have to come organize your own power and then bring it to those folks. We know many folks do give away the plates, organize your congregation to focus really locally, and organize funds and resources and give it to them.

We talk about relationality all of the time. I told you all I I'm a straight shooter, so I'm going to be real clear. We have many beautiful, productive relationships that absolutely started with a check. Okay? We have wonderful movement partners in Blueprint in North Carolina with Song in the Southern Region, we have many relationships that said, Hey, you're already doing the work. We know you need money. Literally. Federal grants are disappearing. These organizations are going to need more money. Moving resources are real. Where you say, here's this money, no questions asked, because we know you need it right, and then have like a follow up conversation. It takes time, but think about many different entry points to get in relationship. There is no wrong entry point of getting into relationship. Go that

there's kind of like an organizing mantra that folks use. Meet people where they're at.

Go to them, don't ask them to come to you, and however you can go to them, do that.

So so I know that you know, sidewalk has been doing a lot of work to help develop resources for congregations about how to engage in these kinds of community partnerships, how to to to build into supporting, you know, both national and local movement politics, to be able to respond to times just like this. Can you share some of the some of those resources could be and, and, and that we're probably going to share some of them by email with everyone after this meeting, I think. But, but what would you like to share?

Yes, so we have an abundance of resources. I'll kind of go through broad scale, and then you're actually in a you hear at first, kind of a situation. So I'll let you know what's coming up. So I'm dropping a link in the chat that is just to sidewithlove.org.

So the first thing is, for a couple of years, we have been running skill ups. So if you just go to the website and go to the skill up drop down,

as David, as you said, like practical things, there is a all the trainings are one hour. There's a one hour training on how to engage a new partnership. There's a training on how to do faithful and prophetic messaging in your communications, right? There's a training on how to ask better, right? So truly practical things, if you're like, I'm trying to get this community meeting together, and I need people to say yes. We have a training on how to get people to say yes. And each one of those trainings, there are videos, there are like, PDFs and tools like that you can print to read out. The transcripts are there so that is accessible. Those are there all the time. There's also organizing school on there. Those are broad kind of broader strategy of, like, What is organizing? How do we organize? There's, though, that was 12 sessions. So there's worksheets, tools, videos, they're all clearly labeled so you can only you can take what you need. No now is not the time to do a full 12 session organizing class. So take, take what you need. There is also a collaboration between Side with Love, the UUA communications team and Congregational Life called the Community Resilience Hub. This is a broad

resource for folks going, you know, what do we need to do in our congregations? How are we keeping us safe? How are we thinking about digital security? How are we actually understanding this moment? Like, what? What is fascism?

There's risk discernment tools, right? So, as you are all thinking about how you can become more courageous in this time, which is what we absolutely need, there's a practical tool of like, how do you do risk discernment to know what risk you should and are suited to take and which you are not.

Now, what we are going to be launching on March 10. Yes, March 10, Side with Love, is going to be launching a monthly gathering, a all call, all faith gathering, where we will have

some spiritual grounding, briefings from coalitions and partners, right? So we know people have lots of questions on the legal landscape. People have questions on like, you know, how, how are we organizing our communities? How can we keep trans kids safe? Like all of that, we will have a monthly gathering to do the briefing, the analysis and offer practical ways to take action. We are also relaunching the Side of Love Action Center that is going to be a weekly update on the Side of Love website and the Side with Love email that hits on our four intersectional issues, so bodily autonomy, which includes LGBTQ, gender and reproductive justice, democracy, climate and criminalization, which includes right the criminalization of immigration. So on those four issues, there will be a weekly update, which is going to be a short paragraph that gives some analysis of what is happening. Then it's going to have, here's a coalition you should join. Here's here's a toolkit to do actions in your community. Here's

a training. It's going to be both coalition partners as well as Unitarian Universalist organizations, where you can see the broad work and and get started. But I always want to be clear that the best work, the strongest work, the most sustainable work, is going to come for for from your communities. So we'll offer state partners, national coalitions that can be a place to start. Many of them have chapters in certain cities, but that is really guidance as a place to start, but

you're going to need to know the folks in your community to build that community resilience. 

The power exists in the local community and and you know, Unitarian, Universalist congregations, whether we know it or not, or feel it or not, can often be a place where that power comes to rest right, where that power can can be a fulcrum in local communities. And so, Nicole, I want to thank you for this and for staying around for question and answers in a few minutes. So thank you all for for coming back and rejoining us. And I want to thank Nicole again for the the the wonderful conversation that we had just a few minutes ago about a very difficult topic. And as you all are questions that you may have come up with, or that you have I want to invite you to put those questions into the chat. I'll either read them off, or I may invite you to unmute and ask the question of Nicole yourself. But Nicole, I want to ask the first question, and the one I want to ask is amidst all of the chaos and crisis and the intentional way that they're attempting to overwhelm

in order to limit the amount of how are you finding hope in this time you you Nicole. How are you finding hope? How are you dismantling that tendency towards despair, that that autocracy tries to create and people that would work against it. How are you keeping yourself centered?

Yeah, I know this can seem a little bit old, and people say it, but it's really important going to the places of joy.

Toni Cade Bambara said the role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.

And so I am. I am simply hanging out with people, joining the organizations

with people, with possibility. So whether that is art and you know, music and museums, hanging out with friends,

focusing on the thing that we're we talk about the thing that we're trying to create, and we think about issues and systems, but really what we're just trying to create is community. Is community? Being together, loving on one another, taking care of each other, and finding those places to sustain us, is absolutely essential for our health and sustainability, but actually for the growth of our movements.

Before, before we came back together from the breakout, I was telling Lauren and David like no one wants to join a depressing movement. People want to join active, joyful, hopeful people, but we cannot create the hope

learning from lessons of movements before. We say nothing is inevitable. There was no reason that, like, slavery would have just ended. There's no reason why we, you know, we're like, oh, maybe you know Japanese internment camps, the Chinese Exclusion Act. There's no reason no one just like, we'll just change course, right? We win. We win all of the time when we do the work together. And so, like, I'm just waiting on us to win.

we will win. And the way that we is by, by, by being a movement worthy of joining.

That we are going to win, and in when, in that process of winning, we will build the community that we want to create,

Thank you for the question and Nicole about for smaller congregations that are in rural areas where maybe the coalition partners are not obvious or immediate. What coaching do you all have for finding those those relationships and partners?

And I'm going to say something about the beliefs similar to ours in a minute. But go ahead. 

So I was going to start David, you can sort of believe similar to ours too. The question for you, not me,

Yeah, I'm not going to say that everything, you know, every context is different. Sometimes that

and this is where I'll go into the like, the the beliefs or values similar to ours. We need to be looking for the expression of our values, not our values codified in someone else's organization. If they if it's the Rec Center and they're like, we create spaces where kids are safe and can have joy, and we allow all, like, that is an organization aligned with us, right? If it is the library, right with the librarian. That's like, we're going to put these books here, right? And we're going to, we're going to help these kids learn and, like, actually get history. That is an organization that is aligned with your values. If we seek

absolute political alignment and purity, we will not win this. I forget the person this quote is attributed to, but I know it's circulating around which I love, which is De-escalate all conflict that is not with the enemy. We are in the business of making friends. Okay, we are not all going to agree, but if we can agree on kids should be safe, maybe we should teach history. Democracy is a good thing. That is a great place to start. 

Yeah, I think I want to add, you know, from my time when I was doing advocacy and movement work in Southern California, I you know, we had some partnerships with people that didn't share our beliefs, but we had some values in common. One of the big ones for us, that what we found, you know, we found, was two things. One, we needed to prioritize those values to be able to have the partnerships to make a difference.

having the shared work together let us actually have some deep conversations about where our beliefs were not in alignment. And so, you know, I think we actually were able to do some changing of hearts for some people around some beliefs where we were not alignment, because we had the alignment around values, and because we prioritized relationship and what we could do together. So I also want to center in the rural areas question, the small towns question, because often we think that a lot of the larger movement work is happening in the larger, more urban areas. But I I don't know if your experience, but I think that, you know, I mean, for example, in rural areas with farm worker communities, there's always farm worker organizations that are that are there, and they are under particular threat right now. And could use some partners and allies. Could use some people with some that are not under the same kind of threat. So your thoughts about the the organizing in rural areas that you might be able to share? Nicole.

Um, yeah, I think particularly now,

no matter what area you're in, there's there's governing happening, right? And governing is, what is that contest right now. We know whether it is through

and how might they be impacted or under attack, right? And like, they have meetings, right? They have events like go and ask, there is, I promise you, there is a way you can be of use. And even if the way to be of use is to say there is a community that is here to support you, because we might be, you know, we want those folks to be courageous. We don't want everyone to be like, Oh, well, I guess we will just resign from our positions and like, let this fascism move even faster. We want those people in those positions, but they need to know that there's a community behind them that is going to like, support and care for their families if they're going to take that risk of staying and last thing I will say about the rural communities. I used to live in Georgia, one of my beloved congregations, the Georgia Mountains Unitarian Universalist Church,

You're going to see MAGA stuff everywhere.

to have flowers at the funerals of people in their community. That is, that is where it started. It was people were dying, people did not have money, and people were like, well, they should at least have flowers at their funerals. And these ladies went door to door to raise money, and then they realized, oh, a lot of people are dying from similar illnesses. And they realize that this was influenced by the environment. The Georgia congregation. Their first, like, initial partnership was like tutoring some of the kids. They did a, you know, kind of like school backpack resourcing, back to school event together. When COVID hit, their offering was, everyone had to do the hard pivot to virtual and they said, We got it. We'll hold the zooms. You literally just send out your notices to say people come here, and we will hold the digital and virtual infrastructure behind that.

It looks different in every area, and you're just going to have to talk to people. Now is the time to be outside. Now is the time to go to community meetings, go to community events, and not be the wallflower and have conversations with your neighbors, and I promise you, you will find the work.

So, so I'm not seeing any other questions in the chat, which, if there aren't any that fine, that's fine. That means I get that question. And, you know, I so. So I want to shift us a little bit to what do you see on the horizon for Unitarian Universalism as an organizing group? What do you think we're working on that you're able to say at this moment, at this moment?

Um,

I think

two things that sound simple, but you know, will require some work. I think that we want to be the people that show up. And that is beautiful, and that showing up is looking different in this time. And I think two things, I think that we have to find our own courage and take courageous actions that keep that keep us safe, but also keep the movement going. And then we also have to take actions for our own resilience and safety, so that we ourselves are around to can do, to do that work. So for that first part of keeping ourselves safe and resilient, we cannot

make ourselves targets

acting within our values is a whole lot more powerful than expressing them to know to no end.

And no positive end, right, other than notoriety or yeah.

Yes, sharing all of the maybe risky actions that you will or will not take online or publicly or with the press is just going to make you a target, and so we have to just really be smart about how we're going about the work. If every single Unitarian Universalism is in the process of being doxed and has their, you know, home address and phone number released because we got a little bit too reckless on Facebook, then we are not being of service. If we are publishing too much sensitive data on our websites, right? We are making ourselves a target, and then we are less of service. So I would say digital security in Unitarian Universalism, we have to get really, really serious about it and be really, really responsible with it. And then

we have to create the world, faith communities are about creating the world we want now, right? We do a lot of advocacy work, but we say we care about people right now, and I'm going to be very clear

Who knows what the tax code is going to be come next like real concretely, if any one person or any one congregation or collective of congregations has the ability to be financially generous at this time, we need to be creating plans now to say, how are we going to make sure people are okay and whole,

to hoard resources. 

Amen. And Nicole, I want to thank you for joining us tonight, but even more, I want to thank you for representing our faith and our values in the wider community of working for justice in this time. And I bet you don't get thanked often enough for that. And I just want to thank you from us.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai