Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made. Ask me whether what I have done is my life. Others have come in their slow way into my thought, and some have tried to help or to hurt — ask me what difference their strongest love or hate has made. I will listen to what you say….

Excerpted from Black Pioneers in a White Denomination (Boston: Skinner House, 1992). The problem of segregation in all churches seems more unfortunate when one recognizes that there is much to gain, beyond the realization of liberal values, and racially diverse congregations. Here there is a…

By Alla Bozarth, Julia Barkley, and Terri Hawthorne, from Stars in your Bones: Emerging Signposts on Our Spiritual Journeys (St. Cloud, Minnesota: North Star Press, 1990). Used with permission. I am pregnant with myself. Do you realize what this means?…

Adapted from World Cafe Model. CAFE SETUP Arrange the room so there are four tables with enough chairs around each to accommodate one-fourth of participants. Place a large sheet of newsprint and markers/crayons at each table….

These two roles are to be played by facilitators. Do not share candidate descriptions with simulation participants. Simply act out the roles extemporaneously if you choose to visit the various groups and committees, using your appearances as “wild cards” to keep the simulation engaging. The Job…

“Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (Far Corner Books. Portland, OR, 1995). Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, What you counted and…

Excerpted from I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, Copyright (C) 2000 Dawna Markova with permission from, Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC, #1-800-423-7087. I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me…

Originally written anonymously by a gay high-school student and adapted for this exercise. Mattering My father asked if I am gay I asked, Does it matter? He said, No not really I said, Yes. He said get out of my life. I guess it mattered. My friend asked why I talk about race so much?…

Meditations of the Heart, by Howard Thurman, Copyright (C)1953, 1981 by Anne Thurman. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts. It is very easy to pretend to understand what one does not understand….

Suzanne Pharr, from the Foreword to Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation, by Eli Clare (Cambridge, MA: South End Press Collective, 1999).[Talking about multiple identities] “brings me back to those intense feelings of ambivalence, ambiguity, and isolation that I felt in my 20s…

Read these sentences aloud in pairs, pausing briefly between the two items in each pair, and pausing again after each pair is read. This is my best friend, Mandy This is my best White friend, Mandy I love green beans I love green beans made by that White company, Dole Foods I live in the…

Consult with your minister, music director, and/or another experienced worship leader in your congregation as you plan this service. Ask your music director to help you select suitable hymns and recruit an accompanist. Use the suggested readings and hymns or substitute your own choices. OPENING…

“Telling” is used with the permission of Laura Hershey. For more information about Laura’s poetry and other writing, go to her website.

“The Bridge Poem” from The Black Back-Ups: Poetry by Kate Rushin (Ann Arbor, MI: Firebrand Books, 1993). Permission pending. I’ve had enough. I’m sick of seeing and touching both side of things. Sick of being the damn bridge for everybody. Nobody can talk to anybody without me. Right?…

Excerpted from a sermon, delivered at First Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 6, 2009; used with permission. Diversity is the destiny of our world, and if Unitarian Universalism is to survive and thrive, it must be our destiny, too. We can be an island of whiteness in a river of many…

Excerpted from Tomorrow’s Child: Imagination, Creativity, and the Rebirth of Culture by Rubem A. Alves (New York; Harper & Row, 1972). What is hope? It is the presentiment that imagination is more real and reality is less real that it looks….

“Two Kinds of Intelligence,” by Jellaludin Rumi, was translated by Dr. William C. Chittick and published in The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983). Used with permission.The intellect is of two kinds: The first is acquired….

We may have it! Millions upon millions of people everywhere are drifting from the old formulations, no longer willing to view the ancient myths as religious truths. They are looking for a vital, modern religion with a personal and social imperative. We may have it! I think we do!…

Race-based identity groups, or caucuses, provide a chance for people to talk in a structured format with others from their own ethnic/racial group, an opportunity that is rare, even for those who regularly participate in multicultural dialogues. This kind of within-group talk more often than not…

This resource includes several first-person narratives from Unitarian Universalists describing experiences with race in their congregations. Introduce these voices and experiences using a Theater of Voices technique….

From Another River: New and Selected Poems (Amherst Writers and Artists Press, 2005). Used with permission. The self you leave behind is only a skin you have outgrown. Don’t grieve for it. Look to the wet, raw, unfinished self, the one you are becoming….

Adapted from the work of Peggy McIntosh and Emily Style.Testimony: bearing witness, giving evidence; speaking the truth of one’s experience and perspective; bearing responsibility for one’s own truth….

From Poems 1960-1967, copyright (C) 1961. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Don’t say, don’t say there is no water to solace the dryness at our hearts. I have seen the foundation springing out of the rock wall and you drinking there. And I too before your eyes found…

From The Shaking of the Foundations. Sometimes… it is as though a voice were saying: You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now;…

There must be always remaining in every life some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful and—by an inherent prerogative, throwing all the rest of life into a new and creative relatedness—something that gathers up in itself all the freshets…

During the simulation, visit all the committees and groups and observe of what is happening. As committees and groups begin to achieve a sense of purpose or direction, it may be a good time to throw in a “wild card” to complicate their task. You may only have time for a few wild cards. You might…

Sometimes a group rambles or has no spark (not a good thing for a simulation!). If a group seems lost and needs a sense of direction, “coach” them toward a more active and provocative stance by suggesting that they employ one of these strategies….

By Kathy Galloway, in Maker’s Blessing (Wild Goose Publications/The Iona Community, 2000), www.ionabooks.com.

The Way It Is There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. But it is hard for others to see. While you hold it you can’t get lost….