What Would It Take for You to Be Able to Bring Your Full Self to Unitarian Universalist Spaces

Open

  1. Opening words: “Woodland You” by Jarod K. Anderson
  2. Light the chalice
  3. Do the Rose, Bud and Thorn check-in as illustrated above.

The question this session will explore is,“What would it take to co-create an explicitly anti-racist Unitarian Universalism?”

The opening for this session is meant to invite the practice of self-love as both the root of the knowledge of equity and as healing from the difficulty of the work.

One effective way to use these poems is to read the poem once as someone lights the chalice, hold a few moments of silence as a group and read it one more time, either by the same person or someone else.

Read

For the activity, "The Deeper Meaning of Trust:", it would be helpful to give folks a few minutes to look over the questions about trustbefore you discuss them; follow with discussing the text, and close this activity by gathering reactions, ideas, and further curiosities.

Watch

Coping with Racial Trauma (YouTube)

How do you find and enact ways to give voice to your own racial trauma?

What are your thoughts on voicing racial trauma in spiritual and ethical community?

What do you wish people knew about racial trauma in spiritual and ethical community?

Black children with white moms (YouTube) share what it’s like for them

How do these stories call for greater trustworthiness?

How can you celebrate Blackness as a liberatory practice?

These videos offer multiple perspectives and ways to discuss building trust as part of building a whole-hearted Unitarian Universalism in which all of people’s selves are welcome. Depending on the demographics of your group, you may use both or one of them.

Do

Consider healing practices for people of the global majority. Perhaps try one that is different from your usual.

Close

The song, “I Believe This Belongs To You - Ester Nicholson (YouTube)”, tells a story of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s reaction to hate, but it also asks us each and all, not to simply give in to hate, but also take up the part of the work of love that belongs to us, each and all:

Closing discussion question: What is one thing you will take away or continue to ponder from this session?

Take Home

The handout What Does It Mean To Be Antiracist? (PDF) is offered by the University of Utah, a section from theRacial Healing Handbook, with practices for both folks of the global majority and dominant culture folks.