What Would It Take to Co-create an Explicitly Anti-racist Unitarian Universalism?

Part of Mosaic Lifespan Curriculum

Open

"Our Journey Is to Transform" by Rev. Elizabeth B. Nguyen
This opening reading can be done in one voice, in multiple voices, or as a responsive reading.

 Check in: Take a moment to name one thing in your world that is in the process of transformation. Perhaps this is something in yourself, your family, your community, or something else important to you.

Read

"We Will Only Rise" by JeKaren Olaoya

Watch

Leslie Mac, speaking at Closing Worship (YouTube(, led by Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), at UUA General Assembly 2016 (7:10, from 3:24:55-3:32:05).

If you have more time, continue watching through 3:40:20 (16:25 total) to include Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, leading the General Assembly Choir, singing "I Need You To Survive."

Do

Each of these previous pieces articulates a piece of the vision of an anti-racist, radically welcoming, values-aligned Unitarian Universalism. Have you ever caught a glimpse of this Unitarian Universalism, even for a moment? Take turns sharing a story about what that felt like and what happened to make that moment possible. If you have never experienced this, try to imagine what it might look and feel like and share a piece of that imagining.

Close

Excerpted from: "What will it take for Unitarian Universalism to fully embody the power of we?", by UUA Co-Moderator and ancestor, Elandria Williams:

"Put your feet down, because we’re about to do embodiment.

Close your eyes. Breathe in and breathe out.

When you hear the word liberation—liberatory spirit, liberatory life, liberatory possibilities—what does that conjure in your soul?

When you hear, “We are the liberating force, spirit, light, and love,” what does that conjure in your spirit?

When you hear that we have the power to transform the world around us, what does that mean in your bones?

When you hear, “We are the people that we have been waiting for”—we are!—how does that feel in your blood?

We are the light, we are the wisdom, we are the ancestors, we are those yet to come. How do we fully hold all of that in ourselves?

Open your eyes. Look at the people around you. Breathe in and breathe out together."

Check out: Take turns checking out by sharing one or two words of how you are feeling in this moment. Pause between speakers, for a shared moment of appreciation, before the next person speaks.

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