What Would It Take to Co-Create an Explicitly Anti-Racist Unitarian Universalism?

Part of Mosaic Lifespan Curriculum

Open

Opening words: “Woodland You” by Jarod K. Anderson

Note: 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

The Deeper Meaning of Trust

Watch

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

Review the suggestions in the article, Self-Care for the Movement from Learning for Justice, and brainstorm a list of tangible self-care actions you could take on individually and as a group.

Explore — What barriers might exist to engaging with certain ideas of self-care? How does the idea of rest being productive resonate for you?

How does the idea of radical rest connect to what we’ve learned about white supremacy culture? What narratives does it disrupt?

Close

The song, “I Believe This Belongs To You” (YouTube) by Ester Nicholson, 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

This 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.