Spiritual Leadership for Culture Change: Resources

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Find all the resources and materials for the Spiritual Leadership for Culture Change gatherings below. This community is open to all—religious professionals and laity. You are welcome to join at any time by using our sign-up form. Those who join will receive invitations to future gatherings. Please review the "Community Expectations and Covenanting Practice" before joining.

Gathering 9 (upcoming) - September 2023

Theme: Returning Again to Practice

Ingatherings, homecomings, back-to-school, new years — this is the time of year for return, as well as reflection on starting anew. Maybe your congregation is already at work changing culture within. Maybe there are big plans in the works for something new this year.

What will support you in practicing Spiritual Leadership this year?

What practices have become second nature?

What practices do you want to return to?

What practices need recommitment?

In the September gatherings, we will reflect on the cyclical nature of practices and consider together how the Practices of Spiritual Leadership support culture change in our congregations.

Gathering 8 - May 2023

Theme: Tending Our Tradition Through Reparations

While reparations is not the only way to tend our tradition, it was our focus for this gathering. The group heard from Hilary Allen about the learning community she co-led with Woullard Lett in which four NER congregational teams engaged in an action-reflection cycle to move reparations work they were already doing in their congregation to its next stages.

Processes of repair, healing and restoration begin with knowing how our own congregations have participated in historic harms such as African chattel slavery and the theft of Indigenous lands. Participants shared stories, questions, and insights about the actions their congregations are taking or are considering to acknowledge the many relationships throughout Unitarian/Universalist history that have been broken — be those interpersonal, internal, cultural, institutional, or covenantal.

  • Pre-work: Preparation for Gathering (Google Doc)
  • Post-gathering materials:
    • Chat- this lets you see who attended both sessions, their congregations, their roles, what sparked them and what step(s) they are considering to take next.
    • Supplemental Resources for Reparations Webinar

Gathering 7 - March 2023

Theme: Discernment for Faithful Risking

In March, we considered our calling to make faithful risks in the service of love and mission, and recognized that the democratic process cannot be the only way we find our way together. When no options seem clear or stakes feel high and every choice involves risk, group discernment is a way we can sort out which risks might be the faithful ones to take. Group discernment invites asking broader questions, listening heart-to-heart, setting aside personal agendas. It assumes that through spacious collective exploration of our mission, vision and values, we can discover what risks we are being called to faithfully make in the face of uncertainty. We named where we see group discernment already practiced in our congregations; identified how Unitarian Universalist culture supports and/or resists a practice of group discernment; and explored possible ways to introduce discernment practices into congregational spaces.

Gathering 6 - January 2023

Theme: Reimagining Core Values and Identity

At the January gatherings, we explored what we can learn from the mandated practice of regular review and reimagining of our core values and elements of our identity. What Spiritual Leadership practices does such reimagining invite? How does the charge to the Article II Study Commission inspire us to consider a similar reimagining at the congregational level and what would that take?

Gathering 5 - November 2022

Theme: Transforming Culture by Centering in Gifts

In our November gatherings we imagined together the cultural shifts that might take hold when we center in gifts and considered what might get in the way of this practice. We also looked at early efforts in congregations to introduce practices for Centering in Gifts and what shifts in culture they hope to inspire.

  • Pre-work: Preparation for Gathering (Google Doc.)
  • Post-gathering materials:
    • Chat - this lets you see who attended both sessions, their congregations, their roles, what sparked them and what step(s) they are considering to take next.

Gathering 4 - September 2022

Theme: Being in Right Relationship With Change

The September gatherings allowed participants to learn from the folks from Groton and from each other; we shared concerns, stories and questions as well as explored opportunities for collaboration.

  • Pre-work: Preparation for Gathering (Google Doc.)
  • Post-gathering materials:
    • Chat - this lets you see who attended both sessions, their congregations, their roles, what sparked them and what step(s) they are considering to take next.

Gathering 3 - May 2022

Theme: Reactivity to Resilience: Inner Work in Congregations

Participants explored how the inner work of shifting our orientation from reactivity to activation could initiate or support culture change in congregations.

Gathering 2 - March 2022

Theme: Responding to Racism through the Practices of Spiritual Leadership

Participants learned of the Follen Responds to Racism team's experience of engaging the practices of Spiritual Leadership in their anti-racism work. We considered how the practices interrupt racism/white supremacy culture and how they can help shift culture within or beyond our congregations.

Gathering 1 - January 2022

Theme: Why culture change? Why practices of Spiritual Leadership? Why a community of practice?

In this inaugural gathering we explored our call to culture change as UUs and how we see practices of Spiritual Leadership enabling such change. We established our initial expectations for the community of practice and shared visions for desired culture changes toward which you want to apply the practices of Spiritual Leadership.

New to the Community of Practice? Need an overview of Practices of Spiritual Leadership? Find links at the bottom of the Spiritual Leadership For Culture Change page to learn more.