Handout 2: Simulation Descriptions: Minister and Board
The Minister
Rev. Christopher Emerson is a 43-year-old, single White male who is a third-generation Unitarian Universalist minister. He is known for his enthusiasm, charisma, and considerable oratorical skills. He spends an extraordinary amount of time doing the work of the congregation and has little personal time; the congregation has, in effect, become his family. He is a powerful presence within the congregation and community and takes up a lot of psychic space! He graduated from an Ivy League school and has many connections to the power elite in your town. He believes in creating systems of social equity, but frames injustice as a political and class issue, as opposed to internalized systems of oppression. At the end of the day, he is invested in "making results happen."
Board of Trustees
NOTE: All members of the Board have participated in antioppression/antiracism and multicultural diversity seminars. This may or may not be known to members of the congregation.
Mike Feingold, 43, a White male of Jewish heritage, is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist who was one of the founders of the congregation. He has done major fundraising for the congregation, and is toying with the idea of becoming a Unitarian Universalist minister. He is the executive director for an arts education nonprofit. He and his wife, Polly, who is white, have two boys in the second and fourth grade.
Dennis Lewis, 52, a White male, is an economics professor who joined the congregation about three years ago. He is a widowed, single father who adopted a child from China right before his wife was killed in an auto accident 15 years ago. Dennis is very reserved and conservative in all his thinking. He is very strict with his now teenaged son and has extraordinarily high expectations. He has a reputation for being somewhat awkward socially, yet his voice carries weight within the congregation.
Carla Mosby, 39, became a Unitarian Universalist as a young adult, after having been raised in the Catholic Church. She and her partner, Brownyn, both White, are a lesbian couple with two adopted children of Color, Kennedy and Kayla. Both want a high quality religious education program for their children. They also want them to feel safe as children of Color and as children of a same-sex couple.