Mistakes & Miracles UU Common Read Discussion Guide

Cover of Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism

Mistakes and Miracles, the 2022-23 UU Common Read, sparks transformative conversation about making Beloved Community real and dismantling white supremacy in our Unitarian Universalist faith communities.

The UUA Common Read for 2022-23 was Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism (Skinner House Books, 2019). In the book, co-authors Nancy Palmer Jones and Karin Lin—a white minister and a lay person of color—explored five UU congregations' journeys toward Beloved Community and share the joy, disappointment, and growth these congregations found.

Engaging with this book can help UU congregations grapple with our movement's charge to dismantle white supremacy in ourselves, our communities, and our world. Doing this Common Read together is one way for a UU faith community to engage in this important work.

This discussion guide invites Unitarian Universalist congregations and groups to connect deeply with the stories of others who have chosen a faithful path and struggled along the way.

About the Authors

Susan Dana Lawrence

Susan Dana Lawrence is the managing editor for the Faith Development Office of the Unitarian Universalist Association. She is also a writer and educator who has worked in broadcast television, corporate communications, and print journalism. She belongs to Reform Jewish and Unitarian Universalist...

Karin Lin
Karin Lin

Karin Lin is a member of First Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she has played a number of leadership roles related to multiculturalism, antiracism, and social justice.

Nancy Palmer Jones
Nancy Palmer Jones

Nancy Palmer Jones has served as senior minister at the First Unitarian Church of San José, California since 2005. With the late Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley, she co-edited Soul Work: Antiracist Theologies in Dialogue.

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