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Goals
- Plan how you will guide the congregation or community forward to implement COIC recommendations.
- Prioritize actions and plan how you will engage others, using insights from previous meetings as to how the findings of the COIC report apply in the context of your community.
Materials
- Chalice and something with which to light it
- A copy of Widening the Circle of Concern: Report of the UUA Commission on Institutional Change (2020)
- The text of the covenant guidelines to which the group has agreed, on newsprint if in person or accessible as electronic text to share if meeting online
- Newsprint and markers (if in-person) or a computer to record discussion contributions
Preparation
- Make sure the individual(s) assigned to gather the group’s priority rankings for future actions are ready to present the results.
- Identify a recorder for this session.
- Set a date/time for a follow-up meeting as this group moves forward into implementing action plans based on the COIC recommendations.
- Prepare a chalice and something with which to light it.
- Post the group covenant. (If in person, post newsprint; if online, plan to “share screen” and/or post the covenant guidelines or a link to them in the chat.)
Chalice Lighting
Light the chalice.
Invite the group to listen in meditation as you or a volunteer read(s) “Everybody Else,” by Jabari S. Jones (WorshipWeb).
On a spring day in Farmington, Maine, as I was walking downtown, I made my way through a line of cars that were waiting for the light. In front of me was a large Confederate flag flying from the back of a white pick-up. I crossed the street, not looking at who was driving the truck and went into the store. As I went about my business, I felt stunned; my mind stirred with thoughts and feelings, memories, and speculations. I felt fear, and anger, and curiosity; worry, and defiance, and humiliation.
As I stood at the register, I chatted with the older white woman behind the counter. “Hi, how are you today?”
“I’m good, how are you?” she replied. I paused, and then I told her about the truck with the flag.
She said something like, “Oh, yes, we have some of that around here, but don’t let it upset you. Don’t let it get to you.”
I appreciated her gesture, her attempt to comfort me. At the same time, her gesture made me more uncomfortable. She was asking me to respect that person’s right to fly that flag and shrug it off like everybody else. What she failed to see, or perhaps ignore in a gesture of "colorblindness" wrapped in the First Amendment, is that I am not like everybody else who walks in the shadow of that flag. I am from "away;" my hair is coarse; my skin is dark brown. I am a black man in Maine. In so many ways, I am not like everybody else around here. But I want to belong here. In so many ways, that flag represents the denial of my rights, my belonging.
It is impossible for me to blend in, to hide my black body, to "not let it get to me." I don’t have the privilege of hiding from history. Because I am conscious, I know what it is; I know its name. It rides in the back of a pick-up truck, it proudly stalks around town like an alpha predator. It clings to me like a nightmare, while it seems like everyone else is walking through a dream. I point at the thing and say "Look!," and the crowd replies, "Yes, but…"
When I hear "Yes," I feel heard. When I hear "but," I become invisible; my life doesn’t matter. It's this "but—," this disbelief in the truth of black bodies, this tolerance for something that is ugly and intolerant, that is the terror that "everybody else" allows to walk in their midst: a casual terror that I cannot escape any more than I can escape my own body, my own consciousness. A terror that makes all lives matter less. I struggle to wake up from the nightmare, and the dream that is its mirror image. I struggle to make my life matter, for black lives to matter, so that all lives will matter.
Discussion
Take a moment to review the group’s covenant. Ask the group if anything should be added or amended. If there is consensus, add or amend the covenant and save the changes.
Make sure a recorder from the group is ready to document discussion.
Say:
The preface of the report states, “If [this report] is received as nothing more than a document, that will be a travesty and fresh source of injury to all who participated in offering and compiling the wisdom found here.”
Refer participants to the ranked priority list of next actions that was generated from their votes. (If online, a co-facilitator or the person who compiled the ranked list may share their screen.) Ask the following questions:
- How are we generating an on-going discussion of theology?
- How can we audit our practices and governance structures? Who will be accountable for doing this?
- What are our welcoming and hospitality practices? How do we intentionally educate those who are the front-face of our community to embrace all who seek sanctuary among us?
- Where do we need to continue to learn? What are the means for further study and who is accountable for doing this?
- Where could a discussion of reparations occur within our community? Who will be responsible for holding this container?
- What body will monitor our progress and how will it be reported to our membership?
Closing and Next Actions
Offer these words from p.137 of the COIC report:
Our basic premise is that we can live into the full participation of those who have been most marginalized among us, we can create a responsive, vibrant Unitarian Universalism. A Unitarian Universalist faith marked by full equity and participation will continue to play a vital role in transforming lives and communities.
Then, say:
Now that we better understand the findings and recommendations of the Commission on Institutional Change, we have the opportunity to dig deep into our faithful practice of Unitarian Universalism by helping to transform our community and the lives of its members. Now the work of implementation begins. We will meet again on [pre-scheduled meeting date and time] to choose a few of the recommendations to set as goals to act on in this year and to plan how we will accomplish that.
Offer participants these matters to consider before the next meeting:
- In acting upon the recommendations, this group should recruit multigenerational involvement and share the workload across many groups within the congregation or community.
- There are many free and low-cost project management apps, such as Monday and Trello, that can help the group track each project and promote accountability.
- In addition to helping to create a more welcoming and equitable Unitarian Universalism, doing this work can be joyful and spiritually fulfilling. It can create new friendships and strengthen existing bonds between groups and individuals. Blessings on this journey!
Close with words by Rev. Dr. Monica Cummings or words by Rev. William Sinkford, and extinguish the chalice.
Let It Be Done by Monica Cummings
Dear Unknown, Unknowable, Yet Known by Many Names
Keep us mindful that we are all related. That when one of us is ignored and treated with dis-ease, we all suffer. Today let each of us commit to welcome the stranger. Let us move beyond our comfort zones and connect with people labeled different and pushed to the edges of society. We can make a difference. We can transform lives. We can bring harmony and healing to the places and spaces where we live, work, and play. Let us keep our hearts and minds open and receptive to the still, small voice that calls us to stand witness for those who cannot stand, to speak the truth for justice for those without a voice, and to lead the way on the journey toward wholeness for those without sight. In the spirit of love, compassion, and community, let it be done. Blessed Be.
Only Begun by Bill Sinkford
Spirit of Life and Love, dear God of all nations:
There is so much work to do. We have only begun to imagine justice and mercy. Help us to hold fast to our vision of what can be. May we see the hope in our history, and find the courage and the voice to work for that constant rebirth of freedom and justice. That is our dream. Amen.