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Goals

• Consider hospitable and inclusive practices through the lens of the COIC report and findings.
• Apply the findings to 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 online
• Newsprint and markers (if in-person) or a computer to record discussion contributions

Preparation

• Read the Hospitality and Inclusion chapter.
• Identify a recorder for this session.
• 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

Share these words by Ibram X. Kendi, from his book How to Be an Antiracist.

The opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'anti-racist.' ... One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist.'

Light the chalice.

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.

Ask the group:

• Who is responsible for greeting and welcoming in our congregation?
• What kind of education or dialogue is held with them?

Now invite the group to imagine a first encounter with the congregation, either physically or virtually. What might people notice or experience? Collect impressions from the group.

Ask:

• Based on this, who would feel most welcomed? Why?
• Who might question their welcome? Why?

Next, form two- or three-person small groups and invite them to undertake a mini-audit of how your congregation presents itself to newcomers and visitors. Ask each group to appoint a note-taker. Instruct groups to examine the congregation’s newsletter, website, and recent sermons.

• Look for words like “we,” “everyone,” “our” and consider both who is meant and how a reader might understand who is meant. Who is the “we”?
• Look for words like “others” and phrases like “surrounding community” that make a distinction between this faith community and someone else. Who is the someone else?

Ask the groups to not only notice words and phrases but to give careful thought to their meanings and messages.

Bring the groups back together. Invite each group to report one observation that struck them.

Now lead a discussion on these questions:

• What can we say now about how language can intentionally or unintentionally include or exclude?
• What harm can happen because of it?
• How hard was it to look at our congregation in this new way?
• What would it take for this new mindfulness to become the intentional practice of our community?

Discuss:

• In the congregation, how do people learn about affinity group opportunities for BIPOC across the broader Unitarian Universalist movement, such as Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU) and Diverse and Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM)?
• Is there a congregational or local UU cluster BIPOC affinity group?
• If so, how do people of color in the community learn of its existence?

Closing and Next Actions

Invite the group into a closing ritual: Ask volunteers to read aloud the Take-Aways at the end of the Hospitality and Inclusion chapter. You may extinguish the chalice while participants read.

Remind the group that both study and action are the purposes of this group. Offer a quick check-out. Ask the following questions and invite each participant to take a moment to reflect and then to respond in one sentence, uninterrupted, to any of these:

• What is one idea you want to continue to think about before our next discussion?
• What are the short-term actions that we should consider or take to translate this discussion into action?
• What are the longer scope actions?
• What is an element that makes the hard work meaningful and worthwhile for this group?