Marjorie Otto, Beloved Community Communications Team I think it’s safe to make the generalization that for many of us who find ourselves in a liberal theological community, one of the most difficult tasks asked of us is to develop a spiritual practice. And don’t even get me started on my (and probably others’) struggle with developing a prayer practice; that’s for another newsletter. Thankfully, we find ourselves here at Unity Church with a plethora of circles, sources, events, and publications to support that task. But even with all those resources, the learning never stops, so I joined the late-February follow-up to the fall 2023 series Spiritual Practice: Discovery and Transformation, with Rev. KP Hong to continue my dive into spiritual practice. If you are contemplating these questions, you are not alone:
It can be overwhelming to know what a practice can look like that fulfills within, among, and beyond needs. During the February event, KP reminded us of the core definition of spiritual practice: it’s how we connect to the whole, the holy, that which is greater than the self and greater than the ego. He also reminded us of the unbreakable bond between spiritual practice and antiracist practice. We cannot think to dismantle racism without the transformation a spiritual practice provides to us to connect to that which is greater. This intertwining is seen in the Double Helix Model in which spirituality and antiracist work at the within, among, and beyond levels to break down white supremacy. We were asked to consider these questions as we shared what our practice looks like:
Of all my spiritual uncertainties, I’ve always known that nature has been, and always will be, my connection to that which is greater because it is the realm in which I’ve experienced the most awe: the pulsating of an aurora borealis, waves lapping against rocks, and a Cooper’s Hawk raising its young in our backyard silver maple. A spiritual practice for me is anything that brings me outside.
We were then asked to name our antiracism practice and to look at how it and our spiritual practice come together to support each other. And if it was hard to name how the two support each other, are there adjustments to be made to increase that support? That’s where I find myself: ruminating on the adjustments. I feel a connection between my roots in nature and an antiracist practice of acknowledging how environmental destruction is a white dominate act. However, I don’t yet know how to clearly define that thread to someone else. This idea of spiritual and antiracism practices supporting one another follows a theme. The disconnections we often experience in our capitalist society that does not value spirituality, rest, community, art, face-to-face communication, or humanity as a part of nature, lead to other-ing and barriers. We put up barriers thinking that we need protection between the “other” and the “self.” Within the “self,” even more barriers go up to create separations of the body, the mind, the persona, and the ego. When all these barriers become impermeable, it easy is for us to see ourselves as separate from the “other.” That’s how we find ourselves in these problems: racism, environmental destruction, individualism, and burnout. If we are unable to move through these boundaries to see ourselves as connected to the “other,” the disconnection leads us to see a race different and as less-than. It leads us to see humans as having dominium over nature rather than as a part of it. Disconnection ends in destruction. But spiritual practice is the key to rebuilding those connections. Maybe you’re thinking that seems a bit overblown: “My spiritual practice can’t really hold that much weight; all I’m doing is going for a walk or sitting on a meditation cushion.” That’s where the February event culminated: not only should your spiritual practice be about the space to transform the self, the within, it should serve to transform the other, the beyond. The final question hints at that: Does your spiritual practice bring you comfort, or does it bring you to connections you’re uncomfortable with? The call to action is the answer you and I are trying to find: If your spiritual practice pushes you to connect with something you’d rather avoid, to discomfort, that is your spiritual practice.
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Shelley Butler, Beloved Community Communications Team No Question That Reparations Are Owed After coming into the Parish Hall for Wellspring Wednesday on January 31, 2024, and saying hey to a few people, I took a spot at the front in one of the only seats left for the panel discussion, “The Process of Politics and Reparations in Saint Paul,” sponsored by the Unity Racial and Restorative Justice Team. Unity member Russel Balenger spoke about being a descendent of enslaved people, and about growing up in Rondo before being displaced. In a brief film, we heard Bridgett Floyd, sister of George Floyd, speak about the enslaved ancestors who managed to acquire several hundred acres of farmland in the South after emancipation only to have it stolen from them. Our country and our state of Minnesota were built on stolen land and free labor. Reparations are not an abstract idea relating to people over 100 years ago. The action is personal to Russel and Bridgett and every descendent of an enslaved family member. And it is about the continuing legacy of slavery: trauma, lost generational wealth, health care issues, housing discrimination, disproportional imprisonment, the destruction of the Rondo neighborhood, and more. We learned that Minnesota has the third-largest racial wealth gap in the country. It should be personal to all of us. Jane Prince has worked on reparations for years and is now fresh off the City Council and a Unity Church member. She said, “Reparations [are] a federal debt.” The work in St. Paul is a start, as are the 116 other proposals to do with reparations that have passed around the country. Reparative Work by the St. Paul City Council To bring us up to date, Trahern Crews, a Black Lives Matter Minnesota leader and one of the conveners of St Paul’s Reparations Advisory Committee, walked us through the years of study and work completed by himself, Balenger, Prince, and many others that led to successful reparations work in St. Paul. Highlights include:
Independent of the City Council, Mayor Melvin Carter established the Rondo Inheritance Fund to help displaced Rondo families purchase housing. And while information on the Inheritance Fund is on the city website under “City Council Reparations Efforts,” it is not related to the commission. Due to a large number of applicants, the city is no longer taking applications for this fund. What You Can Do Right Now The history so far is important, but to hear direct-experience testimony is to witness the pain and hopefully, to become allies in the work of reparations. Thus, the call to immediate action. Here’s what you can do:
Questions for Further Thought
Rev. Lara Cowtan, Minister of Congregational Care and Beloved Community Staff Team member It had been almost twenty years since I had lived in Canada when I returned in 2019. In my absence, a new territory had been created, Nunavut (official language is Inuit), and what were once called the Queen Charlotte Islands had formally been renamed Haida Gwaii, in recognition of the Haida people who live there (official language is Haida). Special holidays had been created and awareness of native history, culture and tradition was growing. Land acknowledgement statements were commonplace at the beginning of any kind of public gathering. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2008 to 2015) brought about some major changes in laws, policies, and public awareness pertaining to Indigenous rights, equity, and inclusion. In 2014, the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) and Unitarian Universalist Ministers of Canada (UUMOC) issued a statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In it is a commitment to assemble and promote educational materials for congregations on the history and impact of the Indian residential school system, and to uphold the recommendations of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. General public awareness about racism and oppression seemed to be on the rise, especially as immigrant communities from African and Asian nations grew, as did racially-motivated violent crime. Following the death of George Floyd in May 2020, the CUC issued a statement mourning the deaths of people of color, and hosted a series of conversations, workshops and roundtables to discuss and begin work to address systemic racism. A Dismantling Racism Study Group was formed, tasked with interviewing, assessing, and making recommendations to the CUC. We were all immersed in learning about the long history of anti-black racism and discrimination in Canada. Recommendations from the group are being implemented, including investment of resources at the national and congregational level, and creating/assembling antiracism material for education and worship for congregations. Then, in May 2021, the horrific discovery of the remains of 215 children buried in unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia shocked the nation. My heart broke wide open and joined with Indigenous communities as the news rolled through in a firestorm of grieving. This was just the beginning of a series of similar discoveries from other sites of some of the 140 Indian Residential Schools which operated across Canada from 1831 into the closing decades of the 20th Century. I was, at the time, serving as interim minister in Vancouver, British Columbia. There are three distinct tribes who have lived on the land where the city of Vancouver sprawls along the coast: the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Watuth First Nations. Every worship service began with an acknowledgment of being uninvited residents on their land and of our responsibility to work to dismantle the ongoing impact of settler colonialism. Following the discovery, the acknowledgment went deeper to lift up the generational trauma of the victims and families of survivors of the residential school system, and the work of the congregation to be in good relationship with the areas native communities also deepened. Each year, September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, an important step in reconciliation, and Orange Shirt Day, an Indigenous-led public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools. Approximately 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families, placed in residential schools, stripped of their culture, language and identities, their names changed, and hair shorn. They were forbidden to speak their own languages, suffered horrific abuses and poor conditions, and several thousand died. I was never taught a single thing about residential schools when I was in school. In the wake of this upswell of awareness, engagement, and response to the tireless work of leaders across Canada, on Saturday, November 27, 2021, 95% of the 104 Canadian Unitarian Universalist delegates to a special meeting of the CUC voted in favor of the motion to approve adding an 8th Principle to the current Seven Principles (bit.ly/cuc7prin) with language modified to the Canadian context. It reads:
Truth, healing and reconciliation, dismantling racism and oppressive systems of colonial and white supremacy is a long and deeply spiritual process of self-awareness and relationship-building. I am committed to the work of dismantling racism and systemic barriers to full inclusion in myself, in our congregations and in society at large. May we all continue to learn, grow heal, and live into the dream of beloved community.
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Beloved Community ResourcesUnity Justice Database
Team Dynamics House of Intersectionality Anti-Racism Resources in the Unity Libraries Collection Creative Writers of Color in Unity Libraries The History of Race Relations and Unity Church, 1850-2005 Archives
April 2024
Beloved Community Staff TeamThe Beloved Community Staff Team (BCST) strengthens and coordinates Unity’s antiracism and multicultural work, and provides opportunities for congregants and the church to grow into greater intercultural competency. We help the congregation ground itself in the understanding of antiracism and multiculturalism as a core part of faith formation. We support Unity’s efforts to expand our collective capacity to imagine and build the Beloved Community. Here, we share the stories of this journey — the struggles, the questions, and the collaborations — both at Unity and in the wider world.
The current members of the Beloved Community Staff Team include Rev. Kathleen Rolenz, Rev. KP Hong, Rev. Lara Cowtan, Drew Danielson, Laura Park, Lia Rivamonte and Angela Wilcox. |