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UNITY CHURCH-UNITARIAN
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Read. Watch. Listen. LEARN.

6/23/2020

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Merrill Aldrich, On Behalf of the Beloved Community Communications Team

​Anti-racism books are at the top of the best-seller lists this year. It seems we are wondering more urgently how to help in a way that is constructive and impactful. It’s a desire both to understand and to address questions about what we ought to be doing differently. This is also a conversation that has been ongoing at Unity Church, and our community is here to support one another as we decide what right action looks like.

Scholar Ibram X. Kendi describes parallel processes of introspection — critically examining our own assumptions, attitudes, and even vocabulary — and meaningful anti-racist action. He argues that the two activities could work together to move us past arguments of overtly held racist beliefs and into more effective actions against racist structures deeply embedded in our culture. So, what are some sustaining steps that we can take on these twin paths, working on ourselves (within) and in the world (beyond)?

First, the study of these issues is not in vain! Reading, watching, listening — learning — is absolutely helpful, especially as the result better informs our actions. A huge number of resources exist, and lately many folks have collected and listed and cataloged hundreds of them. Here is a sampling of the very tip of the iceberg:
  • Remember, working on yourself is real. In fact, “doing our own work” is a request many people of color have made of white people about these issues — if you’re a white person reading this, that is its own call to action.
  • “Begin where you are.” Perhaps do a little work to understand where that is relative to others, so you can choose a starting point that makes sense. 
  • Questionnaires can be a good tool for this, as they prompt you to think through some harder questions. Unity uses the IDI: https://idiinventory.com/
  • This questionnaire is from Peggy McIntosh, associate director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women: https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf
  • Watch the Netflix look at racial inequality in our prison system, 13th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8
  • Listen to the 1619 podcast, which “examines the long shadow of slavery:” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/podcasts/1619-podcast.html
  • If you’re a white person, look into the research and writing of Robin DiAngelo to better understand your role in relation to other races. A good starting point may be her book White Fragility: http://www.beacon.org/White-Fragility-P1631.aspx​
  • Prioritize learning tools that work for you. If you love reading a thick book, do. If radio or podcasts work better, do that. Workshops and discussion? Seek them out. Unity Church is one great place to find multiple channels for learning including our library resources: www.librarycat.org/lib/UnityChurch
  • Lists of more resources are deep and wide including Anti-racism Resources for White People, Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein May 2020: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BRlF2_zhNe86SGgHa6-VlBO-QgirITwCTugSfKie5Fs/

If you have taken this look around, to get a handle on where you are and where others stand, you may want to consider some of these: 
  • The Case for Reparations (article by Ta-Nehisi Coates) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
  • How to be an Anti-Racist (book by Ibram X. Kendi) 
  • A UU study guide pointing out “socially acceptable” attitudes and behaviors that are in reality covert forms of white supremacy: https://uucsj.org/study-guide/legacies-of-systemic-injustice/white-supremacy/
  • Wade into the social media platforms of Twitter and Instagram and follow Black, indigenous and people of color firsthand.
  • Understand from the source what Black Lives Matter is about: https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/

​Consider the question of who is writing and speaking. For white people, myself included, white people talking to other white people on these topics can be a helpful way in, due to shared experience and perspective, but should not be the end point. Black, indigenous people, and people of color, while they should not be burdened with “explaining” racism, have done a tremendous amount of work putting this information out there. Seek that out and read it.
Finally, taking carefully considered and meaningful action is vital, and can take many forms:
  • Understand and act on these issues in your local community, school systems, and local government.
  • Understand and act on these issues in your workplace.
  • If you have money to give, do. 
  • Find, connect with, and support organizations that are already doing work in this area, and let them lead. 
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Finding Our Next Right Action

6/4/2020

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Finding Our Next Right Action
Thursday, June 4 • 7:00 p.m. 

Unity ministers open a space for understanding the many options for supporting change in this moment. Facilitated small groups will help you connect with others and information for making donations, hands on helping, legislative action, and protest. ​

​CLICK HERE to watch the Minneapolis memorial service for George Floyd.

Racial Justice Film Series: A Time for Burning

Sunday, June 7 • 3:00-5:00 p.m. 
​
The Racial and Restorative Justice team invites you to join them online to view and discuss the 1966 documentary, A Time for Burning. A young white Lutheran minister in Omaha, Nebraska, tries to reach out to a Black congregation but encounters opposition from his church elders and the acerbic opinions of a Black barber. The documentary chronicles these events and what unfolds. All are welcome — watch for a link to join the viewing.
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A Message from Our Ministers

6/2/2020

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​We are in a state of emergency here in the Twin Cities, and increasingly across the nation and beyond, following George Floyd's brutal murder last week. 
 
The crisis is real and raging. #WeCantBreathe. For some, it is taking everything we have and then some. Every day presents more to do (and learn) than there is time for doing and learning. For many, especially black, indigenous, and people of color, trauma current and old alike is setting off overwhelming alarms, in the sometimes conflicting ways trauma does. For all of us, we are asked to consider how we will live out our values in the double pandemic of racism and Covid.
 
This week (starting tonight), the UUA and Unity Church (informed by our collaboration with black leaders) will be offering several invitations meant to help us share these questions in a supportive and deeply challenging way that will lead to action and lasting change.
 
We, the ministers of Unity Church, hope you will attend one or more these offerings online. We hope you will find your own next right action, as the teachers tell us to do. We hope none of us will let the pain and terror of these times pass unused in our desire for and our commitment to a world of justice for all.
 
Rev. Janne Eller-Isaacs
Rev. Rob Eller-Isaacs
Rev. Lisa Friedman
Rev. Karen Hering
Rev. KP Hong
 
UUA Prayer Vigil and Call to Action: #WeCantBreathe
Tuesday, June 2 • 7:00-8:30 p.m. CST 
Join us as we gather to reclaim black freedom, decry white supremacy, grieve the murder of black lives, and recommit to living our Unitarian Universalist values. Speakers include Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, Rev. Carlton Elliott Smith, Everette Thompson, Rev. Michael J. Crumpler, Paige Ingram. Musician: Melanie DeMore.
 
Unity Church: #WeCantBreathe
Wednesday, June 3 • 7:00 p.m.
Honoring George Floyd with prayerful vigil and an invitation into personal reflection in writing, silence, and facilitated conversation, on the meaning of these events and our call to respond. Open to all. Led by the Rev. KP Hong and Karen Hering, with Unity's ministers and staff.
 
Finding Our Next Right Action
Thursday, June 4 • 7:00 p.m. 
Unity ministers open a space for understanding the many options for supporting change in this moment. Facilitated small groups will help you connect with others and information for making donations, hands on helping, legislative action, and protest. 
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    Beloved Community Staff Team

    The 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, Barbara Hubbard, Drew Danielson, Laura Park, Rev. Karen Gustafson, Angela Wilcox, Pauline Eichten, and Erika Sanders. 
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Unity Church-Unitarian | 733 Portland Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55104 | 651-228-1456 | unity@unityunitarian.org
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  • Visit
    • Accessibility
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  • Grow
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    • Theological Themes
    • Wellspring Wednesday
  • Act
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    • UUA/MidAmerica Region
    • Values, Mission, and Ends
    • Who We Are