• Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Building Tour
    • Directions and Parking
    • Pathway to Membership
    • Our Beliefs
    • Visiting Sunday Services
    • Welcome
  • Worship
    • Memorial Services
    • Music Ministry
    • Sunday Services
    • Sunday Offering
    • Worship Associates
  • Grow
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Art Lives at Unity Church
    • Artist in Residence
    • Cairns
    • Gender + Faith Retreat
    • Library-Bookstall
    • Religious Education for Children and Youth
    • Spiritual Practice
    • Theological Themes
    • Wellspring Wednesday
    • Youth Musical
  • Act
    • Beloved Community News
    • Community Outreach Ministry Teams
    • Next Right Action
  • Connect
    • Board of Trustees
    • Calendar
    • commUNITY Newsletter
    • Congregational Care
    • Contact Us
    • Fellowship Groups
    • Membership Database
    • Ministerial Transition
  • Give
    • Annual Fundraiser
    • Annual Pledge
    • Make a Gift
    • Heritage Society Legacy Giving
  • Watch
  • About
    • Facilities Use and Rental
    • Staff
    • Employment
    • Unity Church History
    • Values, Mission, and Ends
    • Who We Are
UNITY CHURCH-UNITARIAN
  • Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Building Tour
    • Directions and Parking
    • Pathway to Membership
    • Our Beliefs
    • Visiting Sunday Services
    • Welcome
  • Worship
    • Memorial Services
    • Music Ministry
    • Sunday Services
    • Sunday Offering
    • Worship Associates
  • Grow
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Art Lives at Unity Church
    • Artist in Residence
    • Cairns
    • Gender + Faith Retreat
    • Library-Bookstall
    • Religious Education for Children and Youth
    • Spiritual Practice
    • Theological Themes
    • Wellspring Wednesday
    • Youth Musical
  • Act
    • Beloved Community News
    • Community Outreach Ministry Teams
    • Next Right Action
  • Connect
    • Board of Trustees
    • Calendar
    • commUNITY Newsletter
    • Congregational Care
    • Contact Us
    • Fellowship Groups
    • Membership Database
    • Ministerial Transition
  • Give
    • Annual Fundraiser
    • Annual Pledge
    • Make a Gift
    • Heritage Society Legacy Giving
  • Watch
  • About
    • Facilities Use and Rental
    • Staff
    • Employment
    • Unity Church History
    • Values, Mission, and Ends
    • Who We Are

Honoring Water and Water Protectors: What You Can Do

12/16/2021

0 Comments

 
Beloved Community Communications Team
 
The “Honoring Water Protectors Discussion” held on December 1, 2021, in the Sanctuary at Unity Church and livestreamed on YouTube featured two remarkable water protectors: Sharon Day, executive director of The Indigenous People’s Task Force and leader of the Nibi Walk movement, and Tara Houska, an attorney, as well as environmental and Indigenous rights activist. Photographer John Kaul was inspired by the work of Indigenous and these two remarkable women. His work can be seen in the Eliot Wing photo and story exhibit, and he will post photos from the show on his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/john.kaul. We were inspired by the water protectors and their deep respect for the earth and wanted to share what they told us about how you can help.
Ideas on How You Can Help from Tara Houska and Sharon Day:

Learn about the Honor the Earth organization. Tara Houska is the National Campaigns Director. Pull down the “Action” menu for how you can help.
 
Reshape your relationship with nature. Think about how everything you consume comes from nature, that everything around us, including our bodies, is of the earth. Connect to the idea that water and the earth are not resources to be consumed but a living thing with spirit that is endangered in Minnesota.
 
Contact Gov. Walz: Drop the charges against Line 3 activists. Minnesota Public Radio reported in September 2021 that nearly 900 people have been charged, most with misdemeanors but some with arbitrary and escalated felony and gross misdemeanor charges. Call Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and ask him to stop infringement on first amendment rights to peaceful assembly and to protest, and drop the charges against Line 3 activists: 651-201-3400, and/or tweet Gov. Walz: @GovTimWalz, #DropL3Charges
 
Donate to the Line 3 Rapid Response Campaign. The Center for Protest Law & Litigation is administering a fund to subsidize and support legal costs for people arrested in opposition to the Line 3 pipeline. If you prefer to pay by mail, write a check with “CPPL/Line3” in the subject line and mail to:
Partnership for Civil Justice Fund
617 Florida Ave, NW, Washington DC, 20001
 
Protect the Boundary Waters and water in Northern Minnesota from sulfide mining. For information on the legal case against PolyMet to prohibit this dangerous form of mining and to see what you can do, visit the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.
 
To stay abreast of the community outreach teams working on these issues at Unity Church:
  • Contact the Act for the Earth Team—join their email news list: UnityActfortheEarth@gmail.com
  • Visit Unity's Indigenous Justice Team website
0 Comments

The Soul Work of Antiracism Literacy

11/11/2021

0 Comments

 
Beloved Community Communications Team

​The Antiracism Literacy Partners (ALP) program is one year old this fall, and it seemed a good time to check in with some of the participants to ask how the program has broadened or changed their perspective on racism and dominant white culture, and for thoughts on the opportunity to move from "within," from personal reading and reflection, to "among," engaging with others in this work. Here is some of what ALP participants said: 
Participation in Unity’s ALP program has transformed my understanding of racism’s deep and insidious effects on our culture and my awareness of the responsibilities I bear. By inviting me, in her book Caste, to imagine our damaged society as an old house and to imagine myself as its new owner, Isabel Wilkerson showed me my place in our racist history: Although I am not to blame for the damage I inherited, I do have an obligation to repair it. Confronted in my ALP reading and listening by the enormity of America’s original sin, I find it challenging to move past feelings of guilt, shame, and helplessness, but thanks to these experiences, I have new tools, new connections, and new hope that I can in a small way help bend the arc toward justice.  — Don Lee
                                                                                   
The materials I have consumed and discussed in ALP program groups have significantly increased my ability to see beyond the white culture "water I swim in.” My framework is transformed. Engaging with others, as opposed to reading on my own, is especially useful. Preparing to participate in a group discussion requires me to think about the material more deeply. I always learn from the other participants who bring their own experiences, perspectives, and insights to the discussion. I also greatly value the fact that I have come to know quite a few Unity members I did not previously know. — Andrea Bond
 
I am more aware that my perspective on everything, including matters of race, is based on specific aspects of myself. All that has gone into making me who and what I am, including age, ethnicity, gender, skin color, education, socioeconomic status, and more, shape my perception of reality. I found great value in the antiracism books and articles that I read. My learning was amplified by each opportunity to engage with others in conversation about what we read. I can better reflect upon what I have learned when I add the perspective of people who differ from me in age, ethnicity, gender, and so on. — ​Mike Funck
Please register here and then join us for the next ALP meeting on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, at 7:00 p.m. 
 
Note: You do not have to attend the Wednesday meeting to participate, but you should contact us within a few days before or after to join a group. For more information, contact Becky Gonzalez-Campoy: beckygc83@gmail.com.
 
To learn more about SoulWork, click here.
0 Comments

Antiracism Literacy Partners

8/26/2021

0 Comments

 
Justice for George Floyd
Wednesday, September 22
​7:00-8:30 p.m. • Zoom (online)
Register: 
https://bit.ly/ALPSep22​
What does it take to be racially literate and engaged in antiracism in a day-to-day way? Where do we find resources and support in our ongoing learning about systemic racism and the work of dismantling it? Whether you attended previous sessions or are just checking it out now, this program is an easy entry into finding antiracism books, podcasts, and videos, as well as discussion partners for talking about them. Come to choose a resource, sign up for a buddy or small group, and receive discussion guidelines. This program is part of Unity's Finding Our Next Right Action efforts. Questions? Contact Becky Gonzalez-Campoy at beckygc83@gmail.com.

0 Comments

    Topics

    All
    Antiracism
    Artist In Residence
    BC Story
    Consider This
    Criminal Justice
    Earth Justice
    Events
    IDI
    Indigenous Justice
    Next Right Action
    Police Reform
    Racial Justice
    SoulWork

    Beloved Community Resources

    Next Right Actions

    Unity 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 

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    April 2017

    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. 
    Subscribe in a reader
Unity Church-Unitarian | 733 Portland Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55104 | 651-228-1456 | unity@unityunitarian.org
All rights reserved.
  • Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Building Tour
    • Directions and Parking
    • Pathway to Membership
    • Our Beliefs
    • Visiting Sunday Services
    • Welcome
  • Worship
    • Memorial Services
    • Music Ministry
    • Sunday Services
    • Sunday Offering
    • Worship Associates
  • Grow
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Art Lives at Unity Church
    • Artist in Residence
    • Cairns
    • Gender + Faith Retreat
    • Library-Bookstall
    • Religious Education for Children and Youth
    • Spiritual Practice
    • Theological Themes
    • Wellspring Wednesday
    • Youth Musical
  • Act
    • Beloved Community News
    • Community Outreach Ministry Teams
    • Next Right Action
  • Connect
    • Board of Trustees
    • Calendar
    • commUNITY Newsletter
    • Congregational Care
    • Contact Us
    • Fellowship Groups
    • Membership Database
    • Ministerial Transition
  • Give
    • Annual Fundraiser
    • Annual Pledge
    • Make a Gift
    • Heritage Society Legacy Giving
  • Watch
  • About
    • Facilities Use and Rental
    • Staff
    • Employment
    • Unity Church History
    • Values, Mission, and Ends
    • Who We Are