Gender + Faith Retreat

COMPLETE A PARTICIPANT INTEREST FORM

Unity Church is very excited to announce that we’re hosting an opportunity for conversation, growth, and community-building around our gender and faith identities. At our first-ever Gender + Faith retreat, participants will explore our gender journeys, share stories about the intersection of gender and faith in our lives, and consider how our spiritual practices and commitment to our End Statements might help us interrupt marginalization based on gender that happens among us in our church community.
 
Join us in creating a brave space where people of all genders can show up whole and holy in the multiplicity of their identities, expanding and enriching our personal and collective gender and faith journeys.
 
Here are some of the questions we hope to explore:

• What is gender?
• How does gender organize your life and shape your meaning-making?
• What is gender in a faith community? Why do we so often divide according to gender? What are you looking for when we divide by gender?
• How might expanding and complicating our understanding of gender deepen our personal spiritual practice and our relationships with one another as members of Unity?
• How might expanding and complicating our understanding of gender generate new and different ways of living out our values and create a more inclusive and truly welcoming faith community? 

 
Interested in attending? Please complete a participant interest form by March 4, 2022. Videos or one-on-one interviews instead of written responses are also welcome.
 
Capacity is limited; priority will be given based on:

• Ability to complete about two hours of homework before the retreat.
• Ability to attend the whole retreat on Saturday, March 19, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. See more details below.
• A diverse representation of genders at the retreat.

 
Questions? Contact Laura Park, Director of Membership and Hospitality, at laura@unityunitarian.org or 651-228-1456 x110, or Shay MacKay, Coordinator of Outreach Ministries, at shay@unityunitarian.org or 651-228-1456 x106.
 
Additional retreat details:

• Saturday, March 19, 2022
• Mount Olivet Retreat Center: 7984 257th St W, Farmington, MN (about 45 minutes from Unity Church)
• Approximately 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• Lunch is included
• The church will be covering all costs for this retreat.

 
Gender + Faith Retreat Planning Team
Sara Ford
Ray Hommeyer
Mike Huber
Shay MacKay
Laura Park
finn schneider

​Thinking of attending Unity's first-ever Gender + Faith retreat?
 
Want to learn more before sending in your participant interest form?
 
Watch Ray, Shay, and Laura talk about their hopes for how the brave space we create together at the retreat can expand and enrich our personal and collective gender and faith journeys.

Read the reflection that Ray mentions in the retreat video.​

Create a multi-cultural spiritual home based on authentic relationship. Know each other in all our fullness and create an ever-widening circle of belonging for all people. 

From Unity's Ends Statements