Blue Boat of Youth and Young Adult MinistriesSpiritual Practices for White Anxiety
Tomorrow some right wing extremists are planning to hold a rally in the city I live in and I’m planning to march against white supremacy. Like many folks, I have a lot of questions rattling around in my brain. I have petty selfish questions, logistical questions, and deep questions. I’m wondering “How much violence will there be?” and “Should I wear a love shirt over my clergy shirt?” and “What if the cell phone towers jam and what if it rains?” and “What if things start to escalate, should I leave? Should I try and protect my friends of color? Will I have the courage to do that?” and “What if white people in our march…
Reflections after Thrive Young Adult
Kaitlin Dey, Thrive Young Adult alumni 2016 and 2017, shared this reflection at her congregation last Sunday: I spent the last 10 days in New Orleans. I attended Thrive Young Adult. Thrive is part of Grow Racial Justice that is for UU young adults of color, we dove deep into complex questions about identity, power, spirituality and leadership. We got to explore our roles as young adults of color in our UU movement, build relationships with one another around intersecting identities, share practices for healing and resistance, and support each other on the path toward liberation. While I was at Thrive, I began dialogues about the beauty and the flaws of our faith. As the week continued and General Assembly began,…
White Supremacy Teach-In
Resources for Youth and Young Adult Ministry When you hear or read the words “White Supremacy,” what thoughts come to mind, what emotions surface? For some of us, it is a fear-filled phrase that conjures images of white hoods and robes that seems totally dissonant with our Unitarian Universalist faith. For others, it is a term of criticism that exposes the ways our wider culture and even our systems within UUism continue to privilege the feelings, ideas, success and lives of white people over people of color. Because of our lived experiences and our intersecting identities, we may all have different reactions to this phrase. As Rev. Sofia Betancourt, interim co-president for our Unitarian Universalist…
Reflection on White Supremacy in Our UUA
From the staff of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries UPDATED 3/31/17. [Since the publication of this post from our office, the President of the UUA has resigned (read the reporting of this event on UU World here), and the Leadership Council of the UUA released this statement.] – ed. A very important conversation has been happening about the insidious white supremacy in our Unitarian Universalist Association, centering currently around our hiring practices. We encourage you to do some digging and read multiple perspectives in this conversation. A good place to start is the 3/27 UUWorld article, statement from Black Lives of UU and this Compilation of Responses. With gratitude to those reminding…
Spiritual Practices for Privileged Fragility
The great safety pin debate. The epic pussy hat debacle. These are just two examples of an ongoing trend in liberal circles: people (often with relative privilege) respond poorly when their well meaning actions are critiqued by others on the left (often by folks with relatively less privilege). While some lament that divisive critique is destroying the left I know that we who believe in liberation have the spiritual resources to respond well to critical feedback and move forward together. How do I know this? Because I’m an able bodied cis white woman from a middle class liberal background who has learned to respond less defensively to critique from the left over time, using spiritual practices….
Real Love is Not Nice
There is a poster you can buy in the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) bookstore that says in big font “Love is Hard. Do it anyway.” This poster, designed by Carey McDonald, UUA Outreach Director, talks about an interdependent inclusive love. This is the love we’re called to as Unitarian Universalists (UU). I believe that love is hard, and I try and try to do it anyway. I fail a lot, because I’m human. I try again. This real hard love is at the center of my faith, and because it is so sacred to me, I feel frustrated when I see people confusing what love calls us to with being nice. These days many of…
VIDEO: Keeping Your Campus Ministry Going
#UU Campus Q’s Episode Five The Reverend Annie Gonzalez Milliken, the Young Adult and Campus Ministry Associate of the Unititarian Universalist Association Office of Youth and Young Adult Minisitries invites Matt Stidman and Marion Hirsch (narrated by Stephanie Carey Maron) to tackle the problem of transferring leadership of campus ministry so it continues even after you’re gone. Like Campus UUs on Facebook to be notified when episodes of UUCampusQs are released! (Spoiler alert: Marion’s narration is particularly animated!)
VIDEO: Best Practices for Campus Ministry Outreach
#UUCampusQ’s Episode Four Students on campus need your community now, so get the word out! The Reverend Annie Gonzalez Milliken, the Young Adult and Campus Ministry Associate of the Unititarian Universalist Association Office of Youth and Young Adult Minisitries invites Carey McDonald, Outreach Director at the UUA to discuss how Campus Ministries can get the word out on what they do in noticeable, memorable and effective ways. Like Campus UUs on Facebook to be notified when episodes of UUCampusQs are released! Carey has thought a lot about this and shares some pizzazzy tips:
What do you need right now?
What do you need right now dear ones? How are we going to get through this? Maybe you’re in shock. Maybe you’re pissed as hell. Maybe you’re weeping. Maybe you’re numb and trying to do all the normal things. Maybe you’re hiding in bed. All of these reactions are totally normal. There is nothing that makes this ok, because hate is not ok and greed is not ok and violence are not ok. Electing a president who is overtly racist, sexist, violent and endlessly greedy is not an ok thing to do. We all know these next four years won’t be ok. And yet, paradoxically, we keep going. So what do you need right now…
Fiercely UU: Redeeming Retail
Fiercely UU is a new blog series where Unitarian Universalist young adults tell stories about what our faith requires of us and how they follow that call. To be fiercely UU is to proclaim human worth and interdependence. In an individualist, greed-based, shame and fear fueled white supremacist patriarchy, we say no to isolation and oppression and yes to radical love and covenanted connection. – Ed. Redeeming Retail or What I Learned from Selling Shoes by Amelia Diehl Tacked in the backroom of the shoe store where I work is a ripped part of a shirt that reads “Our work is more than our jobs,” a quote from musical storyteller Charlie King. I grew up going to…
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