A more detailed summary of the work sessions will be forthcoming. While we’re compiling all our info, here are some resources that you can peruse to get some background information and sign up.
The 8th Principle. This website will provide all the background info on the 8th Principle stated below as well as contact info to communicate with the authors and get signed up for a national monthly meeting.
“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”
Kitsap Equity, Race, And Community Engagement Coalition (ERACE) Coalition was one of our advisors for one of the work sessions. Follow then on their Facebook page.
Part II of the Summit!
Racial Justice – Saturday, December 5, 8:30- 11:30 am PST
Workgroup Topics
- Anti-racism and the 8th principle: In this workgroup, we will explore broadly or specifically what it means to be an anti-racist. Work group participants will work towards strategies of welcoming Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) into congregational space, building relationships with BIPOC-led communities and networks, and moving from being an ally in racial equality to an accomplice in racial equity.
- Institutional violence: In this workgroup, we will explore broadly or specifically current initiatives and reforms to Institutional Violence, to which BIPOC communities are subject, including but not limited to redlining, gerrymandering, police accountability, and the criminal justice, prison, educational, healthcare, and social services systems. Participants will work to create actionable steps of reform within local, state and federal spaces.
George Floyd. Manny Ellis. Breonna Taylor. Just a few of the names that have exposed and raised to unprecedented conscious levels, racism in America, especially that which has been institutionalized in our criminal justice system, across the nation. Anti-racism demonstrations have and are occurring all across our State and our country. Portland is invaded by Homeland Security to “quell” race riots promoted by demonstrators. COVID-19 disproportionately impacts communities of color – Navajo Indian Reservation being the leading hotspot – and the withholding of emergency federal funding. Migrant workers, documented and undocumented, without resources are suffering from COVID-19 outbreaks and smoke inhalation from the wildfires. Latino and Indigenous women in immigration camps being subjected to hysterectomies without their consent. The inequities we are faced with addressing are complex and run deep in all our societal structures and institutions. There are many other scenarios that should be added to this list.
JUUstice Washington has committed to the urgent strengthening and expansion of our Racial Justice efforts this year with the goal of preparing UU individuals, congregations and organization along with their allies, in challenging racism in our socio-cultural, economic, legal, judicial and political institutions. To help reinvigorate the Racial Justice action team, JUUstice Washington is grateful to have received a grant from the Fund for UU Social Responsibility. We have hired two wonderful facilitators to connect with congregations and build leadership teams. For information on this initiative and more about action teams, contact Larkin & Sahar at actionteams@juustwa.org.
2020 Summit Racial Justice Panel Presentation Sketches
JUUstice Washington welcomed Rev. Carlton Smith, Aisha Hauser, and Rev. Michael Crumpler as presenters for the Racial Justice Panel at the 2020 NW Justice Summit. Each speaker told a portion of their personal story to give context to their presentation and then added major insights, perspectives, and recommendations.
Rev. Smith analogized our personal stories to the infrastructure in a house that goes on behind the scene and is integral to the outward functioning of a home. Churches have these background functions and systems as well that support the outward justice work that we do, so we must tend to them as a foundation for justice work. Rev. Smith now leads the Congregational Life Staff in the Pacific Western Region. He presented the following slide to outline the work of the PWR staff that supports congregations living out UU principles and values, particularly as they relate to racial justice.
Aisha Hauser spoke of religion as meaning making that can be applied to the necessary process of revising old structures so that they can support innovation and serve living our values into the future. History has shown that logic and reason are not enough alone to accomplish this work. Reason and logic must be integrated with imagining the future in which UU principles are made real. Aisha lifted up the example of the Louisville UU congregation, which has sheltered peaceful racial justice protesters from brutality. The process of moving to a future of realized UU values almost certainly involves individual and institutional discomfort because so much of recent history has involved acceptance of inhumane treatment of people and abuse of the environment in ways that are fundamentally at odds with UU principles. Living in fear of offending persons who routinely violate and dismiss UU values is not a reasonable way to advance UU values. Aisha closed with an admonition to use imagination in support of advancing our values. It is not a big stretch to imagine taking steps like online tutoring programs and food banks to advance our values. Using imagination to advance UU values has the added advantage of getting past sterile and futile arguments about semantics that tend to drive away youth and visitors.
Rev. Michael Crumpler’s presentation focused on the Welcoming Congregation program. Although that program nominally concerns welcoming person who identify as LGBTQIA, he pointed out that the same wisdom that informs Welcoming Congregation work applies well to welcoming other groups that have been subject to discrimination and trauma. Rev. Crumpler emphasized that racial minority LLBGTQIA+ visitors have often gone through a gauntlet of traumatic experiences to arrive at UU congregations. An important part of welcoming these folks is not adding to the trauma. An important aspect of welcoming is to anticipate some of the needs of visitors and newcomers. Michael finished with a description of the key elements of the revised Welcoming Congregation program of the UUA, that he leads.
George Floyd. Manny Ellis. Breonna Taylor. Just a few of the names that have exposed and raised to unprecedented conscious levels, racism in America, especially that which has been institutionalized in our criminal justice system, across the nation. Anti-racism demonstrations have and are occurring all across our State and our country. Portland is invaded by Homeland Security to “quell” race riots promoted by demonstrators. COVID-19 disproportionately impacts communities of color – Navajo Indian Reservation being the leading hotspot – and the withholding of emergency federal funding. Migrant workers, documented and undocumented, without resources are suffering from COVID-19 outbreaks and smoke inhalation from the wildfires. Latino and Indigenous women in immigration camps being subjected to hysterectomies without their consent. The inequities we are faced with addressing are complex and run deep in all our societal structures and institutions. There are many other scenarios that should be added to this list.
JUUstice Washington has committed to the urgent strengthening and expansion of our Racial Justice efforts this year with the goal of preparing UU individuals, congregations and organization along with their allies, in challenging racism in our socio-cultural, economic, legal, judicial and political institutions. To help reinvigorate the Racial Justice action team, JUUstice Washington is grateful to have received a grant from the Fund for UU Social Responsibility. We have hired two wonderful facilitators to connect with congregations and build leadership teams. For information on this initiative and more about action teams, contact Larkin & Sahar at actionteams@juustwa.org.
Register for the Summit Now!
Summit Racial Justice Panel
October 10, 2020 @ 8:30 am – 10:30 am
Rev. Carlton E. Smith is the Regional Lead for the Pacific Western Region. From 2013 to 2020, he was a member of the UUA Congregational Life Staff Group serving in the Southern Region. Before that, he was a parish minister serving UU congregations in Metro New York, Greater Boston, Northern Virginia and Oakland, California. Rev. Smith graduated from both Howard University’s School of Business and its School of Divinity (summa cum laude). He’s been a candidate for US Congress and for State Senate, both in his home state of Mississippi. Rev. Smith was a founding member of the Organizing Collective for Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism. He currently serves as a Board Member for the Living Legacy Project and is a member of the Campaign Board for the LGBTQ Victory Fund.
Aisha Hauser is an accomplished religious educator, curriculum developer, facilitator, author and anti-racism advocate and is currently serving our faith as part of the Lead Ministry Team of the Church of the Larger Fellowship and as the President of the Liberal Religious Educators Association. While Aisha started her professional career in the field of social work after earning a MSW from Hunter College in NYC, she quickly became involved in the religious education program in the first Unitarian Universalist congregation she attended and there found her love of religious education. Her experience includes serving three UU congregations on both the east and west coast and working for the Unitarian Universalist Association serving as Children and Families Program Director.
Rev. Michael Crumpler works as the LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Director at the Unitarian Universalist Association and is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Michael lives in Harlem and is very active in social justice ministry at the historic Judson Memorial Church of New York City, where he served President of the Board, 2016-2018. He is most passionate about intersectional ministry centered in blackness, queerness, HIV/AIDS, economic justice, and emotional well-being.
JUUstice Washington’s Revitalization Project
JUUstWa has recently launched a revitalization project. We have two new skilled interns, Larkin and Sahar, who will be working toward building our racial justice, environmental justice, and RIMS refugee, immigrant, migrant worker solidarity area focuses into greater action and sustainability. If you are an individual, organization, or congregation hoping to go deeper into justice work on these or any of our area focuses. Please contact them at actionteams@juustwa.org take their outreach or volunteer survey, or join their monthly strategy sessions.