UUA President Peter Morales and the presidents of the United Church of Christ, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the Islamic Circle of North America each spoke about their solidarity with the movement for black lives. He brought the crowd to its feet as he called on UUs and people of faith to “stop what you’re doing” and “ keep shocking the heart!” Barber II, leader of the Moral Monday movement and a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), said that injustice, inequality, and oppression evince a “heart problem” in America. Resistance is what love looks like in the face of violence.”Īt the public witness event, “State of Emergence: Faith Filled People Rally for Racial Justice,” the Rev. He exhorted UUs “not to look away this time,” adding, “Resistance is what love looks like in the face of hate. Sinkford, senior minister of First Unitarian Church of Portland, Oregon, who served as the first black president of the UUA from 2001 to 2009, urged UUs to face racism head-on. Preaching in the Service of the Living Tradition, the Rev.
The BLUU space helped her feel “truly a part of the UU community.” “Having the BLUU space made my GA,” said Isis James-Carnes, 15, from All Souls in New London, Connecticut, who was attending her second GA. Let this be the beginning of a journey together.” Some of the money will fund a “convening” for black UUs later this fall.īLUU also organized a four-program track on the experiences of black UUs and hosted an explicitly black space for healing and discussion that many called transformative. “Thank you for investing in black leadership,” organizer Lena K. GA 2016 may have drawn the largest attendance by black UUs in decades, including seventy-one who attended with financial help from the Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism organizing collective, which raised $89,980 through a special collection June 25.
And a keynote address to the UU Ministers Association about UU clergy sexual misconduct ( see page 29) provoked the most questions submitted for the three candidates seeking election as the next UUA president. A large contingent of activists gathered at GA in “Say Yes to Divest” shirts to promote an ultimately unsuccessful business resolution targeting corporations that profit from the occupation of Palestine. The delegation from Orlando brought large white angel wings for UUs to wear as a screen around a handful of protesters from the anti-LGBTQ Westboro Baptist Church who picketed GA with anti-transgender signs. Grief and dismay about the massacre at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub June 12 fueled a petition on gun violence. Watch "I Need You To Survive" performed by Glen Thomas Rideout (YouTube)įrom the public witness event to the worship services, from informal conversations to a responsive resolution drafted by the youth caucus, racial justice was the beating heart of GA 2016.īut other concerns also coursed through the annual convention of the Unitarian Universalist Association, which drew 3,780 people to Columbus, Ohio, June 22–26. I love you, I need you to survive.” In the front of the plenary hall, where the marchers had gathered, people hugged each other and reached across rows of chairs to clasp hands. Rideout, who is director of music and worship at the UU Congregation of Ann Arbor, Michigan, invited people to turn and sing to each other, “I need you, you need me, we are all part of God’s body. The worship service reached its emotional high point when Glen Thomas Rideout sang David Frazier’s gospel song, “ I Need You To Survive,” backed by the 180-person General Assembly choir. While its official theme was interfaith partnerships-“Heart Land: Where Faiths Connect”-GA’s clearest motif was racial justice, culminating in the Black Lives Matter–focused closing celebration June 26, when dozens of black UUs marched into the closing ceremony, followed by at least 100 allies, chanting “Black lives, they matter here!” In an atmosphere electric with passion, anger, and hope, the 2016 General Assembly challenged Unitarian Universalists to work much harder for racial justice in order to live the values of their faith and to complete unfinished work begun more than fifty years ago during the civil rights era.
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