step by step

Congregations on the Journey
General Assembly 2004
Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice

Requests Along the Way
We asked participants in the two “Congregations on the Journey” workshops facilitated by the Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice and General Assembly 2004 in Long Beach, California to list some suggestions of things the Unitarian Universalist Association could do to assist them in their efforts. Here is what they said.

What the UUA Can Do:

 More Coordination with Transformation Committee (email list, bulletin board, something on website).
 CD or Video Training for churches that have committees (for new members) or for church that want to start a committee.
 Sharing of ideas for training and projects
 newsletter or link on website (UUA)
 Postings of trainings or training material
 localized or regional training
 Information and communication
 email, website, newsletter
 video trainings (alternatives for small, far away groups).
 share ideas from others
 posting training dates
 more local/regional trainings
 more work on the basics of congregationally based organizing

General Assembly 2004
Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice

Snapshots from the Journey

Below you will find some brief stories from members of our congregations about best practices and challenges they have encountered on the Journey Toward Wholeness. These reflections were gathered during two “Congregations on the Journey” workshops facilitated by the Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice and General Assembly 2004 in Long Beach, California.

We had good support from JTW and then formed an anti-racism transformation team. We met with the committee for several months. We decided not to form a formal organization until we had developed a relationship and trust. Thinking of this as a transformation effort, we want the possibility of alternative forms of organization that are not derived from white traditions.

A big success of our anti-racism transformation team was that they worked on a rewriting of our mission statement to include a statement of identity as anti-racist, anti-oppressive and multicultural. But there is still a struggle of power and privilege with the straight white males.

Many congregants in a large community who moved through transformation training experienced a loss of support when ministers changed. We were marginalized to the point of not being able to stay in the community. We formed a new congregation based on anti-racist, anti-oppressive principles.

We are beginning a relationship with Country Black Baptist Church after an early schism in our congregation. One of the identified reasons for the split was “too much focus on ‘the Blacks’” We enjoy shared services which provide needed time for social sharing.

We engaged in a Ministerial search with a focus on candidates from marginalized populations. Our congregation has done Jubilee I and II, but we continue to be alarmed by comments from members that show they haven’t really taken in the trainings. We thought we were at a different level, but we are still pushing and getting hurtful personal comments. We had a recent collaboration between Rainbow and Journey Toward Wholeness on the importance of white people or straight people to take action.

Our anti-racism transformation team worked on a new vision statement. Most work has been internal – years ago we had an Interfaith Council (projects with churches that formed alliances).

We are a new congregation that hasn’t done too much yet.

We haven’t done any projects but we are interested in reaching out.

A high percentage of whites in our congregation are “In Denial.”

We are new learners. In five years we have 63 members. We are focused inward. People of color and other diversity groups have been scared away by over interest in them (tokenizing).

We are a retirement community, primarily white. There are two people of color plus kids. We do not like the Journey Toward Wholeness model which has marginalized racism by putting all oppressions together. DRUUMM is “segregationist” – shared identities, women’s groups, etc… whites are threatened. Journey Toward Wholeness supports DRUUMM in every arena. The white allies group doesn’t know how to be allies. Stay with what it means to be white in America.

We had a serious incident: a multiracial family in our church had their 15 year old son harassed and beaten in school. He was called a “fucking nigger.” The administration of the school took no action. We had questions of whether we should act on behalf of the congregation or as individuals. This resulted in our passing a resolution re: becoming AR/AO/MC and anti-sexist, anti-homophobic congregation. We are working on staying engaged beyond the crisis.

Our church had a schism because of anti-racism. We held a “Religious Exploration Sunday” to lead a mini-service and discussion. There was a local incident where a noose was hung in front of a black church, UUs went to the church. First 5, then 13. The African American church wanted to reciprocate and came to worship with us.

We have an “All Church Great Day of Service.” Our congregation is part of the Coalition for Equality which works with schools, the NAACP, and the police department.

We do our own thing for the Journey Toward Wholeness. After two years we still do not have a transformation team. There is a real contradiction in being white and anti-racist. Is this a deficiency of the program? It is too black/white, we need room for multiracial ideas.

We have assumptions about race. We are proud of our stance on Gay Rights issues. But we are unable to “hear” on anti-racism, or anti-oppression issues. There is defensiveness. We need accountability in the form of listening.

We have a congregational DRUUMM chapter. In 1998 we formed a JTW Transformation Team. We have done almost everything we know to do. Yet Martin Luther King Sunday always feels like it’s the first time we’ve talked about it.

We had an interim minister of color and saw real racial division. Things that would have been forgiven of a white minister were not of this interim. I had a hard time realizing that our congregation was not as far along as I thought and I found some prejudices that I had myself.

I have been part of our anti-racist team from the beginning. The problem has been that it is all males leading and women have had a hard time having all male trainers. I have been doing feminist work for 25 years but felt that, while it was acknowledged, I was seen primarily as a male.

In 1997 our antiracist committee began. We felt the UUA didn’t move fast enough for our training. We hired an organizer on our own. Now we feel we have run out of steam.

We sponsored Jubilee I and II trainings. Then we decided to form an anti-racism transformation team. We decided to get new people and there has been some stumbling without enough experience. There is a real leadership vacuum. Our Confronting Racism Committee has become inactive.

We are a sponsoring organization of IAF (grassroots organizing). There were problems with a school board which left GLBT students vulnerable. We learned the importance of making connections with the Christian left. We need money. IAF provides training and help with getting started. We did a Crossroads training in 1998, but previous anti-racism activities petered out. Our co-ministers started them up again. They asked the Board of Trustees for policy commitment for anti-racism work to be a major focus. We utilized a consultant from the UUA.

We have a service collection to fund our Transformation Committee. The funds have been used for the development of a DRUUMM group and a white allies caucus. White allies need to answer questions about the legitimacy of the work.

There is denial in our church – “we did that in the 60s!” We tried a film series without prior knowledge of resources. All of the stories dealt with marginalized groups in America (U.S.): Mi Familia, American History X, Real Women Have Curves. The most important part was the discussion afterwards.

We had a multicultural film series, guest speakers, field trips, and an anti-racism action network (an email list). We worked on building relationships with local chapters of groups (NAACP, MICA) focusing primarily on coalition building. We held a criminal justice and prison reform field trip and movie screening with a guest panel. The motivation of our congregation was “breaking outside of the cocoon and making the house ready.” We really need some consultancy.

We recently removed antiracism language from our mission statement. People felt it was covered by “social action and social justice.” We need to educate the leadership of our board.

What a Successful General Assembly in Long Beach!

The Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice had a full agenda at GA.

- The TC had a meeting with the UUMA Executive Committee which was an open discussion on how the UUMA can engage more fully in ARAO work and is open to conducting a self assessment to bench mark where they are today

- The TC held two workshops on “Congregations on the Journey” where we listened to the successes and struggles of congregations actively engaged in Anti Racist, Anti Oppression work

- Networking with UUA Service Staff provided opportunities to hear about development of resources like a Welcoming Congregation curriculum based on ARAO and ARAO consultancy program - both in development from the UUA Identity Based Ministries

- Networking with Diverse and Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM) and attending their annual meeting as well as the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus of DRUUMM annual meeting. Provided an opportunity to hear about planning for regional Multicultural Family retreats, the formation of African Descent Caucus as well as the La Familia Global Caucus, and recognition that these groups provided speakers at GA - Delores Huerta (spoke on New Immigration rights) and John Tateishi, Executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, (spoke on the Internment of Japanese Americans in WW2 and similiarities to internment of Arab Americans today). And to recognize a new generation of People of Color who are finding DRUUMM as a spritual home for People of Color and an entry into UU community through DRUUMM.

I thought that this was a great GA because of the movement of the Service of the Living Tradition to Friday night allowed for a real Sunday service.

The call to Congregational presidents to name the agenda that Boston and the UUA Staff should be providing and supporting was fresh and inviting to build a tighter relationship with all levels of the UUA and the beloved community

I was honored to be there with you!!

Kim Varney

Hello from Long Beach! The festivities here begin on Thursday, but those of us on the committee who are also ministers are beginning to arrive to participate in the UU Ministers Association and Liberal Religious Educators Professional Days. Here is a brief rundown of where you can find committee members at GA:

Thursday, June 24–Collegial Conversation–Hyatt Regency Beacon Room Rotunda
Friday, June 25–various committee members will attend workshops of relevance to our work.
Saturday, June 26–We’ll be on the stage at Plenary (approx. 9:30 a.m.) to introduce ourselves.
Saturday, June 26–1:30 to 2:45 pm–Workshop “Congregations on the Journey” Conf. Ctr. Rm 102B
Sunday, June 27–2:00 to 3:15 pm–Workshop “Congregations on the Journey” Conf. Ctr. Rm 101B

Look for our materials in the Exhibition Hall. We’ve got a super-sized business card and a place to leave us your card so we can hook you up with others interested in creating an Association where wholeness and justice prevail.

If you’d like to have a conversation with a member of the committee and can’t make our workshops, feel free to look for us (Our name tags will say “Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice” under our names.) Or leave a message on the message board.

See you on the beach…or in the convention center, at least.

Transformation Committee
Spring Meeting
April 23-25, 2004
Washington, DC

Present: Rev. Sofia Craethnenn; Kim Varney, Chair; Rev. Monica Cummings; Rev. Charlie Ortman, Board Liaison; Matt Moore; Dr. Julio Noboa; Bob Gross; Rev. Sean Parker Dennison; Taquiena Boston, President’s Representative; Simona Munson, Staff Support.

Friday, April 22

Committee check-in.
Overview of agenda & covenant

Committee added items to the existing covenant for meetings:
*Step forward/back (air time)
*Safe enough space
*Confidentiality honored
*Honesty & amnesty
*Right to pass (“listen more”)
*Acknowledging a range of oppression (inclusive lang.)
*Direct communication (no triangulation)
*Being ourselves (humor)
*Body honoring

History of Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee
Taquiena led a discussion of the history of the creation and existence of the committee. The committee created a list of current challenges/perceptions/realities that exist within the denomination:

*Reorganization (of two years ago)—dismantling anti-racism vs. expanding
*Continuing “Black/White” dichotomy
*Original model had limited linkage among oppressions
*Identity politics/”small pie” priorities
*Language usage/choice
*Original Model’s limits—use of guilt; hang up on “racist;” Christian orientation; name confusion
*We can accomplish an end to oppression within Unitarian Universalism
Read the rest of this entry »

The committee met this weekend and I thought I’d reflect a bit on how it went. This is, of course, just one person’s view.

We spent Friday learning about each other and about the mission and purpose of the committee. We learned a little about each other’s work styles and about our visions (individual and collective) of the need for, the mission of , and hopes for the committee. We also learned about the history of the committee and engaged in some training that was graciously and effectively facilitated by Paula Cole Jones and Rev. Keith Kron.

Today we spent the whole day doing business. We made two decisions that will have impact on this blog. One was a decision to approve minutes by email within seven days of the meeting. That is so we can post the minutes here–giving stakeholders in our work, or anyone interested, access to them as quickly as we can after a meeting. The minutes will not include detailed transcription of our discussions, but will be a general overview with specific information on decisions made, action steps to be taken, and point people on various issues. We hope this will be a way to keep everything as transparent as possible and to encourage input from the larger UU community.

The other decision we made was to change the name of the committee. This took much time and consideration and I suspect will need to be followed by some deep conversation. But for now, the new name of our committee is:

The Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice

We accomplished four things with the change. One, the “short form” of the name is still “The Transformation Committee.” Two, we made the name shorter and more manageable. Third, we changed from negative wording to positive. (from anti-racism, anti-oppression to wholeness and justice.) We also retained the words “transformation” and “wholeness” which connect us to our past. (When we were the Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee.) The name will have to be approved by the Board of Trustees, but we don’t anticipate any reason they would reject it.

There is much more to say and I hope my colleagues on the committee will add their views and voices about the meeting, what we accomplished and still hope to accomplish, and anything else they’d like. And now, I need to get some sleep because tomorrow’s agenda includes worshipping with Unitarian Universalists from around the country at All Souls (with Rebecca Parker preaching) and putting our bodies out there in support of our vision by marching in the March for Women’s Lives.

Making something beautiful out of the remains of hate.

Thanks to Standing Room Only for the link.

From Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes by John Shelby Spong:

Jesus is…for me the conduit through which the love of God was loosed into human history. Jesus lived the love of God. This love was and is wasteful love, embracing love, inclusive love. It is a love that overflows every human boundary. That is why Jesus was portrayed by the Gospel writers as stepping across the racial divide to heal the Samaritan; or as stepping across the cultural divide to engage the woman at the well in conversation; or as stepping over the cultic purification laws to embrace the lepers; or as moving past that intensely human divide that enabled him to forgive his executioners. These are the kinds of things that the love of God does. That is also why the biblical portrait drawn of Jesus portrays him as loving the one who betrayed him, the one who denied him, the ones who forsook him and fled, and even the ones who killed him. The love of God is boundless. God loves in the face of every affront, every abuse, and every denial of love. That love of God which Christians believe they meet in Jesus has one purpose: It is to invite us to be and to love us into being loving people…

Well, I began this blog a month ago and we are still getting a feel for what it can do. If we get in the habit of using it as a tool, I think it could be a powerful one. In looking at the agenda for our upcoming meeting, I’ve come to the conclusion that it will be impossible to do the kind of relationship-building that I’d hoped for. We just have so much to do in so little time. We’ll have to build relationships by doing the work together. I’d rather do a little trust-building and getting to know each other first, but hey, we’ll work with what we’ve got.

For those who may be reading this who don’t know much about the committee, the reason for my concern is that fully half the committee is new. Five of the ten people involved (and five of the seven that “count” as actual members of the committee) are beginning new terms in this capacity. Because anti-oppression work is emotional, personal, and often difficult, I’d hoped we could spend significant time listening to one another’s stories and learning why each of us cares enough to devote our time and energy to this committee. If we end up getting stuck, or frustrated, or conflicted about how best to approach the Herculean task we’ve been given, I think it will help to really know each other and understand what it is that has motivated each of us to do the work.

That said, I thought I would begin by telling you my story. It’s my hope that over the next few weeks, you’ll respond in kind. Maybe if we’re lucky some of the folks out there reading this will tell us what motivates and gives them strength to do this work.

But first, my story.

If I had to summarize the purpose of my life and ministry, it would be this: to live in the middle of all the conventional dichotomies and help people see the beauty of all that lies in-between the little boxes that try and fail to categorize us.

What in the world does that mean? Let me begin by listing for you the ways my life has fallen in-between.

First in most people’s minds is that I used to be a woman, but now I am a man. I was born female, in a small town in Iowa, but I grew up to be a man. About seven years ago, I began the hormone therapy that enabled me to make this shift. So when it comes to gender, I know a lot about what it’s like to be a girl, a mom, and a woman. I am learning much about what it is to be a daddy and a man. And, when it comes right down to it, I am and will always be both. While I move through the world as a man, I can never forget how it was to be a woman. And so my life is enriched and made more interesting by being able to understand how it is to live on either side of the “gender line.”

That part of my story is what a lot of people focus on, but it is actually not the heart of why I chose to serve on this committee. What is the heart? Well, what is closest to my heart is my thirteen-year-old son, who is African-American. Learning to parent, to love, to cherish a child whose experience of race is so different from my own has been a challenge and an amazing gift. It would take me thousands and thousands of words to even begin to explain what I mean, but I will tell you one story that I hope is illustrative.

When people ask me, “What’s it like to have a black child?” (And yes, people still ask things like that all the time.) I tell them this story. Before I had my son, racism was a monster out there on the edges of my world. I disliked it, marched against it, railed at it, and even sometimes hated it. I was completly and totally against racism. It was, in my mind, an ugly and hideous monster. Then I woke up one day and my baby was in the monster’s teeth. So anti-racism and anti-oppression work is no longer an abstraction for me. I live with the monster. I also live with the gift of having my world opened to cultures, experiences, and strengths I never knew existed. It is the hardest and best thing I have ever done. While I have not, perhaps, crossed the “race line,” I have been able to look and love across it and begin to learn how to break down the crazy concepts of that go with the “race boxes” that we’ve lived with for so long.

That might be enough, but it’s not all. I was raised with wealth and privilege, the beloved daughter of a radio man who was a “big fish” in a small town. We had the means to live without financial worry and for the first eleven years of my life I got every thing I wanted. Then my father left my mother and she and I lost the house and almost everything we had. For most of my teenage years, my mom worked nights as a hotel desk clerk and we struggled to survive. When I had my son, in the middle of my college years, we lived on welfare for a few years. Now, as UU minister, I am financially stable and comfortably middle class. I’ve crossed the “class lines” a few times, and I believe class issues are one of the most powerful, but silent, issues of oppression in UU congregations.

There are other boxes that I don’t comfortably fit into. Theologically, I am a humanist and a mystic. As far as sexual orientation goes–well, when one’s gender and one’s partner’s gender have both shifted over a lifetime, what labels fit? My family is interfaith and in many ways, my closest colleague is my mother-in-law, who is a rabbi at a large synagogue in California. Oh yeah, and I used to be a fundamentalist.

As you can tell, my journey has been–um—unique, but never boring. I am ever grateful for the many people who have loved and supported me along the way and kept me alive and sane through so much. I’m passionate about the work that this committee has been charged with doing because breaking through these crazy boxes and into the beautiful world between and beyond them will enrich the world so very much. If we can get a little closer to true justice, equity, and compassion, we will have made an amazing difference.

That’s why I’m here.

Fez over at Chrysalis has a very interesting review and discussion of a recent lecture by Cornel West. (Scroll down to “White Girl Sings the Blues.” How can our committee help UU congregations hit all the notes that West elucidates?