Leader Resource 1: The Destiny of Diversity

Excerpted from a sermon by Rev. Fred Small, delivered at First Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 6, 2009; used with permission.

Diversity is the destiny of our world, and if Unitarian Universalism is to survive and thrive, it must be our destiny, too. We can be an island of whiteness in a river of many colors and cultures, or we can plunge into the living water and partake of its liberating power.

If we shrink back, warns my colleague Rev. Dr. Paul Rasor, "We could devolve into a quaint relic of a once-vital tradition, holding fast to our good liberal ideas (while continuing to bicker about them), protecting an increasingly insular identity, ironically slipping into the kind of safe and unchallenging provincialism we have always resisted."

But if we take the leap into the river of diversity, we could become what sociologist Michael Emerson calls "Sixth Americans,"... people who live in a world rich in daily interactions with people not like themselves. They cultivate relationships with those of different backgrounds and cultures and become conversant and increasingly comfortable in those relationships. And they seek out religious communities in which these relationships thrive, thereby enriching their lives and nourishing their souls...

Let's stop wishing for Beloved Community and start dreaming it, planning it, seeing it, living it, until we wake up one astonishing blessed morning to find the dream come true.

The UUA Multicultural Growth & Witness staff group offers resources, curricula, trainings, and tools to help Unitarian Universalist congregations and leaders engage in the work of antiracism, antioppression, and multiculturalism. Visit www.uua.org/multicultural (at www.uua.org/multicultural) or email multicultural @ uua.org (at mailto:multicultural@uua.org) to learn more.

Workshop 23: The First Day of Our New World

Introduction

With humility and courage born of our history, we are called as Unitarian Universalists to build the Beloved Community where all souls are welcome as blessings, and the human family lives whole and reconciled. — from "A Vision for Unitarian Universalism in a Multicultural World" by the Unitarian Universalist Association Leadership Council (October 1, 2008)

This workshop begins with a worship service which includes invited guests. Participants share their learning, their stories, and their new commitments with congregational leaders and others with whom they wish to be in relationship. It requires advance preparation:

Several weeks before the workshop:

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  Inform congregational leaders and other key people that an invitation to attend the worship service is coming and tell them the date and time.
  

• 
  Remind participants who have agreed to invite particular guests to do so (or arrange for someone else to do so).
  

• 
  Remind participants who have volunteered to write reflection, coordinate worship music, or arrange the worship table. Invite them to arrive early on the day of the worship service for last-minute preparations and coordination with one another.
  
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  Make a plan for refreshments following the worship.
  

• 
  Arrive at least half an hour early. Complete your own preparations so you can be fully present 15 minutes early to assist participant preparations and greet guests.
  

This workshop will:

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  Provide a structure for participants to share their learning, stories, and new commitments with congregational leaders and others with whom they wish to be in relationship
  
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  Put into practice the antiracist/multicultural principle of "going public" and being accountable for what you learned
  
• 
  Provide an opportunity for participants to enlist support for continuing the work of building an antiracist/multicultural faith community.
  

Participants will:

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  Create a worship experience that is meaningful for them and for guests who attend
  
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  Affirm and express a shared experience through stories, voices, and media, with witnesses from the congregation and community as invited guests
  
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  Hear responses from invited guests and request their support to expand action and learning in the congregation.
  

Reflect on the journey you and the workshop group have taken together. Revisit journal entries you made during the workshop series and recall significant conversations you have had. Take time in meditation or prayer to acknowledge gratitude for those who have taken this journey with you, and to feel a sense of accomplishment for your work as a facilitator.

• 
  Sign-in sheet and pen or pencil
  
• 
  Name tags for participants (durable or single-use) and bold markers
  
• 
  Optional: Group photo
  
• 
  Optional: Music and player
  
• 
  Optional: Snacks and beverages
  

• 
  Arrange chairs in a circle and set out name tags and markers on a table.
  
• 
  Optional: Post the group photo
  
• 
  Optional: Play music softly in the background.
  
• 
  Optional: Set out snacks and beverages.
  

Greet participants and guests as they arrive.

• 
  Worship table or designated space
  
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  Chalice, candle, and lighter or LED battery-operated candle
  
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  Handout with group learnings (Workshop 22)
  

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  Prepare a list of the learnings the group generated in Workshop 22 and copy it as a handout for all participants.
  

Light the chalice or invite a participant to light it while you share this quote from Rev. Peter Morales:

We need to feel connected. We need to give and to receive, to listen and to be heard, to touch and to be touched. We need to join hands to work for justice. We need to come together to celebrate and worship. We need a place where we can seek wholeness.

Distribute the handout you have prepared. Invite volunteers to read aloud the learnings generated in Workshop 22. Explain that this workshop, including the worship service to follow, is guided by the antiracist/multicultural principle of "going public" and being accountable for what you learned.

Conduct the worship service planned by the group.

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  Refreshments for reception
  

• 
  Set out refreshments.
  

While the reception serves a celebratory and social function, it also provides a transition for the group between worship and discussion.

Provide an open space for your invited guests to respond to the stories, wisdom, and emotion shared in the worship service. Invite participants to sit in silence and take in the responses. If invited guests need prompting, use these or similar questions:

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  What ideas or questions did the worship service generate for you?
  
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  How can you imagine the wisdom and spirit of what you have heard being woven into the life of our congregation and community?
  
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  Would you like to have this experience for yourself?
  

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  Handout 1, Possible Next Actions (included in this document)
  
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  Taking It Home
  

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  Copy Handout 1, Possible Next Actions and Taking It Home for workshop participants.
  

Thank guests for coming to the service and discussion. Distribute Handout 1, Possible Next Actions and Taking it Home to workshop participants. Extinguish the chalice and close with these words from the Rev. Dr. Mark L. Belletini, used with permission:

For religion to be significant, it has to provide more than the comforts of community. It also has to provide opportunities for deepening, for what I call spiritual growth. It has to help us casting down the false images of stereotypes which hurt us all. A good religion has to open us to the real diversity of our modern world. For our work as liberal religious people is not to be competitive with others, and to find ways to supersede others, but rather to find ways to supersede ourselves, to grow beyond our limitations and our constrictive boundaries, each and every one of us. Diversity, you see, must not end up being some sort of feel good slogan, a word we keep in our back pocket to make us feel like we're broad minded. Diversity is a gift. But it cannot be a gift... unless it is received. It is only received when there are hands and hearts open enough to receive it. And the opening of fists into welcoming hands and welcoming hearts is our spiritual work....

Leader Reflection and Planning

Take a few moments right after the workshop to ask each other:

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  What went well?
  
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  What didn't? Why?
  
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  What do you think was the best moment of the workshop? Why?
  
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  Did anything surprise you?
  
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  Do we need to make any changes in the way we work together?
  

Write yourself a letter and commit to personal actions so you can continue to develop and deepen multicultural competency. Put your letter in a safe place. Read it periodically to see how you are honoring your commitments.

Or, find an accountability partner from the workshop group. Share your commitments to personal actions to help you develop and deepen multicultural competency and check-in with one another periodically to see how your commitments are being honored.

Before the next workshop, review Handout 1, Possible Next Actions, and consider which of these (or something else entirely) would be good for you to work on with other Building the World We Dream About participants.

At the next and final workshop, you will consider actions to integrate learning from Building the World We Dream About into the life of the congregation. Possible plans of action include:

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  Lead a Sunday worship service to share hopes and dreams for doing antiracist/multicultural work with the whole community.
  
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  Repeat the program with a second generation of participants.
  
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  Work with the congregation to construct a mission and vision statement that expresses your commitment to antiracism and multiculturalism in the congregation and the larger community.
  
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  Conduct an antiracism/multicultural audit of the congregation to identify ways to communicate welcome, inclusion and affirmation of people of diverse races, ethnicities, and cultures.
  
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  Identify UUA and District resources for increasing the congregation's commitment to antiracist/multiculturalism.
  
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  Create and build an ecumenical partnership with another faith community to work on racial justice in your community.
  
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  Team with a civic organization that deals with issues of racism.
  
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  Create an ongoing discussion and action group that keeps issues of race and equity on the congregational agenda.
  
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  Create an oral history project that chronicles the racial history of your congregation and/or community.
  
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  Lead a racial reconciliation process in your congregation or community.
  
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  Send youth and young adults from your congregation to regional and national Unitarian Universalist meetings on race and equity.
  
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  Connect with the UUA Standing on the Side of Love campaign to challenge identity-based violence, exclusion, and oppression, with a focus on local antiracism and multiculturalism opportunities.
  

The UUA Multicultural Growth & Witness staff group offers resources, curricula, trainings, and tools to help Unitarian Universalist congregations and leaders engage in the work of antiracism, antioppression, and multiculturalism. Visit www.uua.org/multicultural (at www.uua.org/multicultural) or email multicultural @ uua.org (at mailto:multicultural@uua.org) to learn more.

Workshop 24: Celebrating Ourselves and Future Work

Introduction

We humans are deeply, fundamentally, inescapably, relational beings. Our spirituality, our experiences of the sacred, revolves around how we relate to ourselves, to each other, to the cosmos. — Rev. Peter Morales, in Bringing Gifts, a publication of the Latino/a Unitarian Universalist Networking Alliance (LUUNA)

In this final workshop, participants celebrate and express appreciation for the relationships their shared experience has created, and build action plans to move the work forward in the congregation.

Before leading this workshop, review the accessibility guidelines in the program Introduction under Integrating All Participants.

Goals

This workshop will:

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  Invite participants to continue to work individually and collectively to create a justice-centered, multiracial/multicultural Beloved Community where all people are welcome
  
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  Encourage participants to express gratitude to one another
  
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  Honor the gifts participants have brought to and received in the workshop series
  
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  Provide a process for developing action plans to continue the work in the congregation.
  

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• 
  Express their gratitude to one another
  
• 
  Celebrate the creation of relationships rooted in antiracist/multicultural understanding
  
• 
  Develop a plan of action for future work.
  

Workshop-at-a-Glance

Activity	Minutes
Welcoming and Entering	0
Opening	5
Activity 1: Your Gift to Me, Version One	45
Activity 2: Our Next Actions	60
Activity 3: Final Evaluation	15
Closing	5
Alternate Activity 1: Your Gift to Me, Version Two	45
Alternate Activity 2: Your Gift to Me, Version Three	45

Spiritual Preparation

As you prepare to lead this final workshop, spend some time reflecting on how your own understanding and commitment to antiracism and multiculturalism have deepened. How has facilitation of the workshops been a spiritual practice for you? How has it touched you? What would you tell a friend or colleague about your experience?

Welcoming and Entering

Materials for Activity

• 
  Sign-in sheet and pen or pencil
  
• 
  Name tags for participants (durable or single-use) and bold markers
  
• 
  Optional: Music and player
  
• 
  Optional: Snacks and beverages
  

Preparation for Activity

• 
  Arrange chairs in a circle and set out name tags and markers on a table.
  
• 
  Optional: Play music softly in the background.
  
• 
  Optional: Set out snacks and beverages.
  

Description of Activity

Greet participants as they arrive.

Opening (5 minutes)

Materials for Activity

• 
  Worship table or designated space
  
• 
  Chalice, candle, and lighter or LED battery-operated candle
  
• 
  Leader Resource 1, Tomorrow's Child (included in this document)
  
• 
  Facilitator notes and impressions from Workshop 23
  
• 
  List of this workshop's Goals
  
• 
  Covenant established in Workshop 1
  

Preparation for Activity

• 
  Practice reading Leader Resource 1, Tomorrow's Child aloud.
  
• 
  Review your own notes and impressions from Workshops 23 and discuss with your co-facilitators any insights or concerns that have emerged.
  
• 
  Post the workshop Goals and group covenant.
  

Description of Activity

Light the chalice or invite a participant to light it while you read Leader Resource 1, Tomorrow's Child aloud.

Invite participants to share briefly any new insights they may have gained since the last workshop.

Activity 1: Your Gift to Me, Version One (45 minutes)

Materials for Activity

• 
  Newsprint, markers, and tape
  
• 
  Optional: Group photo
  

Preparation for Activity

• 
  Read Activity 1, Alternate Activity 1, and Alternate Activity 2. Choose one of these activities to guide participants in expressing gratitude.
  
• 
  Write on newsprint, and post:
  
  • 
    [Name], over the course of Building the World We Dream About, what I have learned from you is...
    
  • 
    [Name], I really appreciated the way you...
    
  • 
    [Name], your gift to the group has been...
    
• 
  Optional: Make copies of group photograph taken during Workshop 22.
  

Description of Activity

Create a circle of chairs in the middle of the room. Designate one chair as the "seat of honor." One by one, invite each participant to sit in the special chair. As each participant sits in the chair of honor, others around the circle take turns expressing appreciation for the person in the seat of honor. Invite them to complete one of the posted sentences or to state their appreciation in their own words.

Optional: Distribute copies of the group photo.

Including All Participants

Choose the method you will use for appreciation based on your knowledge of accessibility needs and personal styles in the group.

Activity 2: Our Next Actions (60 minutes)

Materials for Activity

• 
  Newsprint, markers, and tape
  
• 
  Workshop 23, Handout 1, Possible Next Actions (included in this document)
  

Preparation for Activity

• 
  Make copies of Workshop 23, Handout 1, Possible Next Actions.
  
• 
  Write on newsprint, and post:
  
  • 
    What is your action?
    
  • 
    What are the goals of your action? (or, Why do you want to do this?)
    
  • 
    Are your goals realistic? Will achieving those goals bring about meaningful change?
    
  • 
    What outcomes do you wish to realize from your action? (e.g., increase in participation, ease in talking about racial issues, more partnerships with racially or ethnically oppressed or marginalized communities, etc.)
    
  • 
    What steps are necessary to fulfill your proposed action? In what order?
    
  • 
    Who is responsible for what? When should items be completed?
    
  • 
    What resources (human and financial) are necessary to complete the action? How will they be accessed, allocated and/or collected?
    
  • 
    How will you enlist the support of congregational leaders and other members of the congregation?
    
  • 
    How will you sustain connection and commitment (email, phone lists, reunions)?
    

Description of Activity

Invite participants to think about ways the learnings from this program can begin to be integrated into the life of the congregation. Ask: how can we invite the congregation to join us in developing multicultural competencies and building an antiracist/multicultural faith community?

Distribute Workshop 23, Handout 1, Possible Next Actions (which they have already seen) and spend time discussing the action or actions to which the workshop participants agree to commit themselves. Explain that their options are not limited to what is on the list; they can agree to a different plan of action. Allow 20-30 minutes for this part of the activity.

Once participants have decided on an action or actions, post the newsprint on which you have written the questions to help develop an action plan. Work together on a plan for each item they have chosen, addressing each question in turn. Record the plans on new sheets of newsprint, and post. Recruit a volunteer to transcribe the plans and distribute them to participants after the workshop.

Activity 3: Final Evaluation (15 minutes)

Materials for Activity

• 
  Handout 1, Final Evaluation (included in this document)
  
• 
  Pens/pencils
  

Preparation for Activity

• 
  Copy Handout 1, Final Evaluation for participants.
  

Directory: sites -> live-new.uua.org -> files
sites -> Glossary for Chapter 1 Algorithm
sites -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose
sites -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations
sites -> Physical custody of 1033 program property accountibility form statement of Physical Custody: By signing for the below 1033 property I am a Law Enforcement Officer of the aforementioned Law Enforcement Agency
sites -> Nstructions for Acquiring Excess Equipment online, through the 1033 Program
sites -> Memorandum of agreement
files -> By gabrielle farrel, natalie fenimore, and jenice view

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