On September 18, our Special Collection sponsored by Advocates for Social Justice will replenish WUUC’s Black Student and Families Fund (BSAFF). This money, along with WUUC volunteers, assists families of students in the Northshore School District (especially those living at Greenleaf, a subsidized housing community) with a variety of needs – from essentials like food, shelter, and monthly bills, to community organizing, leadership development, and support for future dreams including college and career development. Your contributions will fund programs and services with the goal of providing a safe environment for students to explore and express their identity as they navigate the racial constructs of their world. This past August the fund supported the second annual Roots Summer Circle and Community Camp. It took place every Tuesday at the Bothell United Methodist Church, which has generously provided space and other support for Greenleaf families in partnership with WUUC.
Keep your eyes peeled for more information by email and during church announcements for the Social Justice Fair on Sunday, October 2 after the service. Members and friends will have the opportunity to learn more about ways to get involved with our social justice ministries and vote for our 2023 Special Collections recipients.
The ASJ Committee thanks WUUC members and friends for their generous support of our monthly special collections, which take place during services on the third Sunday of every month. Instructions for giving are posted during the service, and you can also donate anytime the following week at https://onrealm.org/wuuc/-/give/now, or by sending a check to WUUC at P.O. Box 111, Woodinville, WA 98072. Please make checks out to WUUC and write “ASJ Special Collection” in the notes.
The UU Common Read builds community in our congregations and our movement by giving diverse people a shared platform for reflection and a shared focus for action. A Common Read can take us on a powerful faith journey as we explore what it means to be human and accountable in a pain-filled world.
The Common Read 2022-23 is Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism. Authors Nancy Palmer Jones and Karin Lin—a white minister and a lay person of color—explored five UU congregations’ journeys toward Beloved Community and share the joy, disappointment, and growth these congregations found.
From the authors: “The world has seen much turmoil, pain, and yes, glimmers of hope, in the three years since Mistakes and Miracles‘ publication. As we enter a Common Read of this book, we find ourselves receiving its report with a changed spirit, an urgent need, and perhaps new hope for multiculturalism and antiracism work in our congregations and our movement.”
A study guide for use in group discussions is in the works. We are considering hosting a WUUC book discussion later this year once the guide becomes available. Copies will be made available for checkout in the library.
Our WUUC Community was given a chance to participate in a survey of topics related to the Widening the Circle of Concern report from the UUA. If you have not yet had a chance, you are encouraged to review it (hard copies available to borrow in library). These are the results (55 respondents). Of those who responded:
60% had read or skimmed the report.
Of those that had not, 58% were interested in reading it.
Are changes needed at WUUC?
63% thought some changes were need at WUUC to address racial inequities, biases.
9% agreed changes were needed but that it was not a priority for us.
19% were unclear on how the report recommendations would apply to us.
9% disagreed with the report method and mandates.
What additional conversations would you like to see happening (multiple choice)?
74% are comfortable or very comfortable in conversations about race, identity, equity.
56% wanted to see more Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) learning opportunities.
48% wanted more opportunities to interact with and assist marginalized communities.
48% wanted a closer examination of our WUUC D&I practices and policies.
Should we have more conversations about race, D&I?
77% were willing to participate in or lead more D&I conversations.
79% were willing to participate in or lead training in having difficult conversations.
While it’s a challenge to hear from everyone in the community, 55 responses represent a significant number (about 1/3 of us) and is a good directional indicator of what people are thinking and feeling.
These questions elicited many strong reactions and opinions. Conversations around these sensitive topics need to happen thoughtfully and in safe, covenantal spaces. We have an opportunity to collectively get better at having these conversations without causing harm.
The WUUC board will be considering what to do next in response and how to make D&I work a priority for the coming church year. If you have specific questions about the survey, feel free to contact ctaylor@wuuc.org.
The pop up blood drive is back this September! The pandemic has created lots of challenges for our community blood collection process. Please consider being a donor if you can. As of 8/23 we have 54 of 158 appointments booked.
All donations are by appointment only. No walk ins, guests, or people under age 16 are permitted on site. Please check in with photo ID, and all donors and staff are required to wear face masks. There is no waiting period to donate blood if you recently received a covid vaccine/booster.
“After 10 months of blood and platelet infusions, tomorrow is my husband’s bone marrow transplant, the only true cure for his cancer. I have over a 100 donors to thank for getting us to this point. Thank you all for your selfless donations, it is truly appreciated.”
“Welcome to Belonging You hardly knew how hungry you were to be gathered in, to receive the welcome that invited you to enter entirely… You began to breathe again… You learned to sing. But the deal with this blessing is that it will not leave you alone, will not let you linger… this blessing will ask you to leave, not because it has tired of you but because it desires for you to become the sanctuary that you have found…”
– Jan Richardson
Richardson begins with hunger. And so do we. Just saying the word “belonging” conjures it up: The primal hunger to be included; the longing to be let in. No one likes standing outside the circle. No one likes leaning against the locked door listening while everyone is laughing inside. From the time we are little, belonging is the thing we seek. It’s the hoped for Holy Grail. The promised resting place. But Richardson will have none of that. Our own belonging is only the beginning. That’s what she wants us to know. One minute she’s wrapping us in comforting words about settling in and allowing ourselves to finally breathe. The next she’s shaking us awake and telling us to get up and go. That shaking should tell us something. In other words, this is no gentle invitation, friends. No sweet reminder to think of others. It’s a warning. A desperate hope that we will wake to the fact that there are two kinds of belonging: one that wants to bless us and another that wants to enlist us. Deep down we know this. The hard part is to remember it. To use Richardson’s language, if we find ourselves being invited to linger rather than leave, alarm bells should go off. We need to be weary of those who welcome us with a club jacket and a soft couch. They may have let us in, but soon they will enlist us into the work of keeping others out. There will likely even be a part of us that wants to keep others out. After all, closed circles don’t just set us apart, they sit us above. But they also keep us small. Maybe this is why Richardson’s blessing is so intent on not leaving us alone. It knows that we only grow when the circle does. Circles that keep others out also keep the air out. No one inside a closed circle truly sings; they only suffocate, slowly. It’s all one big reminder that the true blessing of belonging is not that you get to come inside the circle; it’s that you get to participate in expanding it. Again, as the circle grows so do we.
Each month WUUC engages with a theme which is explored in our Worship, in small groups, and hopefully in the minds and hearts of our members and friends. These themes and groups have been developed as a program called Soul Matters, as a tool for congregational enrichment from the UUA. September’s theme is: Belonging
Each fall, the Advocates for Social Justice go through a lengthy process to choose organizations that will benefit from our monthly special collections, making it convenient for members and friends to meet their giving goals. During the service on August 21, the Advocates for Social Justice invite you to donate to JUUstice Washington, which strives to inspire, educate, empower, and nurture the capacity of Unitarian Universalists (UUs), as well as our community allies, to collaboratively advocate for and undertake social and environmental justice initiatives. They support legislative change that aligns with our UU values in Washington state and beyond.
June’s Special Collection raised $360 to benefit Lambert House, a nonprofit organization that empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth through the development of leadership, social, and life skills. In May we collected $612 for NAMI Eastside. This East King County affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness is a community-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to improving the quality of life for those impacted by mental illness through advocacy, education, and support.
The ASJ Committee thanks WUUC members and friends for their generous support of our monthly special collections, which take place during services on the third Sunday of every month. Instructions for giving are posted during the service, and you can also donate anytime the following week at https://onrealm.org/wuuc/-/give/now, or by sending a check to WUUC at P.O. Box 111, Woodinville, WA 98072. Please make checks out to WUUC and write “ASJ Special Collection” in the notes.
