BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults
WORKSHOP 13: BUILDING BRIDGES OF TRUST AND ACCOUNTABILITY: A SERVICE OF RECONCILIATION AND HEALING
BY MARK HICKS. GAIL FORSYTH-VAIL, DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR.
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 10:38:49 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Blessed are you who know that the work of the church is transformation of society, who have a vision of Beloved Community transcending the present. — Rev. John Buehrens
This workshop marks a transition in the program. Previous workshops explored the concepts and manifestations of identity and privilege; this workshop invites participants to integrate what they have learned and prepare to move forward. A worship service for racial healing and reconciliation offers the primary vehicle for acknowledging and affirming the important spiritual work participants have done to date. Incorporating participants' previous dialogues and experiences, the worship service will address the spiritual costs of racism and encourage participants to remain steadfast in understanding, healing, and transforming racism's hurting power.
Invite the minister and the music director or other musician to help you develop and lead the worship. Other than professional leaders who are assisting with the service, only members of the Building the World We Dream About workshop group should take part.
Following the worship service, participants turn their attention to the journey ahead, both for themselves and for the congregation. Participants have gained a grasp of some issues and challenges inherent in building such a world, but have yet to explore skills and ongoing practices they will need to sustain it—a broad set of skills and practices called "cultural competency." This is a pivotal workshop, not only for participants, but for the congregation's efforts to build an antiracist/multicultural community. Participants must decide whether to:
Additionally, the group will decide whether and how to support the formation of new Building the World We Dream About groups in your congregation.
Before leading this workshop, review the accessibility guidelines in the program Introduction under Integrating All Participants. Consider food allergies and sensitivities when planning post-worship refreshments.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 15 |
Activity 1: Worship for Racial Reconciliation and Healing | 45 |
Activity 2: Refreshments and Break | 15 |
Activity 3: Considering the Congregation | 15 |
Activity 4: Where Do We Go from Here? | 20 |
Closing | 10 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Prepare your own reflections for the worship service, following the instructions in Workshop 12, Taking It Home:
Consider carefully your own ability and willingness to commit to further work in the Building the World We Dream About program:
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Greet participants as they arrive.
OPENING (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Welcome participants and remind them of the spirit of their covenant. Share the goals of this workshop.
Say that together you will create a worship service for racial reconciliation and healing. Explain that you will not light the chalice immediately, but will do it as part of the worship service. Invite them to enter a time of silent reflection, considering the questions from Workshop 12, Taking It Home that you have posted. Invite them to consider which part of their reflections they would like to share as part of the worship service.
ACTIVITY 1: WORSHIP FOR RACIAL RECONCILIATION AND HEALING (45 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Lead the worship service you have planned. Invite participants to enter into their sharing as a spiritual experience. Remind them that a central tenant of antioppression work is to refrain from challenging the validity of any other person's experience: There should be no discussion or response to any of the voices as participants speak.
ACTIVITY 2: REFRESHMENTS AND BREAK (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Acknowledge the importance of taking a few minutes before the next activity to share food and appreciate one another's presence.
ACTIVITY 3: CONSIDERING THE CONGREGATION (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Say:
We have spent much of our energy understanding our own identity and life story in the last few weeks. We have explored the systems of oppression and privilege that have affected us. Today, we turn our attention to our congregation, asking, "What are the challenges and strengths of our congregation as it seeks to become a more antiracist/multicultural faith community?"
Invite participants to brainstorm responses to the two questions you have posted. Note: Some responses may belong on both lists.
ACTIVITY 4: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? (20 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
Introduce the activity with these or similar words:
You have a grasp of some of the issues and challenges inherent in building an antiracist/multicultural community, but these workshops have not yet explored some of the skills and ongoing practices necessary to build and sustain it—a broad set of skills and practices called "cultural competency." We need to each make an honest assessment of our own situation and ability to commit to future workshops. Together, we will decide whether to:
Continue with the remaining 11 workshops and build cultural competency skills and practices;
Take a break from regular workshops for a period of time, and then do the remaining 11 workshops; or
Complete our work in this program at the conclusion of this workshop.
Additionally, we will decide whether and how to support and assist with the formation of new Building the World We Dream About groups in our congregation.
Lead a discussion to consensus about how you will proceed.
CLOSING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to spend five minutes writing feedback in response to the questions you have posted on newsprint.
Distribute Taking It Home and Handout 1 and invite participants to do the suggested activities before the next meeting. Read the instructions aloud and invite participants to ask questions.
Offer Leader Resource 2 as a closing. Extinguish the chalice.
Gather participants' written feedback.
Including All Participants
Prepare a large-print version of Taking It Home.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Take a few moments immediately after the workshop to ask each other:
TAKING IT HOME
Blessed are you who know that the work of the church is transformation of society, who have a vision of Beloved Community transcending the present. — Rev. John Buehrens
Find a special location for your small object from the worship service. Write yourself a note to help you recall both the challenge and the promise you named and put the note with the small object. Use these as touchstones as you continue your journey toward understanding your part in helping your faith community and the wider world become antiracist, antioppressive, and truly multicultural.
Read Handout 1, What Will We Be and For Whom? Jot thoughts, comments, observations, and responses in your journal.
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 13:
HANDOUT 1: WHAT WILL WE BE AND FOR WHOM?
By Kat Liu, originally published in A People So Bold: Theology and Ministry for Unitarian Universalists, edited by John Gibb Millspaugh (Boston: Skinner House, 2010).
I first learned about Unitarian Universalism in college from friends planning to get married. They were unenthused about being married by a judge, but equally unenthused about having God invoked in their nuptials. They found in Unitarian Universalism the perfect compromise. My friends described Unitarian Universalism as a religion "where you can believe anything you want." While I was happy that such a faith existed to serve their wedding needs, I did not understand why anyone would want to actually join such a "faith." This kind of fluffy, feel-good religion held no appeal for me as a young Chinese-American woman struggling to navigate between the U.S. American ideal of individual liberty and the Asian ideal of communal responsibility.
Nevertheless, years later, when I moved from my native California to New York, I realized that without friends or community, the social engagement I had thought a natural part of my identity was slipping away in my isolation. I decided to investigate the local Unitarian Universalist congregation. Everyone in the little all-white fellowship was pleasant enough, and I became a sporadic, uncommitted, ambivalent attendee. When new acquaintances asked what my religion was, I uncomfortably responded that I attended a UU fellowship, but I never identified as a UU.
A change of careers took me to Washington, DC, and one Sunday I dropped by the local UU congregation. At the introductory session following the service, a newcomer remarked that her favorite aspect of Unitarian Universalism was that you could believe whatever you wanted. I started making plans to be elsewhere the following Sunday. But then the minister gently questioned the statement. "Is that really true?" she asked. "Or is it that you are free to believe what your conscience calls you to believe?" My ears perked up. Over the next two weeks I learned from ministers and congregants about a faith that valued liberty for the sake of justice—individual autonomy balanced with communal accountability. I had known about Unitarian Universalism for two decades without much interest, yet in less than two weeks I enthusiastically signed the membership book.
I had found a home. As an Asian American—particularly one who grew up in a white neighborhood—there were few places where I felt comfortable at the time. In all-white settings I remained acutely aware of my differences, even if others seemed to accept me as one of them. In all-Chinese settings I was often disapprovingly reminded of ways in which I was not fully Chinese. I have come to learn that I am not alone in this regard. For me and many people of color, and even for some Euro-Americans, the settings where we feel most at home are multiracial or multicultural. Amidst a diversity of people, both our similarities and our differences are acknowledged and accepted. Few churches ever attain meaningful ethnic and cultural diversity; fewer still remain that way by deliberately embodying that identity.
Having found a spiritual home after so many years, I became an evangelical UU, eagerly sharing with anyone who would listen my discovery of a justice-seeking religion that not only tolerates diversity but celebrates it. I had no reservations about sharing this good news with people in the local area. However, when talking with people who lived elsewhere, especially people of color, I felt a pang of ambivalence if they voiced interest in investigating Unitarian Universalism. I had told them that my religion celebrates diversity—but what would my friends find when they stepped through the doors of their local house of worship? It was likely that they would see a group less diverse than their own neighborhoods, less diverse than the neighborhood of the church itself. In proclaiming my enthusiasm for Unitarian Universalism as I experienced it in my own congregation, I couldn't help but wonder if I was selling a false bill of goods.
I have also wondered whether Unitarian Universalism is a prophetic religion for our times when it comes to racism and multiculturalism. A prophetic church must lead a community in upholding social justice, which means recognizing the concerns of those at the margins of society and helping to bring those concerns into equal consideration with concerns of those in power. A prophetic religion speaks to its time and community and leads people to a better vision of the future.
By these criteria, one can argue that Unitarianism and Universalism have always been prophetic. Other essays in this volume note our illustrious (and sometimes not so illustrious) past on abolitionism, women's suffrage, and the civil rights movement. Unitarian Universalism recognizes and promotes equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, sometimes finding itself one of very few religious voices speaking for transgender people. When I think of our work in this area, I am proud to be a UU.
However, much as we cite the work of our religious ancestors on abolition and civil rights, I am less sure of our current commitment to antiracism and multiculturalism. The United States has become increasingly diverse, yet our faith communities remain predominantly white. If we are the prophetic church we claim to be, how can we remain content with congregations less diverse than our neighborhoods? During the last presidential campaign, while UUs praised Obama for the diversity of his supporters and denigrated McCain because he attracted supporters who are mostly whiter of skin and hair, it did not go unnoticed that our UU congregations look far more like McCain's crowd than Obama's.
In the Jewish and Christian roots of our faith, the role of the prophet is to speak truth to power, often through holding governments accountable to a higher standard. Yet today, given the savvy ways the Obama administration has reached out to a wide array of cultural constituencies, it seems that our government is far ahead of our churches. We are not leading; we are not even keeping up. With regard to racial and cultural diversity, we are lagging behind, in danger of becoming irrelevant.
Unitarian Universalism appears to have a generally tepid appeal among people of color. Perhaps one reason for this is our being stuck in an Enlightenment or modernist mind-set. Unitarianism was born of the same Enlightenment ideals of reason and tolerance encoded in our nation's foundational documents—noble ideals born from the cultured musings of wealthy white men who saw the strengths of these philosophies without noticing the classist, racist, and sexist views latent within them. The early Unitarian vision of self-cultivation through study and reflection presupposes a person with ample leisure and resources. The watchword liberty asserts individualism more prominently than community, and it assumes opportunities that are not always present. While Unitarians promoted tolerance of diverse views, they also believed that judicious application of reason would eventually reveal one objective truth—a viewpoint prophetic and liberating for that modern era, but often dangerous and repressive in postmodern times.
Postmodernism need not only refer to convoluted interpretations of abstract theories by obscure authors. In this context, it means the view that socially, spiritually, ethically, and ethnically there is no one objectively true reality, but rather multiple subjectively true realities for different people from different perspectives. Thus, in the postmodernist view, diversity is inherently valued, not just added on to a presumed norm. Postmodernism also recognizes that the ideals that are liberating for you may be oppressive to me. For example, "You can believe whatever you want" may be liberating to those who are fleeing the rigid dogmas of some religions, but the same statement is irrelevant and off-putting for others. People who live at the margins of society and are subject to the whims of those in power know that beliefs have serious consequences. Advertising campaigns along the lines of "When in prayer, doubt" may be very appealing to a class of people whose circumstances afford them the time to ponder, but the same phrase is irrelevant and nonsensical to those for whom prayer is the only hope remaining.
Most of our outreach advertises values that appeal predominantly to white, middle-class sensibilities, yet we wonder why it is predominantly white, middle-class visitors who come through our doors, and why the few people of color who make their way to us often leave.
Some people have argued that Unitarian Universalism is not for everyone, that we cannot be all things to all people. While this is true, the question remains—What, then, will we be, and for whom? If we want to be a religion of the race and class privileged, then we need not change, and we can watch society pass us by. If it is our desire to be prophetic leaders in building a multiethnic, multicultural beloved community, we must step outside our culture-bound viewpoints, recognize that other equally valid viewpoints exist, and intentionally work to see through the eyes of others. Those among us who live on various margins have already had to learn to do this.
May we lead, not lag. May we reclaim the voice of our prophetic faith.
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 13:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: SUGGESTED ORDER OF SERVICE
Consult with your minister, music director, and/or another experienced worship leader in your congregation as you plan this service. Ask your music director to help you select suitable hymns and recruit an accompanist. Use the suggested readings and hymns or substitute your own choices.
OPENING WORDS AND CHALICE LIGHTING
Reading 439 from Singing the Living Tradition, "We gather in reverence," by Sophia Lyon Fahs, read responsively.
OPENING HYMN
A hymn that asks for help and/or strength blessings on this journey toward reconciliation and healing. Possibilities include:
EXPRESSIONS OF OUR EXPERIENCE
Invite participants to share, one at a time, a short reflection on their own experience in the workshops.
MOMENT OF SILENT REFLECTION
HYMN
A hymn that acknowledges how challenging this work is and has been and expresses a promise to continue. This should be a quieter, more meditative hymn. Possibilities include:
NAMING OUR CHALLENGES AND PROMISES GOING FORWARD
Take the bowl of small natural objects from the worship table and pass it. As it comes to each person, invite them to voice a personal challenge and a promise going forward and to take an object from the bowl as a symbol of both the challenge and the promise.
CLOSING HYMN
Choose an upbeat hymn that expresses hope. Possibilities include:
CLOSING WORDS
Reading 567, "A Litany of Restoration," read responsively. Add lines to enrich the litany for your own group, such as "If you grew up speaking Spanish and I grew up speaking English, It will not matter."
Tell participants you will not extinguish the chalice, but will leave it burning for the important conversations to follow.
Invite participants to share refreshments together.
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 13:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: THE FOUNTAIN
By Denise Levertov, from Poems 1960-1967, copyright (C) 1961 by Denise Levertov. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
Don't say, don't say there is no water to solace the dryness at our hearts.
I have seen
the foundation springing out of the rock wall
and you drinking there. And I too
before your eyes
found footholds and climbed
to drink cool water.
The woman of that place, shading her eyes,
frowned as she watched — but not because
she grudged the water,
Only because she was waiting
To see we drank our fill and were
refreshed.
Don't say, don't say there is no water.
That fountain is there among its scalloped
green and gray stones,
It is still there and always there
with its quiet song and strange power
to spring in us,
up and out through the rock.
FIND OUT MORE
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.