This reflection was part of Side With Love Sunday 2021.

America has not yet faced our history of slavery, nor the malicious colonization and oppression of the Indigenous peoples.

Editor's note: This sermon was prepared for a white congregation, and thus speaks to those who identify as white, centering the dismantling of white supremacy from a white perspective....

When I was in middle school, I was taught that every person, to some extent, holds a set of prejudices that impact our perceptions of others. We were asked to think about what our prejudices might be, and how they might inform our relationships and our movement through the world....

I play this moment over and over again in my head: the day I heard of the Thomas Jefferson Ball, hosted by Unitarian Universalists in 1993. As a person of color, raised in a UU congregation, I felt a shiver down my spine as I learned something new and unsettling about the faith that I call home....

The summer of 2016 began as an exciting one for me: I was finally going to a beloved Unitarian Universalist conference and retreat center. I’d heard many wonderful stories about it, and I couldn’t wait to bring my three children with me. On the drive there, I felt excited about spending a full...

Given that Unitarian Universalists believe in the inherent worth and dignity of all people, not just black people, why should we say “black lives matter” rather than “all lives matter”? To answer this question, we must draw a distinction between a faith stance and a description of reality.

Over 500 years ago, European governments adopted something called the Doctrine of Discovery: any lands and resources not already ruled by a European Christian monarch automatically became the property of whatever government whose subjects traveled to and occupied the territory. This Doctrine of...

The statement Black Lives Matter might be hard to hear because it floats. It is a bit of hyperbole. There is no counter point, no balancing narrative. This is something our culture is not accustomed to. We are used to having a good guy and a bad guy, a protagonist and an antagonist. We’ve seen...

Reading From The Hebrew Bible (Isaiah 40:1-11) Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries out: 'In the wilderness...

We are in the midst of advent, friends, and I have to admit how much I love this season. Like most clergy I feel that it is my job, 24/7/365 to orient the world to the best of my ability toward peace, love, hope and joy....

At the beginning of this sermon, pictures of the five black people killed by police officers were projected for the congregation to see as each was named. At the end of the sermon, photo portraits of each were placed on chairs as candles were lit for them. This is Tamir Rice. Tamir Rice is twelve...

In the summer of 1989, I attended the annual gathering of Unitarian Universalists at the General Assembly at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Yale is right downtown, and it was my custom to get out of the hotel and university setting for most of my meals. One morning, as I was in town...

Thursday marks the bicentennial of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Different though they and their influences were, both contributed to a tectonic shift in ideas. Neither arrived at his culminating treatise: Darwin’s 1859 The Origin of Species and Lincoln’s 1865 Emancipation...

When I was in third grade at Evergreen School in Plainfield, NJ, my best friend was John Carvana. At 8 years old, I was awkward physically and socially, and I was drawn to John’s intelligence and easy grace. The friendships of young boys are less about whispered secrets than about hanging out and...

On the cusp of this new day in our nation’s history, seems like everyone has something to say. I have been deluged with emails from the various groups I try to pay attention to: Planned Parenthood, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture,...

Call to Gather “The struggle of today is not altogether for today; it is for a vast future also.” -- Abraham Lincoln’s annual message to Congress, December 3, 1861[1] Reading: “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this...

In March of 2002, the Unitarian Universalist Ministers’ Association held its every seven years gathering in Birmingham, Alabama. I was excited to go to Birmingham, partly because it would be my first convocation with a thousand or so colleagues, but for another reason as well. My first husband,...

First, let me bring you greetings from the larger family of faith of which you are a part. The Unitarian Universalist Association is the coming together of, now, 1055 free, liberal religious congregations in North America....

SERMON DELIVERED BY REV. ROBERT WEST at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York on September 8, 1963. This was Rev. Robert West's first sermon at First Unitarian in Rochester. Late on a Sunday afternoon, five weeks ago, my family and I drove into Rochester to begin our life here with...