Original Call to Action
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In 2017, on either Sunday, April 30 or May 7, over 600 Unitarian Universalists congregations shifted their regularly scheduled Sunday morning worship to participate in a teach-in on racism and white supremacy. Here is the original call to action:
On these two Sundays, you and your UU community will be participating with thousands of UUs around the country in this large-scale historic action.
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This call to action and worship comes from a growing network of UUs--religious professionals and and lay leaders from both within and outside congregations--led by UUs of color and white UUs working together.
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Over the past few weeks, many have been responding to calls by UUs of color to look critically *within* our faith communities--including hiring practices, power brokers, and cultural habits--for the ways racism, sexism, and white supremacy live.
“White supremacy” is a provocative phrase, as it conjures up images of hoods and mobs. Yet in 2017, actual “white supremacists” are not required in order to uphold white supremacist culture. Building a faith full of people who understand that key distinction is essential as we work toward a more just society in difficult political times.
For more information on what spurred this call to action, head to UUWorld and click the article “Critics decry white supremacy in hiring practices.” It has become clear that, in order for us to be more effective at tackling the white supremacy beyond our walls, we must also identify ways in which systems of supremacy and inequality live within our faith and our lives.
The ask is simple, and challenging: During your Sunday worship time on April 30 or May 7, devote your program--youth group, children’s chapel, all-ages sermon, Sunday morning forum, and so on--to explore white supremacy, and help your UU community commit to resisting it. In the coming days, there will be worship, religious education, and community-based resources available here to help your congregation take on this task.
Why change your worship plan? Many of us work in congregations, and know that such shifts require work and can challenge our comfort levels. That’s precisely why we feel it’s important. We believe that hundreds of UU churches signaling to their own members and to the larger community that “our faith takes racism seriously, especially within our own walls” will push our faith toward the beloved community we all seek.
Whether your UU community has dozens of members and children of color, or just about everyone is white, the commitment to combat white supremacy must be strong and urgent. Battling racism in its many forms is not easy. Everyone has to start somewhere, and it takes a commitment to disrupt business as usual