We know many of you have seen the letter from a member of UUC’s community, Ali Masood, expressing his thoughts and feelings about many important issues at UUC. Writing as a member of color and leader within our social justice ministry, Ali shares his experience and perspective of the church’s overarching culture and how that culture is shaped by racial and power hierarchies as a historically and predominantly white institution. You can read the letter here: UUC, A White Supremacist Congregation.

The freedom and responsibility to speak our truths, and to listen with curiosity and empathy, is such essential work as we continue to build a dynamic, compassionate community centered in liberating love. We want you to know that we are in conversation with Ali about his concerns and are looking for ways to learn and grow as a community from his sharing. His letter asks us to think about important and enduring ways we can address critical concerns and live with more intention and immediacy into our stated values of justice, generosity, and equity as a community. It invites us to remember the power and urgency of building beloved community where we are willing to lean into the dynamic tensions of truth and love with courage and humility. Rather than rushing to analyze or fix, this is also an invitation to remain at the table over the long haul. Recalling the words shared with Rev. Beth when walking in the footsteps of the 1965 Voting Rights March, “this is urgent, generational work.”

The interim time invites us to work together for a future that best fulfills our values. Being within a time of transition offers a unique opportunity to inquire and understand more deeply our dominant culture as a community, both in terms of UUC’s overt or explicit culture, and the aspects of culture that are more underlying or implicit. As a church community, we’ve had conversations over the past four years about what it would take to become a more anti-racist faith community, knowing that there are many ways we fall short and much to both learn and unlearn. In 2022, we voted to affirm the 8th Principle which calls us to “build beloved community by actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.” In voting on the 8th Principle, we knew that in centering such a vision, we were committing to deep, transformational, challenging, uncomfortable, and ultimately, healing and liberating work. In the time since that vote, we have wondered just what shape this work will take and how we will remain faithful to our values and our highest aspirations. We hope that engaging Ali’s prophetic letter will invite you, as well as our community as a whole, to affirm our continued dedication to this profoundly important work of building beloved community, racial justice, and dismantling systems of oppression within ourselves and our institutions. 

We are currently organizing small group dialogue circles led by some of UUC’s lay leaders who have been trained in facilitating conversations about race, dates of which will be shared soon. In the meantime, we leave you these two quotes from facilitators of courageous conversations as guidance for the way forward -- 

“Things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered. 

We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.” 

~ adrienne maree brown

“When the going gets tough, turn to wonder.” 

~ Parker Palmer