Hello friends!
I just came back from the UUA Justice GA in Phoenix AZ, and I wanted to share some thoughts with you. Feel free to skip the fluffy stuff and head down towards the bottom for the yellow highlights ...
First of all, let me tell you that it was HOT! Temps were ranging between 103-107 in the afternoon and evening – unbelievable!
It was different tho because we didn’t get sweaty, so walking from the oven to the air conditioning didn’t leave us with wet clothes turning cold on our skin.
I went to GA this year to see our beloved Deanna walk across the stage during the Service of the Living Tradition as she was “officially welcomed into preliminary fellowship by the UUA”. We also saw Charlie Dietrich and Nathan Ryan strutting across the stage. It was so wonderful to be there to support her and applaud her as she crossed the stage and took another step on her journey to becoming a “finally fellowshipped minister of the UUA”. Her partner Phil was beside her, and Jyaphia, Rev Melanie & Big Man, Quo Vadis, Joe Sullivan (!!) and my friend Chet and I were there from the south, and her incredible group of mentors from her internship in San Mateo were there too: Rev Vail, Shawn (Choir Director) and Kathy (DRE) were there to sing and clap along with us. There were other friendly faces there too – I saw Rev Jim and Shirley floating in the crowd and a host of other familiar faces.
It was a great service, with a few songs that left us yearning for more (and a few dirge-y ones that I was over and done with!). The minister Karen Tse delivered a great sermon very tied to the theme of Justice – she has done extraordinary work in Cambodia in trying to work with the prisons to provide legal counsel to prisoners and to try to get the kids who were jailed for minor crimes OUT. Here is a moment from her sermon that particularly touched me (bold is mine):
[This was brought home to me in a recent experience with my son. A few months ago I had the idea for him to come to Cambodia with me. So I said, “Noah, do you want to come with me to Cambodia in a few weeks and help mommy protect the prisoners who don’t have anyone to stand up for them?” He responded, “Yeah, but what I can do?” I wasn’t sure, but told him to come anyway and then we’ll see how. He accompanied me to prisons, courts and orphanages. During our first meeting with the Minister of Justice, it wasn’t long before my son began engaging lightly with him and his two secretaries. Quite quickly into the conversation, they agreed that we should work together to get all the youth out of prison. By the end of the meeting, they agreed, for the first time in the 18 years that I have worked in Cambodia, to sign a MOU with an NGO to work together to provide for comprehensive legal aid throughout the country. In my heart, while I could not put my finger on it, I knew that this outcome had something to do with my son. What I was keenly aware of was that, while he had not actually done anything specific, his presence mattered. In this sense, I know that all of our presence matters, as we bring prophetic witness to the situation.]
I attended three workshops while I was there – I attended two anti-racism workshops and one on Getting Unstuck for Congregations.
I really liked the anti-racism classes – that’s the first time I’ve been in class specific to the topic. There were 4 sessions of the class, and I attended #3 and #4 – so I missed the beginning where they wrote the covenant, but it was plastered on the wall and reiterated at each session. I wish I had copied the one sentence that hit me most, but it was something like “honor the intent, and work to resolve the (unintended) impact”.
There were some interesting dynamics of the group – the session started with one attendee stating that he didn’t like that the session was geared towards white people. The session brochure stated: This workshop is geared towards white people; all are welcome to attend.” The facilitator explained a lot of history around that – basically in doing anti-racism work, mostly-white organizations repeatedly go to orgs of people of color and ask how they can help, and they were asked to “do their own work” – meaning that white people need to do our own work together so that we can be at a better place to help with the multi-racial work. At no time was it stated that we should only do our own work, but that we should do it in concert with our multi-racial work. Another participant was suggesting that if we weren’t working together with people of color, we wouldn’t be hearing their stories and we wouldn’t be charged and motivated to work towards justice. That was met by a writer who stood up and talked about how she writes and reads stories of racial injustice and that there are plenty of stories already written that we can use to motivate us (she ended her comment with a yell of “Yeah Books!”!)
The facilitators were great – the two main ones (Clare Bayard and Alia Trindle) were from Catalyst Project out of San Fran and they were excellent facilitators keeping us on track and encouraging participation – they reminded us that we will sometimes make mistakes in doing this work, and that we have to be unafraid of failing momentarily, and keeping our focus on doing the work and moving towards justice.
At the end of the session they gave everyone 2 index cards and one envelope. We were to write 3-4 measurable and accountable actions that we would do within the next three months. We wrote them on both cards - we took one card with us, and the other we put in the envelope and addressed it to ourselves and gave it to the facilitators – they are going to mail them to us in 2 months to remind us of our commitments.
Here are mine and I WOULD LOVE IT IF ANY OF YOU WANT TO JOIN ME FOR ANY OF THESE ACTIONS!
1) Sign up to attend the next anti-racism training class at PISAB http://www.pisab.org/ – and see attached flyer!
a. The next 3-day workshop is Mon Aug 13 (6-9pm), Tues Aug 14 (9am-5pm) and Wed Aug 15 (9-1pm) – that means taking vacation days (or sick days) to do it – I’ll probably take a sick day and put it down towards “HEALING”
b. Play hooky with me!!!!
1. If you want to go, let’s go together !!!! I think these kind of workshops might require some time for reflection and discussion in the days and weeks afterwards …
2. If you have been before, come with me again! Returning attendees get a discount ($150)
3. The next weekend workshop happens to conflict with our Fall retreat in October – the next opportunity would be next year, so I’ll be doing the August one.
4. The cost is $250, but if we have 3 or more, it is only $200 a piece – if money is a hindrance, I might be able to help …
2) Read the book by Melissa Alexander “The New Jim Crow – Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” – I ordered it for my Kindle app, and I can loan it to you when I am done if you want to read it on a device
a. I think a book group on this would be great – there is a lot of movement around incarceration injustice and I would love some community to talk about this – let me know if there is interest in this and I’ll put something together!
3) Incorporate anti-racism work in the Conscious Living Covenant Group
a. We are currently on our second round of working the Eightfold Path (http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/eightfoldpath.html) and I think wrapping that path around anti-racist work and anti-incarceration work could really move that group forward
b. Talk with the group about how to do some anti-racism work at our Fall UU Retreat (Oct 19/20/21 at Fontainbleu State Park)
4) Finally accept Deanna’s repeated invitations to attend the European Dissent group meetings
a. Frankly, I don’t think I ever understood that she was saying “dissent” instead of “descent” … so my interest wasn’t as great as it should have been. I think that Emily Danielson has something to do with the group, so I am going to try and find out more.
I didn’t make it to the candlelight vigil at the detention center, but Deanna did, and I hope maybe she will share her experience with you as it sounds like it was quite impactful.
That’s all, that’s my report
I hope you are all doing well, and I hope to see you at the UU Fall Retreat in October!
Leslie Runnels
