UUA News – November 2022

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Dear Friends,

Unitarian Universalists across our Association are grappling with a charge from the Commission on Institutional Change to dismantle white supremacy in ourselves, our communities and our wider world. The Commission’s 2020 report, Widening the Circle of Concern, affirms that multicultural congregations are on the rise and that progressive-minded people expect basic practices of equity, inclusion, and diversity that our congregations often lack. Many of us have been on the path toward multiculturalism for a long time, and yet we still have work to do together.

The 2022-23 UU Common Read, Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism, is co-authored by Nancy Palmer Jones and Karin Lin—a white minister and a lay person of color. It explores five UU congregations’ journeys toward Beloved Community and shares the joy, disappointment, and growth that these congregations found along the way.
Order the Book
I have been honored to work with Nancy and Karin to create the discussion guide for this Common Read. We offer four 90-minute sessions that invite Unitarian Universalists into deep engagement with the stories in this book and their own congregational stories. The sessions model new methods for equitable, honest conversation and raise questions to ponder, such as “What’s in our congregational DNA?” The co-authors and I believe Mistakes and Miracles is a timely, important resource for Unitarian Universalist faith development today. We hope this Common Read will inspire and support more congregations to find their way on the road to Beloved Community.
Get the Discussion Guide
Skinner House Books, UUA imprint and publisher of Mistakes and Miracles, is working on an audiobook edition which should be ready in mid-December. If you would like to be notified when the audiobook edition is available, or if you need the book in another format, please email UUA Publications Director Mary Benard at mbenard@uua.org.

In faith,

Susan Dana Lawrence

Managing Editor, UUA Lifespan Faith Engagement
Susan Dana Lawrence is the managing editor for the UUA Faith Development Office. She is also a writer and educator who belongs to Reform Jewish and Unitarian Universalist faith communities.
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