Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression, & Multi-Culturalism and Small Group Ministry

If you are a Unitarian Universalist, grab a copy of Soul Work (Skinner House). This book contains...

Papers and discussion transcripts from the UUA Consultation on Theology and
Racism held in Boston in January 2001. Addresses such questions as: What theological or philosophical beliefs bind us together in our shared struggle against racism? What are the costs of racism, both for the oppressors and the oppressed?

In the introduction the editors discuss how UU leaders have realized we need to do more with to engage in the spiritual work of anti-racism. In the conclusion there are recommendations including one suggesting the appropriateness of small group ministries to engage in this work.

I am starting to explore this idea and would love to hear from you if you have done any work with these issues either in your small groups and with your facilitators.

IMAGINE if our ministers and facilitators engaged in a series of sessions equivalent to some of the weekend UUA AR/AO/MC trainings. IMAGINE if every group had a facilitator who could, in the course of discussing the general topics, bring up, as appropriate issues of race, power, oppression, and so on.

In suspect that doing this work at teh small group level will result in significant cultural changes in our faith, and in time, our larger world.

Note: I'm specifically thinking of SGM's that are congregation wide small group / cell group systems, not explicitly anti-racism focused groups using a covenant group model. Plenty of people are using covenant groups in their AR, transformation team, identity groups, and other meetings, etc...

I'd love to see more SGM sessions on issues related to race and power. If you have developed material like this please submit it to our network.

UUA Social Justice resources for congregations