We’re excited to have a newly established Journey Towards Wholeness (JTW) team supporting both the South Bay and Hillcrest campuses of First UU Church of San Diego! The JTW initiative is one that isn’t new to this community. Rather, it’s rooted in decades of efforts by lay leadership within our congregation. Newly re-energized, with an elected core team voted in by the board of trustees in September 2018, the group’s vision continues to be one of radical welcoming—striving for an unending practice of inclusion and intersectional justice for those marginalized. This includes those within our community or those who have yet to find their true home at First UU, and whose voice and truth both warrant and need amplification and support in line with our Unitarian Universalist principles. The team’s mission is to dismantle systems of oppression of all types in ourselves as well as the congregation. We commit to facilitating growth and progress through efforts that will undoubtedly invite vulnerability. Through efforts that ask us all to lean into tough and yet meaningful conversations, we’ll reflect on our own actions, words, and beliefs. By doing so, we can deepen connections and remove barriers to fostering a spirit of true beloved community that allows for a diverse church community aligned to our aspirations.
Let’s take a pause, as with even this introduction, some may be gripped by a sense of anxiety, or uncertainty, maybe even questioning its relevance within our organization. The JTW Team hopes we all can take a step back and know that our community values and invites these feelings. Yet, our values also ask that we challenge and channel them positively, by intentionally opening ourselves up to listening to varied truths, to address and resolve discrepancies in perspectives, and to move forward authentically with one another.
The team is structured to lead in five key areas of focus. Each aims to assess and address how unconscious bias and racism (and other oppressions) manifest within the structure of our community—both in how it’s governed and how it operates—with the overall goal to achieve true inclusion. The leads for each area will collaborate with staff and Ministry Teams and their groups to assess actions and activities with the anti-racism/anti-oppression/dismantling white supremacy lens of JTW’s mission. Our focus areas are: 1) Finances and Programs, 2) Worship and Music, 3) Policy and Practice, 4) Community Relationships, and 5) Education of Culture and Language.
Two initiatives have been identified and implemented or proposed to the Board as educational opportunities to:
Race: Are We So Different?
By mid-December, 30 Board members and Ministry Team lay leaders will have participated in a guided tour of the Museum of Man’s “Race: Are We So Different?” exhibit and a workshop on Implicit Bias and Micro-Aggressions. At least two additional tours/workshops are being scheduled for January and beyond for additional Ministry Team lay leaders and interested congregation members.
Beloved Conversations
At its November meeting, Board members discussed the possibility of bringing to First UU “Beloved Conversations: Meditations on Race and ethnicity.”
This program was developed by Dr. Mark Hicks of the Fahs Collaborative at Meadville Lombard Theological School and is serving more than 140 UU, Jewish, and Quaker congregations. Using a small-group format, it explores the role of race and ethnicity in the lives of individuals and the congregation. Further investigation of the program is taking place with the goal of bringing it to our congregation in the next few months.
Your JTW team is deeply moved by, motivated, and engaged in this work. We’d love to have deeper conversations with anyone who would like to discuss it. Journeying Toward Wholeness is work for each of us as well as for First UU as an institution. Only by working and learning together with other congregation members, friends, and staff will our mission thrive and progress—and we become the congregation to which we aspire. Your ideas, involvement, and suggestions are
important to us! Please reach out to any team member for further discussion: Honor Bell, Isaac Castro, Ben Fowler, Jan Garbosky, Kendric Hornsby, Steve Howard, Maggie Marshall, and
Alpa Patel.
Keep an eye out for more updates from the JTW team!
The team is structured to lead in five key areas of focus. Each aims to assess and address how unconscious bias and racism (and other oppressions) manifest within the structure of our community—both in how it’s governed and how it operates—with the overall goal to achieve true inclusion. The leads for each area will collaborate with staff and Ministry Teams and their groups to assess actions and activities with the anti-racism/anti-oppression/dismantling white supremacy lens of JTW’s mission. Our focus areas are: 1) Finances and Programs, 2) Worship and Music, 3) Policy and Practice, 4) Community Relationships, and 5) Education of Culture and Language.
Two initiatives have been identified and implemented or proposed to the Board as educational opportunities to:
- Develop a cadre of congregational leaders to help in this work,
- Develop a common language and understanding of racism and its manifestations, and engage in deep, relationship-building conversations.
Race: Are We So Different?
By mid-December, 30 Board members and Ministry Team lay leaders will have participated in a guided tour of the Museum of Man’s “Race: Are We So Different?” exhibit and a workshop on Implicit Bias and Micro-Aggressions. At least two additional tours/workshops are being scheduled for January and beyond for additional Ministry Team lay leaders and interested congregation members.
Beloved Conversations
At its November meeting, Board members discussed the possibility of bringing to First UU “Beloved Conversations: Meditations on Race and ethnicity.”
This program was developed by Dr. Mark Hicks of the Fahs Collaborative at Meadville Lombard Theological School and is serving more than 140 UU, Jewish, and Quaker congregations. Using a small-group format, it explores the role of race and ethnicity in the lives of individuals and the congregation. Further investigation of the program is taking place with the goal of bringing it to our congregation in the next few months.
Your JTW team is deeply moved by, motivated, and engaged in this work. We’d love to have deeper conversations with anyone who would like to discuss it. Journeying Toward Wholeness is work for each of us as well as for First UU as an institution. Only by working and learning together with other congregation members, friends, and staff will our mission thrive and progress—and we become the congregation to which we aspire. Your ideas, involvement, and suggestions are
important to us! Please reach out to any team member for further discussion: Honor Bell, Isaac Castro, Ben Fowler, Jan Garbosky, Kendric Hornsby, Steve Howard, Maggie Marshall, and
Alpa Patel.
Keep an eye out for more updates from the JTW team!
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