Grateful to bring you our next installment in our bi-weekly messages with a prayer, an ancestor and a song speaking to our spirits. We hope these resources may offer what we need in order to be, courageously, steadily, humbly, on the side of love. One ancestor to lean on, one prayer for our messy lives, and one song to strengthen and soothe.

ANCESTOR

“We create our future, by well improving present opportunities: however few and small they be.” Lewis Howard Latimer

Lewis Howard Latimer (September 4, 1848-December 11, 1928) was an African-American inventor, patent expert, draftsperson and poet and a founding member of the Unitarian Church of Flushing, New York. His parents fled to Massachusetts from Virginia in 1842 and the case to secure their freedom was a notable case within larger abolitionist organizing. Latimer was also a poet, painter and writer and player of music. His legacy includes one of life-improving inventions including lamp fixtures, toilets for railway cars, a cooling and disinfecting system, and a locking rack for hats, coats and umbrellas. Read more about his life here.

We have heard again and again about the need for spiritual sustenance in this work. Two weeks ago, we launched bi-weekly messages for the foreseeable future that include a prayer, an ancestor and a song speaking to our spirits. We hope these resources may offer what we need in order to be, courageously, steadily, humbly, on the side of love. One ancestor to lean on, one prayer for our messy lives, and one song to strengthen and soothe.

ANCESTOR

“It was not at all unusual for us to receive phone calls at 3 in the morning warning us that if we did not leave the house within 15 minutes, a bomb would destroy our home,” Rev. Albert D’Orlando

Rev. Albert D’Orlando was a white Unitarian minister who served First Unitarian Universalist Church in New Orleans from 1950-1981. In 1960, as New Orleans prepared to deal with court-ordered school desegregation, the Rev. D'Orlando had his congregation set up a Freedom Fund to provide legal and other assistance to those fighting for desegregation.

We have heard again and again about the need for spiritual sustenance in this work. We are grateful to be offering some more resources in the coming weeks and months as part of Love Resists and new episodes of Fortification, in partnership with Auburn Seminary will be out soon!

We are also trying out a new thing! Every other week you’ll be hearing from us with a prayer, an ancestor and a song speaking to our spirits and what we need in order to be, courageously, steadily, humbly, on the side of love. So here it goes!

One ancestor to lean on, one prayer for our messy lives, and one song to strengthen and soothe.

At these times of ongoing violence and grief, may we find time to breathe, to ground ourselves, and to honor the whole range of our complicated feelings. Maybe put on a song or two, for connection and strength. Maybe offer a prayer to what you find holy. May we continue to discern our role in this moment and the ways that people of faith can be of use to those at the forefront of the movement to confront and dismantle white supremacy. May we speak, act, and show up in ways grounded in humility and the willingness to keep learning.

One thing we’ve been learning lately is that there can be a tension between our pride in showing up -- the gladness at seeing all those yellow shirts and stoles out there -- and the need to flank and support those who are called to lead in this moment. If we can stay grounded in humility, we will be able to listen with deep attention to those whose liberation and lives are most at risk right now. The violence that erupted in Charlottesville has been shocking for many of us who have not been the direct targets of racism, but it is only the most recent iteration for those who have known it all their lives. There has been much commentary on the need to remain rooted in love, as an antidote to violence. We believe the best manifestation of active love is through relationships that flank, support, and resource the most directly impacted communities organizing to get free. That means showing up as we are called to resist white supremacy - through symbols, behaviors, policies and institutions. It means building with folks organizing at the front - within UUism and beyond - and responding to what they are calling for.

I am not sure of most things these days. But I do know that white supremacy lives everywhere – and so does love and resistance.  Everywhere. Absolutely everywhere.

You may have heard that there are white supremacists gathering on the Boston Common on Saturday August 19th. And in so many cities and college campuses. Maybe yours. There is no neutrality. Now is when we show up. To confront hate - in the form of white supremacists gatherings and the white supremacy that is in our laws, our school systems, our families, our congregations, our land. Find your frontlines. Below is a request from one our frontlines - Boston, where our UU congregations and clergy and UUA staff will be showing up as best we know how.

An Urgent Call: Join Love in Charlottesville VA—August 12th

Dear Leaders in Faith,

We here at TJMC-Unitarian Universalist in Charlottesville, Virginia are working with the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, Congregate Cville, Black Lives Matter Charlottesville, Showing Up for Racial Justice Charlottesville and others to counter the ‘Summer of Hate’ taking place in our community.

As ‘Congregate Cville’ explains:

“Charlottesville has recently become a hotspot for national white supremacist organizations and demonstrations. Our city council recently voted to move Confederate monuments from our prominent public parks, sparking increasingly explicit and violent expressions of white supremacy in our community. An infamous white nationalist held a threatening torch-lit rally in our park. Most recently, a KKK chapter from North Carolina held a rally in the center of our city. During this rally, non-violent community members standing against racial hatred were met with chemical weapons, military vehicles, and hundreds of militarized police, some carrying grenade launchers and automatic weapons.

You’ve been hearing a lot about Love Resists, the new push for sanctuary and solidarity in our communities. This week, as part of the Unitarian Universalist Association's General Assembly, you can raise up the voices of the resistance in a celebration of partnership and possibility with a distinctly New Orleans flavor at the Love Resists public witness event.

Join this Friday’s #LoveResists: Rejoicing for Sanctuary and Solidarity event online or in person. If you’ll be in New Orleans, join us in person and wear your Standing on the Side of Love shirts.

No matter where you are, you can watch the livestream at loveresists.org, portions of the event will be livestreamed on the UUA Facebook page, and tweet with #loveresists.

Just before May Day, the UUA, Standing on the Side of Love, UUSC and the UU College of Justice rolled out a joint initiative, Love Resists. We’re resisting the Trump administration’s targeting and criminalization of whole communities – those of us who are Muslim, immigrants, Black and Brown people, LGBTQ folks and other communities most directly under threat.

We’re hosting a ‘Conscience Call’ on Friday, May 12th, where you can learn more about Love Resists and how you can be part of it.

Check out our second in our conversations about covenant - how we create them and what it means to return to them - between Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen, our new Spiritual Sustenance Advisor and Nora Rasman, our Campaign Manager.

lizabeth: The other day we were talking with some of the ministers who have been part of the very DIY minister in residence program in Bismarck and at Standing Rock. We gathered folks together to ask how their ministries all over the United States had been impacted by their time supporting the resistance camps and Native-led justice work. We asked how they were supporting Native sovereignty and self-determination in their local contexts and what we could learn about ways we can show up in the future. One of the ministers shared that for her, going to support Rev. Karen Van Fossen at the Bismarck-Mandan UU congregation, and the movement of Water Protectors was about fulfilling a covenant. That on every level, from a UU congregation humbly, faithfully fortifying a groundswell of resistance, to the funding from other UU ministers and institutions and individuals that allowed ministers to go and support, to the willingness of clergy themselves to show up for one another -  it was about keeping and honoring covenant. 

Nora: Yes indeed. That moment had me thinking a lot about the ways that covenant is embodied and consistent - and how that feels like the covenant I’m thirsty to support and grow. As non-coercive embodied actions, what does it mean to live into covenant? For those of us who are UU, do we have something along the lines of original covenant, whereby being born and/or raised UU are we committed to covenant? And what does it mean spiritually when we have shared articulated values but embody them so differently or not at all?

We are so thrilled to announce that a few weeks ago Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen joined Standing on the Side of Love as our Spiritual Sustenance Advisor. In her role, Elizabeth brings passion around how theology and spirituality fortify intersectional organizing and she continues work with Youth and Young Adults of Color in the YaYA Office. 

We’re starting off our work with a conversation between Elizabeth and Nora Rasman talking about covenant - knowing that within UU communities, we are really grappling with the limitations and gifts of covenant and we are simultaneously excited about what covenant can offer to organizing work. 

“Covenant is resonant for some – not all of us. Guidelines...are tools – and like any tool can be used to build or tear down. In practicing these guidelines, we’re encouraging you to use them to create space rather than shut down others." - Rev. Alicia Forde