ANCESTOR

“To me, a religious quest is a quest for the truth. Truth is one, but man's understanding of truth grows with the progress of mankind. I cannot believe that truth can be shut up in the narrow confines of any system of thought. . .” - Rev. Andrew Kuroda

Andrew Kuroda (December 29, 1906 - February 19, 1997) was a Unitarian minister, cataloguer, bibliographer and reference librarian. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued his Executive Order 9066 in 1942, Kuroda and his family were forced into internment camps Newell, Calif., and in Colorado. Later, asked why Japanese American citizens did not resist this order, Kuroda explained that "We were concerned about our safety—the threat of reprisals against us was always on our minds." His final military assignment was as a member of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, working in Washington and Japan, which surveyed the morale of the Japanese whose lives had been affected by the dropping of the two atomic bombs. He would eventually go on to become a librarian working in the Library of Congress. At the same time, Kuroda served in a number of Christian churches until he became Unitarian and soon after established the Japanese Unitarian Fellowship of All Souls’ Church (Unitarian) conducting its first service in Japanese in 1962 - the only Japanese Unitarian fellowship outside of Japan. Read more about Rev. Kuroda here.

The past few weeks have been...full. Filled with the sorrow and questions emergent from another mass shooting and the inability of leaders’ articulation to talk about masculinity, white supremacy and rage. We witnessed the extraordinary power of grassroots organizers - many of them young People of Color - to ensure that this November we could be proud to support progressive People of Color, Trans, queer and immigrant candidates across the country. We also saw patterns of voting across race that mirrored many of those in 2016 - including the ongoing power of Black women voters and failure of political parties to center their leadership or priorities.

As you reflect on the most recent waves, we share a few offerings that may be relevant to you. Check out this playlist by Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen, a poem “moon tell me” by adrienne maree brown, our first episode of season 2 of Fortification featuring Rodney McKenzie & Caitlin Breedlove, an Ancestral Spiritual Resistance Zine from Francisca Porchas & Mijente and this Post-Election Soul Food compilation by Rev. Cathy Rion Starr - a year old but still rather relevant.

As we prepare for the times ahead, we invite you into the next call by the Love Resists Campaign. Focused on building spiritual community and sharing lessons from recent months, we are excited to offer conversations with grassroots organizers leading campaigns against criminalization within our own communities. We hope these webinars will provide both some background information and some practical tools applicable to the work you’re doing.

Last fall, we launched Fortification, a podcast about the spiritual lives of organizers and activists. It was an amazing opportunity to get to sit down with people within and across faith tradition to talk about some of the big questions facing organizers, communities and institutions.

Much has changed and much remains the same since our first episode. We're excited to be coming to you with a second season of Fortification: Spiritual Sustenance for Movement Leadership - the same recording team and now in collaboration with Auburn Seminary. We're having similar conversations and bringing questions about the roles, opportunities and barriers to faith communities supporting movement, creating individual and collective rituals for the long-haul and more.
 

Mary White Ovington (April 11, 1865- July 15, 1951) was a suffragette, socialist, Unitarian, journalist and co-founder of the NAACP. Ovington was a white civil rights advocate and organizer who worked to address racial discrimination within housing and employment in New York City, work that led her into relationship with prominent Black civil rights organizers including leaders of the Niagara Movement and WEB Du Bois. Her work in support of and alongside many others would eventually lead to the founding of the permanent body known as the NAACP. Its early members included Josephine Ruffin, Mary Talbert, Mary Church Terrell, Inez Milholland, Jane Addams, George Henry White, Charles Edward Russell, John Dewey, Charles Darrow, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Fanny Garrison Villard, Oswald Garrison Villard and Ida Wells-Barnett. Ovington would go on to serve in various leadership capacities at the NAACP throughout her time while also authoring numerous books. Read more about her work here.

May we be relentless in our work for growth - for ourselves and each other. Like Ovington, may we continue to strengthen our study coupled with praxis, building relationships with those with whom we share a vision of the world we are building. May we honor the contributions and legacy of those who came before.

We are so excited to share some big news for Standing on the Side of Love (SSL) with you. Since last spring, SSL had been blessed by the wisdom and vision of Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen as our part-time Spiritual Sustenance Advisor. 

We're thrilled to share that beginning November 15th, Elizabeth will be joining us full time as the Senior Strategist to lead the next moves the campaign will make into the future. In this new role, Elizabeth will support and lead the campaign’s work by growing our external movement relationships and supporting our internal transformation work - in collaboration with our supporters, you.

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.