Building Beloved Community Resources

"How Do we Talk About Race, Class & Privilege?"

Event Summary and Resource Guide

Summary: January 23-25, 2009. Sponsored by Mountain Desert District Justice Ministries.103 Unitarian Universalists from 25 congregations representing 8 clusters and including 40 religious professionals and 3 local community-based organizations.

Featured Presenters: Class Action, a national non-profit organization that inspires action to end classism; Dr. Vincent Harding, scholar-activist and founder of the Veterans of Hope Project, Iliff School of Theology.

The weekend program was made possible by a grant from the UU Fund for Social Responsibility, district congregational assessments, and the warm hospitality provided by members and staff of the First Universalist Church of Denver.

Resources for Download (PDF format):

• "Mid-Wifing A New America" Dr. Vincent Harding
• Call To Action: Coming Events, Books, Videos, Curricula (all ages)
• Closing Homily: A Call To Action
• Music & Poets (Play list from Building the Beloved Community)
• Responding to Critical Incidents
• Suggestions for Organizing a Beloved Community Worship Service
• The Five Ingredients of Covenant
• Tracking Institutional Change
• What You Can Do About Classism

• A Sacred Conversation on Race, the Rev. Lois E. Van Leer
• Community in Times of Disaster, Bruce Andrews
• Justice and the Privilege of Privilege, the Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland
• Remaining Awake During a Great Revolution, the Rev. Deborah Holder

Readings:

• A Blessing for One Who Holds Power, by John O'Donohue
• A Contribution to Statistics, by Wislawa Szymborska
• from A Feminist Ethic of Risk, by Sharon Welch
• from Howard Thurman
• from The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right, by Rabbi Michael Lerner
• Let Us Covenant, by Rebecca Parker
• The Prophetic Liberal Church, by James Luther Adams
• Turning to One Another, by Margaret Wheatley
• What We are About, by Oscar Romero

Web Resources:

• A Faith for a Few? — A Minns Lecture at the 2008 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, by the author of A Historical Dictionary of Unitarian Universalism, Mark W. Harris.
• Cycle of Liberation
• Cycle of Socialization
• Class Action: Felice Yeskel, Rhonda Soto
• Veterans of Hope: Dr. Vincent Harding
• Unitarian Universalist Association
• Center for Nonviolent Communication (it matters how you say it!)
• United For A Fair Economy (10 Chairs Exercise)
• UU Allies for Racial Equality
• Applied Research Center (Race & Public Policy analaysis)

Ideas for generating congregational interest can be found on the Call To Action: Coming Events, Books, Videos, Curricula (all ages) handout. Additional resources will be posted as they become available.

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Posted March 05, 2010 Written by Jess Cullinan