Laura Park, Beloved Community Staff Team and Director of Membership and Hospitality Each video in the SoulWork series offers ways to think about and develop practice on both sides of the Double Helix model. In the third video, Team Dynamics co-founder and President Alfonso Wenker explores the among practices that move us out of the stage of Minimization on the Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC) into Acceptance, where we have more intercultural competency skills to fruitfully respond to and connect across cultural differences. Alfonso notes the difficulties of moving out of Minimization, the ways in which the move into Acceptance challenges our comfort, and the ways in which practices of noticing and naming our own physical responses and of noticing and naming the behaviors and practices we’re seeing among us can help us move closer to our church’s multicultural ends. Alfonso provides some wonderful questions we might ask ourselves when we’re together to help us notice and name our practices. The most moving part of this video is at the end, where Alfonso explains HeartWork, the hardest part of leaving ethnocentrism as our home base. Make sure to watch the video to hear his invitation into deeper understanding and practice. SoulWork for You: Spend a week noticing and naming your body’s reactions to cultural differences. What feels hot? Cold? What feels tight or closed? Loose or open? What do you notice about how you’re sitting or standing and where you’re looking? SoulWork for Groups: Invite the groups you meet with at Unity Church to do the same noticing and spend some time unpacking your reactions. When your group members are familiar with the individual noticing practice, move into a practice of noticing together. Set aside time to notice patterns in your group practice, without judgment. In what ways do those patterns move you closer to or further away from the church’s multicultural ends? Also, if you or your group is interested in completing the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), a tool that will tell you as individuals or as a group what IDC lens you’re using in intercultural experiences, please contact Drew Danielson, [email protected]. Next: SoulWork#4 – Paradox (Coming July 28) Previous: SoulWork#2 – Presence SoulWork is the term we use at Unity Church for when we engage our Unitarian Universalist faith formation and antiracist multicultural work together. We use a Double Helix model to invite the congregation into this SoulWork and the SoulWork practices, models, tools, and an eight-part video series help us live into increasing complexity on this double helix.
To learn more about SoulWork, please visit our Adult Faith Formation page. There you will find a link to the Double Helix Model of Faith Formation and Antiracist Multiculturalism worksheet to help you develop practices for Within, Among, and Beyond. Visit Unity’s YouTube Channel, SoulWork Playlist to view all eight videos in the series. Image credit: Graphic Recording by DrawingImpact.com
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Laura Park, Beloved Community Staff Team and Director of Membership, and Shelley Butler, Beloved News Team SoulWork is the term we use at Unity Church for when we engage our Unitarian Universalist faith formation and antiracist multicultural work together. We use a Double Helix model to invite the congregation into this SoulWork and the SoulWork practices, models, tools, and an eight-part video series help us live into increasing complexity on this double helix. Each video in the SoulWork series provides clarity on the what, why, and how of antiracist multiculturalism, and offers ways to develop practices on both sides of the Double Helix Model. The first in the series of videos focused on the practice of noticing and listening. The second has to do with the spiritual practice of presence, a key skill in grounding us in this work and what will help us sustain it. Preoccupied presence is the norm. We tend to approach a conversation or group work with some trepidation and a screen; thoughts and questions that distract us from being fully present: I want people to know I am serious about this work–am I coming across as I want? What will people think of me if I say or do the wrong thing? Sometimes without even realizing it, we present a persona to others, a somewhat perfected version of our authentic self. It’s understandable because it can be scary and uncomfortable to unveil ourselves and risk showing that our values may not always align with our actions. But given that we are all in this work together, and that one of our ends is to “know each other in all our fullness,” isn’t this the right place and time to practice being fully present with each other and with those we partner with in the community? Wonder. Heart. Clarity. These are what can come from the spiritual practice of presence, but also what we are likely to miss if we don’t. How do we practice being fully present with others? Meditation is one practice of being fully present Within. To practice presence Among, first let go of the inner critic that tells you that you are not enough, that you need to present a persona of who you want people to think you are. As Alfonso says, “Presence is more important than personality.” Then, let go of all the distractions of the day, pay attention to the person or group at hand, and allow yourself to “lean into the quality of presence that interconnects us all.” At the same time that SoulWork invites us into deeper self-awareness, it does not intend for that to turn into self-criticism. Noticing and presence are two practices to help us achieve open-hearted engagement in faith and social justice work. SoulWork for you: After watching the second video in the SoulWork series, consider your reaction to the suggestion to practice being fully present. What about this practice makes you uncomfortable or feels different to you? What about the practice of presence offers the opportunity for joy and deeper connection? Next: SoulWork #3 – Heart Work
Previous: SoulWork #1 – The Soul Work of Unity Church To learn more about SoulWork, please visit our Adult Faith Formation page. There you will find a link to the Double Helix Model of Faith Formation and Antiracist Multiculturalism worksheet to help you develop practices for Within, Among, and Beyond. Visit Unity’s YouTube Channel, SoulWork Playlist to view all eight videos in the series. Image credit: Graphic Recording by DrawingImpact.com Erika Sanders, Beloved Community Staff Team
As Unitarian Universalists, while we value freedom of individual belief, we covenant with one another to place justice at the center of our faith. That means grounding our justice work in theological, spiritual reflection. Engagement of Unity Church with the wider community happens, in large part, thanks to the work of nine dedicated Community Outreach Ministry Teams. In 2021, ministry teams began a structured process of renewal (see the April commUNITY newsletter) that includes a new model of grounding justice work in spiritual reflection. The two teams I spoke with that engaged with that model, the Double Helix Model of Faith Formation and Antiracist Multicultural Work, provided invaluable feedback, had good conversations, but experienced varying levels of success. With new opportunities to work with the Double Helix coming up this fall, more doors to greater understanding and depth will open for everyone in the congregation. Nicole Lynskey of the Act for the Earth Team spoke with me about the benefits of working with the Double Helix. Erika: How did you experience the renewal process? Nicole: Although the Act for the Earth Team is decentralized with four different subteams, we made time in other meetings where most of us were together, such as team happy hours and a four-hour retreat in January, where about 25 team members were present. We found this curriculum to lead us to deep and meaningful conversation. Erika: Did you find that the renewal process changed your understanding of spirituality and faith formation in connection to the work your team does? Nicole: Talking about spirituality in relation to our work is embedded in the Act for the Earth Team. For many of us, working in nature is spiritual, and that shows in the way we meet and our relationships with each other. We sometimes sing as part of meetings, and our spirituality/justice subgroup is about to introduce rituals for our meetings. And talking about climate change can be so depressing that you need to have a spiritual grounding; otherwise, you just want to give up. We know there’s a spiritual component to being persistent, especially in a context where all forces seem aligned against our success. Erika: When you worked with the Double Helix Model, how did that feel? Did it shape how you see your work as a team, and the relationship between your faith formation and antiracism? Nicole: Since many on the Act for the Earth Team have taken the IDI, and are in accountability groups following our IDI experience, the Double Helix Model didn’t feel hard; it felt like another piece of the work that helps us stay focused. For some members of the team, perhaps there was a question: “why are we doing this now, when other things feel more urgent?” Other team members felt that the need to explore the connection between faith and antiracist multicultural work was more obvious. In the end, though, I think we all found it worthwhile. We’ve also partnered with organizations such as Honor the Earth, which is led by Indigenous people. We’ve tried to follow that leadership in respectful and authentic ways, and to immerse ourselves in organizing processes that may be unfamiliar to those of us embedded in predominantly white culture. That work will be a continuous process, and the Double Helix Model will influence that. Note that the Double Helix Model is not available just to teams, but to all of us engaged in justice and community work. Rev. KP Hong, who developed the model with Laura Park, acknowledged the challenge of antiracist multicultural faith formation work. He weighed in on some essential questions for teams and for all of us doing social justice work:
This is a complex, demanding, and long-haul process, which seems to be a hallmark of Unitarian Universalism. But as UUA President Susan Frederick-Gray reminded us, “We are resilient. We have everything we need. We are enough. Love will continue to guide us.”* Contact Drew Danielson to find out more about the IDI and to sign up to take it: [email protected]. *“From the UUA President: Listening to the Call of Love” by Susan Frederick-Gray. UUA, January 14, 2021. |
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Beloved Community ResourcesUnity Justice Database
Team Dynamics House of Intersectionality Anti-Racism Resources in the Unity Libraries Collection Creative Writers of Color in Unity Libraries The History of Race Relations and Unity Church, 1850-2005 Archives
June 2024
Beloved Community Staff TeamThe Beloved Community Staff Team (BCST) strengthens and coordinates Unity’s antiracism and multicultural work, and provides opportunities for congregants and the church to grow into greater intercultural competency. We help the congregation ground itself in the understanding of antiracism and multiculturalism as a core part of faith formation. We support Unity’s efforts to expand our collective capacity to imagine and build the Beloved Community. Here, we share the stories of this journey — the struggles, the questions, and the collaborations — both at Unity and in the wider world.
The current members of the Beloved Community Staff Team include Rev. Kathleen Rolenz, Rev. KP Hong, Rev. Lara Cowtan, Drew Danielson, Laura Park, Lia Rivamonte and Angela Wilcox. |