Beloved Community Communications Team The Antiracism Literacy Partners (ALP) program is one year old this fall, and it seemed a good time to check in with some of the participants to ask how the program has broadened or changed their perspective on racism and dominant white culture, and for thoughts on the opportunity to move from "within," from personal reading and reflection, to "among," engaging with others in this work. Here is some of what ALP participants said:
Please register here and then join us for the next ALP meeting on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, at 7:00 p.m.
Note: You do not have to attend the Wednesday meeting to participate, but you should contact us within a few days before or after to join a group. For more information, contact Becky Gonzalez-Campoy: [email protected]. To learn more about SoulWork, click here.
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Pauline Eichten and Laura Park, Beloved Community Staff Team
How do faith formation and our work of antiracism and multiculturalism intersect? How do we build practices that bridge between the two? The SoulWork gathering on September 25 offered a double helix model to help participants consider those questions. You’ll be hearing more in the weeks to come about how to use this model in your groups and ministry teams, but for now, here are a few things that came out of the SoulWork session. The image above was created in real time during the conversation between Rev. KP Hong and Alfonso Wenker of Team Dynamics that opened the session — how do the practices of faith formation and antiracism/multiculturalism interact and bond together? Take some time to let your eye wander among these amazing images and ideas. Two particularly interesting ideas from a conversation between KP and Alfonso:
The model that shows the intersection of faith formation and antiracism/multicultural work is a basic double helix structure (below). Ready to start your work of building practice on both sides of this helix? Email Laura Park [email protected] for a version that will structure that work for you. The Beloved Community Staff Team looks forward to working with groups and ministry teams to build practice on both sides of the double helix in the weeks ahead. Credit: Graphic recording by Angelique McAlpine of Drawing Impact. Visit their website: www.drawingimpact.com. About the Series
Building on the Next Right Action initiative, expert facilitators and trainers gathered by Team Dynamics will lead seven Tuesday evening workshops to explore critical concepts to equip us as champions for racial justice in our own lives, in our communities, and in our spiritual growth and development. Series Learning Goals in Service to Unity’s Multicultural and Racial Healing Ends
Sessions Overview This is a seven-part series. It is our intention that participants attend session one and/or two as prerequisite in order to participate in sessions three through seven. Additionally, we ask that you attend as many as your schedule allows. This is a sequential series and a cohort experience, with each session building on the previous session's concepts and learning. Sign-up is required for each session. An RSVP will be sent to confirm attendance. All sessions are on Zoom, Tuesday evenings, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m., September 15 – October 27, 2020. Each session will be hosted by Alfonso T. Wenker from Team Dynamics with various faculty participating throughout the series. REGISTER FOR SESSION 1 • September 15: Identity + Bias Explore how our beliefs are connected to our experiences of culture + identity and how those beliefs influence our actions. Faculty: Mark Pineda, Sara Wernick Schonwald REGISTER FOR SESSION 2 • September 22: Intercultural Conflict Styles + Strategies Explore conflict through the lens of culture. Understand your preferred conflict style and increase capacity to manage conflict across culture. Faculty: Sara Wernick Schonwald, Liz Loeb, Levi Weinhagen REGISTER FOR SESSION 3 • September 29: Understanding + Utilizing Power Power is an underlying force in relationships and organizations; however, we tend to treat power as a “have or have not.” This session explores power as ever present in all bodies. We will dive into the connections between position, identity and power and explore ways to responsibly exercise power toward equity goals. Faculty: Tyrai Bronson-Pruitt, Pearl Dobbins, Anil Hurkadli REGISTER FOR SESSION 4 • October 6: Constructions of Race + Racism Race impacts every relationship, system and interaction in our daily lives. While concepts of race are a social construct, the impacts (racism and white supremacy) are real in their consequences. This session allows participants to get grounded in their experience of race while noticing patterns and preference for whiteness. Faculty: Tyrai Bronson-Pruitt, Levi Weinhagen REGISTER FOR SESSION 5 • October 13: Social Change + Social Movements What are social movements? What makes movements move? How do we utilize this movement moment to create the transformational change we seek? Together we’ll unpack what are the elements of a movement to understand how each of us is situated in a movement. Faculty: Beth Zemsky REGISTER FOR SESSION 6 • October 20: Organizing + Action “But what can I do about it?” Building from the first five sessions, we’ll talk about how community organizing works in pursuit of justice and how to choose your actions wisely. Faculty: Liz Loeb, Trina Olson REGISTER FOR SESSION 7 • October 27: Using these Tools in Your Practice This will be an open, guided time to ask questions and test out ideas for application of the topics covered in sessions one through six. Faculty: Tyrai Bronson-Pruitt, Levi Weinhagen |
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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. |