from the Commission on Institutional Change of the Unitarian Universalist Association

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We call on the Member Congregations and Affiliate Organization of the Association to undertake the following activities as witness to their commitment to Racial Justice and Radical Change within our communities: 

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1. To answer the call to fund BLUU as an act of reparation for the denial of opportunities over 

centuries; 

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2. To, as congregations, take up the challenge of boldly affirming Black lives through the support of 

Black Lives Matter activists, Brown lives through support of Muslim and immigrant of color-led activists, and other movements led by people of color as acts of public witness. In all things, we call on our communities to listen to those directly affected and targeted by hate, and to strive to be of use more than to be in control of how we can serve in this moment. Examples may include, and are not limited to: 

o use of congregational facilities by local activists of color for gatherings o financial support to resistance groups o offering safe

harbor to activists in our sanctuaries as long as congregational sanctuary holds 

up o creation of community centers for those resisting persecution in our times, and/or making 

space within current programmings, o support activist families by offering free or low cost child care, o providing meals to local

activist groups at their meetings in their own space o donating time and expertise to support the work of local resistance groups of taking the lead from LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, families of color, and mixed race families on how best to offer

spiritual and communal support during this time of attack, enacting this support immediately 

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3. To create spaces for conversation about systemic racism, other oppressions and internalized oppressions and to seek

resources for addressing racism, bias and discriminatory practices. 

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4. To frankly examine how white supremacy culture, conflict avoidance, a lack of humility, scarcity mentality and a

preferencing of safety over faithful living is limiting the justice work. 

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5. We call on individual Unitarian Universalists to answer our call for stories of how racism has affected 

your experience as a Unitarian Universalist. These stories have not been widely heard, documented or preserved and, despite a professed commitment to diverse staffing, the UUA has not maintained records of the racial composition of the religious education community, these stories are essential to documenting and synthesizing the true impact of racism in our Association, an impact

that we acknowledge is real, imminent and pre-dating even as we document its intricacies. 

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6. We call on individual white Unitarian Universalists to engage in deep spiritual discernment including 

engagement with our need to examine the dominant white-centered culture of our congregations. 

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7. We ask Unitarian Universalists to call in for a special videocast to be scheduled within the next few weeks in which we

will discuss the events surrounding the Southern Regional Lead Hiring decision of last spring, an event which led to resignations

and chaos in our Association.

 

Excerpt from the March 2018 Statement from Commission on Institutional Change, UUA 

https://www.uua.org/uuagovernance/committees/cic/blog/statement-commission-institutional 

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