Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism Sunday Morning, June 2, 2019

In my sermon two weeks ago, I said the calling to racial justice is a recurrent challenge for all congregations in our Unitarian Universalist movement.  It also is a challenge for our UU denomination at large, the UUA.

In spite of our idealism, the UU movement has persistently reflected the cultural dominance of whiteness. Our movement has reflected the culture of white supremacy.  By this term I mean the culture by which this continent was colonized, and the culture by which people of color have been harmed, excluded and marginalized.

In our denomination, patterns and attitudes of exclusion have been painfully evident to UUs of color for decades, while many of us in privileged identities have naively or conveniently overlooked those patterns and attitudes. Things have begun to open up, thanks in large part to loving and brave leaders of color.  A few years ago Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism came into existence.  BLUU, as it’s called for short, is a nationwide organizing collective made up of Black UUs—youth, elders, young adults, and middle-aged adults.

BLUU has three main purposes.

·      It provide ministry and pastoral care with and among Black UUs and their families.

·      BLUU lifts up the voices of Black UUs within our faith and to the larger community.

·      BLUU connects our UU institutions to the vital movements working for racial justice

Our denomination is committed to raising a total of $5 million to support BLUU and it’s well on the way there.   Last year, a UU family in Pennsylvania made a challenge grant of $1 million for BLUU to be matched by gifts from UU congregations.

Our congregation is helping to meet that dollar-for-dollar challenge. Our Board of Trustees at UUSS has made the commitment for us to raise at least $5,000 toward the challenge for this month of June.  If you would like to join in, please make a check to UUSS and in the memo line write BLUU.  [Online, we have a UUSSS PayPal page.]

You may drop it off today at the Activity Fair, at the Racial Justice Table, or you may hand it to me or to Lucy or any Trustee.  We have received several advance gifts for the B-L-U-U appeal.  Many thanks to our advance donors!  As of this morning I am happy to tell you of the total so far: $3,850!  If you are inspired to add to this total and able to do it, please know your generosity makes a difference.  If we surpass $5,000, your donations will continue to be matched. And we might actually do that.

Thank you very much!