From the BOT: December 11, 2020

How can we as a community move away from an attitude that puts emphasis on rejected beliefs? How can we embrace a posture of working through honest and robust engagement? How can we move toward commonly held beliefs and practices based on our inherited tradition?

What kinds of programming and activities could help members of our community to gain a rich and deep understanding of Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist theologies? In what ways could we intentionally and courageously make space for learning from people often marginalized in our communities?

The first recommendation questions a prevalent assumption among UUs: “that you can believe whatever you want and be a Unitarian Universalist.” Our shared faith is a covenantal faith that presents us with a theological container in which we can hold multiple religious belongings and theological understandings. What shift would happen in our communities if we were to be intentional about understanding, interpreting, and sharing with others our views of our movement’s theological container?

The second and third recommendations call us into an encounter with the liberator potentials of our theological inheritance. It asks us to acknowledge anti-oppression work as a theological mandate of our faith. How could such a mandate find expression in our worship? In our congregational life? In our community relations, particularly alongside marginalized members of our faith for the present and future thriving of the faith?

Reflecting on the four recommendations in this chapter, what are the barriers to their implementation, and what changes are needed in order to overcome them?