3 minute read
Training and Supporting Leaders
Prayer for Living in Tension
by Joseph M Cherry
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The last year has been shaped—and grounded—by the efforts of three nonordained religious educators, Kenny Wiley, Christina Rivera and Aisha Hauser, who, in spring 2017, courageously led our Unitarian Universalist Association in challenging and learning about the culture of white supremacy in which we live and breathe.
Over two weekends in April and May of last year, two-thirds of all UU congregations participated in a White Supremacy Teach- In developed by these three and offered in collaboration with Black Lives of UU. One of the Teach-In materials that was shared was a piece by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun, Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups.
This document became a guiding resource a few months later, in November 2017, when the LREDA board shut down regular programming at the annual Liberal Religious Educators Association’ Fall Conference after the keynote facilitators spoke insensitively, paternalistically, and deeply patronizingly toward people of color and others with marginalized identities.
Many of religious educators of color rose up and voiced anger toward the speakers, who were using racist and classist metaphors, as well as refusing to abide by LREDA guidelines to be inclusive in our shared space.
In that moment we did, as Joseph Cherry prayer reads, step into our discomfort— though it felt more like stumbling or crashing head first into it. The LREDA board was faced with a demand for change and we stepped into the unknown, uncomfortable, and allowed our colleagues of color to lead us into a revised and extraordinary program for the remainder of the conference.
What emerged was a lived collective experience of what dismantling white supremacy and centering the experiences of people of color and others with marginalized identities looks and feels like. I came away having learned a great deal about how white supremacy lives in me as well as an introduction to how it lives in the formal and informal systems of LREDA.
There had been renewed requests and suggestions from many of our members that they wanted to move forward and try, once again, to obtain delegate status for religious educators at General Assembly.
We consulted with respected colleagues and made the decision to move forward with getting a proposal on the ballot at the 2018 General Assembly in Kansas City. Many religious educators spent their winter holiday season working on this process.
We arrived in Kansas City very uncertain about how the vote would go. Then, after a meeting between the LREDA and UU Ministers Association boards, the UUMA voted to endorse our proposed amendment. We began to have some hope.
Would this actually be the year, after nearly seventy years of LREDA dreaming of delegate status for its members, that we would get the right to have our voices heard at the GA microphones and our votes counted? In the end, the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of our proposal. Change had come, not as a stumbling into a wall, but as a dream come true!
Finally, on the last day of GA, current and past LREDA board members gathered on the General Assembly stage to accept the President’s Annual Award for Volunteer Service from Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray.
In her remarks, president Frederick-Gray noted, “Throughout its history and in this moment, LREDA and its members have been bold and fearless in challenging our faith to be more inclusive and to deal with the issues of the time with honesty and courage through an unwavering commitment to developmental learning and growth.
“LREDA and its leaders have long charged our Association to live and lead at the margins of our faith…from the initial conversations and leadership that created the About Your Sexuality and later the Our Whole Lives curricula, to commissioning their own antiracism audit, to becoming the first Welcoming Organization, LREDA has exemplified how courageous conversations create spaces where all are truly welcome.”
The award recognized more than seventy years of religious educators leadership contributing to our association, our faith and the future of our faith.
Annie Scott is the current president of the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA), and has been an active member of the association since 1992.
Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray presenting the President's Award to LREDA at General Assembly in Kansas City.
Nancy Pierce
Learn more at LREDA.org
