"It's like deja-vu all over again." -- UU Youth Ministry History Resources

With the upcoming "Consultation on Ministry to and With Youth" happening within the UUA between Fall 2005 and Fall 2007, I thought it would be useful to review the history about where our youth ministry has been in the past and where we might find ourselves in the future.

The Yogi Berra quote seemed appropriate ... especially in light of the recurring issues that have come up in UU youth and young adult ministry since the early 20th century (e.g. how much autonomy is appropriate, non-congregational vs. congregational expressions of Unitarian Universalism, substance use and sexuality issues in conference settings, etc).

These issues predate Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) and even the earlier Liberal Religious Youth (LRY). It seems that UU adult and youth developmental needs keep bringing us back to a re-invention of youth ministry every 25 to 30 years.

Here are some suggested history resources for a starting point on a discussion of UU Youth Ministry:

From the UUA Youth Office: 7.20.2005 - All past issues of Synapse are now online!! Thanks to some new technology (and some help from our fabulous interns!) we have been able to scan and post on our website all of the back issues of the YRUU magazine / newspaper Synapse and it's predecessor, the Liberal Religious Youth publication People Soup. It's hours of history and browsing pleasure!

From Rick Roehlk's online collection of LRY and YRUU historical documents - UU Youth History

From Skinner House Books and the UUA Bookstore - We Would Be One: A History of Unitarian Universalist Youth Movements by Wayne Arnason and Rebecca Scott - Documents the challenges, triumphs and far-reaching effects of the UU youth movement. Compelling personal stories capture how important UU youth groups, conferences and organizations have been in peoples' lives from the late 19th-century to the present. Arnason was the UUA's director of youth programs from 1980 to 1984 during the creation of YRUU. Scott was a youth programs specialist in the UUA Youth Office from 1989 to 1990. Revised and updated from Follow the Gleam, published in 1980.

Unitarian Universalists Speak Out for Reality-Based Sexuality Education Legislation

From the UUA's web site ...

Unitarian Universalists Speak Out for Reality-Based Sexuality Education Legislation
(July 28, 2005) At a meeting held with Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) yesterday, the Rev. William G. Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and Rob Keithan, director of the UUA's Washington Office for Advocacy, presented Senator Lautenberg with more than 2,000 affirmations of support signed by Unitarian Universalists from around the country in support of S.368, and H.R. 768, the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act.

The REAL Act is endorsed by Advocates for Youth, with whom the UUA is a partner, and would provide funding to states for medically accurate, age appropriate, comprehensive sexuality education in the schools—education that includes information about both abstinence and contraception, from both a values and public health perspective. The effort is consistent with the approach taken by Our Whole Lives (OWL), the UUA's reality-based sexuality education lifespan curriculum developed with the United Church of Christ and now in use in congregational and secular settings. More than 125 national and state and organizations are supporting the REAL Act, including medical, civil rights, family planning, educational, public health, reproductive rights, and HIV/AIDS organizations.

The UUA launched an effort to build support for the REAL Act as part of an outreach effort from the Rev. Sinkford to Unitarian Universalists across the country. Sinkford wrote to UUA members in late April, "The voices of the religious right have been largely successful in drowning out other people of faith. This has allowed them to dominate the current debate on moral values and assert themselves as the religious voice on crucial matters including civil rights, health and the family, international peace and justice, and religious liberty. You and I cannot allow the religious right to speak for us."

The rest of this article can be read online here.

Other Resources About This Issue

• UUA Washington Office Sexuality Education Resources
• Advocates for Youth Letter Writing Campaign in Support of REAL Act
• Our Whole Lives Lifespan Reality-Based Sexuality Education
• United Church of Christ Sexuality Education Resources

New Worship Planning Resource Online

The UUA Young Adult and Campus Ministry (YACM) Office has a new worship planning resource online. It's called "Unitarian Universalist Contemporary Worship" and can be found online here:

http://www.uua.org/ya-cm/resources/Worship/index.html

Here's a brief description about this resource copied from the YACM web site:

"This site is designed as a resource for congregations seeking to design more contemporary worship services to attract young adults and others who are largely absent from our communities of faith. It includes articles, resources and links for UU Contemporary Worship. Soon to come are pieces on the theology of contemporary worship (and why it fits better with Unitarian Universalism than more traditional worship styles) and more resources for designing and implementing contemporary worship."

This worship resource and other UUA worship resources can be found online in a previous post to my blog listing available UU worship resources (originally posted on 22 January 2005 - updated on 22 July 2005).

These worship planning resources are provided to our congregation through the generous financial contributions that our congregation and other UU congregations make to the UUA each year.

These worship resources reflect the cooperative and interdependent spirit of Unitarian Universalism. They are freely available to all who need them.

UUA Youth Office Response to the Concerns Raised About The Decision to Withdraw Support for Con Con

The following article was posted on fuuse.com:

March-July 2005
To: Young Religious Unitarian Universalists and their Allies and Supporters
From: The UUA Youth Office

Note: This response was originally drafted in March of 2005. Because of other issues taking up a considerable amount of staff time, we were not able to finalize and post this response until July. We are sorry for any inconvenience this delay may have caused.
Responses to the Con Con Decision

After the Youth Office's decision to withdraw support from Con Con, we invited feedback from the wider community about the decision. The response was noticeably positive; people echoed many of the same concerns about Con Con we had shared. To be specific, yruu@uua.org received 47 emails directly praising the decision, as well as 25 people who wrote simply "to support the Youth Office" without commenting either way on the decision. Positive comments primarily came from former Youth Office staff, youth advisors, and religious educators, though 7 youth also wrote to us agreeing with the decision. We sincerely appreciate that support. We also received email from 11 people criticizing the decision, 5 of whom were youth. We also learned of a number of conversations going on in online communities about the decision (though we could not possibly have followed all such conversations).

The rest of the response can be read here or here.

GeoURLs on Church Web Sites

Here's a geeky but cool web site feature that I learned about on the "Websters" UUA-sponsored email list for congregational webmasters:

"GeoURL is a location-to-URL reverse directory. This will allow you to find URLs by their proximity to a given location."

Using hand-held GPS coordinates in WGS-84 format that were recorded with a Garmin eTrex, I updated our church home page with the appropriate meta-tags, indexed our site on the GeoURL web database, and added a link to our congregation's GeoURL data on our home page.

From page that shows the GeoURL data, go to the Google Map page and view our congregation location using the "satellite" map feature.

The Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth

The following announcement comes from the UUA Youth Office Web Site:

7.13.2005 - The Consultation on Ministry to and With Youth -- The UUA Board of Trustees has approved the process recommendation of the Consultation on Ministry to and With Youth. This is an exciting process by which the UUA and its member districts and congregations will revision the way we do youth ministry over the next two years. Learn about the process here!

On the UUA Board of Trustees "Youth Consultation" web page, you will find a link to the following document:

UUA Consultation on Ministry to and with Youth: Process Recommendation (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or other compatible software).

Different Religions Week Announcement - 15-22 July 2005

I received this in my email today from Nathan Black and I thought this idea might be a useful project for Unitarian Universalists to support ... either in the form of Different Religions Week celebrations in their communities or in cooperation with other existing multi-faith celebrations like World Religion Day. Nathan's email is posted below ...

Dear Steve,

I am a student at Rice University in Houston and the founder of Different Religions Week, a week during which people are encouraged to attend services of faiths different from their own. I read your blog this January and determined that, based on the blog's subject matter, you might be interested in posting a comment regarding the week -- either agreeing or disagreeing with its concept or simply announcing that it is taking place.

Different Religions Week 2005 is July 15-22. I started the movement in 2003 to help curb people's widespread ignorance of other faiths, which often leads to intolerance and which sometimes ultimately results in -- or is used to justify -- violence (consider, for example, 9/11 or the Bosnian conflict). More information about the how and why of the movement is available at http://www.differentreligionsweek.org.

There is no one "event" around which Different Religions Week is based; rather, people are simply encouraged to find and attend an unfamiliar religious service at their convenience during the week. (Atheist and agnostic meetings count too.) The movement's Web site has links under "World Religions" to directories where people can get started finding a service.

Please consider posting a comment on or announcement of Different Religions Week 2005 on your blog, and e-mail me if you do so I can keep track of the Web presence of the movement. Thank you for your consideration and your time.

Sincerely,
Nathan Black

School e-mail: nwblack@rice.edu
Movement e-mail: differentreligionsweek@yahoo.com

Another Apology ...

In regards to the recent discussion on my blog and other online communities such as fuuse.com about recent events at GA, I want to apologize.

If I hurt you, I'm sorry. Hurting others was not my intent.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to fix the mistakes I've made.

Rather than contacting me by blog for this, I would request email being sent to the following address:

stevecaldwell at bellsouth.net (replace the "at" with "@" or use the HTML link).

I've said too much already on my blog and fuuse.com on this subject and I will be taking a vacation from blogging.

If anyone is still interested in discussing this issue, there are two threads on fuuse.com ... one discussing the UUA Board letter and one proposing a possible action that may prevent or reduce future incidents at GA.

Thank you.

An Open Apology ...

... to anyone who feels that I called them a racist.

I'm sorry that I wrote anything that might have implied you were a "racist" as the term is commonly used (e.g. a person like David Duke and other overt white supremacists).

That was not my intent. I did not say anything remotely equivalent to stating "you are a racist."

But I did ask a question on my blog.

Is a tendency that I've observed in some online posts to minimize the role of race as a major factor in the GA incidents due to unconscious racism or ageism?

An unconscious response that comes in part from racist influences in North American culture could be happening here.

Suggesting this possibility arising out of involuntary and unconscious cultural influences isn't the same as calling a person a "racist." I just want to suggest that we need to be mindful of influences in our society that encourage us to discount racism.

Again ... my apologies for any misunderstanding my blog words have created here.

Dangers Inherent in Discounting Racism in Unitarian Universalist Communities

In case you're curious why I think any liberal religious and Unitarian Universalist tendency to discount racism as a current-day problem that exists in our UU communities, here's a brief snippet from the UUA's Lifespan Faith Development resource archives that addresses how discounting of racism can cause racism to thrive:

"Racism is a particularly sensitive topic for religious liberals because we pride ourselves on our perceived lack of racism. However, we often fail to differentiate between traditional or overt racism and neo-racism. Traditional racism is direct, institutionalized racial discrimination/oppression, using strategies of direct even legal exclusion and/or hierarchical domination. Slave laws and Jim Crow are examples.

Neo-racism is indirect, institutionalized racial discrimination such as calls to eliminate affirmative action, redlining of neighborhoods, denial of small business loans to persons of color, immigration policies that exclude Africans and other persons of color, and the social and economic abandonment of inner city schools. Because neo-racism thrives on the denial of the existence of racism, it is a particularly perplexing problem for religious liberals who deny their own role in a racist society and therefore so easily succumb to neo racism's insulating effects."

This may seem like a harsh message, but it's one that I think we need to seriously consider in how we react to incidents like the recent one at General Assembly.

Racism and Racial Profiling of UU Youth of Color at GA -- Summary of Events

Here's a summary of the recent racist events at the 2005 Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) General Assembly (GA) in Ft. Worth TX. I've collected this information from the following sources:

UUA Board of Trustees Open Letter (uua.org web site)
UUA Board of Trustees Open Letter and Reader Commentary (fuuse.com web site)
Reader Comments on the "Boy in the Bands" Blog

And here's what I found out:

1. Some white Unitarian Universalists (UUs) assumed that UU youth of color were hotel service people and asked them to carry luggage or park cars.
2. There was a "racial profiling" incident outside the hall where the GA Closing Ceremony was happening. A group of UU youth of color were stopped from entering because they were not wearing nametags. White adult UUs without their nametags were not stopped even though they were violating the same requirement on page 3 of the GA Program Book.
   
3. The initial verbal dispute involved several UU youth of color and a UU adult who questioned their right to be there. This questioning provoked an angry response.
   
4. This verbal dispute caused a UU minister to intervene in support of the UU adult.
5. Another white UU youth intervened in support of the UU youth of color and verbally attacked the minister and she responded in kind -- escalating this conflict.
6. During the GA Youth Caucus discussions after the Closing Ceremony incident, the Youth Caucus staff met and decided through consensus process to cancel the Monday night dance they had sponsored.

Canceling the dance was apparently a controversial decision for some GA attendees. Here's a bit of blog commentary from a young adult worked on the Youth Caucus staff:

" ... and i'm not sure what the sway the 'institutional youth of the UUA' means, but i'll guess is has to do with the canceling of the YOUTH sponsored dance. and the youth (and adults who were there in support, including myself) who cancelled it were white volunteer GA youth caucus staff, not youth office staff. it was a hard decision for the youth, but consensus was reached, we did not want to be a bunch of white people partying it up while all of their friends of color were spilling their guts about the crappy thing that had happened to them over the course of GA. that would be adding insult to injury."

And ... as you may have noticed in my earlier post, there's also a lot of denial that racism could be an issue for Unitarian Univeraslists. Denial won't make this problem any easier.

Racism and Racist Incidents at 2005 UUA General Assembly

In case you haven't heard about this yet, some disturbing things happened at the 2005 General Assembly in Ft. Worth TX.

The UUA Board of Trustees has published an open letter to UU youth of color and UU people of color who attended Fort Worth General Assembly and to the broader UU community.

Rev. Eric Posa was an on-scene Chaplain for the event and his very useful analysis can be found online here.

Commentary from fuuse.com can be found online here.

The surprising thing about this incident is the tendency of some to minimize the impact of what has happened. I don't know if this comes from unconscious racism, ageism, or a combination of the two. Examples of this tendency for some Unitarian Universalists to dismiss racism as a possible cause for some incidents at GA can be found online here, here, and here.

My Congregation Retreats From BGLT Social Justice Work

My congregation is putting our earlier social justice study and discernment efforts surrounding homophobia and heterosexism on hold.

The report describing these events can be downloaded here (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Update on YRUU Steering Committee - UUA Administration Dispute

Here's the latest news that I have on the dispute between the current YRUU Steering Committee membership and the UUA Staff. This info comes from Joseph Santos-Lyon's blog:

Chalice Revolution (YRUU)
This resolution was drafted by a collective of youth concerned about the current state of affairs in continental YRUU. At this point I'm wondering about the impact of all these activities long term on the nature of UU campus ministry growth and deepening.

In extraordinary times we must take extraordinary action:

The Chalice Revolution

Sponsors: Nora Lindsey, Current YRUU Steering Committee member; Siri Larsen, Current YRUU Steering Committee member; Trevor Moomaw, Saint Lawrence District Youth Council Representative; Dale Brydon, Quebec, Ontario and Martimes Region Youth Council Representative; Sean Jones, YRUU Co-Continental Social Action Coordinator; Paul Phillips, Canadian At-Large; Naomi Rice Moir, 2004 Youth Council People of Color Caucus; Jessica Akhavein, Thomas Jefferson District Youth Council Representative; Kelsey Campbell, Pacific Northwest District Youth Council Representative; Erin Dunn, Ballou Channing District Youth Council Representative; Al Jensen, YRUU Co-Continental Social Action Coordinator; Kate Philipson, Metro New York Youth Council Representative

Point People: Tony Carpenter, Mountain Desert District Youth Council Representative; Emily Brunts, Central Mid-West District Youth Council Representative; Ian Moore, Mid-South District Youth Council Representative; Winters Geimer, Joseph Priestley District Youth Council Representative;

Primary aides: Julian Sharp, Youth Observer to the UUA Board; Westin Miller, Ohio-Meadville District Youth Council Representative

UU Principles: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning; The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large; The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

Specific problem being addressed: The dysfunction and unhealthy dynamics at play in the current YRUU Steering Committee. The manipulation of steering committee members and the YRUU movement. The fact that Steering Committee is no longer in right relationship with the UUA.

Hope to achieve: The health and wellbeing of YRUU during the current Youth Ministry consultation process.

Short term goals: A safe, productive, and effective Youth Council 2005.

Steps to achieve: Steering Committee, the executive body of youth who lead the YRUU movement are no longer in right relationship with the UUA Youth Office. They cannot plan and run Youth Council. We strongly recommend the following action be taken:

Steering Committee relinquish authority over the planning and running of Youth Council to the following group, who shall be referred to as the Youth Council Leadership Team:

1. Three Youth Council members. One should be a person of color.

2. Two People of Color Caucus members.

3. Three adults. One should be a minister. At minimum one should be a person of color.

4. The UUA Youth Office

Evaluation: The Youth Office, including the June YPS Lilly Sparks should fill all positions. Current Steering Committee members are not excluded. We welcomingly encourage current Steering Committee members who are interested to join the team, but as individuals working with a team and not steering committee members.

Long term goals: To make sure YRUU is at a healthy place during the renewing and revisioning of Youth Ministry. To make sure YRUU has a voice in the process and outcome.

Local and district/regional resources: Leaders.

Resources YRUU has that will be used: Leaders/People Power.

Financial impact: The team should have access to phone conferences and one face to face meeting. Possibly before, during or after GA and/or two days before Youth Council.

Point of Clarification: The Youth Council Leadership Team is specific to the 2005 Youth Council, and will disband thereafter.

We expect to have a response by Tuesday May 10, 2005. We hope Steering Committee makes a responsible decision with the best interest of YRUU in mind.

Please direct your written response to: Trevor Moomaw at DJNinja312@aol.com.

New Interim Southwest District Executive

The following news tidbit comes from Joseph Santos-Lyons on his blog site (Joseph is the Campus Ministry & Field Director for the UUA Young Adult and Campus Ministry Office):

"The Reverend Anne Odin Heller will continue serving the UUA as interim district executive in the Southwest district. Anne will fill the position vacated by the Reverend Bob Hill whom we earlier announced will be moving to Australia with his wife, Kristi. Anne is currently interim DE in the Mass Bay district and was the DE in the Pacific Northwest district for ten years before that."

Bob and Kristi ... best wishes with your Australian adventure.

I haven't met Anne yet, but I thought her Churchworks book would be an outstanding resource for my congregation to use.

Classism and Language - UU Online Discussions

Some very interesting blog discussions on classism and dialects can be found online here:

need advice on UU classism

classism, intellectualism, and dialects

Class isn't just a matter of how much money you have ... it's also a fetish with having the "correct" trappings. To better understand this, you should take this quiz:

THE LIVING-ROOM SCALE (With minor revisions by Robert Keel, 1999) -- From: Paul Fussell, Class: A Guide Through the American Class System, 1983, Summit Books, pp. 194-197

Statement about Rev. Bill Sinkford's letter to the YRUU Steering Committee

Statement about Rev. Bill Sinkford's letter to the YRUU Steering Committee About the Hiring of YRUU Program Specialists (forwarded from the YRUU-L email list, posted to the YRUU-L email list by Ethan Field, Youth Office Assistant).

On April 11th, the Rev. Bill Sinkford sent a letter to the YRUU Steering Committee in response to a series of events at the March 31st to April 3rd Steering Committee meeting. A full text of the letter is at the end of this statement. (Note from Steve ... the letter can be found online here.)

One of the responsibilities of the YRUU Steering Committee is to make recommendations to the UUA President regarding the hiring of YRUU Programs Specialists. This hiring process, which should be a partnership of shared responsibility between YRUU and the UUA, has not in recent years been as healthy and respectful as it needs to be for those involved.

At their recent meeting, the Steering Committee asked the Youth Office Staff to leave the meeting during the selection process. It is the established policy and practice for Youth Office staff to facilitate the selection process and to give input at key times. The Youth Office staff will train, supervise, and work with YPSers, and they represent the UUA in the partnership. They need to be part of the process.

The Steering Committee's stated reason for asking the Youth Office staff to leave was that they did not feel comfortable with the Youth Office staff's response to the Steering Committee's behavior in Pickett & Eliot House (the UUA's Bed and Breakfast) the night before. The Steering Committee also stated that they were uncomfortable with the overall relationship between the Youth Office and Steering Committee.

Youth Office staff asked that those issues causing discomfort be discussed and addressed at that time before proceeding with the YPS selection process, but Steering Committee insisted that YO staff leave.

The UUA Administration feels that asking the Youth Office to leave the YRUU Program Specialist selection process violated the agreed upon policy and practice. The Administration feels that this violation was a significant move out of right relationship between the UUA and YRUU Leadership that had to be addressed. The Administration decided to fulfill its responsibility to UU youth ministry by hiring a Youth Ministry Associate to fill the position that was formerly held by a YRUU Program Specialist. Youth Ministry Associates work for the UUA. They will not be in dual accountability with YRUU, and YRUU is not formally a part of their selection process. Until the UUA and YRUU Leadership are back in right relationship, the UUA will hire Youth Ministry Associates so that the Youth Office can continue to serve youth. The Youth Ministry Associate will perform many of the same services for congregations and district youth programming that the YPS now performs. However, this position will not be as involved with supporting continental YRUU Leadership.

For the 05-06 church year there will be one YRUU Program Specialist on staff: Lily Sparks, the June YPSer. Lily was selected in January before this incident happened. She will probably take on more support for the YRUU Leadership. However, the Youth Office will work to make sure that work loads are balanced so that she is not over-burdened. The Youth Office Assistant and the Youth Programs Director will remain in relationship with the YRUU Leadership as they have in the past. Beth Dana and Marissa Gutierrez will serve as Youth Ministry Associates for one year terms.

It is not known when right relationship will be restored, but the YRUU Steering Committee and President Sinkford are in conversation about the situation. It is likely that the current Consultation on Ministry With and For Youth process will address and resolve the issues. It is also possible that the hiring process could be resolved sooner. We don't know right now, and therefore cannot say with certainty how and when new youth staff - whether Youth Ministry Associates or YRUU Program Specialists - will be hired. The UUA Administration is committed to staffing the Youth Office and will move to clarify the personnel situation for next year as soon as practicable.

If you have further questions, you can direct them to Jesse Jaeger, Youth Programs Director or Judith Frediani, Director of Lifespan Faith Development.

Note: The 11 April 2005 letter from Bill Sinkford can be found here. Additional commentary on this can be found in this location:

The End Times of YRUU by Tim Fitz

UPDATE: Troubles in Unitarian Universalist Youth Ministry

More blog commentary on recent UUA Staff - Young Religious Unitarian Universalist (YRUU) Youth Council (YC) dispute originally reported by Joseph Santos-Lyons last week:

• Steering Committee and UUA Staff clash (from fuuse.com)
• Steering Committee and UUA Staff clash (from Donald Wilson's blog)

I'm really curious about other views which are not being reported on this story yet.

Troubles in Unitarian Universalist Youth Ministry

There seems to be more trouble between Continental Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) and the rest of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Thanks to Chris Walton ("Philocrites") and Joseph Santos-Lyons ("Radical Hapa") for posting this on their respective blogs:

More Change in YRUU (Philocrites)

Youth Ministry Associate (Radical Hapa)

Here's the text of Rev. Bill Sinkford's letter documenting a disagreement between YRUU Steering Committee and the UUA Staff over the discussions surrounding the hiring of the next staff person in the UUA Youth Office:

April 11, 2005

Dear YRUU Steering Committee,

The events of the recent Steering Committee meeting may very well reflect anxiety about change and uncertainty about power as we engage in a process of examining our ministry to and with youth.

Whatever the reasons, the Steering Committee’s demand that UUA staff leave the meeting so that SC alone could decide on the September YPS recommendation was clearly outside the boundaries of established procedures. Excluding the people who would work with and be responsible for the YPS staff, and refusing to discuss the issues interfering with collaboration, moved SC outside of right relationship with UUA staff to an extent that needs to be acknowledged. At this point, proceeding with “business as usual” is not possible.

SC’s behavior was particularly disappointing and hurtful following the special consultation on relationship conducted at the January SC meeting. That work sought to keep communication open when conflict arises. It is likely that right relations, and the structures of authority that support it, cannot be fully established until the Youth Ministry Consultation process addresses this fundamental issue.

It would not be fair, however, for others to take the consequences for the Steering Committee’s actions. We would not penalize the committed youth applicants, the Youth Office staff, or our congregations by reducing or delaying staffing. Therefore, until a productive, respectful relationship is restored between SC and UUA staff, we will hire youth for the position of Youth Ministry Associate rather than YRUU Program Specialist. This means that the UUA will hire the Youth Ministry Associate without the current form of consulting with the SC. Youth Ministry Associates work for the UUA, serving youth in congregations throughout our Association.

Finally, Steering Committee will be asked to sign a covenant regarding appropriate behavior while staying at Eliot and Pickett Houses. Right relationship needs to be re-established with UUA staff there as well.

In Faith,
Rev. William G. Sinkford

For things to get to this stage, apparently something is broken with the youth-adult relationships in this part of our Association ... right now, there is nothing on the UUA-sponsored youth ministry email lists like YRUU-L or Advisor-L, the YRUU LiveJournal area, or the fuuse.com message boards discussing this recent decision.

Christian and Non-Christian Unitarian Universalists -- Anti-Oppression Implications

On 23 March 2005, Paul Wilczynski wrote the following:
"As Unitarian Universalists we do get nervous around Jesus. One church member recently said to me that whenever I mention Jesus, he 'winces.' I expect that he is not alone. Why is that? If I were talk about Buddha, you would be interested, at worst puzzled, but I doubt that you would wince."

I suspect that part of the reason for the "wincing" isn't theology, but may be better understood using anti-oppression work that we've done in other contexts.

Even with the increased visibility and vitality of UU Christianity within the UUA and growth of UU congregations with UU Christian emphasis, I don't think anyone would think that Christianity gains you much power or privilege in many UU congregations. It's quite the opposite ... saying you're a Christian in many UU congregation will bring you puzzled curiosity at best, scorn at worst.

These attitudes towards Christianity within UU congregations are a reversal of the attitudes one would find outside UU congregations where Christianity is privileged with respect to other religions.

Non-Christian folks in our congregations who hear about the non-UU versions of Jesus and are immersed in a Christian-centric culture for the 166 hours each week that they are not in a UU church may instinctively "wince" when they hear "Jesus" mentioned in a UU pulpit (even if the "Jesus" is a UU version of Jesus and not Jerry Falwell's Jesus).

UU Non-Christians who are prone to "wincing" need to remember that our UU Christian friends (and liberal Christian friends like our UCC cousins) didn't create this world where Christianity has unearned power and privilege. Like everyone else in North America, we are all inheritors of a situation that was around before we were born. The responsibility that we non-Christian UUs have is to acknowledge this situation in the spirit of love and not blame our UU Christian (and other liberal Christian) friends for a situation they did not create nor desire.

UU Christians need to remember that they are walking in the door of a church wearing a garment of "power and privilege" that was not freely accepted but rather forced on them by our wider North American culture. UU Christians joining a predominantly non-Christian UU congregation are (unknowingly?) engaging in anti-oppression work by giving up unearned power and privilege granted to them by the wider culture. This is the theological equivalent of an adult advisor working with youth where the advisor gives up some of the unearned privilege that comes with being an adult.