Good morning, I’m Cat McIntyre, a member of BUF Black Lives Matter. Yesterday, we had a Black Lives Matter retreat to assess where we have come and envision where we are going. I’m going to share with you our conclusions, which are a message of love and hope to all of BUF.
When we began giving anti-racism minutes, then known as e-racism minutes, we were sharing what we were learning about the reality of our racist society, essentially a process of consciousness raising. At this point, we recognize that consciousness at BUF has risen, significantly. The congregation passed the Beloved Community Covenant overwhelmingly, a large number of members attended Widening the Circle, and they are now engaged in several action groups. We are not just anti-racism, but anti-oppression, aiming to embrace each member of our Beloved Community and welcome new members.
Our BUF covenant states that love is the spirit of our fellowship, that we embrace diversity and are joined by a quest for truth. Widening the Circle provided a blueprint of how we have change to ultimately become a fully inclusive, antiracism multicultural organization in a transformed society. We have the blueprint, but a blueprint is not a finished product. We have work to do, together, to acheive Beloved Community. We are encouraged that society appears be moving in the same direction, despite pushback from those who do not want to change. We hold strongly to our hope that democracy will survive and evolve, and that Unitarian Universalism will be both a leader and a sanctuary in that evolution.
We believe that BUF will change, and in the coming months we each will share our personal spiritual experience of how we have changed. We encourage other members, not just Black Lives Matter members, to describe in future anti-racism moments, how their spirits are transforming. We are sure that these spiritual messages will encourage and sustain our fellowship. We will do this, together, because love and the quest for truth unite us.
