Greetings!

When we meet folks in the community and share our vocation and where we serve, it not uncommon to hear, “is that the building with the Black Lives Matter banner?” While some folks don’t yet know about Unitarian Universalism, if they have gone past the buildings, they often remember the sign… a proclamation of a truth that we affirm, and strive to make real in the world.

In this month known as African American History month, and in this particular political climate that seeks to build walls rather than connections, it seems like an especially important time to learn more from the past and help transform the present. We can recommend a trip to Mabee Farm in Rotterdam to see their exhibit, A Dishonorable Trade: Human Trafficking in the Dutch Atlantic World, to understand some of the history of slavery in this region. Consider learning more about our Unitarian Universalist history by reading “Black Pioneers in a White Denomination” by Mark Morrison-Reed or any others he’s written (available through the UUA bookstore). Learn more about Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (either from the sermon on the UUSS website or from your favorite search engine), Egbert Ethelred Brown, or Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley. All three of these ministers of color brought deeply important wisdom from their African and Jamaican roots.

You might spend some time this month reading Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, or Ibram Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning. You might mark your calendar for March 20, 7pm when UUSS hosts a night with the Friends of the Library to share a reading of an interview between President Barack Obama and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

The banner is simply a piece of vinyl if we do not live our lives and examine our habits and patterns, our friendship circles and influences as if our lives depend upon it. Because dear ones-all our lives do depend Black lives mattering.

In solidarity,
Rev. Wendy and Rev. Lynn