Racial Justice Ministry

The Purpose of the FUUSN Racial Justice Ministry is to inspire, educate, support and equip FUUSN’s leadership and membership, including ourselves, for vital and vibrant racial justice and anti-oppression engagement in our congregation and in our larger community.

Our goal is to nurture a religious community where people of all races, ethnicities, and cultures see their cultural identities reflected and affirmed in every aspect of congregational life – worship, fellowship, leadership, governance, religious education, social justice, etc. We are working to create a religious home where encounters between people of different cultural identities intersect with Unitarian Universalism to create a fully inclusive community.

We have offered a number of different learning opportunities to clarify issues, deepen the journey, explore issues of white supremacy. These include Waking Up White, White Fragility and Uprooting Racism book discussion groups, films, speakers, open discussion forums.

In 2022-23, we helped form an 8th Principle advocacy committee and worked with them to pass a resolution adopting the text of the UU 8th Principle.

The RJM has been a major participant in the FUUSN community for over eight years, producing over 69 programs and events with over 260 of us participating in one or more of them.  We have focused primarily on educational book groups, movies, and the Living the Pledge workshops.

Here are a few statistics about our programs and events

• 28 book groups, 9 different books, 23 facilitators and 134 participants
• 10 other discussion groups with 92 of us participating in one or more of them
• 7 movie/video screenings
• 8 Living the Pledge workshops, staffed with 33 volunteers for 96 participants
• 16 other events
• 26 of us have participated on the RJM Steering Committee
• 45 of us have led or facilitated the above programs

In addition to our efforts within the FUUSN community, we have conducted activities with the wider community around us.  We tabled at the Newton MLK event in 2023. We also supported members of Newton’s Black community to produce the highly acclaimed “An Evening of Blacknificence” in celebration of Black History Month.  In our Living the Pledge workshop, we had four members of First Parish in Waltham, and we are looking forward to including more people from the wider community in future workshops.

Following is a list of members of the RJM Steering Committee.   We can be contacted by emailing racial-justice-ministry@fusn.org.

• Barbara Deck (co-chair)
• Chris Krebs (co-chair)
• Mandy Bass
• Lisa Carbone
• Bill Dusett
• Kevan Hartshorn
• Bill Holland
• Cora Jeyadame
• Naomi Rush
• Carol Walker