Sinkford talks with congregational presidents

Courter listens to congregational presidents

3057 Congregational Presidents Workshop: In Growing Faith

Speakers: Rev. William Sinkford, Gini Courter

Sponsor: UUA President and Moderator

Prepared for UUA.org by: Deborah Weiner, Reporter

Speaker Handout: Powerpoint Presentation

Nearly 400 congregational presidents crowded into a ballroom of the Fort Worth convention center to converse with UUA Moderator Gini Courter, UUA President William G. Sinkford, and most importantly, each other, about how GA might be transformed to better support the work of congregations. Also present for the meeting were members of the UUA Board of Trustees, the UUA district staff, and members of the Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee as well as consultants for the JUUST Change Consultancy.

The meeting alternated between short reflections offered by Sinkford and Courter on various topics, small group discussions of the congregational presidents, and feedback from the plenary which was recorded by Courter and Sinkford.

Courter discussed some structural changes to General Assembly which will take effect beginning next year at the St. Louis GA. In 2006, GA will start on a Wednesday and end on a Sunday, and will offer 1.5 days of leadership development training before GA called "U3, or UU University," with training specifically for lay leaders and congregational presidents. This action is taken out of feedback gathered from the GA meeting with congregational presidents in 2004, in which presidents indicated that 50 percent of them had skills they wanted to teach, most notably, becoming a welcoming congregation. The training effort next year will focus on building teachable skills and strength for congregational health and well being.

Also at the 2006 GA, Courter noted that 25% of all workshops will be offered by congregations – a major shift in the way programming is sponsored at GA. She reminded those present that the deadlines for submitting forms comes early (September 1) and that more information will be available online.

The Rev. Sinkford raised the issue of race relations with those present. He said, "We are not done with the race issue. The Calgary (1992) GA called for the UUA to transform itself into a multi racial, inclusive faith community. That decision was landmark, but it was not the first time that the UUA had engaged in race issue discussions.

"1965 was the year of bloody Sunday in Alabama, the year when Martin Luther King called on the white community to stand with him and the citizens of Selma and witness for the right of everyone to vote. Unitarian Universalism responded...hundreds of ministers went, the UUA Board as a body went. We like to reflect on those days...In 1968, in Cleveland Ohio at our General Assemly, Unitarian Universalism voted to commit a million dollars for what was essentially black economic development – reparations – and it was a decision that was both difficult and controversial. For each of the next two years, one quarter of a million dollars was contributed to the Black Affairs Council. Two years later, the decision was made to stop those payments. This is part of my story...for that decision led me to leave this faith more than a dozen years.

"One of the results was that it became dangerous to talk about race in UU congregations. Some congregations moved from the center city to the suburbs during that time, and many black folks left Unitarian Universalism. In 1992 in Calgary, this resolution was passed as an act of faith and hope that we could actually move forward. It felt good to me. There was a strategic decision made about how to move forward...That this transformation would take place first. There was remarkable success due to the commitment of many leaders from many cultures...deep buy-in to becoming an anti racist organization by the UUA board, the youth and young adult communities. But we didn't ground this work deeply enough in our congregations...not enough people found a center for this in their souls. A long conversation could be had about why, but that is the reality."

Sinkford continued, "What we are about is trying to take another step to engage our congregations in addressing the issue of race and what it means to your congregation. It is deeply spiritual work, and deeply part of this faith community. We have been in some ways afraid to do it, and until we do, there will be a flaw in our souls."

Gini Courter continued the reflection saying, "The work Bill is talking about is work the UUA Board has struggled with no less than any other group, and maybe more. The UUA Board is like a church board...people come, and they go just when you think you are starting to make progress. The board has a story too, and part of the job of some of our folks is to monitor where we are through the Anti Racism Anti Oppression Multicultural Assessment Team." Courter then introduced UUA Trustee at Large Tamara Payne Alex, who chairs the Assessment Team.

Payne-Alex said, "One of the most frustrating and challenging parts of this work is having people come off and on this board...and after the board did some extraordinary work, we would be trying to bring folks up to where we left off with the conversation. We decided to do some reflection on this, and acknowledged that often, conversations around race and culture start from a moral perspective – either you are right or wrong. And if you are right you don't need to talk about it, and if you are wrong you don't want to. And so we instead started to think about how to develop competencies.

"We adapted an adult learning model to provide clearer AR/AO goals and standards for volunteer leadership – so that people would have the skills and competencies to do this work."

Payne-Alex went on to describe the adult learning model being used:

Adult Learning Model:

• awareness: from unconscious to conscious.
• competency: things you need to learn how to do; from incompetent to competent.

When the two dimensions interact, four learning platforms or stages of learning are created.

Stage One:

Unconscious <----> incompetent

Stage Two:

Conscious <----> incompetent
(you can describe the symptoms but you don't know what to do.)

• Individuals are aware of systemic racism but don't always recognize it
• Begin to challenge stereotypes
• Are frustrated at 'mistakes' or slips'
• Don't know what to 'do'.

A congregation might establish discussion groups, do worship services, RE

Stage Three:

Conscious <----> competent

Individuals

• Are aware of and recognize systemic oppressions
• Possess basic skills for including AR/AO education

Stage Four:

Unconscious <----> competent

Individuals

• Perceive underlying system racism and oppression
• Possess broad based skills that can be applied in many areas
• Authentic exploration of multiracial multiculturalism occurs within the context of our faith community with integrity and spiritual depth.

Payne Alex finished the presentation of this model, and Courter returned to the microphone, saying, "Leadership has a place here...lay and ministerial." She posed questions for the group, and asked them to reflect in small clusters on the following: How do you assess your own competence? How do you assess the competence of your congregation?

The Rev. Tracey Robinson Harris, director of the UUA Office of Congregational Services, and Paula Cole Jones. Anti-Oppression consultant, came to the microphone. Cole Jones said, "We are here to introduce the JUUST Change consultancy. It is an effort to help meet congregations where they are...which is OK. And to help you to find your AR/AO/M work forward. It is an innovative approach to help you deepen the awareness and build the capacity to live in a multi-cultural world. That way, people with different identities, with diversity, when they come to our congregations they may find a place where they can feel at home and stay. I grew up in All Souls church in Washington, D.C. and there is no difference between what happens in my church and what happens in my life and that is important...our goals is to help you see how different skills are transferable."

Cole Jones continued, "About thirty percent of your congregations have experienced a Jubilee World training. Very few have experienced a Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop. We are seeking the tipping point: in terms of welcoming congregations, we have passed the number needed to change the culture...we want that to happen around race and ethnicity. What we know is that this takes a long time. For some of us who have been doing this work consistently it may take five years to move from the core we have nurtured to systemic or widely embraced change. Well, we had better hurry and get started if we want things to look differently.

"We heard an interesting statistic: each year about 800 to 900 board members turn over throughout congregations in the UUA. So if you have momentum going, how are you going to keep it going? That 800-900 lay leaders that turn over could change this association...that could be the strategy for transforming the association so that that five year period could be sped up."

Robinson-Harris said, "We invited some of our JUUST Change consultants to be with us this afternoon." (The consultants were introduced). "I came to the UUA staff from a ministry at Community Church of New York in Manhattan. That congregation is an inspiration and proof of necessity that this work is critically important. We need to choose life for ourselves and our children and theirs. In the early discussions about this program, there were interesting discussions. One is about the slogan: many paths, one journey...we are all on the arc of the universe that bends toward justice, but those paths are different. JUUST change is designed to help you on the path.

"Audre Lord said there is no hierarchy of oppression...but it doesn't make sense to focus on just one place...we need to be strategic about choosing ways we can be most effective, while knowing that there may be more than one path. We need to learn about linked oppressions...though oppressions differ, there are things that are common to them and things we can learn as we move from one thing to another. So our commitments to meet you where you are indicate that there are many journeys, and that we can learn from one experience and help another."

Courter then invited feedback from the congregational presidents. Among the comments were these:

• We need information about what we are doing wrong. We mean well, and we know there are groups we aren't reaching, and we don't know why.
  
• I see this as a spiritual issue...having grown up in a racist society, coming to terms with the racism we inherently have. We need help in framing this...around spiritual development of ourselves as human beings. If the outcome is that we get more people of color in our churches, that is great. But we are privileged, and we need to face this. And that is what we need first.
  
• Our church comes out of a history of fifty years of being formed in the south by a defrocked Presbyterian minister. We need a tool kit to help us engage in dialogue around this issue.
  
• Our church comes out of a wrenching experience in which we had a minister of color where our racism was exposed...to our great shock and surprise. We have not yet recovered. We have a lot of work to do in a non-controversial way. We ar e in a mostly African American neighborhood...and we need to connect economic disparity so that people in the church can say hello to the drug dealers as fellow human beings if we disagree with what we are doing.
  
• I think we have to look at our individual communities...those who are working with us need to know about those communities and who we are and what we are. I wonder if there should be rethinking of this in about five years. My involvement in civil rights will never be over...the work continues.
  
• We are just beginning to attract people of color...we live in an economically depressed area and we draw from surrounding towns. Few live in the city although the church committed to stay in the city. We need to find a way to be authentic and attract people authentically...and that is difficult.
  
• We need something analogous to the welcoming congregation curriculum, so we could have a conversation with people about when they first learned about race, and so on.
  
• Jubilee World workshops has been enormously helpful for us. We had turnover in the congregation, but the work we did gave us confidence to call a minister of color and continue our work to maintain our minister of color.
  
• There used to be a month when the Caucasians in town were invited to the black church in town. At the fourth gathering they invited all their guests to come to a pot luck celebration. We were the only three people not of color at the potluck. I learned a great deal. I had a wonderful time and got to know some wonderful people. Until I am prepared to go to a person of another race and say, "I want to know what you know, sit with you, eat with you," we have work to do.

Courter thanked the participants for their comments, and said, "We have more than one issue we want to discuss with you. We are going to hear about the Consultation on Ministry For and With Youth." Courter introduced the consultation's co-convener, outgoing UUA Youth Representative Me gan Dowdell, who addressed the meeting along with her co-convener Bill Sinkford.

Sinkford spoke first, saying, "By way of background I want to share with you the statistic that fifty percent of our congregations have youth groups. Maybe sixty percent of those identify those groups as 'YRUU.' Forty percent of those participate in District Cons. Almost none of the congregational representatives we spoke to about this said that was an uncomplicated process."

He continued, "What we came to see was that we had a ministry to and with youth which does many things very well – particularly leadership training. But that training impacts a small number of youth in the congregations...the few who go to Cons or continental trainings that are offered. We also know that YRUU has a particular culture that looks familiar to me...I grew up in LRY. LRY worked brilliantly for me; YRUU worked brilliantly for my son; it didn't work at all for my daughter. We knew it wasn't working for everyone. Also, we have a staff supporting our youth ministry...young adults who work for a year or two as program specialists, but the youth office is organized around support for YRUU, not around congregationally supported youth programs. We felt we had to take a look at the process. We called together a consultation and devised a process to re-imagine this ministry."

Dowdell said, "We have some brochures outlining our goals. Shortly after you return to your congregations, you will be asked, along with young people in your congregation, to complete a survey that will help us understand youth ministry at all levels. We hope this will bring more support from stakeholders around the continent. We will ask congregations to discuss your ministry and to hold conversation opportunities led by a process that the Task Force on ministry to youth will provide. We need the support of you to fulfill this process."

Dowdell continued, "Bill and I, along with the Task Force still forming, are committed to grounding this process at the grass roots level. Each of your congregations is vital in the empowerment of all UU youth. My story is that I was not involved in continental YRUU or the community that served youth. I provided child care, sang in the children's choir, helped start a youth group working on social action and service to the youth community. The collaborative power of youth and adults in our congregations is too great to miss...that is why we decided that to discuss youth ministry as part of the ministry of your congregations today was essential. We need you. The youth of today and tomorrow need you. I spoke to the district presidents and asked them this question: can we count on you? Will you help us?" (yes, they answered.)

Dowdell asked the congregational presidents to again break into small groups and answer these questions:

• What are the challenges facing your congregations in doing youth ministry?
  
• How can we help?

The congregational presidents, after discussion, offered the following pieces of feedback:

• Why, for a GA leadership day, are we not including youth advisors?
  
• The issues are different if the congregation is smaller. Maybe there should be online YRUUs...
  
• Can we clarify what the goal is? Is it to retain youth, create the best spirituality for youth? What is the measure of our success?
  
• In our congregation we have a number of families with homeschooled kids...there aren't a lot of resources for those kids in spirituality areas.
  
• We have an affirmation program, working one on one with a mentor in terms of formulating an affirmation statement which they present to our congregation. This has been a very positive program.
  
• Our children are downstairs and the parents of those children work in the youth programs. So we have older people and the younger parents, and they don't get the experience of cross-generational connection.
  
• We have a bit of trouble in engaging our youth. We might benefit from having some of these kids who connect to district cons, present a program which connects peer to peer.
  
• We need a more compelling curriculum for senior high youth...our junior high curricula are wonderful...OWL and Coming of Age. And then we let them go...
  
• The youth form such close relationships in eighth and ninth grade...that is what we all want...we have to support that. I am concerned about college age...I don't see my children, or others, of that age, participating.
  
• Our youth at the teen level do well co-mingling, but if we don't catch them in middle school, they are gone. We need resources...
  
• We have ideas, but need help with implementation...a UU version of Bible school. What about resources and programs like Scouts? What about activities that are fun and attractive to youth – a skateboard park, etc.
  
• We've had a hard time attracting families and members of color...and it hasn't been a priority. We need to show that there is a space for them, where they can grow or learn.
  
• On an average year, we have one hundred percent of our kids in college. There is nothing there for them...we need more campus ministry, more outreach...
  
• Activism is outreach, even proselytizing. When we are active in social justice and equality and peace issues, we are offering people a church home.
  
• We need education for parents to help incent parents to get their kids involved in Cons and other activities. A fraction of our youth make it to Cons...so other ways to involve kids at that level could be helpful.
  
• How do we get youth to GA or other endorsed events like the March for Women's Lives? We had no idea about how to coordinate, how to arrange for chaperones. Can the UUA arrange that coordination and help us?
  
• We need clarity and definition around YRUU and the curriculum that goes with that. Best practices for successful congregations. Stronger connections to RE and social action issues to help our youth get involved.

At the conclusion of this feedback session, Sinkford said, "This is very helpful and gives me hope that we will be able to engage a large number of our congregations. This is such a great point to start from. Please let us hear more from you...thank you."

Courter invited the group to close with a song ("Spirit of Life") but before the group sang she said, "We are relentless in our focus on congregations. The UUA leadership knows you are the folks who own this Association. Every opportunity to hear from you is a blessing...your presence here is a blessing and a way to reclaim our Association's democracy together. This is a transformation of the relationship between congregations and the Association."

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