At the June 1992 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Calgary, Alberta, a historic decision was made for Unitarian Universalism. The delegates to that Assembly passed a resolution unanimously calling for the Association "to Support a vision of a Unitarian Universalist faith which reflects the reality of a racially diverse and multicultural global village."

As a result of that resolution, the UUA Board of Trustees appointed a Racial and Cultural Diversity Task Force to develop a plan and process for realizing that vision. That Task Force has now completed its work and will present its report and recommendations to the 1996 General Assembly.

Copies of that report will be available at General Assembly and one will be mailed to each congregation. One of the recommendations of that report is that congregations participate in a reflection and action study process throughout the 1996-97 church year using the study guide that accompanies the report.

This four session reflection and action process guide includes

• presentation of background materials,
• discussion of questions/issues,
• an assessment of congregational racial justice efforts,
• and encouragement to stay committed to anti oppression and anti racist multiculturalism.

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 andlor 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, arid 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.

Activities and discussion topics include:

• Creation of a Racial Justice Time Line
• Congregational Anti-Racism Assessment
• Ways in which we are sustaining racism in our congregational life
• Resistance to change
• Ways in which we would gain by embracing a theology of anti racism