Formation of the UUCC Ad hoc Committee on Building a Diverse, Multi-Cultural Beloved Community

The Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the formation of UUCC’s Ad hoc Committee on Building a Diverse, Multi-Cultural Beloved Community, with the following members:

• Kelly Blake, Chair
• Mo Grant-Olsson
• Amber Guthrie
• Kerridwen Henry
• Margaret LaFon
• Elly Stephen
• Kristin Parrish, Board of Trustees liaison

We are deeply grateful for each member’s volunteer spirit and their commitment to advancing the committee’s work in helping UUCC congregants “to deepen their understandings and advance anti-racism/anti-oppression efforts for themselves, our institutions, and the broader community” as called for in UUCC’s June 2020 resolution. We are fortunate to have each of them as part of our UU congregation.

Below is the Board’s “Statement of Purpose and Charge” for the committee. Please join us in welcoming the committee’s members and in supporting the vital work they have agreed to undertake.  

Purpose & Charge 

Purpose

To examine ways UUCC congregants and groups already work to educate themselves and to take actions aimed at dismantling racism and other oppressions, identify areas that appear ripe for further engagement, and recommend ways that congregants might engage individually and collectively to deepen their understandings and advance anti-racism/anti-oppression efforts for themselves, our institutions, and the broader community. 

Committee Charge (through June 2021)

1. Action inventory and opportunity analysis: Engage with UUCC constituent groups to understand the nature and extent of our existing anti-racism/anti-oppression efforts and to identify potential opportunities where further UUCC engagement may be useful to advance justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in our community.
2. Recommendations: Develop recommendations on potential tools, processes, resources, and/or other activities that UUCC congregants might use to deepen their understandings, strengthen commitments, advance anti-racism/anti-oppression work, and promote justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. 
3. Other activities: Subject to the committee’s recommendations and Board guidance (where necessary), spearhead the organization, coordination, and facilitation of other activities that further the purposes set forth above. 
4. Communications: Advise the Board periodically regarding the committee’s activities, emerging observations, and/or recommendations/questions warranting further Board guidance. Communicate with the congregation at the discretion of the committee’s chair.
5. Process Consistency: In carrying out its work and to be consistent with the goal of building a diverse, multi-cultural Beloved Community, strive to act compassionately, constructively, and in accordance with UU principles and UUCC’s congregational covenant.

June 2020 UUCC Resolution

We, the members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia, Maryland, covenant to affirm and promote the building of a diverse, multicultural Beloved Community where BIPOC*, LGBTQ+**, and other marginalized communities find respite from racism and other oppressions. We commit to educating ourselves and to taking actions that dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves, our institutions, and the broader community working in accordance with each person’s unique abilities and approaches. 

* BIPOC = Black, Indigenous, People of Color
** LGBTQ+ = lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning + other sexualities and non-binary genders