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Shift in COVID-19 Prevention Strategies from the UUA
The UUA recognizes that, even after the Omicron surge subsides, dealing with the COVID-19 virus will be an ongoing challenge for congregations. We are making some shifts in our COVID-19 guidance for congregations away from specific guidance based on metrics and instead offering strategies for risk reduction. Many congregations have set metrics about when it is safe to gather in person, or online-only, based on infection rate in the community. This Omicron surge, the availability of at-home tests, and the advent of vaccinations for ages five and up have made such metrics less relevant than before. The best decision-making regarding in-person gathering will need to be made by each congregation’s leaders in their local contexts. While the UUA will continue to suggest data you might track locally, our strategies are geared towards general best “risk reduction” practices as we move toward an endemic situation. For more details about the reasons for the UUA’s change in approach, visit our January update to COVID guidance.
UUA President Application Process is Open
A new Unitarian Universalist Association president—the public, spiritual, and executive leader of the UU movement and the UUA organization and staff—will be elected at General Assembly 2023, for a six-year term.
The person elected will succeed President Susan Frederick-Gray, who was elected at the UUA’s General Assembly in 2017. The Presidential Search Committee (PSC) is tasked with evaluating applications for president and selecting at least two nominees. The PSC posted the application form online on April 4. The deadline to submit applications is July 15, 2022. Nominees will be announced on November 15, 2022.
Please read “UUA President Application Process is open” from UU World for additional information about this process.
“What is love
calling you to do?”
Side with Love is a public advocacy campaign that seeks to harness love’s power to stop oppression. It is sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Association and all are welcome to join. Subscribe to get updates.
We Must Dismantle White Supremacy
White supremacy affects everyone, and each of us has agency to undo it. There is work to do in congregations and there is personal work to do.
White supremacy is the idea that white people are better and more deserving of wealth, power, and privilege than people of color. White supremacy pervades our culture, institutions, and relationships. It is a self-perpetuating system that continues to fuel colonialism, exploitation, oppressions, inequities, and brutalities that people of color experience.
More resources can be found here at UUA.org and below.
Expose the Impact of White Supremacy
Communicate with others about the harm caused to people and communities of color by different expressions of white supremacy (systemic, overt, microaggressive).
- Look at national racial disparity statistics. How does the research finding of “two Americas” play out in your locality?
- Share and discuss eight one-minute videos that unpack systemic racism in employment, wealth disparities, infant mortality, housing, education, environmental health, incarceration, and health care access.
- Read and respond to “10 Insidious Ways White Supremacy Shows Up in Our Everyday Lives” on the Everyday Feminism website.
Centering voices of people of color helps to destabilize white supremacy as the dominant cultural norm in a UU setting and beyond. Use these collections to share the voices of Unitarian Universalists of color:
- Packet of worship and religious education resources (PDF) created by Unitarian Universalists of color for The Promise and the Practice, a campaign to support the UUA commitment to Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU).
- Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity, and Power in Ministry, edited by Mitra Rahnema (Skinner House, 2017); essays and responses from Unitarian Universalist religious professionals of color; UUA Common Read 2017-18 with discussion guide
- Voices from the Margins edited by Jacqui James and Mark Morrison-Reed (Skinner House, 2012); a compilation of readings
- Black Lives Matter collection of readings on the online UUA Worship Web