Reflections from the Congregation

As part of a year-long effort to engage the UU Principles, including the 8th Principle, and the UU Sources, members of our congregation have recorded their reflections.

These may be viewed below.

We UUs are on a journey toward redemption

By Douglas Pillsbury, member of UUSLO

The theft of Black people’s labor and freedom through slavery created a large part of this country’s economic wealth and shaped our political systems for 400 years. Today it is essential to understand deeply the lasting impacts of this unjust and cruel system and to realize the imbalance of wealth and power that continues to exist. In the last few years many of us in this congregation have studied ways to correct this imbalance.

I have been reading the 2020 institutional change report commissioned by the UUA entitled “Widening the Circle of Concern.” It is shocking, hard-hitting, and sobering. It is also insightful and inspirational and gives me more hope that we UUs have a liberatory faith which is powerful—if we use it. We have available the spiritual gifts of transformational love and courageous truth-seeking to engage in the process of healing in our own denomination and of healing in our nation. But how can we maintain our intentions? How can we find within ourselves the ongoing commitment to repair the damage of the painful past and to rectify the continued present-day harm?

Committing to adopting an 8th principle, or perhaps rewording another principle, can help us move forward together, slowly bending that moral arc toward justice for all of us. Doubtlessly, this is a long journey. We can sustain our intention when we place it centermost in our minds and in our hearts.

Beyond the Congregation

Learn more about the 8th Principle via these links below.