We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote:
Journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.
On June 12, 2022, the UUSLO congregation voted to adopt the 8th Principle. The resolution to adopt may be viewed here.
What’s next?
The 8th Principle Working Group is looking into ways the congregation can embody the 8th Principle.
For more information, contact the co-chairs, Douglas Pillsbury and Alice Reinheimer.
Ivy Cochran-Murti from the UUSLO Youth Group made a statement immediately before the resolution was adopted. Her statement may be viewed below.
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.
Dick Dannells
on the 4th Principle
Alice McNeely
on the 8th Principle
Douglas Pillsbury
on the 1st Principle
Janet Murphy
on the 8th Principle
Alice Reinheimer
on the 8th Principle
Jamie Woolf
on the 2nd Source
Morgan Saltamachio
on the 2nd Principle
Jan Meslin
on the 8th Principle
Aivia Cochran-Murti
on the 5th Principle
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.
Learn more about the 8th Principle via these links below.
Rev. Sara LaWall
reflects on the 8th Principle
Visit 8thPrincipleUU.org
for more information about the background of the 8th Principle