Dear Members and Friends,

Tuesday night I joined the UUA Prayer Vigil. (watch it here.) One of the speakers urged us to stop using the term “Peaceful Protests.” Instead, they said, just call them protests. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar makes a similar point, advising a “rush to justice” rather than judgment. You can read his LA Times op-ed, “Don’t Understand the Protests?”, here.

In addition to these two learning resources, I encourage you to check out M4BL (the Movement for Black Lives) “Week of Action.” There you will find on-the-streets and online actions for June 1-7. And be sure to include in your regular news feed at least one African American news site, such as The Root.

This is a time for our religious community to deepen our understanding of racial inequity and further our efforts to dismantle the many forces of economic, racial, and political injustice. I encourage you to give special attention to resources and organizations created and led by Black people and to move outside your comfort zone.

Yours in faith and love,

Rev. Sandra