This Sunday February 20^th, we continue with our theme of Introducing the 8th UU Principle. The Focus of the service is: “Places We have Been, Places We are Going.”

In this service, BUUFers will remember what we have done in the past to create our Beloved Community and a compassionate greater society and what the future may hold for our congregation in terms of working for social justice. Additionally, there will be a great Story for all Ages and lots of wonderful music.

In preparation for the upcoming congregational vote on acceptance of an 8^th UU principle, Rev. Jim McConnell will examine some of the pros and cons of adopting another principle in a talk titled: “Two and a Half Principles.”

The RE children will learn about Rev. James Reeb, a white Unitarian minister who was attacked (along with two other Unitarian ministers) for his role in the Civil Rights Movement. While Reeb was on his way to the hospital (where he died two days later), Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed a press conference and lamented the “cowardly” attack, asking all to pray for his protection. Both the Unitarian and Universalist roots of our religious tradition have a long history of supporting and defending civil rights, even as we have sometimes failed to fully live up to our principles.

Come in person or join by Zoom.

Proposed 8th UU Principle:
“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.”

Courtesy of Lisa Fuller, here is a link to the UUA Commission on Institutional Change’s Widening the Circle of Concern report. Several copies of the report are also available at BUUF.

“Appointed by the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in 2017, the UUA Commission on Institutional Change served through June 2020. Widening the Circle of Concern: Report of the UUA Commission on Institutional Change represents the culmination of the Commission’s work analyzing structural and systemic racism and white supremacy culture within Unitarian Universalism and makes recommendations to advance long-term cultural and institutional change that redeems the essential promise and ideals of Unitarian Universalism. All UU’s are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the report.”