Sunny Notes: 09.30.26 - Our Mosaic Journey
In my own learning journey around anti-racism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism (often abbreviated as AR/AO/MC), one of the most impactful books I have read is Mistakes & Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism—a book that happened to be the UUA’s Common Read in 2023, and a book that the BUF Board is now reading as a group.
In it, authors Nancy Palmer Jones, a white minister, and Karin Lin, an Asian American lay leader, not only detail the Unitarian Universalist history around race, racial equity, and racialized resistance, but also share five detailed case studies of UU congregations from across the country as they attempt to build the Beloved Community of which Martin Luther King, Jr. so eloquently spoke during the 1950s and 1960s. The journey to building such anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and multicultural community is long and bumpy, however—as one congregant at UU Church Annapolis said, “it's stumbling in the right direction."
On Sunday, I shared in my Reflection several examples of my own stumbles in the right direction—of "loving corrections" (a term coined by adrienne maree brown) that increased my awareness, allowing me to know better, and do better, Maya Angelou-style. This year, with the UUA's rollout of the MOSAIC framework, we now have an opportunity as a congregation to increase our AR/AO/MC learning and awareness together.
Similar to the LGBTQ Welcoming Congregation or Green Sanctuary programs, the MOSAIC framework emphasizes a congregational commitment to lifespan learning in diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-oppression. MOSAIC is not just an educational curriculum; it is “the architecture for building Beloved Community.” (Rev. Michael Crumpler, LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Director) Learn more at www.uua.org/mosaic, and see the attached illustration of the MOSAIC framework overview.
Our MOSAIC journey begins on Sunday, October 4. If you are interested in being on the Mosaic Team, join us following the service in the Library. At this meeting, we'll explain more about the MOSAIC framework, what being on this Team will entail, and how we'll be moving forward in the coming months to build understanding within the Team, set our priorities, and prepare the wider congregation for meaningful action. We also will be moving at our own pace—this framework was intentionally designed to be implemented slowly, recognizing that change is progressive, over generations.
At various moments throughout our UU history, our faith tradition has been at the leading edge when it comes to many justice issues—abolition of slavery, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, environmental justice, and so much more. The MOSAIC framework is our opportunity to go further, to again be on the leading edge of this important work of anti-racism and anti-oppression in our country at this crucial moment in human history. I hope you will join us on October 4 to learn more!
Stumbling in the right direction, Rev. Sunny, minister
