Welcome to Our 10th Year! 

It is hard to believe that it’s already been 10 years since UU-CC worked with the planning committee at First Parish in Brookline to provide our first workshop training. Since then, UU Class Conversations has helped over 1,800 UUs across the United States and Canada and more than 300 U.S. congregations bridge social class differences and address classism to build beloved community, grow membership, and further social justice. Let’s Get Started on 10 More. Read on.

You might even want to join our 10th Anniversary Planning Committee!

What’s New for UU?

On-Demand Video on Working Class Caucus Findings

Check out the UU-CC video Making Room in the Pews for Working Class UUs that premiered at the 2024 UUA General Assembly. The video was created as part of our Working Class Caucus Project, which first asked current working class congregants to share their experiences – highs and lows – within our predominately middle class UU congregations.

Caucus participants shared their stories, with some speaking about the frustration of being made to feel “less-than” from some practices, traditions and even language use. Some also talked about being valued for their past experiences, especially when it came to social justice outreach or innovative giving ideas. Next, participants created a series of recommendations for congregations, organizations and the Association on ways that our denomination can become more class-inclusive and welcoming. These strategies will help us retain current members and recruit more from different social class backgrounds.

Meaningful Class Conversations Cohorts

UU Class Conversations led six sessions (three morning sessions repeated in the evening) with our cohort partner Class Aware at the 2024 UUA General Assembly to provide members of UU congregations and organizations an opportunity to engage in lively, thoughtful discussions about social class, classism and becoming more inclusive. While UU-CC workshops are interactive, the cohort sessions (which offered interactive components) emphasized building community and cohesion through longer discussion opportunities about creating welcoming UU spaces.

While participants were free to attend just one cohort session, the cohorts were designed to build upon each other. Some participants attended all three! Two even took part in all six! As one of the repeat attendees said, “Each time is different because there are different people, creating new ideas and solutions.”

UU Class Conversations works to empower UU congregations and organizations by helping them explore all facets of social class at the personal, organizational and societal levels. Our shared goal is to address and end classism and build bridges across class differences. We believe that together we can create deep, sustained relationships that build Beloved Community and bring about a more equitable world.

 

Meditations on Class:
Reflections, Insights and Commentaries

Written by UUs for UUs, this anthology offers chalice lightings, rituals, sermons, readings and more to help our Beloved Community become more aware of the many ways we can celebrate our social class diversity. Sharing their lived experience, UU leaders and lay people from across our denomination provide the inspiration and spiritual nourishment we need to dismantle classism and become more welcoming of people of all class backgrounds. Order your copy today. Learn more.

Calling All UU Youth! Let’s Talk About Class. 

Join our youth caucus roundtable discussions (coming soon). We are recruiting youth now to become active members of UU Class Conversations. We want to hear from you. Share your ideas on class and ways to explore class and address classism.

Your voices matter!  We want to hear the perspectives on class from the future leaders of our faith community. Learn more.

Unique Online Workshop to Build Church Membership

BECOMING A MORE WELCOMING CLASS-INCLUSIVE FAITH COMMUNITY IS AVAILABLE TO YOUR CONGREGATION NOW.

After years of declining U.S. church attendance, the trend reversed in 2022. Powering the increase were Millennials and Gen-Xers who value authenticity, social consciousness, teamwork and diversity — Unitarian Universalism tenets. This highly interactive workshop can be custom-tailored for your UU congregation.

It offers strategies to make your congregations more authentically class-inclusive and welcoming to these new potential members.

Learn more when you contact info@uuclassconversations.org. We look forward to connecting.