It’s hard to believe that 10 years have passed since a small group of Unitarian Universalists came together to discuss ways we could make our denomination more class-inclusive. We were inspired by the stories of UUs we met through community and parish ministry and social justice service. Co-founder Rev. Dr. Dorothy Emerson began meeting monthly with a few of us to look at how we might make the issue of social class more prominent within our Beloved Community.
We decided to begin with an in-person daylong workshop to provide UUs with terminology, strategies and a well-developed process for raising the issue within our congregations and organizations. With critical start-up support from the UU Funding Program, UU Class Congregations was born.
Thank you to the many thousands of UU Class Conversations supporters and fellow class-inclusion champions who have worked with us since the 2014-2015 church year through your congregations, organizations and as individuals to ensure that our denomination:
- Understands and respects class differences
- Bridges those differences to create deeper relationships within our UU institutions and among individuals
- Roots out classism
- Celebrates and respects what each class background brings to the whole
Let’s celebrate this work together! Be part of our 10th Anniversary Planning Committee. Contact us for more information at uuclassbridges@gmail.com.
Now, ten years later, 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. In addition to the original workshop, we now provide congregational consultations, half-day trainings, online workshops, projects like the Working Class Caucus, workshops on race and class and other intersectional issues, a worship service packet, information sheets on relevant issues, a reading list for further study, and more.
To mark this special milestone, we are thrilled to kick off a year-long 10th anniversary celebration. We are recruiting members for the UU-CC 10th Anniversary Planning Committee.
As a member, you will:
- Meet for a two-hour Zoom kickoff meeting in December
- Spend one hour monthly through May at the Zoom committee meeting
- Spend one hour monthly on a subcommittee
- Help develop anniversary program and fundraising activities
- Provide advice for future projects and programs
UU-CC’s work has never been more important or urgent as our nation continues to be historically divided – with class differences as the invisible 800-pound gorilla in the room. We invite you to join our UU-CC 10th Anniversary Planning Committee or volunteer with us in other ways.
