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into this home we bring our hunger for awakening we bring our compassionate hearts and a will towards justice and into this home we bring the courage to walk on after hard losses into this home we bring our joy and gratitude for ordinary blessings by our gathering we bless this place in its shelter we know ourselves blessed come let us worship good morning welcome to mission peak unitarian universalist congregation my name is allison mcdonald and i'm a member of the board we are so glad you joined us online this morning unitarian universalism is a radically inclusive non-doctrinal non-dogmatic open-minded and open-hearted faith we are a people who are all coming at truth from different paths we gather together across different identities experiences and beliefs to affirm and promote the inherent worth of every person together we see our job is to love the hate out of this world heal the hurt in ourselves and one another and to be the change we'd like to see in the world we use the chat to share our joys and concerns personal milestones of importance which will be read aloud during the service maybe you're here for the first time we've been reaching out and asking people to bring their friends because we think the world especially now needs some friendly places to gather and find encouragement and hope we'll post a link to our weekly newsletter so you can see all the events coming up we encourage you to join into anything that speaks to you we also will post this email if you'd like to have our weekly newsletter sent to you electronically welcome mpuc.org there are a few things coming up that we'd especially like to call your attention to if you've been attending recently you know the committee on ministry has been working hard helping us all develop a covenant that encourages us to live out our highest aspirations the committee on ministry has released a draft based on all the congregation's input so far please look for the survey in the week on the peak and on the mpuc website and i need to scroll down sorry something happened uh please look for the survey so your feedback can help refine our covenant your feedback will be collected until march 16th the minister's daytime or discussion this thursday march 4th at 10 a.m will be on the topic of draft the covenant so be sure to review the draft of the covenant and come with your thoughts questions concerns hopes and aspirations the link to the conversation can be found on the week on the peak and on the mpuc events calendar online members and friends should have received an email with information about our upcoming canvas please read through the email and the accompanying links we have a web page this year with detailed information about canvas instead of mailing you out a big packet i invite you to check that out as well and if you have questions please contact melissa holmes at treasure mpuc.org after the worship service today instead of having our usual coffee chat breakout rooms we are going to uh watch together a video holy post race in america which is a podcast by phil fisher afterwards we'll break into smaller groups to discuss the worship host will give you more information about this immediately following the service and finally if you hear or see something in this morning service that inspires you or makes you laugh or brings you hope please tweet it or share it on social media or just tell a friend we're trying to start a wave of love and justice with every gathering and we also will be using uh the chat for feedback for the worship team as well if you have comments to make thank you so much for joining us this morning i'm delighted to come before you this morning to tell you a story most of you know that i teach piano violin and voice lessons i opened my own studio in 2012 and ties 10 of the income as a spiritual practice to express gratitude for the business acknowledgement of my blessings and faith in the universe that she'd continued to provide yet on may 5th 2020 i lost not only my business but everything home car finances clothing even my daughter everything i thought made me me was gone how could it happen i've struggled 12 years within a difficult marriage the man knew i was delighted in the few plants growing in arbarian garden yet he would take a stick and beat them to death it became so bad i finally fought back literally someone called the cops instead of helping they took me to the psych ward my husband filed a restraining order so i couldn't go home without police supervision and only for a few minutes i got some clothes my tech and my purse when i looked through it i discovered he'd stolen my car keys and canceled the credit cards friends fed me took me in and closed my growing belly since i was pregnant my parents paid for lawyers preschool buddies kept an eye on evelyn so that they could report back to me you'd think this would have been the lowest point in my life instead it began the best time of all i had more joy and faith and friends than ever before i began each new day so deeply grateful for the basics health and freedom journals to write in tuck to connect with loved ones and especially my ability to stay in touch with all the folks here at mission peak mission peak was the source of almost every good thing in my life even before this all went down your music healed me your dedication to the unhoused and hungry inspired me your attention to progress on race-based social justice issues fired me up when we moved to the condo in august friends literally filled it with their love ninety percent of what we have came from others and seventy-five percent from you use in particular when i had nothing of my own your tender loving care transformed me into a vector of abundance and joy i've been able to feed so many people donate our extras to folks more in need participate in the black lives matter and arrow create and contribute so much more music and basically do and be more than previous years combined when i finally began receiving spousal support i continued the ten percent tithe sending it right back to mission peak and now now that almost everything i have is specifically from you as individuals how could i not continue to support all the work you do i hope that you realize how truly incredible this congregation is and how priceless the love you send out into the world your service time talents and financial contributions are transforming more lives than you even know please join me in utilizing your own tithe as an act of faith the so-called sacrifice of finances is actually an act of gratitude and celebration that proves our devotion to one another and dedication to our bright and beautiful dreams of building a more stable congregation within a more perfect world [Music] so [Music] morning [Music] right [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] please join with me in reciting the words which call us together as a community and with unitarian universalists all across the globe we like this chalice to remind ourselves to treat all people kindly because we are all one family to take good care of the earth because it is our home to live lives fullness goodness and love because that is how we'll become the best people we can be there you go good morning um i'm excited to share a story with you this morning i will be reading excerpts from r is for reparations young activists speaking their truth which is written by the global african congress nova scotia chapter with the book in the day children here are the authors a is for africa africa is where black people are from africa is where all people come from i am demanding something so i spell africa the way my people did africa is my home when i say africa i think of africaville when i think of africaville i think of what was taken we were robbed they took our lives our food our money our uncles a is for activism i am active for africa i am active for reparations ashay b is for black people strong beautiful black people with beautiful hair we want to be we want to be treated as humans being human means not being treated like animals being together being safe being happy not being afraid of anything we want to be free not being judged by the color of our skin no barriers no bad words and no banning immigrants no more building walls between people no bullying everyone belongs i belong and i want my things back ashay c is for cause i have a cause countless children who look like me are crying that's a crime we demand money food home and family criminals stole our families and our languages they came with dogs and we got robbed and cheated we had to work without pay in the sun we are children of god children of the sea and children of the earth we are a community that will continue we will cause you to care ashay d is for demand as an activist i am determined to demand reparations for damage done to my people you must do something when someone makes you do something without a return when someone treats you like dirt or puts you in danger then you discover what you are made of do we want to give up sometimes maybe but we have the determination to do the right thing if we work together we will get the work done quicker ashay e is for expectation each and every day we need to examine our hearts and educate our minds we must eliminate the lies told on us we are an effective people we are excellent we bring excitement we have endurance the economy of european society was built on our energy we are full of expectation we expect the bill to be paid enough is enough ashay f is for fearless i will not fear i will speak up and that's a fact f is for family friends and faith i love my family and friends my family believes in me f is for freedom you are not free if someone takes you and forces you to do things for them i am free not enslaved f is for the forgiveness needed to stop killing and end wars we forgive wrongdoers who give back the things they took i am not asking for a favor do you feel me ashamed l is for love we must love one and love all love means taking action to make things right for everyone in the land of canada and all over the world you must open your eyes to see what people lost i think the law should make people accept responsibility for the lasting legacy of the bad things reparations are my legal right a shame r is for reparations reparations means to right the wrongs be respectful black people's land was taken our energy was stolen our mothers and fathers were stolen our wealth was stolen that was a rip-off recognize anti-black racism it is ruthless we will relentlessly resist we will not rest we require restitution our response is to remain active for reparations make it right now ashay y is for youth african youth of the world unite you are young and the world is yours you are awesome you are amazing you are important y is for yes yes yes say yes yes i am yes i can yes i will youth leading the way for reparations claim it because it's rightfully yours ashay z is for zero tolerance zip it up we won't put up with nonsense some people have zero stuff and that's not right we want everyone to move from zero to hero we have the zell and energy to be positive and drive reparations forward we demand a wholeness and a healing and a joyful zone for all african people ashay thank you allison we come together every sunday and all throughout the week for more than ourselves we come to support one another and the ministries that infuse worth and dignity into our children our youth our programs of learning and leadership and our ministries in the larger world including our efforts towards anti-racism and anti-oppression please make a contribution towards these worthy causes by mailing your check to mission peak uu congregation at the address which will appear on your screen and you can also use the bill pay option in your online banking or drop your check to the mission peak mail slot or pay online with a credit or credit a debit card thank you for supporting and sustaining the efforts of our members and friends your contributions make loving learning and leadership more possible one of the things that allows us to find hope and meaning especially in the hard times is the love and support that we show one another was beautifully witnessed by becca in her testimonial this morning if you have a joy or concern that by sharing with this caring community might bring the encouragement or resilience you're needing please write it briefly now in the chat if your need is personal you can also send an email to our minister for a follow-up conversation thank you very much [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] dreams [Music] my dreams [Music] and jesus [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] oh whatever it is [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] my dreams [Music] please join me in the spirit of prayer and meditation these are the words of kenneth p langer let me find peace within so that i may be calm throughout let me find silence within so that i may find compassion throughout let me be reminded that some things are worth waiting for let me be reminded that the journey is more important than the reaching a destination let me see that the non-doing is as much a part of life as the doing let me be reminded that it is in these moments of holding on that i can find quietude and renewal it is within these times of inaction that i can find rest it is within these times of emptiness that i can become full let us keep silence for a time i'm in now we will hear from holly ito the anti-racism anti-oppression task force known as arrow officially started at the end of last june as a result of a special congregation meeting where we voted to make anti-racism and anti-oppression education in action a priority for the coming year but this wasn't the first time mission peak had a task force related to racial justice back in 2006 at the unitarian universalist association the uua general assembly a charge was made to all uu congregations to initiate an effort related to anti-racism and mission peak responded by creating the racial awareness and diversity group that group was known as rad our meetings were probably the first time that i had actually talked with other people about race as we continued meeting and looking at programs through the uua we learned about a new program called building the world we dream about and applied to be one of the initial congregations to pilot the program we started on this 12-month 24 session program the end of 2007 i was part of the initial participants and it helped in building my awareness of white privilege but i ended up leaving the course when the intensity of the program became too much for me during my busy work schedule and quite a few others dropped out as well though a few of our existing members did manage to complete this long demanding course since then we've had individual services workshops and book reads based on anti-racism including last year's work on the book white fragility with reverend joe which opened up more about the systemic nature of racism and that it's not just about individual acts at the denominational level this had become a major source of conflict and a number of new resolutions it was also at last year's congregation meeting that we decided to put up the black lives matter banner that had been discussed off and on for a few years as you know the banner was defaced a few months later and another one quickly replaced it arrow participated in both the original dedication of the banner and in the discussion and rededication of its replacement when the aero task force was formed i knew i wanted to be a part of this important work that had become a major focus both on the denominational level and also throughout the country the book me and white supremacy which a group of us read last summer brought up a number of issues that i hadn't previously considered i then decided to participate in the fall session of beloved conversations racial justice training program along with reverend barbara and michelle wallace i had heard about the program since it started over 10 years ago and was glad it was being offered virtually again there was much for e to learn and mindsets from the past that were challenged and also a need to acknowledge that there will be mistakes made along the way it seems like the more i learn the more i realize there is for me to know and understand and absorb i'm hoping to keep reminding myself to follow the words of maya angelou do the best you can until you know better then when you know better do better we'll now have a piano interlude by shauna [Music] so so [Music] so so so [Music] next the aero committee wanted to provide you with an update about what we're doing now and what we've been doing lately early on the aero team arrived at a shared understanding of our scope and what we're dubbing what we dubbed our three streams scope was a tricky issue after some honest conversation we acknowledged that many well-intentioned white people myself included tend to run for the hills whenever the topic of race comes up as many of us were taught that the best way to defeat racism was to ignore race if our committee tried to tackle all forms of oppression we might turn away from the core issue of racism talking instead about the other isms with which we were more comfortable we made a commitment to not allow this to happen after all the congregation formed this task force in response to george floyd's murder and the movement for black lives we agreed to limit our scope to all issues with race at the center as the three streams our congregational mandate called upon the aero task force to tackle both education and action around anti-racism these form our first two streams however as we began learning more about the history of black people in unitarian universalism the persistent under representation of black indigenous and people of color in uu congregations and the gut-wrenching work that is involved in unlearning white supremacy we realized that we needed a third stream shifting the culture we cannot study or protest our way out of white supremacy and into racial equity if we are to become an anti-racist congregation we need to examine every aspect of our congregational life and consider how we may be perpetuating racism as reverend kate said last week we need to learn how to tear the door off its hinges so that everyone really feels welcome at mpuc we have created a number of opportunities for mpuc members to engage with our three streams our goal is to offer both broad and deep access points so that all members may have had many chances to learn and do something about racism for broad access we offer both education and action items in week on the peak usually in the form of articles podcasts petitions or upcoming workshops sometimes we know we want to go deeper than just skimming an article that's why this week we're starting a new initiative arrow chats which will be held after the service about once a month will take a few minutes to read listen to or view one of the recent week on the peak items and then spend another 20 minutes or so talking about the content we look forward to kicking it off with you today we'll be discussing the video holy post race in america which helps explain the persistent wealth gap between blacks and whites next month we begin a series of book reads on race colleen arnold will be hosting a four session study of ebermex kendy's book how to be an anti-racist please check week on the peak for details about how to register but beyond these opportunities for members to engage intellectually with this work we are working on creating a more open and inclusive congregational culture the aero team believes this stream is both the hardest and the most important of our three and that it will involve deep spiritual work from all our members we are collaborating with the canvas team to articulate a vision of how anti-racism work can inform every aspect of what we do here at mpuc we strive to dismantle white supremacy within ourselves with some members participating in workshops and courses like beloved conversations as holly mentioned we encourage members to join us in these opportunities and expect to offer some here at mpuc in the future under the leadership of kathy bain we have created a virtual community for black indigenous and people of color in our congregation known as safe space we have also launched a website called safe space to highlight the diversity in our community by sharing the stories of bypoc mpuc members and we continue to plan future aero work particularly how mpuc can enact the uuas widening the circle recommendations and how we can participate in action that repairs past harms both of which kathy will address in the next segment we'll now have another musical interlude so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so and now kathy vane will share the third part of the message good morning we at arrow are continuing to work toward anti-racism and anti-impression in ourselves and in our community we plan to work with our congregation on widening the circle of concern which is the recommendations of the uua's commission on institutional change to create a denominational roadmap for our entire congregation to participate we will be helping mission pqu committees and councils find sections of widening the circle of concern that are relevant to their goals we work to educate ourselves with book reads including ibram x kennedy's how to be an anti-racist and the color of law by richard rostein to help us understand the history of legally enforced racism and segregation and help both white congregants and congregants of color become more anti-racist we are looking at educating ourselves about the eighth principle of uu which is about dismantling white supremacy in ourselves and in our institutions and has been adopted by other uu congregations we are working on reparative justice for people of color with special attention to the harm done to indigenous and black peoples the first step is to acknowledge the debt owed and the harm we have done we have previously discussed harm done to indigenous people in our book reading indigenous people's history of the us as well as reparative justice in sonorite land trust in our previous mission peak uu service our debt to african americans includes contributions of culture music language art religion food science math and artistry in addition to the unimaginable cruelty of slavery it acknowledges that slaves built a large amount of the infrastructure and the wealth of the u.s europe and the caribbean the following is quoted and distilled from several sources including harper's magazine national geographic pew research and botanical encyclopedia african americans built the capital of the white house thomas jefferson's estate of monticello and other presidential estates slaves repaired reinforced and built parts of port sumter harvard columbia princeton and yale were funded by profits from slavery slaves built many of the buildings at dozens of colleges including the university of mississippi unc and the university of virginia cities also served the university faculties and students all four major railroads in north america norfolk sovereign csx union pacific and canadian national owned lines that were built and operated by slaves lee mendeur and company who later founded lehman brothers bank was one of those who made a fortune from financing a slave built railroad slave built railroads also gave rise to the largest city in georgia atlanta enslaved and free americans were largely responsible for the construction of the early city of new york they cleared the land built a fort mills bridges stone houses the first city hall the docks the city prison dutch and english churches the city hospital francis tavern and trinity church in fact more than 42 percent of new york city households held slaves in 1703. by 1860 nearly 4 million american slaves worth about 3.5 billion dollars were the largest single financial asset in the entire u.s economy they were worth more than all the manufacturing and railroads combined the estimated value of each slave was calculated into estates and became the source of tax revenue for local and state governments also taxes were collected on slave transactions by the start of the civil war the south was producing 75 percent of the world's cotton if the confederacy had been a separate nation it was ranked as the fourth richest nation in the world the american financial and shipping industries were dependent on the transporting of slaves and the cotton produced by slaves northern textile industries were dependent on the cotton ship from the south enslaved africans became the labor force of choice in the western hemisphere and in 1720 65 of the population of south carolina were slaves in addition to fueling much of the world economy harper's magazine estimated slaves in the us did a quarter billion dollars of free labor valued at around 97 trillion dollars a harm done many blacks according to dr degray suffer from a form of post-traumatic stress disorder with feelings of hopelessness depression and anger often directed toward themselves and other people of color legally sanctioned racism in the form of jim crow laws voter suppression unjust incarceration environmentally associated poor health deprivation of quality education housing and self-governance have contributed to generations of lost wealth it harms people who are not black because blaming black people for their circumstances leads to blaming non-black people in similar circumstances over 60 percent of welfare recipients 75 of the poor and 66 of the prison population are not african-american it harms the american dream as stated in 1933 that life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances verb the truth is unlike many european countries 70 of people in the us who are born into poverty will never make it as far as the middle class and 97 percent will not make it as far as the upper middle class according to harvard professor robert putnam smart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids that's not because of the schools that's because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids as a consequence we lose world influence and respect and our society becomes less compassionate less productive less wealthy and more divided repairing past wrongs the u.s justice department awarded over 36.9 million dollars to japanese american citizens for their removal and replacement camps during world war ii and for the losses of real and personal property west germany paid reparations to israel for confiscated jewish property forced labor and persecution which totaled 14 billion dollars by 1987. as part of widening the circle of concern the uua has written in part any discussion on reparations must begin with an acknowledgement of the ongoing genocide oppression and exploitation of black people indigenous people and people of color the ua suggests that they should invest in researching the best reparations platform from existing international national and local models locally in our congregation we are looking at supporting a group that is promoting and providing home ownership as well as education on wealth building to african americans in the bay area we plan to share the plate with this group next sunday we hope you can join us in sharing the plate next week with community housing development corporation and please consider joining arrow we could use your ideas your open heart and your passion thank you okay this is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] please join with me in reciting these words to extinguish our chalice we extinguish this flame but not the light of truth the warmth of community or the fire of commitment these we carry in our hearts until we are together again the truth is this if there is no justice there will be no peace if we cannot bring justice into the small circles of our individual lives we cannot hope to bring justice to the world and if we do not bring justice to the world none of us is safe and none of us will survive nothing that we do is more important than making justice real here where we are hard as diversity is it has our most important task these are the words of the reverend rosemary bray mcnet amen