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One of the sustaining joys of my life is that I get to work each day with a team of kind, dedicated, smart, funny, and conscientious people with a sense of shared purpose. I know I’m lucky. On the morning after the presidential election, my first email was to them: “I am glad every day to work with you and to know you. Our work together is more important now than it has ever been, and I hope you will feel the support and affirmation of your coworkers as an important source of strength in the times ahead.”
Not everyone can look to their coworkers. But each of us depends on communities—from congregations and civic groups to circles of friends and relatives—that ground us and embolden us, that help us celebrate and grieve, that lift us out of despair and equip us for challenging times. I need my church, and I need my friends, and I need new communities of resistance, too. There has never been a better time to invest in groups that bring you joy, that strengthen you, that help you serve others, and that work for justice.
This issue features the extraordinary teamwork of UU World’s two staff writers, Elaine McArdle and Kenny Wiley. Together they researched and wrote about racial justice efforts in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that show just how vital communities are to undoing the damage of grievous wrongs (page 32).
Let me introduce the team that makes this magazine (above): in back, from left: Sarah Hickok, production assistant; Scott Ullrich, business manager; Kenny Wiley, senior editor; me; Kenneth Sutton, managing editor; and in front: Joshua Craft, advertising assistant; Stephanie Franzosa, copy editor (freelance); Elaine McArdle, senior editor; and Sonja L. Cohen, senior editor.