Transformation Can Be a Way of Life for Unitarian Universalists

Unitarian Universalists have engaged in transformation since our historical roots. As a liberal, liberating, and living tradition, it’s a way of life for us to learn new ideas, to seek greater love and justice in this world, and to do so in ways that reflect that we, as congregants and as communities and institutions, must also do better to achieve betterment in the wider world.

The Values and Covenants of our Unitarian Universalist Association—outlined in the newly adopted Article II—name the value of “Transformation” and explain: “We adapt to the changing world. We covenant to collectively transform and grow spiritually and ethically. Openness to change is fundamental to our Unitarian and Universalist heritages, never complete and never perfect.”

I seek a Unitarian Universalism that dismantles oppression and harm, both beyond our own religious spaces and within them. I seek a Unitarian Universalism that nourishes communities of belonging and recognizes that we are all interdependent, all of this same world.

For instance, we cannot truly address housing and food insecurity without recognizing that there are UUs facing these same issues. We cannot fully confront mass criminalization and incarceration without understanding that these same systems directly affect some of our own religious professionals and congregants.

While there may be many highly privileged UUs, some UUs face oppressions that make it difficult to get healthcare, to cross borders, to work, and to live. I feel this deeply as a transgender and queer person of color who is neurodivergent and has felt the disabling impacts of trauma.

There is a “both/and” to how we must address transformation and justice work: It is about the world around us, and it is about the world within. These worlds may be distinct, but they are not separate.

The Othering and Belonging Institute at University of California, Berkeley defines “belonging” as having both meaningful inputs into and opportunities to “participate in the design of political, social, and cultural structures that shape one’s life—the right to both contribute and [to] make demands upon society and political institutions.” Institutions can be any “shared container,” such as a congregation.

When we apply an understanding about social identities and structural power to belonging, we can recognize how easy it is for a person or entire group of people to be “othered,” to be marginalized by the more powerful. Belonging implies that community life itself is transformed, that the very ideas that have been centered might have to shift or make room for a multiplicity of peoples to be uplifted and not merely present.

In practice, this means we are thinking about systems and practices, and not just who is in the room. While representation and diversity matter, going no further is tokenism and assimilationism. To go further, we must be thinking about what and who we center by how we worship, how we nurture spiritual growth, how we make decisions, and what we decide to resource.

In wealthy, powerful countries, we are living within governments and institutions built upon power stolen through colonization, enslavement, land theft, genocide, warfare, resource extraction, harmful immigration practices, and imperialism—all of which have been supported through ideologies of racism. It’s no wonder that in our progressive faith we have sought to specifically address racism.

For about half a century, the Unitarian Universalist Association has been seeking to become a more racially just denomination—with many successes, failures, and lessons along the way. It has often been grassroots lay leaders, especially youth and communities of color, who have led the efforts. Despite the constant presence of detractors to this work, the delegates at our General Assembly have overwhelmingly voted again and again to call upon our institutions to address racial justice more thoroughly and continuously.

The UUA Board responded to these calls in 1980 when it commissioned an audit of institutional racism. Since then, our denomination has had a continuous history of committees, commissions, reports, recommendations, projects, programs, and attempts at counteracting racism in our own institutions and communities.

While some of these efforts can become reports that don’t do much more than sit upon a metaphorical shelf, there has been progress. In the past several years, the UUA has begun or completed implementation of more than fifty initiatives that relate to the recommendations of the Commission on Institutional Change’s 2020 book-length report, Widening the Circle of Concern. There is so much more to do. Yet, we are progressing.

A half century into these institutional efforts, I would call the structural work for antiracism, anti-oppression, and multicultural flourishing a part of our traditions that is increasingly woven into the fabric of what it means to be part of this denomination. Now, we must continue forward in a way that recognizes that transformation is not a one-and-done scenario. This is a way of life. This work requires continual maintenance and deepening. Racially charged incidents and ongoing centering of whiteness in Unitarian Universalism have been a continuing point of pain and harm in our communities.

Sometimes we have been led to imagine a mythical future where oppression simply does not exist—where we have claimed victory and live effortlessly in peace. This bypassing of the complex and sustained work before us often leads us into situations where efforts for equity and belonging are under-resourced, treated as a one-time transformation effort, or become something “everyone” should simply “just do” without specialized support, leadership, and collective effort.

A better analogy might be learning to use a computer. While we generally expect that advanced technologies are part of our long-term, intergenerational futures, none of us expect to be able to use a computer that is missing key hardware or software; none of us expect to be using the exact same devices fifteen years from now; and we all know we will need specialists who can develop new and improved technologies and train us to use them.

Transformation work is similar. Whether it is at the denominational, congregational, or personal level, it needs to be properly resourced and regularly refreshed and maintained. And, while we all must engage in the work of transformation, we also need leadership, support, and collective efforts.

One of the most striking things in that 40-year-old Institutional Racism Audit report was how it gave us a call to action that is as true today as it was then: Do not get overwhelmed by how much still needs to change. Do the work. Do not rest on what we have already done and proclaim that we have changed enough. Do the work.

Let us re-orient our thinking about transformation. Transformation is not just for individuals; it is also about communities and institutions. It is not a one-time process. Transformation is a spiritual practice and a way of life.