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As it celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, DRUUMM (Diverse & Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries), is noting the historic nature of its community ministry and holding recent losses in the DRUUMM community by launching a regular series called Elder Spiritual
Odysseys. Broadcast on Facebook Live and Zoom, it will highlight elders in the community sharing their spiritual journeys, with its October 14 premier event featuring the Rev. Dr. Michelle Bentley.
“It has been a rough couple of years,” said the Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, program facilitator, on the decision to launch the series. “We’ve long been a deeply intergenerational community.”
Bentley has a history of gathering Black, Indigenous, and other people of color through her ministry at Meadville Lombard Theological School; founding the Sankofa Special Archive at Meadville Lombard; gathering women of color at the UUA’s General Assembly for a reception and connection; “and mentoring a generation of us in the ministry,” Santos-Lyons said. Bentley will be introduced by the Rev. Yielbonzie Johnson, a former professor at Starr King School for the Ministry and the first minister of Church of the Restoration UU in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sponsors for the event include the Sankofa Special Archive at Meadville Lombard, First Unitarian Church of Chicago, Third Unitarian Church of Chicago, and the UUA Office of Multicultural Ministries.
Series events are public and will be recorded with a studio audience composed of DRUUMM members and speaker-invited guests. Santos-Lyons said the series will likely include three presentations per year, with Dr. Leon Spencer as the January speaker. For more information, and a recording of the events, visit DRUUMM.org.