03/18/2020 by Shannon Day

Inclusive Language Is Evolving Language – by Jade Sylvan, UUA LGBTQ Ministries and Clara Barton Gender Justice Fellow

Dear Friends, Many LGBTQ+ people see their self-identifying language shift over their lifetimes, even if their identities themselves do not change. As our access to language and community evolves, we might “come out” to our friends, family, and congregations, sometimes many times within a relationship. In fact, new language continues to be workshopped in LGBTQ+ communities as we search for words that best communicate our particular and shared experiences. I feel this is a great strength of the LGBTQ+ community. At our best, we are always actively evolving. I often see challenges arise around change within Unitarian Universalist communities, both

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01/29/2020 by Shannon Day

Do You Know About This Year’s Raise the Paddle Focus for the Auction?

Our board could not be more excited about this year’s Raise the Paddle focus! We are riding on the powerful movement that started years ago, and resulted this past fall in celebrating the installation of our lift. Our focus is ACCESSIBILITY – ensuring that we are doing everything we can to allow everyone to access our congregational life. We have an extraordinary congregation. We are vibrant and loving. We are thinkers and doers. There is a warmth at Westside, a magnetism of love, and we are learning to expand it – to be more and more inclusive and welcoming. The

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01/22/2020 by Shannon Day

An MLK Day Message from UUA President, Susan Frederick-Gray

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”  ~Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   Deanna, On this MLK Day it is imperative that we not only remember his words but understand how his words, actions and leadership call us to live and act today. Some imaginations give us

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11/06/2019 by Shannon Day

Thanksgiving and the Challenge of Seeing a Reality that is Unpleasant

So many of us have no intention of causing great harm and have every desire to bring a loving presence into the world around us. So many of us also cherish our autumn holiday that focuses on gratitude and sharing delicious food and time with loved ones. So it is particularly challenging to feel the growing awareness of the ways this holiday doesn’t align with the very values we and our UU faith hold dear. This message offers an opportunity for awareness, and for considering how we might shift things in our Thanksgiving experience to honor whatever we feel to

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09/25/2019 by Shannon Day

News from the Racial Justice Change Team

Summary Notes About the “WSUU Equity Workshop: Strategies to Promote and Sustain a Culture of Inclusivity and Equity” By Kerrie Schurr and Tony Ricardi, Board Liaison to the RJCT Below are some observations the two of us put together, and therefore it is limited to two individual white people’s perspectives. For a more complete understanding of the workshop and the momentum of this work at Westside, we encourage more conversation and sharing with other participants of the workshop. Richard Kim, our Cultures Connecting presenter, began the workshop with storytelling and a photo slideshow of his childhood, sharing from the heart

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05/21/2019 by Shannon Day

Westside’s Social Justice Council Proposal to Join Faith Action Network

The Social Justice Council proposes that the Westside UU Congregation join the Washington Faith Action Network (FAN) as a congregation on an ongoing basis. We are submitting this proposal to be considered as part of the June 2, 2019 annual meeting. Who is the WA Faith Action Network (wafan.org) From their website: …a statewide interfaith advocacy 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization through which thousands of people and over 140 faith communities across Washington State partner for the common good. Mission Faith Action Network is an interfaith statewide partnership striving for a just, compassionate, and sustainable world through community building, education, and courageous

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04/11/2019 by Shannon Day

Origins and Purposes of the Racial Justice Change Team

The Racial Justice Change Team (RJCT) formed in 2018, in part to fulfill a commitment that our congregation had made in 2016, when the Congregation voted at a special meeting to hang a “Black Lives Matter” banner prominently on the side of the building.  The banner initiative was led by an ad hoc committee that included Cecelia Hayes, Theresa McCormick, Fred Matthews, Nikki Roberg, and Rev. Beatrice. The initial organizers of the RJCT team, Fred Matthews, Kerrie Schurr, and Tracy Burrows, were inspired by the work that the East Shore UU, University Unitarian, and Woodinville UU churches were doing to

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03/14/2019 by Shannon Day

What is a Change Team and what does it have to do with Racial Justice work?

Greetings from the WSUU Racial Justice Change Team! We’d like to give everyone a better sense of what we’re all about, starting with why specifically we decided to call ourselves the “Racial Justice Change Team.” A “Change Team” is a group who identifies existing barriers to achieving desired outcomes in a specific area of an organization and who then supports the organization in creating and implementing a plan to address those barriers. The WSUU’s Racial Justice Change Team formed last spring and we’ve been focusing on how we, as a church community, can examine white privilege and our own place

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11/07/2018 by Shannon Day

Sign Up for Beloved Conversations Groups

Good morning, Westside UU and the Racial Justice Change Team will be launching Beloved Conversations in January. Beloved Conversations uses a small group ministry format to explore the role of race/ethnicity in individual and congregational lives. It was developed at Meadville Lombard Seminary by the Fahs Collaborative and has been implemented by over 140 Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, and Jewish congregations. Starting in the January 2019, 48 Westside members will be participating in four different groups led by lay facilitators. It is with great respect that we invite your participation in Beloved Conversations in Winter 2019. General Registration is open now

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06/06/2018 by Shannon Day

To Be Called – Margo Rinehart, Ministerial Intern

The Poor People’s Campaign This Memorial Day I chose to leave my relaxing, sunny yard and drive for sixty miles to our state capital in Olympia to participate in week three of “The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival” public witness. Each week of the six “moral Mondays” has a theme, and this time it was The War Economy:  Militarism and the Proliferation of Gun Violence. First, after recently reading the biography of Fannie Lou Hamer, which brought me to tears and to my knees, I wanted to participate and be counted. Second, I heard a rumor that Unitarian Universalists were

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