At the Mid-Year congregational meeting of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville (FUUN) held Sunday, Jan. 24, members of the congregation voted unanimously in the affirmative for adding the 8th Principle of Unitarian Universalism to FUUN’s list of existing principles. The approved and adopted wording of 8th principle follows:
We, the members of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”
Our BIPOC siblings of faith asked that we respond in a bold way and this community has faithfully and enthusiastically responded with a resounding affirmation. We are ready to act with accountability as we work alongside others always journeying toward spiritual wholeness called to dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions as we continue to work to build the diverse multicultural Beloved Community that our ancestors spoke of and current generations still speak of to this day. There is much to be done, and the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville is fully committed to all that lies ahead to undo 400 years of racism and white supremacy.
We, the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, have added an 8th principle to our list of principles which we affirm and promote, and hold as strong values and moral guides. We proclaim that we will work to build a diverse multicultural beloved community. So what does this mean? Now, as we continue to affirm the inherent worth of everyone, encourage spiritual growth, search for truth and meaning, respect the interdependent web, and so on, we will also work to accountably build a diverse multicultural beloved community.
The eight principles express our values. They are ideals to drive action. Adoption of this new one is not an end; it’s a beginning. Here are some ways we can express this new principle:
– Read and learn about racism in our world. There are numerous suggestions on the Beloved Community Committee’s resource page firstuunash.org/bc-resources/.
– Get involved with a local group, such as Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH), Gideon’s Army, We Remember Nashville , or The Equity Alliance. These are organizations that work towards a more just and equitable community at the local and state levels.
– Attend any of the upcoming book reads or other activities sponsored by the Beloved Community or Social Justice Committees.
– If you haven’t already, sign-up for the Living the Pledge to End Racism Program, which starts Monday, Feb. 1. Hurry! Visit firstuunash.org/living-the-pledge for more information.
– Take one of the black history tours (once they re-commence) such as United Street tours. Or, visit museums such as the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in AL, The Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta as well as the National Memorial for Peace and Justice/Legacy Museum in Montgomery.
– Check out Learning to Rise Together a subscription service.
– Get involved with the Beloved Community Committee. Email them at beloved@thefuun.org. Or check out their webpage.
– Subscribe to the BLUU Box program to support our Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) siblings of faith while further educating ourselves.
I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
– Edward Everett Hale
Our 8 Principles
We covenant to affirm and promote:
- The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
- Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations;
- Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
- A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
- The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
- The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
- Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part;
- Journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.
The living tradition which we share draws from many sources:
- Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
- Words and deeds of prophetic people which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
- Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
- Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
- Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
- Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature
- Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support.
From Beloved Community Committee, Social Justice, and Committee for the Larger Faith
The 8th Principle
As Unitarian Universalists, we have been grappling with how to address white supremacy in our institutions and the world at large. At FUUN, the Beloved Community Committee (BCC) has been calling us to actions that will make our community more welcoming and open to all people—offering the Nashville Pledge Program and encouraging us all to actively address bias and white supremacy in our lives and in our congregational life together. Other congregations and our denomination as a whole have been grappling with questions of white privilege and power within Unitarian Universalism.
The 8th Principle was originally proposed by Paula Cole Jones who worked with congregations on issues of race and multiculturalism for over 15 years as Director of Racial and Social Justice for the Joseph Priestley district—the mid-Atlantic district of the UUA, which has since been subsumed into the Central East Regional Group (CERG). She found that “a person can believe they are being a ‘good UU’ and following the 7 Principles without thinking about or dealing with racism and other oppressions at a systemic level.” This proposed 8th Principle reads as follows:
“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”
The issue of systemic racism, and its presence in UU institutions was brought to a head following a 2017 crisis related to inclusive hiring practices at the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). Following that crisis, Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU) and Diverse Revolutionary UU Ministries (DRUUMM) endorsed this 8th Principle, designed to move our institutions towards becoming the institutions we imagined we would be when we the UUA voted to become an Anti-Racist, Anti-Oppression, Multi-Cultural (ARAOMC) Organization at the 1997 General Assembly.
The 2017 crisis and the discussions it provoked illuminated the need to adopt this principle to decenter whiteness and actively covenant ourselves and our institutions to doing the work of dismantling systemic racism and white supremacy culture; while the need to do this work is implied by the existing 7 principles, they do not explicitly hold us accountable for addressing systemic oppressions.
In addition to the conversations around race and white supremacy culture and the proposed 8th principle, there have been ongoing discussions by various groups regarding changes to other principles; this includes adjusting the 1st principle to include non-human living things, efforts to reword the 7th principle, and a 2007 report about the 5th principle and the ways UU institutions and gatherings enact (or fail to enact) inclusive democratic institutions. To that end, at the 2020 GA, the UUA charged the Article II Study Commission to consider amendments and changes to Article II of the UUA bylaws, which includes the principles, sources, purposes, and inclusion statement. This group has a two-year charge to examine all elements of Article II to reflect “our commitment to anti-racism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism.” This is the first formal institutional effort to reconsider the principles since 1987.
Given the urgency in the current historical moment of confronting and addressing systemic racism and the culture of white supremacy embedded in the U.S., some congregations have responded by adopting the 8th Principle before the Article II Study Commission has completed its work. Congregations who have already adopted the 8th principle include All Souls Unitarian (Washington, D.C.), First Unitarian Universalist church of Richmond, VA, Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration (Philadelphia, PA), Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington, KY, and Third Unitarian Church in Chicago.
The Beloved Community Committee and the Social Justice Committee have been discussing the need for FUUN to join these congregations in standing up to do the work of racial justice, and covenant to be accountable for our actions to dismantle white supremacy and build a truly and deeply multicultural Beloved Community. The UU principles were always intended as a dynamic and flexible covenant instead of a fixed creed. Unitarian Universalism is the only religion that intentionally builds in the flexibility to adjust to ongoing revealed truth; much as the 7th principle was added to respond to our interconnection with each other and the earth in response to environmental awareness, adopting and practicing this 8th principle reflects the current urgency and awareness of the need to do the personal and institutional work of acknowledging and eradicating systemic racism. For more information, please contact the Beloved Community Committee or the Social Justice Committee (beloved@thefuun.org or socialjustice@thefuun.org). For more information on Beloved Community work at FUUN in general, as well as many resources, please visit our webpage [firstuunash.org/beloved-community/] or contact co-chairs Tom Surface and Jennie Wolff.
–Jessica Moore-Lucas, Roddy Biggs, Victoria Harris, and Ann Wheeler
Social Justice Committee | socialjustice@thefuun.org
-Tom Surface, Jennie Wolff, and Carleen Dowell
Beloved Community | beloved@thefuun.org
Testimonials/Reflections
I’ve been coming to FUUN since 2015 and have been a member since 2017. I’m also a candidate for UU ministry.
In America and in our faith tradition,we are at a place of reckoning. The world woke up this summer, people are talking about race like never before – this has HAPPENED in America, and we, the liberal faith tradition that we love, we, are lagging in leading. We have an opportunity to try to get it right this time. We don’t have another generation of lives to expend. We don’t want another generation of pondering why we don’t attract more diversity at our churches.
Voting for the 8th principle is the beginning of us making a commitment to taking this seriously and in an ongoing way. This is good for BIPOC lives, and it’s good for white lives, for our liberation is tied up together, beloveds. Let’s get liberated from the yolk of white supremacy together. Let’s get started anew by adopting the 8th.
I am 40-year member of FUUN. I believe that systematic racism and white privilege do exist, and that proactively addressing racism is a moral imperative and part of our faith tradition.
In the last 10 years, I went from being encouraged and impressed with how far our country and civil society in general had progressed in addressing systematic racism to recognizing just how elusive the goal remains as evidenced by the emergence of The Black Lives Matter movement.
In our own church, our goal of attracting more congregants of color has also been elusive. I recall conversations from years ago where we recognized that we were struggling to attract and retain people of color into our community. The fact that we continue to do so, I think, is why we have a Beloved Community committee addressing how we can become more self-aware how we relate to people of color who share our values. I believe The 8th Principle should be part of our larger effort to change the paradigm of how we approach racism. This is why I support the 8th principle.
I’d like to adopt the 8th principle bc systemic racism violates all seven of our current ones. How can people have inherent worth and dignity when black people and people of color are not treated as if they do? How can there be justice in human relations? or acceptance of one another? or freedom of any kind for all when not all of us are free? How is there democracy or justice at large in the world? How is there respect for the interdependent web of life if so many humans are being disrespected? As UUs, we commit to upholding the seven principles. so adopt the 8th principle. Commit to valuing the people who are so constantly devalued and uphold all eight principles in doing so. Thank you.
I joined FUUN in 1978, and rejoined in 2018, and I have worked with the Beloved Community Committee and served in several cycles of the Nashville Pledge to End Racism.
I say “Yes, to the UU principles forming a dynamic and flexible covenant.” In 2017 the need for an 8th principle had become evident. Now, as 2020 ends, more and more oppressed peoples in the U.S. have faced death through murder, COVID-19, loss of jobs, eviction from their homes, and dwindling health care. White supremacy provides the umbrella under which these devastating conditions are possible. Passing the 8th principle is one step our congregation can make to struggle to nurture everything from spiritual wholeness to life itself for the oppressed, for UUs, and for the nation.
I’ve been a member of FUUN since 2019 and a UU since 2017. As a person with a mixed-race identity, it’s important to me that FUUN adopt the 8th principle because…” not to do so is to say that my chosen faith community chooses not to embrace and affirm a very real part of my identity as a person. It would mean that one of the places that has helped nourish my spirit and serve as a healing place from the religious trauma my pasts would become one of trauma and not healing for me. As a gathered faith community, we effectively say that we do not believe in, nor do we wish to fully realizerealizing the Beloved Community that we chose not to dismantle racism in ourselves and our institutions accountably. Because I believe in the Beloved Community and chose to dismantle racism and other oppressions in and for myself accountably, I will be voting YES for adopting the 8th principle at First UU Nashville at our mid-year meeting congregational meeting. –Roddy Biggs
More information
- “The 8th Principle of Unitarian Universalism” 8thprincipleuu.org/
- “The Commission on Institutional Change” from uua.org, uua.org/uuagovernance/committees/cic
- Widening the Circle of Concern: Report of the UUA Commission on Institutional Change, uua.org/uuagovernance/committees/cic/widening
- “Article II Study Commission” from uua.org, uua.org/uuagovernance/committees/article-ii-study-commission
Testimonials/Reflections
Hello. My name is Tom Steinmann, and I feel joining this congregation is one of the finest things I’ve ever done. I think of you all as my personal heroes, and I love hearing what each of you has to say. So when I first read the 8th Principle, I said to myself, “This is so FUUN. — We’re already working to build the beloved community!” But as I began to advocate in groups, I realized I was encouraging people to “be who they really are.” Isn’t that the challenge for every hero in a Disney movie? — I have no animation, no special effects — I’m just a pebble throwing myself in a pool to make some waves. But maybe I can find some examples of “who we really are” and hold up a mirror.
On Christmas Eve, I loved hearing our beautiful zoom service, and also hearing how so many people were involved, including people in other states. I said to myself, “Our congregation’s love is overflowing beyond those four old walls.” I remembered other inspiring FUUN moments for me last year. In the summer, I sang bass in a choir quartet for a webinar about singing historic black music with proper awareness and respect. Last fall, I heard political ads that savaged Gideon’s Army. Then I heard the Palmer lecture, and I learned our church supports Gideon’s Army’s conflict resolution through healing justice. Then, of course, there’s our ongoing participation in NOAH. And last Sunday, I heard Reverend Diane read from MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
So there are many ways we’re already reaching out and working to create the “Beloved Community,” that central idea heralded by MLK and John Lewis. I’ve joined our Beloved Community committee, and I may take the “Living the Pledge” program that 70 of our members have already completed. It’s hard to get 70 people to make time to do any one thing. But I think the most important action the 8th Principle calls on us to take is to say out loud and clear that we’re dedicated to this specific part of our spiritual journey together. We need to now express that the 8th Principle is a key common goal that we share in our faith.
I once heard words that still haunt me from NBA great, Doc Rivers. He said, “It’s amazing why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back.” Reading Unitarian Universalist history, we’re among the first to say, “Yes, we love you back, and we’re acting on our love.” I also read some haunting words in a social media post: “We’re not all in the same boat, we’re in the same storm – Some of us have yachts, some have canoes, and some are drowning.” I pray we can all see ourselves in one Blue Boat Home someday.
But I hear beautiful words, too, like the chorus of a song written by Sarah Bareilles and Jack Antonoff –
“There is enough to ask for more, to fill you up, nobody’s keeping score.
Do you know what you fight for, what we fight for? I want more love.”
The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville has such abundance of love that we can ask ourselves to share more love, and we can always be among the first to say, “We love you back.” This past Christmas, we heard how our love is already overflowing beyond our four walls. We can see the ways we’re already reaching out to build the Beloved Community, and I know we can and will do more in the days ahead. So let’s all now say loud-and-clear that we realize “who we are” and that the 8th Principle is our common goal for years to come. Let’s all now vote to adopt the 8th Principle.
Vote Yes for the 8th Principle
Click here to read: Sacredness in Being Scared. Why We Must Vote Yes for the 8th Principle
I’ve been a member of FUUN for over 15 years, and am currently the Co-Chair of the Beloved Community Committee.
In 2018, I made a commitment to myself to pursue what made me uncomfortable. While at first this meant public speaking, I soon signed up to attend the Fall session of the Nashville Pledge to End Racism. While I arrived at many realizations during that program, the most important was that I must be an ally.
I’m voting YES to adopt the 8th Principle because being an ally means to listen, speak up, and give power to those who have previously been denied. The Black, indigenous and people of color in our faith have asked us to adopt the 8th Principle. Because they tell us this is vital to them, it is vital to me.
This January at the mid-year congregational meeting, I’m asking you to be an ally and vote YES with me.
I’ve been a member of FUUN for more than 15 years, and I’m currently serving as one of the co-chairs of the social justice committee.
I’m not a natural optimist, but I was drawn to Unitarian Universalism because of the optimism that is ensconced in our principles: we are committed to justice and dignity and interconnection.
I’ve spent my years on the social justice committee having my eyes opened to the ways in which systemic racism causes harm in our world. I have drawn on that optimism to carry me through when the weight of injustice becomes heavy. Our principles call us to be the best versions of ourselves, and articulate a vision of who we strive to be.
Through the Nashville Pledge Program and the ongoing work for immigraiton justice in our community, I have committed myself to being a co-conspirator for justice and work in myself to prioritize the voices of those directly affected by injustice and oppression. I have aimed to make our optimistic vision a reality, to build a world where affirming the inherent worth and dignity of all people isn’t optimistic, but instead reality.
To that end, I will be voting yes on the 8th principle in January. Our vision of a just world needs to include a commitment to “actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions….” to extend our promise of welcome and justice and help us grow beyond our comfort zones.