CONGREGATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS FOLKS: Please include this in announcements, newsletters, or social media. Everyone is invited! When editing, please include the bit.ly registration link https://bit.ly/MUUSJA2022 and/or the hyperlink at left for this event. Thank you! MUUSJA is honored to present Paula Cole Jones, UU expert consultant on building a culture of inclusion, as we approach the 10th anniversary of the Eighth Principle Project which she originated. Paula Cole Jones is the founder of ADORE (A Dialogue on Race & Ethnicity), a former president of DRUUMM (Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries) and an independent consultant specializing in multicultural competencies and institutional change. She lives in Washington, D.C. She served as a Interim Congregational Life Consultant for the Central East Region from 2018-2020, and is a member of the Article II Commission which is charged with drafting the current revisions of UUA by-laws that guide us on living our UU principles into the world. MUUSJA affirms & promotes UUA's principles including the proposed 8th principle: "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." - https://www.8thprincipleuu.org/ MUUSJA was the second UU State Action Network to affirm the Eighth Principle (after Maryland). Board, staff, and volunteers continue to actively examine how it calls and guides us to consider every social/climate justice project through an anti-racist, anti-oppression lens. In this 2022 Annual Meeting, coming up on the tenth anniversary of the Eighth Principle proposal, we will hear from its originator Paula Cole Jones on the history, relevance, and applications of the proposed principle to Minnesota and the region, and how it is informing development of by-law revisions for UU's nationwide (via the Article II Commission). These are our "words to live by" as Unitarian Universalists, and we are so honored and excited to have Paula Cole Jones as our keynote speaker for the 2022 Online Annual Meeting of MUUSJA volunteers and friends across our region. This meeting will speak to you whether your congregation has not yet begun to discuss the 8th Principle and Article II (even if you've never heard of either one, before today!), or if your discussions are in progress, or if you've voted some time ago to affirm the 8th Principle and are now living into that promise. We hope to hear from some UU's in our region who've already been practicing and experiencing what this affirmation means to their congregational life. Minnesota congregations that already have voted to adopt the Eighth Principle include: - Duluth UU Congregation
- First Unitarian Society (Minneapolis)
- First Universalist Church (Minneapolis)
- Groveland UU Fellowship (St. Paul)
- Minnetonka UU Congregation
- MN Valley UU Fellowship (Bloomington)
- St. Cloud UU Fellowship
- St. Croix Valley UU Fellowship
And in most other congregations, plans are being made to discuss the proposed 8th principle and related Article II by-laws updates. Please join us on December 6th to open or continue the conversation and hear from Paula Cole Jones, and from some UU neighbors who are "living into the Eighth", finding it transformative, liberatory, challenging, and invigorating! | 