Submission 110
Frances Koziar
Church of the Larger Fellowship (Boston, MA) 1911
What is your suggestion or idea?
RE Section 2.2 Values and Covenant
Change central value from ““Love”” to ““Beloved Community”” and move ““Love”” to one of the petals.
(Note that I am submitting this separately from a larger suggestion to rewrite all the values, so that this one can stand alone.)
What is the reason for your amendment idea?
““Beloved Community”” is an idea often brought up in this faith, but hasn’t been written into the core principles and values yet. Beloved Community is a concept popularized by Martin Luther King Jr, and it was a fundamentally anti-classist and anti-racist idea. Beloved Community seems like a far stronger central value to us as UUs than ““love””, since love is included in Beloved Community, as are the other central values mentioned in the Article 2 proposal (justice, transformation, generosity, equity, as well as covenant), but Beloved Community is also inherently anti-racist and anti-classist. Changing Love to Beloved Community would make it clearer that anti-oppressive work is central to this faith and to welcoming.
Have you discussed this idea with your congregation or other UUs?
This came up in conversation with other Canadian YAs – we felt that ““Love”” was too wishy washy, and not clearly anti-oppressive enough. One of the other YAs suggested Beloved Community and we all agreed that was better.