About Us
Our Mission
The mission of Unitarian Universalists for Racial Justice is to bring Unitarian Universalists together for mutually accountable racial justice work.
Our Values
We are committed to doing the internal work of rooting out racial bias within the congregation systems and congregational life. We make a pledge to The Mountain Top UU as a form of reparations for harm we as UUs have perpetuated upon our BIPOC siblings in the past.
Our Strategies
- Build a unified Unitarian Universalist faith voice for racial justice.
- Create community among UU faith leaders working for racial justice, intentionally nurturing connection, leadership, and courage among participants and beyond.
- Maximize the leveraging of white privilege, so that we coordinate our resources to make a difference in racial justice through people, funding, media and connections, and all forms of social capital.
- Coordinate and collaborate with the larger Unitarian Universalist community outside our state on racial justice.
- Embody best practices – a UU coalition focusing on six areas;
- Advocacy
- Education
- Sharing Resources
- Direct Action
- Partnerships & Collaboration
- Reflection
Our History
Circa 2005: Denver Metro Professional Ministers began meeting to discuss and address issues of Racial Justice and Bias within the Professional Ranks.
In May of 2020, Pastor AJ Blackwood delivered a message about racial and other justice commitments to PrairieUU.
This fired up the congregation to name that there were no coordinated organized UU actions or responses in the Denver Metro to the then current racial uprisings across the nation. They along with members of other local congregations publicly called the local ministers out for their inaction.
Immediately the Colorado UUs for Racial Justice Council met to answer the call. The Council began to meet bi-weekly and changed its name to Colorado UUs United for Racial Justice. Quickly, it became evident that the newly envisioned organization was in need of a few pertinent key components for successful anti-oppression ministry, specifically anti-racism work. This included a UU community BIPOC needs assessment, community accountability partnerships, deep and meaningful working and personal relationships.
Over the summer of 2020, the BIPOC members of the Council including Rev Angela Henderson, Mateo Frisk, Rev Jen Simon and Pastor AJ Blackwood offered to become the accountability partners for their white colleagues. Soon the idea of a needs assessment bubbled up with a strategy of having a UU BIPOC speakers series. The Speakers Series was held from September to December 2020.
The resulting outcome is The Mountain Top: A UU BIPOC Community.
In December 2020, hearing the continued call for support, the leadership of the newly formed ministry requested that the member congregations of UUs for Racial Justice (the then Colorado UUs United for Racial Justice) fund professional leadership for this new ministry. Rev Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry from Boulder Valley UU Fellowship took a lead in organizing an Annual Pledge structure for the congregations based on congregational size and operating budget.
2021
January: Rev Jen Simon was hired as the half time contracted Community Minister for the newly formed The Mountain Top and coordinator of the long existing UUs for Racial Justice. The salary was based on a mid range small church, per UUA recommendation. The position has been and continues to be funded by the Denver Metro Congregations through an Annual Pledge. Prairie UU Church was designated as the employer of record and Fiscal Agent with Pastor AJ Blackwood acting as Rev Jen’s supervisor.
Summer/Fall: UURJ weekend of congregational orientation and assessment followed by congregational leadership cohorts (for example: Boards, Worship Teams etc) met to address internal bias.
2023
July: Rev Jen Simon was hired to serve as the Associate Minister of Jefferson Unitarian Church and Pastor AJ Blackwood was hired to serve as the Community Minister of The Mountain Top UU and UUs for Racial Justice.