Journey Towards Wholeness Meeting
Journey Towards Wholeness (JTW) is the name for the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) initiative to develop anti-oppressive, multicultural, anti-racist ways of being in the world so that we can truly live by our Principles. Read more about the UUA Journey Towards Wholeness initiative.
Our Journey Towards Wholeness Transformation Team
Current members of the JTW Team include: Tina Cansler, Charlotte Dickson, Sharon Dolan, Laila Ibrahim, Dan Kane, Heather Macleod, Natasha Mader, Jill Miller, Ingrid Mittermaier, Katherine Stearns, Bill White, Charles Williams (co-chair), and Dan Wright (co-chair).
The JTW is actively seeking applications for membership. Please look for the JTW table at coffee hour on Sundays or email Charles Williams at charlesvw@alamedanet.net (510-865-9325) or email Dan Wright at mrdanwright@yahoo.com (510-708-3415).
Part of the JTW program involves having separate identity groups for people of color and people who identify as white. The white ally group meets the first Monday of every month; the people of color identity group meets the first Monday of even months. All meetings are at the church at 7:30 PM. Email Tina Cansler at cgcansler@gmail.com or Heather MacLeod at hmacleod@berkeley.edu or call Heather at 510-652-1134.
Mission Statement
The Journey Towards Wholeness Transformation Team of the First Unitarian Church of Oakland works with the congregation, including the leadership, through organizing and training to help the church become a fully anti-racist/anti-oppressive institution.
- We work to understand how racism and oppression have shaped our lives.
- We engage in meaningful dialog about the ways we experience internalized racism and oppression.
- We develop tools to move beyond guilt and blame.
- We create a process to help those involved in all aspects of church life begin dismantling racism and oppression individually, organizationally, and institutionally.
- We help the church make connections to other groups in the community making anti-racist/anti-oppressive change.
Vision Statement
Can you imagine...
- Entering the sanctuary on Sunday and seeing your beloved church community as vibrantly multi-racial as all of Oakland?
- A church community in which race is discussed seriously, honestly, openly, easily, and even jokingly?
- Moving beyond guilt and blame, towards a shared understanding of racism as a social malady that damages all of our lives in the service of providing privilege for a white minority?
- Collaboration with other churches in which we make friends, pray together, learn, and work for more justice in Oakland?
- White leaders who can defer their own strongly held opinions and humbly ask leaders of color, 'Here’s an idea I have, what do you think?'
- A UU theology that articulates and supports us in a journey to spiritual and social wholeness?
- Being intimately involved in the lives of people of all races, not only at church, but in our personal lives and neighborhoods as well?
- A church building with art and decorations that celebrate and reflect many cultures and many people?
- Being able to think clearly about how racism operates in our society, our lives, and even our church- and being able to think about what we want to do together to change that?
- If every group in the church regularly asked, 'How does what we are doing serve to perpetuate white privilege, and how can we change that?'
- Being known as the church in the heart of Oakland that welcomes everyone, and that makes a difference in the city?
- Having hope that things can change?