ECO in the World

Seeding

This reflection was the first paper I wrote at Starr King. I submitted it as my final project for the week-long ECO-Intensive course I took with Dr. Shannon Frediani in the summer of 2021.

Though I had engaged in social justice work before coming to Starr King, I entered seminary with an admittedly limited understanding of systems of injustice and what it means to live out counter-oppressive ideals. ECO-Intensive was, therefore, invaluable to my growth as it challenged my perception of the world and helped me complicate my relationship with systems of oppression and social justice.

Written at the end of the course, this integrative reflection offered me a space to articulate my initial understandings of white supremacy culture and to process my identity within these systems of oppression. These teachings and understandings provided the first and most essential Seeds of my approach to counter-oppressive work and have informed how I seek to minister to communities.

Rooting

I submitted this paper as my final project for the Dynamic Youth Ministry course I took in the Spring of 2022 with Betty Jeanne Rueters-Ward.

This project asked us to provide a “personal statement paper on your theology of youth ministry” to summarize our learning throughout the course. My paper emerged as a reflection on ministry as a tool to engage youth in praxis toward social justice, grounded in impactful experiences I had with activism as a young adult that led me to feel called to direct my ministry toward supporting youth and young adults in finding avenues for deeper engagement with justice work.

Today, my call to ministry has evolved beyond focusing on only youth and young adults; still, this process of reflection has helped to ground my ministry in Unitarian Universalist praxis and provide a Root for my approaches to social justice work.

Blooming

Above all, WEAV is concerned with participants’ transformation and practical commitments to living into Unitarian Universalist values and visions for Beloved Community. As participants in the program, we were therefore asked to reflect on and track our growth throughout WEAV and asked to make specific commitments to these goals upon completion of the course.

This final reflection, submitted at the culmination of the training, summarizes the growth and transformation I experienced during WEAV and calls attention to my commitment to deepen my relationship with trust. It is in this way that I see myself Blooming, through my learning; these commitments represent years of transformation experienced at Starr King that have helped me to understand how my UU faith calls me to be in relationship to others and the world.

WEAV

WEAV is a Unitarian Universalist congregational curriculum developed at Starr King in the Spring of 2023 by Dr. Shannon Frediani. It aims to “inspire participants as agents of sacred social change” and support the creation of UU "Beloved Community.” (For more information about WEAV, please visit this link.)

In the Fall of 2024, I participated in the WEAV Training for UU Congregations course with Dr. Frediani, during which three other students and I took the WEAV program ourselves and were trained as WEAV facilitators. After completing this course, we brought WEAV to our communities, and I have begun facilitating WEAV at my local congregation, First Parish Cambridge.

In engaging and facilitating this course, I have experienced opportunities for my ministry to Bloom; through collective transformation and community building, through the claiming of my own power as a leader, WEAV has provided me a space to live into my ministry and ideals. I hope that as I continue to facilitate this program, I will continued to be challenged, deepened, and opened by this work and the communities I engage with.

Beyond an educational experience, WEAV has also been influential in allowing me to claim my voice and agency as a leader for social change. Through this facilitation, I have begun to think of myself as an “educator " and understand my power in helping others live out our Unitarian Universalist ideals in the world. This leadership has helped my ministry Bloom through its real-world and impactful application.

As part of this leadership, I had to introduce the program to First Parish, Cambridge, and make the case for congregational participation. As part of this process, I developed this presentation about the WEAV program and delivered it to the community, first to the Racial Equity Team and then to the larger congregation.