Each month, a member of the board will share a reflection on the Soul Matters monthly theme and the state of the church. The theme for February is Widening the Circle. This month’s post is offered by Betty Hartnett.

In June 2020, the UUA Commission on Institutional Change published the report: Widening the Circle of Concern. It is the result of the UUA’s attempt to grapple with racism within its own UU realm, using many tools including testimony, focus groups, collaboration, an outside audit, surveys and social science research tools. During February’s Soul Matters theme, Widening the Circle, we are called to grapple with racism in ourselves and in society, our communities, our country, and our world.

As I reflected on this month’s Soul Matters theme, I began to think about how circles around groups or communities form. Do they form automatically when a group of people live near one another or when they share certain beliefs or values or goals or history, or a combination of these? Are people even aware of the circle around them? Do people sometimes purposely make a circle impossible to penetrate? Continue reading →