Join us on Zoom Sunday mornings at 9:30am to 10:30am before the 11am online Sunday Celebration Service on facebook live.
To join the discussion you will need to pre-register by emailing Zoe at UNY click here – PLEASE CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Sunday mornings before service, join us for a pre-service discussion group “THE QUEST”. The group is led by different Unity of New York teachers each week. The weekly discussions are based on a chosen book or topic.* All are welcome and encouraged to join the discussion and although the readings are recommended, no one is required to read the book being discussed in order to participate in the group discussion. Join us for some fellowship before service and meet up with like-minded people on the spiritual path.
The book that is now being discussed is My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. BOOK AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM and BARNESANDNOBLE.COM
Ground Rules for My Grandmother’s Hands
Our current book deals with racialized trauma as it affects everyone, so it may bring up sensitive and painful issues. Please remember that the Quest Facilitators, while trained in Unity principles, are not mental health professionals. Any guidance or comments we make come from our personal experience and reflect our personal opinions as individuals, and as Unity Truth students.
PRAYER BREAKS
The Quest Facilitators will occasionally pause for prayer. If you feel a need for additional prayer, please request it.
NO CROSS TALK
It’s okay to speak about issues that others bring up, but we avoid sharing about the personal details of what anyone says. So if Veronica shares about what her uncle said, it’s fine to comment on that but we should not give Veronica feedback on how to handle her uncle or get into her family story. In short, we focus on principles over personalities.
NO ADVICE OR “FIXING”
CONFIDENTIALITY
What is said here stays here
SHARE THE TIME
Be aware of how much time you’re using to speak so others can talk too.
LISTEN EMPATHETICALLY
Listen with an open mind. Don’t rush to react. Take in what’s been said.
USE “I” STATEMENTS
STAY ON TOPIC
rather than getting lost in a long personal story or changing the conversation to a completely different topic.
LIMIT TALK OF CURRENT NAMES IN THE NEWS
We focus on issues rather than specific politicians for example. Again, principles over personalities.
FEEL YOUR FEELINGS
Rather than trying to jump to our intellect, or to avoid a feeling some other way, we encourage you to feel your feelings as part of a Divine process of healing
PUSH PAST DISCOMFORT
Allow yourself to not know. Consider you may be in error. Feel a feeling without needing to get rid of it. Breathe through it.
RESOURCES
A John Singleton film: “Higher Learning” (1994) A guy joins up with skinheads because all the other groups on campus reject him.
A Podcast: “Learning How to See” with Brian McLaren- it speaks to the inherent biases we struggle with.
Netflix Documentary “Perfect Strangers” about a group of Global black women including Dr. Marta Vega, and 3 Women from Louisiana and other parts of the South and Africa and the Caribbean. </a>
Hezekiah Walker New Video “Every Praise”: https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=UuuZMg6NVeA Kirk Franklin Tiny Desk show from Feb 2021: https://youtu.be/
wRwId2RfmfA Schuler King Comedian talk about black funerals vs. white funerals: https://youtu.be/
kWkUSjxZcmg For more on The Beloved Community and Dr. King’s philosophy visit: </a>
Unity Worldwide also has a resource page called STANDING TOGETHER which is excellent
Here is a link to a powerful valedictorian speech where Francine shares about her experience of racism. https://nextshark.com/valedictorian-addresses-racism-from-classmates/
An article that is relevant to our conversation is “What Is Owed “ by Nikole Hannah-Jones it is the New York Times Magazine dates 6.28.20. Here is the link:
RECENTLY DISCUSSED IN THE QUEST:
Here is the Link mentioned about the YouTube Video on the Confederacy by Jeffrey Robinson
Instagram post of Hasidic Jewish led BLM March:Here is the Washington Post article of the same tooic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koinonia_Partners
Here is a book which just came out that is a good resource for this discussion especially when we get to the last chapters that talk about next steps: https://www.makechangebook.com/
Video suggestion:“Africa’s Great Civilization” on PBS
Book suggestions:
“White Fragility” by Dr. Robin DiAngelo
Video Discussing the book “White Fragility”: https://youtu.be/45ey4jgoxeU
“The Afro-Latino Reader” Edited by Miriam Jimenz Roman and Juan Flores
Video of “The Mask” by Dr. Maya Angelou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HLol9InMlc&t=212s
Dr. King’s Philosophy: https://thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy/
Ted Talk – “We Need to Talk about Injustice”: https://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice/up-next?language=en
Seek the way by retreating within.
Seek the way by advancing boldly without.
Seek it not by any one road. To each temperament
the way is not found by devotion alone, by religious
contemplation alone, by ardent progress, by self-
sacrificing labor, by studious observation of life. None
alone can take (you) more than one step onward.
All steps are necessary to make up the ladder.
Karenna Gore video on Facing Climate Change https://youtu.be/sgi7We3E7es
St. Francis Prayer “Lord, make me a channel of thy peace—that where there is hatred, I may bring love—that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness—that where there is discord, I may bring harmony—that where there is error, I may bring truth—that where there is doubt, I may bring faith—that where there is despair, I may bring hope —that where there are shadows, I may bring light—that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted—to understand, than to be understood—to love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen
Links around getting out the vote in the Georgia runoff: https://newgeorgiaproject.org/about/?fbclid=IwAR0df0n3StL7LPHDFEdlFb2Roy48HomDZgGJW-V_5zafdhRUCdk0rY_dXsI
Also, a great group: #BlackVotersMatter: https://blackvotersmatterfund.org/take-action/
Also want to recommend this incredible conversation: https://onbeing.org/programs/bryan-stevenson-love-is-the-motive/