Board Resolution on Racial Justice

•
RESOLUTION
Of
The Board of Trustees Of
The First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Texas

 

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees of The First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Texas on April 25, 2019, the following resolution was proposed and unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees:

WHEREAS, the purpose of The First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Texas is expressed in its affirmation:

Love is the doctrine of this Church;
the quest of Truth is its sacrament,
and Service is its prayer.
To dwell together in peace,
to seek knowledge in freedom,
to serve humanity in fellowship
to the end that all souls shall grow in harmony with the divine
– thus do we covenant with each other.

 

WHEREAS, The First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Texas creates and nurtures an enduring, liberal, religious community where all souls shall grow in harmony with the divine through worship, education, service, and fellowship; and

WHEREAS, since its founding in 1899, members of The First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Texas have unflinchingly added their voices to the cry for a more just and compassionate world; and

WHEREAS, in our current age, we are witness to a local and national crisis of systemic racism and oppression manifested in individual, institutional and structural forms; and

WHEREAS, the impacts and outcomes of systemic racism are fundamentally at odds with our beliefs, and confronting racial inequity and oppression is inherently consistent with our purpose, values and beliefs; and

WHEREAS, The First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Texas has been moved by this inequality and oppression to create a Racial Equity Task Force to help us understand and address these issues; and

WHEREAS, the Board of Trustees supports the mission of the Racial Equity Task Force “to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person; to support justice, equity and compassion in human relations; to affirm that white privilege is unfair and harmful to those who have it as well as those who do not; to affirm that white privilege and the culture of white supremacy in which our nation and our church were founded and developed must be dismantled; and to support racial equity, justice, and liberation for every person.”

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Trustees of The First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Texas that:

Section 1: We commit to this work of love and justice so that all souls may grow in harmony with the divine;

Section 2: We commit to intentionally and actively engaging The First Unitarian Church of Dallas in the pursuit of racial justice and equity for every person;

Section 3: We commit to acting with courage as we work to change the impacts of race, racism and whiteness on individual and institutional structures and experiences; and

Section 4: We commit to pursue understanding of white privilege and white supremacy and how their existence impacts The First Unitarian Church of Dallas, our city, our state, our nation and our world.

By our signatures below, we the members of the Board of Trustees of The First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Texas do attest to the foregoing:

Kassie McLaughlin – President
Dean R. Castelhano -Vice President
Bogdan Baciu – Treasurer
David Schulze – Clerk
Russ Kirby
Rick Magnis
Diana Pollard
Sarah Saldana
Angie Sifferman
Carolyn Smith-Morris
Stephen Tzhone
Sara Gradual Vivona