Trainings & Workshops
We deliver in-person trainings and workshops for organizations, churches, faith groups, schools, and other groups on radical welcome and culture shift, healing justice, queer and trans spirituality, and pathways to liberation. Below is a selection of our past trainings and workshops.
Patriarchy & Gender-Based Oppression
JOIN FOR JUSTICE, BOSTON, MA | APRIL 2018
This 3-hour training for young Jewish community organizers will provide a framework for understanding gender and sexuality expansively, explore the colonialist and religious roots of patriarchy and gender-based oppression, discuss patriarchy and gender roles within Judaism, unpack the way patriarchy intertwines with racism and colonialism, and finally offer an understanding of what it means to do organizing using a liberation framework instead of a single-issue framework.
Creating Radical Culture Shift
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH WEST, BROOKFIELD, WI | JANUARY 2018
In our faith community, being a Welcoming Congregation is about more than being friendly. It means actively working to dismantle the forces in our world that teach us that some people are better, normal, more valuable and other people are lesser than, other, outsiders. What would it take to create a culture here at UUCW in which no one—of any gender, sexuality, race, class, ability, or age—is “other” or doesn’t belong? Come explore and practice this together, and find out what’s required of us in order to embody radical welcome.
Queer & Trans Liberation, Not LGBT Equality
RESISTANCE & RESILIENCE CONFERENCE, MINNEAPOLIS, MN | MAY 2017
Every major U.S. civil rights movement of the last hundred years has strived for freedom and liberation, not "equality"—yet so much of the time, we limit our imagination to a world in which all are "equal" instead of a world in which all are free. What's the difference? Come find out! In this workshop we'll discuss what queer and trans liberation look like, the role of gender defiance and noncompliance in resisting oppression, and how people of all gender identities, expressions, and sexualities can resist normative culture and ground our social justice work in liberation instead of equality.
Understanding White Supremacy Culture in Congregations
RESISTANCE & RESILIENCE CONFERENCE, MINNEAPOLIS, MN | MAY 2017
It’s a powerful myth that “white supremacy” is represented only by the most vicious and overt forms of racism, such as the KKK—in fact, it is subtly woven into the everyday norms and cultural values that undergird the things we take for granted about “the way things are.” This workshop centers care and compassion, explores the way dominant culture functions under the surface, and discusses how white supremacy sneaks into our congregations and how to build a better way. Particularly designed for folks who want to wrestle with their own discomfort around the idea of white supremacy.
Welcome as a Spiritual Practice
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SOCIETY OF MARTHA’S VINEYARD, MA | APRIL 2017
As people of faith, we are called to be a prophetic and active force for justice in our world, both inside and outside our congregational walls. Zr. Alex Kapitan, former manager of the Welcoming Congregation Program for the Unitarian Universalist Association, will talk about what it means to engage in welcome as a spiritual practice, and invite us to take our welcome to the next level.
Text and audio of this sermon available here.
Radical Inclusion & Gender Diversity
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CONGREGATION OF THE SOUTH JERSEY SHORE | MARCH 2017
In a world where transgender people are under attack in the form of anti-trans “bathroom bills” and quite literal physical violence, being a Welcoming Congregation requires more of us than simply opening our doors. In a guest sermon and a workshop following the service we will grapple with how to create safety, inclusion, and justice for people of all genders and sexualities—both inside and outside our congregational walls.
Paths to Gender Justice: Changing Our Culture and Healing Our Spirits
FAITH FORWARD | ADELANTE CON FE | FEBRUARY 2017
In this collaborative effort with Believe Out Loud, we will create open space to examine behaviors and systems that help and hurt our ability to value and affirm the full breadth of gender diversity. Together we will identify ways to shift culture and change behaviors to make way for deeper connection and engagement in faith communities and movement spaces. This session is also crafted to enable trans and non-binary people to caucus to share and understand individual and collective needs in community.
Community Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Remaining Open-Hearted
ST. CLOUD, MN | FEBRUARY 2017
Remaining openhearted in the midst of struggle, pain, and injustice is anything but easy. But the current political moment calls for us to be able to sustain an open heart—to not look away from suffering and to not run from our discomfort. This series will weave conversation with practice, exploring how to use mindfulness and compassion practices to keep our hearts wide open and to engage in wise action for shared liberation. We will also work to understand our individual practices as tools for building communal relationships, forming bridges across lines of difference without erasing very real power dynamics.
Beyond Gay and Straight: Understanding Queer, Bisexual, and Other Sexuality Journeys
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP OF RALEIGH, NC | JANUARY 2017
There are experiences and identities beyond gay and straight, various terms to describe these, and no single way to define them! "Queer" and "bisexual" are rich, complex, and often misunderstood identities. Learn about the spectrum of sexuality in terms of identity, experience, and engagement in religious and spiritual communities, and discuss the depths of welcome and inclusion necessary to celebrate that spectrum of sexuality and create justice in our congregations and communities.
The Revolution Will Not Be Toxic: Centering Care in Movements for Change
CREATING CHANGE CONFERENCE, PHILADELPHIA, PA | JANUARY 2017
Do you experience burnout or chronic fatigue in your activist work? Have you seen activists mistreating each other and writing it off because “the cause” is more important than the people involved? There’s another way. In this workshop we’ll talk about self-care and communal care as revolutionary acts, and learn skills to create care-centered movements for change. Come with an open heart and get ready to practice building the world we want to see.
Mindfulness, Compassion, & Social Justice
OFF THE MAT INTO THE WORLD LEADERSHIP INTENSIVE RETREAT, SANTA BARBARA, CA | DECEMBER 2016
This training facilitates a holistic integration of mind/body/spirit with our intentions to be a participant in addressing inequalities and injustice in ourselves and our communities, by exploring effective social justice activism grounded in compassionate practice. Together we will dig deep into the real impacts of injustice and inequity in our communities and larger world and grow our skills in being agents of social change and justice. Through mindfulness meditation and daily yoga practice we will build a foundation for opening our hearts to the pain of injustice, healing ourselves and our communities from the trauma of oppression, and fostering the resilience we need to stay in the struggle over a lifetime.