A Word from Pastor AJ

Hello Mountaineers, and welcome to June! Our theme for this month is Love as Celebration.

I would like to begin by celebrating our Steering Circle: Nicole T, Aspen B, Lia N, and Christine Y, for the love they share to you and this community through their commitments of time and talent. As a team, they meet twice a month and complete hours of volunteer work throughout. They reflect, plan, and dream as to what our TMT community was, is, and can be.

One of our primary values is to welcome you as a whole person, where you don’t have to leave behind a portion of who you are. We are currently evaluating what it means to bring our wholeness in our personal BIPoCness and our white family members. We continue to hold TMT as a sanctuary space for our BIPOC siblings, where we can have the safe and brave sharing of our stories and not separate those with white identified family members. We are committed to not forcing individuals to have to personally question if they or their families belong in our spaces. We ask: What does it mean to bring your wholeness as people who are multiracial “people of color along with their families who are exploring, reclaiming, reconciling, and celebrating their identities?” Over the summer, you will be invited to give feedback on this topic, exploring how we invite our White and BIPoC siblings to participate, designing spaces that use breakout rooms and progressive stacks, as well as maintaining others that are specifically for our BIPoC siblings. Additionally, we are considering new spaces for our White identified family members. We hope you will join us in this conversation!

If you are interested in contacting our Steering Circle to give us feedback or joining our Steering Circle leadership team please let us know by emailing us.

We truly want to be “A Mountain of Support.” Please let us know how we can better serve you and welcome you into our community!

In Service,

AJ
Pastor AJ Blackwood
Community Minister
The Mountain Top: A UU BIPoC Community