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March 2024 Newsletter
Letter from the President, March 2024
Why support the AEU?
This has not been an uncommon question lately. It’s a question that I find myself sitting with daily. And it’s a good question to ask ourselves. I think many of us see the value of giving to our home Societies. That’s where we devote most of our time within the Ethical Culture movement. They are the places we find peace; they are the places we find friendship; and they are the places that have helped us grow in our humanism and our journey in Ethical Culture.
Our Societies connect us to the broader movement and to each other in our relationship with the AEU. Societies have looked to the AEU to offer connections and growth opportunities through our annual Assembly, Ethical Education for young people, and training for our lay and professional leadership. I hear and see the joy people express when they reminisce about Assemblies past, Youth of Ethical Societies (YES) conferences, Lay Leadership Summer School, and other experiences where we can build relationships and grow together. In every space throughout our movement, we’re asking:
What does it look like to revitalize Ethical Culture programs in ways that support what AEU member Societies and their members need and want now?
One way we’re responding to these needs is by hosting a hybrid Assembly this year that engages the theme of Mindful Stories: A Ritual of Care. The last in-person Assembly was held in 2019, so we’re excited to have a space where we can gather together that is accessible to as many people as possible. We have been welcomed to First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis (FUS) where our very own Dr. Je Exodus Hooper has been serving as Interim Minister of Lifelong Education, informed by their Ethical Culture Leader training and interfaith formations. In the coming weeks, Je and the Assembly Committee will share more about their design for the 109th Assembly and the historical ties between FUS and Ethical Culture. Coming together in person is a vital part of fostering deeper connections and rekindling relationships, which so many are calling for throughout our movement.
Ethical Education (EE) is another need often named by member Societies. When it comes to EE programs for young people, our Societies are considering creative ways to rebuild their programs after the severe attrition of the pandemic. Many Societies do not have the capacity, resources, or membership to support their own program. For Societies that do not have dedicated Sunday Ethical Education for Kids (SEEK) directors or experienced educators, it can be a challenge to develop a program grounded in core Ethical Culture principles and best practices in education for children. Smaller and fewer SEEK programs have also translated into lower attendance at YES conferences; the last YES conference was attended by four teens.
The Ethical Education Team has identified some foundational questions to consider for EE as we work to rebuild and reinvest in young people.
- How might we create an ethical education program that respects kids’ autonomy?
- How do we broaden our approach to education so that it honors our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice?
- How might we create meaningful opportunities for teens to connect with Ethical Culture when they age out programming?
The EE Team will keep these questions at the forefront while it begins working as a committee to focus on specific projects.
The EE team has also asked how we might help members create safer spaces for younger people. How do we respect their experiences and help them inform how we live Ethical Culture? How do we embrace our youths’ push for a movement more closely aligned with our core values? At the board level, the Future of Ethical Societies representative does not have a vote in board matters. How do we make space for our younger people to influence the trajectory of the movement? If Ethical Culture is to survive another hundred years we need to make space at all levels of leadership for young adult voices.
The AEU also represents the movement and our member Societies in the larger humanist and secular movements. This past weekend, Greg Bonin and I represented the AEU at the Secular Coalition of America’s (SCA) member meeting. We were warmly welcomed by other SCA members, who were eager to hear about recent changes. Encouragingly, many groups are eager to work with us where we have common goals. We were reminded of our unique role within the larger movement for providing places where people can find congregational community around humanist values.Why do I support the AEU? I’m supporting our Union through adapting our programs and services so they meet our members’ needs because I see value in Ethical Culture’s mandate. Our communities put deed before creed. And while this movement has a lot of work to do to become more inclusive, more diverse, and more caring, the framework and philosophy to grow into the best version of ourselves is here.
Sincerely,
Khandra Sears
AEU President
AEU 2024 Assembly
Mindful Stories: A Ritual of Care
July 26-28, 2024
First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, Minnesota
Call for the AEU Assembly Programming
We are inviting activists and organizations to submit proposals by March 15, 2024 for workshops on:
- Ethical Education
- Ethical Action
- Ethical Humanism/Living
Read more about program criteria and submit your workshop idea →
Call for Anna Garlin Spencer & Elliott-Black Awards Nominations
We are excited to announce the call for nominations for the Anna Garlin Spencer Volunteer and Elliott-Black awards. These awards will be presented at the AEU Assembly in person this year, July 24-26. The deadline for nominations is Sunday, March 31.
The Anna Garlin Spencer Volunteer Award recognizes a lay member of any AEU Member Organization in good standing for their significant volunteer contributions to the success of their organization and/or to the AEU.
Read more about the award and submit your nomination →
The Elliott-Black Award criteria for nominating an individual or organization have included the element of personal risk, sacrifice, and hardship as the deciding factor from the inception of this award. The AEU Board, Leaders, and Ethical Action Chairs have amended the criteria on which you are to base your nominations. Nominees may include individuals and organizations whose ethical action has made a significant positive impact on society and the achievement of ethical ideals, whether or not this is done at significant personal risk or cost.
Read more about past Elliott-Black Awardees →
Email your nomination to Julia Julstrom-Agoyo →
The AEU & The First Unitaraion
The First Unitarian Society (FUS) of Minneapolis has offered us their space to host the Assembly for free, providing major cost savings to the AEU. Our organization has been given this wonderful opportunity thanks to Leader and Board Vice President Jé Exodus Hooper (they/them), who has been employed by FUS since last year. After being highly trained for the last ten years, their ministering service has come into fruition in community with a strong humanist legacy and foundation.
In addition to the cost savings due to a great relationship with FUS, both FUS and Minneapolis have a deep and historic connection with the Ethical Culture movement. This connection will be explored and presented in detail during the Sunday Platform on July 26, 2024.
The Presidents’ Role
Trang Duong, AEU Presidents’ Council Co-chair
At a recent Presidents’ Council (PC) meeting, we discussed our vision for our individual societies as well as the AEU’s role as a part of that. To be expected, there was not a consensus, and yet many of us had the shared understanding of wanting to move past the constraints that the pandemic brought, diversifying our membership, and growing to become, as one person phrased it, “a premier organization for non-theists” that could address a gap for those leaving traditional religions. As usual, I am inspired by the energy and leadership of this group of society board presidents and members.
As one of the coordinators for the PC, I have been working to offer a place for presidents and other board representatives to share what’s going on in our societies and provide support and best practices to bring home to our own communities. This space is needed in the larger context of the transformation we are seeing in the AEU. We may not know what the end looks like, even next year, and I sense the confusion and questioning of this process. However, I see that our societies can work together, as the presidents have, to see how we can help each other through this process of change.
For example, several societies are in a transformative process as their clergy leaders have either left or will retire soon, and they are leaning on each other through this process with the help of Greg Bonin, the AEU’s Director of Administration & Organizational Culture. At my home society, the Washington Ethical Society, one of the main reasons we join is for the sense of community that WES provides. I hope that we can strengthen our sense of community and fellowship between societies, across the AEU organization, and the Ethical Culture movement.
Trang Duong
Workshop Series: Organizational Immunity to Change
March 28, April 4, April 25, May 9 at 7:00 PM ET
Many of our communities have a similar experience: we want to make change, and we may even create detailed plans to make the change, and yet that change does not happen. Maybe it’s about becoming more diverse in age, class, race, or other dimensions. Maybe it’s about establishing financial sustainability. Maybe it’s about growth in general. Maybe it’s about how we aren’t living up to our own ideals and treating each other as persons of worth and dignity. We keep trying solutions that feel like they should work, but they don’t. The quick fixes sound great and promise a lot, and then don’t produce the desired results.
That’s what’s called immunity to change – repeatedly committing to changes that do not happen.
Between March and May, Ethical Culture Leader Jone Johnson Lewis will be offering a series of four workshops on Organizational Immunity to Change. Stay tuned for more information later this week. If you or your Society would like more information about these workshops in the meantime, please contact Jone and put “Immunity to Change” in the subject of your email.
Email Jone about Organizational Immunity to Change →
These workshops are made possible through a partnership between Jone Johnson Lewis, Washington Ethical Society, and the American Ethical Union.