Dear Beloved:

We are grateful to be a voice for radically inclusive, unapologetically Black theology.

In our first book, “BLUU Notes: An Anthology of Love, Justice, and Liberation,” we share a collection of poems, prayers, prose, and songs that reflect who we are as Black Unitarian Universalists.

We have so much more to say and share with the world. We’re working on another book as you read this email!

When you support Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism, you make art like BLUU Notes possible, and you help more of our voices as Black Unitarian Universalists get heard.

Invocation
By Everett Hoagland

Architect of icebergs, rainbows.
Jeweler of crystals, sand grains, snowflakes, atoms.

Mason whose tools are glaciers, rain, rivers, ocean.

Chemist who made blood
Of seawater, bone of minerals in stone, milk

Of love. Whatever

you are, I know this:
Spinner, you are everywhere, in all the ever-
changing above, whirling around us.

Yes, in the loose strands,
In the rough weave of the common

cloth threaded with our DNA on the hubbed, spoked
spinning wheel that is this world, solar system, galaxy,

universe.

Help us to see ourselves in all creation,
and all creation in ourselves, Ourselves in One Another.

Remind those of us who like connections
made with similes, metaphors, symbols,
that all of us are, everything is,
already connected.

Remind us that as the oceans go, so go we.
As the air goes, so go we.
As other life forms on Earth go, so go we.

As our planet goes, so go we. Mysterious Muse
who inspired “In the beginning was the word…,”

edit our thoughts so our ethics are our politics,
and our actions the afterlives of our words.

“BLUU Notes: An Anthology of Love, Justice, and Liberation” is our first publication with Skinner House Books. You can purchase the full anthology here.

We are seeking Black writers who want to be paid to contribute to the BLUU Box. We’re excited to platform new and seasoned writers with this opportunity!

BLUU’s online worship services are Black Sacred Space in their entirety – by and for Black people, with the words and voices of Black folks across the diaspora – and we hope that Black UUs and Black UU-adjacent folks (who share our values) from far and wide will join us!

For our non-Black siblings in faith, please DO share this invitation with Black folks in your life and community. Getting the word out about BLUU’s gatherings and other programming is one powerful way of lending your support, and we deeply appreciate it!

For all of our services, feel free to come into our BLUU Zoom Room as early as 15 minutes before the start of the service to get settled, say hello to the folks who are already gathering, and listen to the music softly playing as we all prepare for our time together

Sign up for worship here: https://bit.ly/3wYfnjb.