The Faith Leaders of McHenry County which
began meeting via Zoom to help
coordinate responses to the Coronavirus
pandemic and lock down has now
stepped up to organize a memorial for George Floyd this evening, June
8 at 7 pm Central Daylight Time. Faith communities around this county in
the northwestern Chicago metropolitan
area will gather on their own grounds for George Floyd Parking Lot Vigils.
Their call said:
Join the Faith
Leaders of McHenry County as we strive for something new challenging racism for
peace and justice. We are coming together for 8 minutes of silence as we
remember George Floyd and honor his family for a joint memorial in the parking
lots of Houses of Worship across the county. Bring your own candle and join in
the solidarity of the silence in your car or around your vehicle in your faith
community’s parking lot.
McHenry
County residents should check with
your own congregations to see if they are hosting one of these vigils.
The
Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist
Congregation, 5603 West Bull Valley
Road in McHenry is proud to be
participating in this interfaith effort. Safe social
distancing will be observed and participants
are asked to wear masks and bring candles or other lights. Mosquito spray and repellent
are seriously advised. The church
building will be closed so
please use a rest room before coming
to the service
Our
brief service will include an gathering
call, a confession of white privilege as Unitarian Universalists, special
music by Cassandra Vohs-Demann
and Billy Seger, saying a litany of the names of victims of police and white violence, 8 minutes of
silence—the time George Floyd was under
a Minneapolis police officer’s knee,
and a parting meditation written by the Reverend
Lynn Unger.
The
service will be made available for viewing on Zoom. Please check the Tree of
Life web page for log-in info.
Here
are some elements of our vigil service tonight which will be facilitated and led by our Social Justice
Team Chair, Patrick Murfin.
Confessing White
Privilege
As
Unitarian Universalists we have sometimes been smug in claiming racial
enlightenment. We point proudly to some
of our abolitionist forbearers like Theodore Parker and Ralph Waldo Emerson
forgetting that many of them were ostracized by members in the pews and other
minister for being radical. We forget
that the wealth that made Boston the cradle of our liberal religion was based
in the triangular slave trade and that Harvard where generations of Unitarian
ministers trained was built on slavery.
We deny that slavery firebrand John C. Calhoun was also a
Unitarian.
We
celebrate those who risked their lives in the Reconstruction South to work with
Freedmen but we forget that Unitarians would not recognize or support Black
congregations that were inspired by that work.
We forget that the illustrious editor Richard Lloyd Jones and founder of
the Tulsa Unitarian Society used his newspaper to signal the attack on the
black community that became known as the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. We don’t admit that some congregations,
including First Unitarian in Chicago, had by-laws barring African Americans
from membership into the early ‘60’s
We
celebrate our denomination’s support of the Civil Rights Movement and our
martyrs Rev. James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo
but are ashamed to admit that the newly formed Unitarian Universalist
Association betrayed promised support for Black Unitarian action causing almost
all Black members to leave the denomination,
We
boast about actions of many of our ministers and the Standing for Love and Love
Resists campaigns, but are often afraid to put ourselves or our own
congregations at risk.
And
we continue to struggle with admitting we are the beneficiaries of white
privilege without a “yes but” or a “not me.”
We have modeled white fragility which has made honest conversations with
African Americans and other People of Color difficult and sometimes impossible.
We
are called now to the difficult work of wrestling with that so that we can move
forward as full and trustable allies in the Black Lives Movement. We are called to put our bodies and our
fortunes on the line. We are called to
reject imaging ourselves as white saviors and let us be led by those whose
lives are endangered every day by systematic racism.
—Patrick Murfin
Say Their Names—A
Call and Response Litany
Say his name!
George Floyd
Say her name!
Breonna Taylor
Say his name!
Ahmaud Arbery
Say his name!
Manuel Ellis
Say his name!
Botham Jean
Say his name!
Philando Castile
Say his name!
Samuel Dubose
Say his name!
Laquan McDonald
Say his name!
Walter Scott
Say her name!
Sandra Bland
Say his name!
Tamir Rice
Say his name!
Michael Brown
Say his name!
Eric Gardner
Say his name!
Jordan Davis
Say his name!
Travon Martin
They all have
names!
They all have names!
 |
| Rev. Lynn Unger. |
Concluding Words—Breathe by Rev. Lynn Unger
Written in 2014
after the police murder of Eric Gardner in New York City but still eerily apt
at this moment.
Breathe
Breathe, said
the wind
How can I
breathe at a time like this,
when the air is
full of the smoke
of burning
tires, burning lives?
Just breathe,
the wind insisted.
Easy for you to
say, if the weight of
injustice is not
wrapped around your throat,
cutting off all
air.
I need you to
breathe,
I need you to
breathe.
Don’t tell me to
be calm
when there are
so many reasons
to be angry, so
much cause for despair!
I didn’t say to
be calm, said the wind,
I said to
breathe.
We’re going to
need a lot of air
to make this
hurricane together.
—Rev.
Lynn Ungar
