The Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign (UUCUC) made history as the first UU church to ordain and call a Black UU minister, the Rev. Mwalimu Imara, in 1968, as well as calling several ministers with deep connections with the civil rights movement. Nevertheless, membership of UUCUC continued to be predominately, though not entirely, White, and the church did not fully engage with racial justice issues.

In 2016, UUCUC voted to undertake a serious two-year Social Justice Initiative focused on racial justice. In 2017, Rev. Caplow was called to the church, with a commitment to social justice ministry, and in 2018, the congregation voted to continue its work on racial justice through an ongoing Racial Justice Project.

In January 2018, the congregation raised over $10,000 for BLUU through the matching grant, and in the fall of 2018, the Installation for Rev. Caplow included a Charge for Racial Justice, written by a Black member of the congregation, and the founder of the local Black Lives Matter movement. In the summer of 2020, the Racial Justice Team, the Board, and Rev. Caplow collaborated on a Black Lives Matter Statement, with commitments and accountability built into the statement. The local chapter of the NAACP gave Rev. Caplow and UUCUC their President’s Award in 2019 for the church’s support for racial justice work in the community.

In December 2020, after an 18-month process, the congregation unanimously affirmed a new Five-Year Strategic Plan with anti-racism and justice strongly emphasized. Including in our hiring practices and religious education. The Board, Minister, and Personnel Committee are committed to shifting hiring practices to increase and support diversity in the staff.

Currently there are 30 leaders from the congregation participating in a Widening the Circle of Concern study group, with four other Central Illinois congregations. We are also hoping to become an 8th Principle congregation, with a vote at our next annual meeting. Paula Cole Jones was a recent Sunday speaker.

Despite this, there is awareness that the work that has begun is just that: a beginning. As one student in the “Widening the Circle” study group wrote, “In my view, the first task is three part: as a congregation, admit that we have perpetuated our white supremacy culture and, in so doing, have harmed and oppressed the Black, Indigenous, and people of color community; examine honestly and critically the various and sundry ways in which we perpetuate this white supremacy culture, continuing to harm and oppress this community; and share ideas about the ways in which we can decenter our whiteness in hopes of reducing and addressing harm done in the future. The reality is that each of us is in a different place on this journey toward wholeness for ourselves, our congregation, and our wider community. I, personally, have a strong desire to frame this undertaking as a communal spiritual practice necessary to live out our faith.”

For more on UUCUC and Black Lives Matter, visit our Black Lives Matter page.

In addition, UUCUC is deeply committed to immigration justice, through the Immigration Justice Team, and is a welcoming congregation for the LGBTQ+ community. Environmental justice, prison and police reform, and food insecurity are also important issues to members of UUCUC. The church shares half its Sunday offering with organizations in alignment with its values, averaging $2,000 per month. On Christmas Eve 2020, the congregation raised over $8,000 for a new fund to pay utility bills for those facing shut-offs in the Champaign-Urbana community.