Love guides the work of this Racial Justice Team which operates within the Social Justice Committee of UUSP.  We affirm that we live in the complexity of intersectionality and that building healthy and loving relationships is a spiritual practice, requiring both inward and outward focus. THUS: 

• We covenant to listen deeply, speak compassionately, express gratitude, and embrace our unique diversities in our meetings and interactions. 

• We endeavor to communicate honestly and with compassion, particularly when we are in conflict. When we hurt one another, we will try to make amends, forgive and reconnect with an intent to repair, change and grow. 

• Our purpose is to be radically inclusive in ways that feed the human spirit and lead toward more informed antiracist understandings and actions, individually and as a Racial Justice Task Force.

We will do our best to abide by this covenant.

The mission of the UUSP Racial Justice Team is to live the Unitarian Universalist 8TH PRINCIPLE and keep it front and center within our team and throughout our church:

We, the members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of St. Petersburg, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.

In 2023-2024, the Racial Justice Team adopted the National Pledge to End Racism Initiative https://pledgetoendracism.org/.

In October - November 2023, over 20 individuals participated in our first 12-hour training and signed the pledge to end racism:

"I BELIEVE that every person has worth as an individial.

I BELIEVE that every person is entitiled to dignity and respect, regardless of race or color.

I BELIEVE that every thought and every act of racial prejudice is harmful; if it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others.

Therefore, from this day forward I WILL strive daily to eliminate raical prejudice from my thoughts and actions. 

I WILL discourage racial prejudice by others at every opportunity. 

I WILL treat all people with dignity and respect;

I WILL commit to working with others to transform this community into a place that treats people of all races, ethnicities, and cultures with justice, equity, and compassion, and 

I WILL strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world will be a better place because of my effort.