What Is Widening the Circle of Concern?

Widening the Circle of Concern (WTC) is a report by the Unitarian Universalist Association’s (UUA’s) Commission on Institutional Change that was issued in 2020. The report challenges UUs to learn how to deepen our commitment to anti-racism and become more open and multi-cultural communities. Studying the report and taking actions on its recommendations is now a major initiative of the UUA and member congregations across the country. Here are links to the full Widening the Circle of Concern Report and Study Action Guide.

Here at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville (FUUN), the Beloved Community Team worked with other FUUN teams, staff, and leadership to develop a church-wide project to study the recommendations of the WTC report. FUUN’s WTC process began with a year-long program that ran from late August 2022 through July of 2023. The WTC process was truly “theme church.” It began with a kickoff weekend of activities on August 27 and 28, 2022 that included a Saturday workshop, special worship service, and Sunday picnic. Eleven monthly sessions were held to discuss the report and recommend actions that FUUN could take to implement its recommendations. Participants identified the top twelve priority actions for the congregation to start implementing in the 2023/24 church year, and work on these has already started. You can read the Top 12 Priority Actions here.

WTC has truly had a church-wide impact – over 100 people attended one or more of the sessions, and staff and volunteers from throughout the FUUN community worked hard to make it all happen. In addition to the monthly sessions, WTC was used for monthly worship themes, as part of religious education for children, youth, and adults, and as the focus of other events such as our annual Robert C. Palmer Lecture on Human Rights. We also used our WTC discussions to review our provisional Vision and Covenant Statements. This first phase of FUUN’s WTC initiative was capped by a church-wide celebration held on August 13, 2023.

We continue to reflect, reset, and act on our FUUN practices related to including and welcoming BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color), and other marginalized groups and identify strategies to develop more multi-cultural competency as we live into our 8th Principle, adopted unanimously at our mid-year congregational meeting on January 24, 2021:

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