Seeds of a New Way

Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti serves as senior minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has served extensively in denominational leadership, including as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and the Unitarian Universalist Association, as well as president of Diverse Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM). He is co-editor of Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class, and the Environment and Conversations with the Sacred: A Collection of Prayers. Nancy McDonald Ladd serves as senior minister of the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a national leader in broad-based community organizing and has served on the adjunct faculty at Meadville Lombard Theological School. She is the author of After the Good News: Progressive Faith Beyond Optimism.

Preface




PART I: Seeds Cast on Rocky Ground


Beyond the Hustle by Nancy McDonald Ladd


Encounters with “Dave” by Manish Mishra-Marzetti


Tales of The Invisible Woman by Jessica York


It Wasn’t Always This Way by Danielle Di Bona


Freeing Ourselves from Orientalism and Binary Thinking by Summer Albayati


Come, Come, Whoever You Are! By Niharika Chibber Joe


Desert Flowers by Manish Mishra-Marzetti




PART II: The Labor and the Tending


Class Passing into UU Leadership by Teresa Youngblood


When Power Shapes Values by Julián Jamaica Soto


Collaborative Leadership for Collective Liberation by Aisha Hauser


The Spirited Leader by Marta I. Valentín


Rising into Beloved Community by Janice Marie Johnson


Tokenize This by Nancy McDonald Ladd




PART III: New Life Arises


Leading Amid Trauma with Trust, Sustainability, and Care by Carey McDonald


The Partial Gospel by Sarah Skochko


Notes to Our People by Sofía Betancourt and Bill Sinkford


When I Approach by Siren Hand




Epilogue: Nourishing a New Way


Contributors