Tapestry and the 8th Principle
The 8th Principle
"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"
Learn more about the 8th Principle...
Tapestry Board of Trustees Endorsement
Tapestry, A Unitarian Universalist Congregation, seeks to build a beloved community with an ever deepening sense of spirit, diversity, and inclusion. In service to that goal, your Board of Trustees endorses adoption of the 8th Principle and encourages all voting members of the congregation to vote for adoption of the 8th Principle when we bring it for a congregational vote at our Annual Meeting in June 2024. In doing so, we acknowledge that the 8th Principle's adoption alone will be insufficient -- we must be accountable to living and practicing the 8th Principle together in order to achieve its promise and our shared vision. May we answer that call in loving community with joyful hope and committed action.
Friends of Orange County Detainees (FOCD)
Tapestry members of FOCD, Formerly Friends of Orange County Detainees, enthusiastically embrace the proposed 8th Principle. The 8th principle is an embodiment of the values and goals of our group. By recognizing the humanity of the men, women and children from marginalized communities, and specifically by helping them navigate our complex immigration system, we live out our belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. The 8th Principle calls us to action, and calls us to challenge the rampant structures of racism, white supremacy, and immigration injustices.
Racial Justice Task Force
The Racial Justice Task Force was formed by the Tapestry Board in order to spearhead the effort of adopting the 8th Principle at Tapestry. Adopting the 8th Principle would not make Tapestry free of racism. Rather, adopting the 8th Principle would acknowledge the magnitude of the work still to be done to recognize and dismantle the racism we have each absorbed personally, as well as the racism built into systems in our society. As the 8th Principle was co-written and refined by anti-racist activists including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Unitarian Universalists, adopting the 8th Principle would symbolize our willingness to listen to BIPOC when they tell us what they need. Adopting the 8th Principle would be accepting the call to action, and committing to change. The Tapestry Racial Justice Task Force is fully in favor of adopting the 8th Principle.
Tapestry Votes
Tapestry will vote on whether to adopt the 8th Principle at the congregational meeting in June 2024. Read Tapestry Committee endorsements of the 8th Principle:
New Beginnings/Tapestry
New Beginnings/Tapestry is a refugee-sponsoring committee organized by members of Tapestry Unitarian Universalist Church in collaboration with Church of the Foothills – Santa Ana, First Christian Church of Orange, and Irvine United Congregational Church.
Families are referred to us by resettlement agencies and other non-profit organizations and personnel involved in Afghan refugee assistance. Our volunteers support and accompany Afghan refugees in Orange County who need affordable housing, health care, education, transportation and employment.
The UU 8th principle speaks of journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse, multicultural Beloved Community by actions that dismantle racism and other oppressions.
New Beginnings/Tapestry believes the 8th principle is very much in line with its goal to build trust and lead sponsored Afghan refugee individuals and families toward sustainable patterns of life and work, and we wholeheartedly support its implementation in our congregation.
Tapestry Worship Committee
The Tapestry Worship Committee endorses the adoption of the proposed 8th Principle. Giving a voice to people of color, LGBTQIA individuals, and those in other marginalized communities, is inherent in what this committee strives to do through our Sunday Worship Services. The 8th Principle affirms our commitment to live our values and actively work to dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our community by shedding light on racial and social injustices.
Welcoming Neighbors Home Endorsement
The Welcoming Neighbors Home Initiative was developed to serve and advocate for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
We have learned that our mission is intrinsically intertwined with Fair Housing. Redlining policies of the past, which excluded people of color from buying homes, has led to discrepancies in intergenerational wealth transfer in the form of home equity. Urban zoning has disproportionately displaced people with low incomes and traditionally marginalized populations. The lack of cost-of-living increases in the minimum wage, an uncontrolled housing market that has led to unaffordable rents, and zoning that precludes high density affordable housing are all government policies that have led to wide-scale housing unaffordability and homelessness.
We must act to change governmental policies. We must also work to change attitudes about homelessness and affordable housing. Only then, can our diverse neighbors fully participate in a just society where housing is truly a human right.
As we studied the deliberate differences in this principle, we remembered that “perfect is the enemy of good.” Welcoming Neighbors Home thus makes a choice to own our mission more fully. We believe action is required for meaningful diversity and inclusion. Our volunteers want to embrace a rich and diverse Beloved Community and therefore urge the adoption of the 8th Principle.