Star Island is within the waters of N’dakinna, the traditional lands and waterways of the Abenaki, Pennacook and other related Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations.

Beloved Community Project

The Star Island Beloved Community Project is a journey SIC has begun as an organization to create a more inclusive and intentional community, to help spread more empathy and understanding in the world, and to become a more welcoming place for all people. We recognize and affirm that many have been on this journey for a long time, and we are excited to listen and learn as we continue on this important journey.

An Update from the Beloved Community Task Force, Spring 2022

Since the spring of 2021, the Beloved Community Task Force has focused on four tracks, including developing a staff position, implementing the conference leadership guidebook, creating a new grand march song, and evaluating the financial grants process with an equity lens. The task force is excited to share the following updates:

  1. Staff Position: This position, titled Island Minister/Beloved Community Project Manager will develop, refine, and execute BCP strategy and collaborate with employees and stakeholders to help shape Star Island as a place that welcomes all, in line with the principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ.
  2. Guidebook Implementation: The Beloved Community Guidebook for Conference Leaders was launched prior to the summer of 2021. After gathering input from conference leaders following this past conference season, we are elevating particular aspects of the guidebook so that conference leaders have an easier entry point into the document. We believe this will help foster implementation of the guidebook’s many features. We chose to elevate two particular aspects of the guidebook to help prepare for future growth across Star Island: intentional welcoming and island programming.For intentional welcoming, we’ve pointed conference leaders in the direction of creating a culture at their conferences where people new to the island might feel even more at ease with the island and the conference. We see this as a foundational step in which intentional welcoming will become ingrained in our community.Further, we also chose to highlight on-island programming in which the new Island Minister/Beloved Community Project Manager will collaborate with conferences to hold conversations, similar to those held on-island in 2021, that focus on equity, justice, and community.
  3. Grand March Song: We assembled a team of Shoaler musicians who are collaborating on a new song. We shared some initial guidelines with this team, including that we wanted this song to be from the community and represent the community. The musicians identified that the song should be catchy and easy to learn, which will be important to inviting new folks into singing the song. There was a public input period in 2021 through an online survey that had a question about what makes Star Island your spirit’s home. This input has been used in the creative process to develop the song.
  4. We worked in collaboration with Mike Bray and members of the Financial Grants Committee to implement several changes to the way financial grants are communicated and applied for by the time registration opened on January 15, 2022. Our main objective was to move financial grants into more obvious spaces during the online conference registration process. This included placing a link at the top of the registration page, and in registration confirmation. We also adjusted questions to the financial grants application to include, among other items, optional demographic information to better understand who we are or are not reaching with our current grants.

The task force looks forward to evaluating results of the above tracks going forward. We are also beginning to collaborate with the Isles of Shoals Association, UU on a project related to clergy grants. Our part of this collaboration involves support in the area of increasing the reach of the ISAUU’s communication materials for this program. We also look forward to further refining the conference leadership guidebook and understanding how it has or has not been used during the 2022 conference season.

 

The Journey Toward A Beloved Community: A Resource for Conference Leaders

The second publication of the Star Island Beloved Community Project is an explicit and important step in our ongoing journey, and it is a central priority for the Star Island Corporation. This guide is not only a practical handbook – it also represents a statement of values and call to action that comes at a pivotal time of rebirth for Star Island. We are enthusiastically making this important and timely resource available to all conference leaders, as well as to others. We invite conference leaders to review this guide carefully, and to use it as you plan and implement your conferences. We anticipate that, like us, you will find it to be an essential and helpful resource.

This guide represents different voices from across the Star Island community designed to help us act in the present and invest in the future. It is made possible by many contributors, and we are deeply grateful to them for sharing their wisdom and guidance to help move us forward on our journey.

  • Kyle Belmont
  • John Bynum
  • Tryst Chagnon
  • Tom Coleman
  • Leon Dunkley
  • Cam Duval
  • Debbie Duval
  • Amanda Easter
  • Amelia Forman-Stiles
  • Sarah Gordon
  • Lucia Green-Weiskel
  • Dan Hotchkiss
  • Kirsten Hunter
  • Kristin Laverty
  • Steve Lee
  • Nika Lopez
  • Justina Maji
  • Christana McKnight
  • Iyabo Obasanjo
  • Olivia Orr
  • Bruce Pollack-Johnson
  • April Rosario
  • Peter Squires
  • Deborah Weiner Soule
  • Louise Williams

 

It Is Time Now

The first publication of the Star Island Beloved Community Project, It Is Time Now: Offerings from the Star Island Beloved Community Project, was released at the Annual Meeting of the Corporation on May 4, 2019. Copies are made freely available on the island. We hope the Star Island community will continue to support our efforts to reflect on how we can effectively and meaningfully oppose and dismantle white supremacist culture and build a more just, loving, and joyful world.

 

We are deeply thankful for all who participated in the first meeting of Star Island’s Beloved Community Project in August of 2018 and contributed to the publication of It Is Time Now: Offerings from the Star Island Beloved Community Project. 

  • Rev. Wendy Bartel
  • Rev. Eric Cherry
  • Rev. Patrice Curtis
  • Rev. Dr. Leon Dunkley
  • Rev. Lynn Gardner
  • Ruth Idakula
  • Rev. Chris Jablonski
  • Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker
  • Rev. Lauren Smith
  • Rev. Deanna Vandiver