Rina Shere - Beloved Conversations Making A Difference
Rina Shere currently  serves as the Director of  Lifespan Faith  Development for the  Unitarian Universalist  Society of Cleveland. She   is in her last year of    seminary at the  Methodist Theological  School of Ohio, and is  working on ordination in  the Unitarian  Universalist religion. Prior to her church service Rina worked in arts education and social services for twenty years. She lives in Shaker Heights, OH with her husband, two teen age sons and two cats. Rina is a passionate gardener and arts enthusiast.

Beloved Conversations
Dr. Mark Hicks developed a curriculum to talk about privilege and race. As our denomination is primarily white, this curriculum deals with the issue of how to become a place of worship that is open and affirming to all kinds of people.
An 8 week course done in small groups with Dr. Hicks initially performing a weekend intensive. Through small groups and journal exercises, you look at the very dynamic of racism in american life.
It's about being introspective. Feeling uncomfortable is a necessary part of change. Investigating how we learned our ideas about racism and who we are, about the communities we grew up in, how issues of diversity were handled in our family of origin.  And then doing an audit of the congregation in terms of musical diversity, are welcoming staff and greeters trained properly,  board and committee structure.

Rina's Favorite Quote:
Examine Yourself First - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Links:

 More information on the Beloved Conversations program and curriculum.

UU Society of Cleveland

Contacting Rina:

UU Society of Cleveland - 216-932-1898,

cell phone 216-333-6355

via email at rinashere@yahoo.com

Final Credits: music thanks to

"Carefree", "Open Those Bright Eyes", "Sweeter Vermouth"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/