Professional Days 2023: Imagination and Ethical Futures 

Tues June 20th - Wed June 21st

Tuesday June 20th Program: Combined UUMA & LREDA Presentation

Join us for a combined UUMA / LREDA presentation with Dr Roberto Che Espinoza (he/they) politicized theologian and public ethicist, and Erin Law (they/she) somatic movement educator, as we imagine new possible worlds and ethical futures. 

Dr. Espinoza will share his ideas on how we can apply liberation theology pragmatically to faith formation and religious education, and model how we might do this dialogically by inviting partners in conversation and facilitation. To further develop how we can connect into this work through other ways of knowing, Erin will offer accessible, optional, trauma-informed body-based practices.

This event will be live streamed and recorded for our online registrants and for those unable to attend the Tuesday event in person.

Wednesday June 21st Program:  LREDA only event, In person & Online

LREDA will gather in person and online to explore, through the explicit lens of religious education, how to take these ideas back to our congregations. 

Cost, Registration & Scholarships

The cost is $125 for in-person and $50 for online. There is space on the registration form to request a reduced or waived in person registration for those with limited professional expenses, we only have a few of these available so please register soon before they are all gone.

In addition, the UUMA is kindly offering a limited number of scholarships to LREDA members to pay for an extra night in a hotel, for those wishing to attend the Tuesday event in-person. To apply please complete the relevant question on the registration form.

If you are a member of the UUMA and have registered for the UUMA professional days, but would like to attend the LREDA event on Wednesday please pay the $50 rate for registration, this will help cover our costs for Wednesday.

If the payment doesn't complete using the above button, try using a different browser (Chrome is a good option) or alternatively use the PayPal button below. PayPal allows you to pay with a credit or debit card as well as a PayPal account.

Email Juliet at admin@lreda.org to request an invoice. To pay by check, write your name in the memo line and mail it to: LREDA, 284 Hartford Ave, #1002, Bellingham, MA 02019.

Childcare during Professional Days

The UUMA have offered LREDA members access to their on-site childcare during Professional Days, register here. Unfortunately we are unable to offer the off site childcare subsidy for those attending online.

Note: This registration is separate from the regular GA Childcare. Find out more about regular GA Childcare here.

About our Presenters:

Dr. Roberto Che Espinoza is the Founder of the Activist Theology Project, a Nashville based collaborative project that is dedicated to social healing. Dr. Roberto is also on faculty at Duke Divinity School teaching at the intersections of queer theory & theology/ethics. 

 Dr. Roberto was named 1 of 10 Faith Leaders to watch by the Center for American Progress in 2018. He has been featured in fashion magazines and appeared on many different podcasts, including Pete Holmes’  You Made it Weird. As a scholar-activist, Dr. Roberto is committed to translating theory to action, so that our work in the borderlands reflect the deep spiritual work of transforming self to transforming the world. As the Founder of the Activist Theology Project, Dr. Roberto is committed to the work of social healing through the politicizing of public theology initiatives, and writes & creates both academic & other valuable resources, including digital resources. 

Dr. Roberto is a non-binary Transman; Latinx; and, adult on the Autism spectrum who calls Nashville, TN home. Find out more about Dr Roberto Che Espinoza here

Erin Law (they/she) has a background in dance, somatics, bodywork and cultural studies. Erin’s call and vocation is to facilitate spaces rooted in creative embodied practice at the borders of education, art, and healing that support people and communities who are ready and willing to lean into personal and collective liberation and deeper self-awareness. 

 Erin is currently on faculty at Integrated Movement Studies, a certification program for movement analysis and developmental movement. They are also Embodiment & Somatics Curator at Activist Theology Project where they gently invite people healing from the effects of religious and other traumas, to begin to experience the wisdom of their bodies. 

In the last few years, Erin has developed a passion around more intentionally integrating movement, somatics, and social healing. This was sparked by the connections they perceived in their own experiences as a dancer and as a massage therapist, but carried further by their love of Susan Sgorbati’s practice of Emergent Improvisation as they perceive it to be connected to adrienne maree brown’s work and book Emergent Strategy. So, after years of tracking these types of intersections, they have come to approach their life as a commitment to co-creating culture through embodied creativity and meaningful relationships. 

Erin facilitates and engages in practices, analysis, advocacy, and activism to contribute to the transformation and alchemy of systemic oppression/supremacy culture, toward the blossoming of a more resilient and whole humanity. Erin is indebted to their family, and all of their teachers, students, and colleagues who have challenged and inspired them. You can learn more about Erin via their website.

Professional Days 2022

Collaborative Leadership for Collective Liberation

THE BASICS OF COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP FOR COLLECTIVE LIBERATION

with Aisha Hauser and Rev. Deanna Vandiver

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Professional Day either in Portland or online. Thanks to Aisha and Deanna for such an amazing and inspiring presentation and thanks to Kirsten Hunter for facilitating our online program.

Please share the video and handouts below with friends, and colleagues.

Unitarian Universalism is a faith that does not promise heaven or hell, only that revelation is ever unfolding. What if our systems of leadership reflected this theology? At our best we work together in community to make the world a more just and loving place. This ideal does not always manifest itself in our institutional spaces because of the inherited hierarchical and supremacist structures in which we operate.

What experiences of beloved community will be possible when we are willing to change these oppressive paradigms?

• It is possible to affirm each person’s roles in our communities while appreciating each other’s gifts and talents.
• It is necessary to transform oppressive power structures on the journey towards collective liberation.

Thank you, Aisha Hauser and Deanna Vandiver

Professional Days 2021

Reality & Resilience:  Responding to Ongoing Crisis

The 2021 Board with our 2021 Professional Day Contributors