Welcome to Beloved Conversations!
Within Update:
Registration for Within Fall Term 2023 is closed. Spring 2024 term registration will open in early 2024. Sign up to receive our newsletter to be notified!
Among Update:
We are excited to welcome newly admitted Among congregations for our 2023–2025 cohort, beginning this Fall! We will re-open the application process for congregations for our 2024–2026 cohort in March 2024. Please browse our Among website to learn more about the program and review the application!
About Beloved Conversations Virtual
Beloved Conversations is a program for people seeking to embody racial justice as a spiritual practice. Our program is grounded in Unitarian Universalism, developed and offered by the Fahs Collaborative at Meadville Lombard Theological School, and open to all learners. In Beloved Conversations, we are here to heal the impact of racism on our lives, in order to get free together.
We are proud that our traditional, in-person version of Beloved Conversations has been offered in more than 250 congregations across the continent over the past decade and are grateful that so many communities have made our program a part of their faith formation and social justice work. In 2020, we reimagined the program for an expanded audience, with the greater accessibility and reach of a virtual platform.
The newest version of our curriculum is Beloved Conversations Virtual, which includes many updated and improved new features.
Designed and intended for Unitarian Universalists, with many updated and improved new features, this curriculum offers:
- A digital format that increases accessibility for many users
- An opportunity to engage in different styles of learning and processing
- A developmental approach, that works to meet learners where they are and move forward together from there
- An explicit commitment to centering the spiritual needs of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC+), including explicit resources developed to meet the intellectual, historical, and spiritual needs of Unitarian Universalists of Color living in a world (and a religious community) that privileges white cultural norms
- A framework that acknowledges and honors the spiritual nature of this work and is clear that racial identity formation and a deep understanding of racial justice are essential to our personal and religious development
Beloved Conversations Virtual is a program in four parts:
- WITHIN (launched Fall 2020, for individuals; open to all): Our program’s first phase, focused on the individual, personal learning and development that we each need to do, and run in two separate sections: one for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) called Gathering Our Selves, and one for white people called Un/Learning for Liberation
- AMONG (launched Fall 2021, for congregations whose members have participated in Within): Our program’s second phase, focused on the institutional, systemic anti-racist change needed in our congregations
- BEYOND (COMING SOON, for congregations who have participated in Among): Our program’s third phase, focused on our congregation's work for racial justice, in partnership with our local communities
- WITHIN+ Exploration Stations (COMING SOON, for individuals who have completed at least one term of Within): Additional learning and play spaces, for Within alums who are ready to go deeper in their racial justice journey
More than 2,500 people from all over the United States, Canada, and the world have participated in Beloved Conversations Virtual in our first years of these new programs. In Gathering Our Selves, BIPOC UUs are building community and focusing on their spiritual needs. In Un/Learning for Liberation, white UUs are learning the spiritual skills necessary for eradicating white supremacy culture in themselves and in our wider systems. And in Among, congregational leaders are identifying ways that the systems and cultures of their congregations do not align with our Unitarian Universalist values and are working to transform them. It's collective liberation in action!
Do you have questions?
We are here to help! You can email belovedconversations@meadville.edu with any questions or for help with accessing the program.
During the Within registration period and at the start of each term, the volume of inquiries increases significantly. We do our best trying to respond as quickly as possible, but it might take longer than usual. We appreciate your patience!
