Spiritual Friendship and Social Justice

Presented by guest speaker Reverend Dr. John A. Buehrens.
“My full spiritual and moral development is tied up with caring about yours.” Our Transcendentalist forebears knew this. Their effectiveness as social activists came from deep reflection and sustained spiritual friendships transcending many differences. Have we forgotten how to do this?
About Our Speaker
The Reverend Dr. John A. Buehrens is a Unitarian Universalist minister, social activist and author. After graduating from Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School, he served Unitarian Universalist congregations in Tennessee, Texas, and New York City before becoming the sixth President of the Unitarian Universalist Association (1993-2001). He subsequently served congregations in Massachusetts and California. He has been an activist for human rights throughout his entire career. From 2002 he served as the national co-chair of Freedom to Marry. He is currently retired in San Francisco with his wife, the Reverend Gwen Langdoc Buehrens, a priest in the Episcopal church.
His new book is Conflagration: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender, and Social Justice (Beacon Press, 2020). Previous books include Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals and A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism, both written with the Reverend Forrest Church, and with the Reverend Dr. Rebecca Ann Parker, A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century.