Team JEDI
Team JEDI’s mission is to extend radical welcoming to each person who enters our doors so that a beloved community is created and sustained. We will do this through our focus on Justice, desire for Equity for everyone, voicing our Diversity of lived experience, and dedication to Inclusion of all in every part of our church life. Join us and together we can add more items on the Social Justice Checklist
from Team JEDI!
Our Focus on Justice
Our Desire for Equity
Voicing of Diversity
Dedication to Inclusion
Greater Minnesota Two-Spirit & LGBTQIA+ History Map
Greater Minnesota has a long and storied Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ history. First Unitarian Universalist Church is part of this history. The Minnesota Historical Society facilitated a participatory storytelling project in August of 2025. The writers/creators of this project say, “Our mission is to build trusting, sustained relationships with Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities in Greater Minnesota in ways that honor communities as the authors, leaders, and owners of their own histories.” Click on the link below to learn more and find out how First UU is connected.
Commemorate the Commons Drag Show
The Commemorate the Commons Drag Show and Dance on March 21, 2025, was a huge success! Over 130 people helped us celebrate a space, the Commons, that has been a safe place for the LGBTQIA2S+ community to have fun and be themselves since the 1980s. Long before other options existed in Rochester, First UU was holding dances and drag shows.
The evening started with a rousing welcome from Rev. Luke Stevens-Royer and then performers from The Rochester Girls, Inc. introduced themselves shown in the video below. The Drag Queens informed and entertained us with their fierce and fabulous selves!
The evening ended with a tribute dance in the Commons to the sounds of DJ Keez. We are moving to a new space and will have to leave the Commons behind. Thank you for helping us celebrate it one last time! This is not the end, though…