We offer these suggested justice-focused readings based upon the Unitarian Universalist Association’s annual Common Read program. A Common Read can build community in our congregation by giving diverse people a shared focus for reflection and action. A Common Read can take us on a powerful faith journey as we explore what it means to be human and accountable in a pain-filled world.

2026-27 UUA Common Read

The 2026-27 UU Common Read is Love at the Center: Unitarian Universalist Theologies, edited by Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt.

“Given everything our world faces today, having faith in love is no small thing.” – Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt

We may agree that love is central to our faith, but what does that mean to us and what does it require of us? It is in that spirit that we asked more than two dozen leaders in our movement the question of what it means to put love at the center of our faith.

In these pages, you’ll find personal testimony to love’s power, reminders of the centrality of love throughout the long histories of Universalism and Unitarianism, and theologies of love drawn from many different expressions of Unitarian Universalism—from the natural world to the justice rally, to a loved one’s deathbed, to the quiet moment before a worship service begins. May Love at the Center serve as an invitation to deepen your own understanding and practices of love.

Previous Common Reads

2025-26: Social Change Now! A Guide for Reflection and Connection by Deepa Iyer.

2024-25: Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families by Peggy Gillespie.

2023-24: On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg.

2022-23: Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism by Nancy Palmer Jones and Karin Lin.

2021-22: Defund Fear: Safety Without Policing, Prisons, and Punishment by Zach Norris.

2020-21: Breathe – A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry.

2019-20: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Also, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese.

2018-19: Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class, and Environment, edited by Manish Mishra-Marzetti and Jennifer Nordstrom.

2017-18: Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity, and Power in Ministry, edited by Mitra Rahnema. Also Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want, by Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen.

2016-17: The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear by The Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.

2015-16: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson.

2014-15: Reclaiming Prophetic Witness: Liberal Religion in the Public Square  by Paul Rasor.

2013-14: Behind the Kitchen Door by Saru Jayarama.

2012-13: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.

2011-12: Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel.

2010-11: The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from Arizona’s Borderlands by Margaret Regan.

More In Our Church Library

Check out our church library for these and other justice-focused books and DVDs. View our library catalog.