Election assessements and other General Assembly reactions

Come together...

After the Rev. Peter Morales was elected president of the Unitarian Universalist Association on June 27, UU bloggers began chiming in. The Rev. Dan Harper was pleasantly surprised by Morales's victory ("Yet Another Unitarian Universalist," June 27). The Rev. Kit Ketcham wrote, "I was a Hallman supporter yesterday; I'm a Morales supporter today" ("Ms. Kitty's Saloon and Road Show," June 28).

Matt Alspaugh, who volunteered with the Morales campaign, described the campaign's "overarching culture of permission and experimentation" ("Slowing Down," June 29).

The Rev. James Ford, who supported the Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman's candidacy for president as well as the proposed revision to Article II, felt despondent after both lost. "Of course, over the years, I've won sometimes and I've lost sometimes. And, honey, whatever they say, winning is better" ("Monkey Mind," June 30).

On the night of the election, Kari Kopnick, a religious educator who did not endorse either candidate, was dismayed by the "rift" between supporters of each side. "I want us to wrap our arms about one another and say 'we begin again in love, we begin again in love'" ("Chalice Spark," June 27).

Harper, who was also one of the UUA's official GA bloggers, wrote at his personal blog about rumors circulating about Moderator Gini Courter's absence from a post-election celebration ("Yet Another Unitarian Universalist," June 28). Courter explained her absence as a scheduling error ("Just Gini," June 29); UU World's General Assembly blog reported on her public apology during the next day's plenary session (June 30). Trustee Linda Laskowski wrote, "[I]t never occurred to me that [Courter's] absence would be any kind of statement. . . . Why would we think otherwise? Are we so starved for drama that we make it up?" ("UUA View from Berkeley," June 30).

...or not

Suzie, writing at the feminist blog "Echidne of the Snakes," thinks sexism determined the outcome of the UUA presidential race and says that she is "experiencing post-traumatic stress over the election of the Rev. Peter Morales as the eighth president" (June 28). Chalicechick offers a "sour grapes" post-mortem, asking whether "the level of civility hurt the Hallman campaign" ("The Chaliceblog," June 28).

No new 'Principles and Purposes'

Ogre, the seminarian-blogger at "Sparks in the Dark," was surprised that the proposed revision to Article II of the UUA Bylaws (the "Principles and Purposes") generated so much opposition that it was narrowly voted down. He thought they should have been revised just to avoid creedalism (June 27). Another seminarian, Earthbound Spirit, was also disappointed that the revision failed and posted the statement she planned to offer in support of the proposed Article II ("Earthbound Spirit," July 1).

Pagan news blogger Jason Pitzl-Waters was glad to see the Article II revision fail because he and other UU pagans felt that earth-centered spirituality would be relegated to a "footnote" in the new text. He wrote, "[F]uture proposed revisions, and other decisions by the UUA BOD [sic], shouldn’t continue the trend of making Pagans feel unwelcome" ("The Wild Hunt," June 29).

The General Assembly of the future?

The Rev. Tony Lorenzen took notes on a workshop by the Board of Trustees' "Fifth Principle Task Force," which will be presenting a proposal to radically change General Assembly at next year's GA. He liked what he heard ("Sunflower Chalice," June 28). Sean, a delegate from Church of the Larger Fellowship, also endorsed the task force's recommendations ("CLF Delegates' Notes," June 29).

Lorenzen also took notes on Moderator Gini Courter's remarks on good governance ("Sunflower Chalice," June 29).

The Rev. Ricky Hoyt was discouraged by the way the General Assembly behaves like "self-appointed justice monitors of the world" ("One More Step," June 30).

Can Unitarian Universalism go multicultural?

The Rev. Anthony David writes the must-read post about General Assembly, pulling together observations from several speakers on the challenges of creating a truly multicultural Unitarian Universalism. Pathways Church, the congregation David helped found near Dallas, drew from the worship styles of contemporary evangelical and non-denominational churches, he writes, but people who were already UUs resisted and criticized the approach.

I can’t tell you how many times I was “pecked to death” by people who came to us from other Unitarian Universalist congregations—people whose sense of what is proper for UU culture was mortally offended by what they were experiencing in our pews. They smelled white trash, and they sneered. ("Thousand Voices," June 29)

The Rev. Tony Lorenzen (who succeeded David at Pathways) responded by inviting other UU innovators to help plan a summit about "what's NEXT" for Unitarian Universalism ("Sunflower Chalice," June 30).

African UUs, the Peacemaking vote, and board tension?

The Rev. Erik Cherry, the UUA's director of international resources, posted video from the presentations made by three African UU leaders at GA, the Rev. Mark Kiyimba of Uganda, the Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana of Burundi, and Olufemi Matimoju of Nigeria ("Inspired Faith, Effective Action," July 2; see UU World's coverage of Unitarian Universalism's explosive growth in Kenya in the Summer 2009 issue).

Jess Cullinan wouldn't have missed the plenary debate about the "Peacemaking" Statement of Conscience, which the General Assembly voted to refer back to the Commission on Social Witness for another year of revision:

But . . . while the Plenary session debated the merits and implications of the language of that statement about Peacemaking, I was across the street at the Marriott Hotel, attending a commissioning ceremony for a dear friend leaving one of our Unitarian Universalist seminaries to enter the Navy. ("Jess's Journal," July 5)

Meanwhile, Army chaplain candidate David Pyle has put together a photographic tour of monuments to UU servicemembers buried at Arlington National Cemetery, a project he described on his blog (Flickr; "Celestial Lands," July 4), while the Rev. Tony Lorenzen helped officiate at a memorial service for a UU Army colonel on Independence Day ("Sunflower Chalice," July 4).

Trustee Linda Laskowski responded to UU World's coverage of the first Board of Trustees meeting after GA, which, we reported at our General Assembly blog, began somewhat awkwardly (see here, here, and here, June 29). She adds some observations about the importance of collaboration between the board and the administration in the context of some historic tensions between the UUA president and board ("UUA View from Berkeley," June 30).