General Assembly Blog

UU World staff report from the annual General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Open Space update and final credentials report

by Tom Stites

Miscellaneous tidbits from the final day of the UUA General Assembly:

• Delegates filled out ballots to record their favorites among the 30 mission-oriented statements [pdf] that emerged from the Open Space exercise in which more than 1,000 attendees participated. Each delegate was allowed five votes to use as they wished—one vote for each of five statements, all five votes for one statement, or any combination in between. Moderator Gini Courter told delegates that the results wouldn’t be tallied till August or September, and that the UUA Board of Trustees would discuss the prioritized list at its October meeting as part of its discernment in seeking mission understanding. There were three major themes among the statements: Support of youth, antiracism, and the environment.

• Delegates approved two bylaw changes without debate, adding “Chief Governance Officer” to the description of the moderator’s duties and refining language in the bylaws governing the Board of Review, an elected body that hears appeals of Ministerial Fellowship Decisions.

• The final tally showed total registration of 5,697, including 2,428 delegates from 643 congregations. UUA Secretary Paul Rickter said the large attendance had overwhelmed program space and that the GA Planning Committee had agreed to provide free CDs of the workshops that had turned away the most people.

• After a representative of the UU Church of Fort Lauderdale sang an invitation to next year’s General Assembly there, Elisabeth McGregor, the new chair of the General Assembly, moved that the 2007 Assembly be adjourned—15 minutes ahead of schedule.

posted at 12:45 PM | permalink

Delegates approve six last-minute resolutions

by Tom Stites

As General Assembly 2007 was coming to a close Sunday evening, delegates came forward with six “responsive resolutions,” which were approved with little or no debate:

• Reaffirming 2004 and 2006 Actions of Immediate Witness regarding the Iraq war and urging delegates to take “all necessary action to end the U.S. Occupation of Iraq.”

• Encouraging congregations and the Association to research their histories for “complicity with the genocide of native people, with slavery and the slave-based economy, and with all types of racial, ethnic, and cultural oppression past and present, toward the goal of accountability through acknowledgment, apology, repair, and reconciliation.” The resolution asks for progress reports at the 2008 and 2009 General Assemblies.

• Charging delegates to work with their congregations to engage with issues of race and voting, such as intimidation or felon disenfranchisement, and to interact with people in communities of color regarding their voting experiences. The resolution asks that key insights be reported at next year’s General Assembly.

• Affirming “the commitment to the inherent worth and dignity of every human being, including transgender individuals” and urging that “this spiritual value” be expressed through “employment practices, educational efforts, congregational life, and public witness.” The resolution notes that no prior General Assembly statement specifically addresses the Association’s views on transgender identity and encourages congregations “to explore with their communities the important differences between sexual orientation and transgender identity.”

• Noting that about 200 ministers and staff employed by UU congregations do not have health insurance and urging the congregations to raise the money to provide it. The resolution addresses the issue in terms of economic justice.

• Asking the General Assembly Planning Committee to discuss devoting at least 30 minutes of the opening of General Assembly 2008 for attendees to engage with their assumptions when encountering new people and “compassionate response and witness when we fall short of our aspirations to expand our capacity to be allies to our fellow Association members and our larger community.”

The UUA bylaws permit delegate-initiated resolutions in response to the reports to the General Assemblies by UUA officers. At last year’s GA there was one [Correction 3.10.08: There were in fact four responsive resolutions in 2006. —The editors]; this year the number equaled the number of Actions of Immediate Witness, which undergo a rigorous process of proposal, petition, amendment sessions, and floor debate. There is no such process for “responsive resolutions,” although approval requires a two-thirds vote. In fact, there was almost no debate on any of them.

One delegate raised a procedural question about whether the process was adequate, and Moderator Gini Courter said that she, the parliamentarian, and the UUA legal counsel had been discussing the question. She said that they believed the intent of the bylaw provision was not to have so many resolutions and that the process would be reviewed before the next GA.

posted at 12:42 PM | permalink

Moderator Courter’s report to the Assembly

by Tom Stites

In the Assembly’s final report before adjournment, Moderator Gini Courter told the Sunday afternoon plenary that she’d detected a trend that amounted to a “near miracle”: After “decades of disconnection,” she said, Unitarian Universalist congregations are making great progress working together.

“We are better together,” she said. “We are called to care about the congregation down the street or across the state.”

Courter sounded a cautious note of optimism about Unitarian Universalist justice efforts, and acknowledged that to do so was to take a risk.

“Too many times people if color and Latino/Latina and Hispanic folks have heard white UUs say we’ve turned the corner on race,” she said, “but I think it’s important to note that there might be a milestone nearby.”

From the opening ceremony to the sermon in the closing worship, justice issues pervaded the assembly, which marked the tenth and fifteenth anniversaries of important antiracism resolutions and the tenth anniversary of an accessibilities resolution.

Courter praised the work of the Right Relationship Team, which reached out to attendees who encountered less than respectful experiences and made reports in plenaries. This was the first General Assembly with such a team.

She also noted that the UUA is working on a new advertising campaign, meaning the congregations “are poised on the edge of opportunity.” But the advertising will mean more visitors, she said, calling on the congregations to be prepared.

“I’m afraid having more visitors come to us will mean more people disappointed,” she said. “I implore us to be less than stingy with our religious home.”

posted at 12:42 PM | permalink

Debate on Actions of Immediate Witness

by Tom Stites

All six proposed Actions of Immediate Witness were approved by significant majorities in the Sunday morning plenary at General Assembly 2007. Two inspired spirited debate.

A resolution entitled “Repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which calls for an end to a policy that allows gay people to serve in the military only if they are closeted, drew statements of opposition from delegates who raised class issues and criticism of military violence. A handful of speakers expressed concerns that repeal could lead to an epidemic of hate crimes—“open season on gays in the military,” in one opponent’s phrase. A delegate from Tennessee said that many poor people of color lived in areas where jobs were so scarce that they had only two choices: the military or jail.

After the debate became emotional a delegate, trustee-at-large Tamara Payne-Alex, came to the procedural microphone to ask if there was time for a prayer, and Moderator Gini Courter agreed. After a minute of silence, Courter offered a prayer that said, “There is always enough love to go around if we create it. Let us be centered, forgiving, and caring.”

The vote was then taken, and Courter announced that it had clearly carried. To make sure people had a chance to judge for themselves, she asked the video camera operators to pan the vast plenary hall so the evidence could be seen on the giant screens on either side of the plenary stage. As the cameras panned, she called again for yes and no votes and for a show of abstentions. There were clearly many fewer negative votes than affirmative.

Another Action of Immediate Witness, entitled “Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act with Transgender Inclusion and Protection,” also attracted spirited opposition from delegates who said it did not go far enough and from others who said the resolution expressed commitments the UUA has already made. It, too, passed easily.

Titles of the other Actions of Immediate Witness, as amended in “miniassemblies” where delegates work on language of the resolutions:

• Support for the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

• Support for Immigrant Families—Stop the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Raids

• Support Comprehensive Sexuality Education Legislation

• Stop US Sponsored Torture—A Religions Call to Action

posted at 12:41 PM | permalink

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Six Actions of Immediate Witness under consideration

by Tom Stites

In Saturday afternoon's plenary, delegates placed six proposed Actions of Immediate Witness on the agenda for debate on Sunday. These resolutions are about timely issues and result from delegates gathering petitions after General Assembly gets under way. The titles:

• AIW-1: Support for the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

• AIW-2: Support Immigrant Families—Stop the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Raids

• AIW-3: Support Comprehensive Sexuality Education Legislation

• AIW-4: Stop U.S. Sponsored Torture—A Religious Call to Action

• AIW-5: Repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

• AIW-6: Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act with Transgender Inclusion and Protection

posted at 12:59 PM | permalink

'Moral Values' Statement of Conscience approved after chaotic, jovial debate

by Tom Stites

A Statement of Conscience entitled “Moral Values for a Pluralistic Society” was approved Saturday morning by delegates to the UUA’s General Assembly in Portland, Oregon.

“As Unitarian Universalists,” the statement says, “we must affirm the moral influence of liberal religion in society.” It issues a call to action for individuals, congregations, and the UUA.

Because drafting Statements of Conscience involves multiple years of congregational study and action, the statements are regarded as formal positions of the Association that can ground its advocacy and lobbying. This statement is the result of a two-year process after delegates to the 2005 General Assembly chose the topic as a Study/Action Issue. The process included consideration in the congregations and a workshop at last year’s GA that was conducted by the Commission on Social Witness, the UUA body that oversees the resolution process.

During the debate, in the morning plenary session, no delegates opposed the idea of a statement on moral values but several spoke against the proposed statement’s wording as not compelling enough. Proponents acknowledged its shortcomings but urged passage so that the Statement could serve as grounding for positions during the U.S. presidential campaign that is just getting started.

The debate took several unexpected turns when delegates raised questions about whether the statement could be referred back to the Commission for more work and another vote next year. Moderator Gini Courter conferred repeatedly with the General Assembly parliamentarian and the UUA legal counsel, and the confusion was greeted by light-hearted banter and laughter. The result was two votes on motions to refer, the second at the end of a debate that resulted in an array of amendments. UUA Secretary Paul Rickter estimated that vote at 50/50, but it failed because such a motion requires a two-thirds majority. The final vote on the amended Statement, Rickter said, was about 75/25.

posted at 12:57 PM | permalink

Saturday, June 23, 2007

General Assembly juggles many questions, elects trustees and committee members

by Tom Stites

On the second full day of General Assembly 2007, delegates elected two trustees and candidates to five UUA committees and attendees took part in a giant open meeting exercise to work out an answer to the question, “In today’s complex world, what is our mission as a faith community?”

The goal of the exercise is to engage representatives of the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in shaping the association’s mission. The GA vocabulary refers to the exercise as Open Space because the process is adapted from a meeting technique called “Open Space Technology” that is designed for use by far smaller groups. The first round of Open Space meetings, on Thursday, drew about 1,000 participants who proposed 285 questions for exploration. On Friday, 120 of these questions were drawn at random and a second round of meetings to discuss them attracted about 800. (See uuworld.org's article about the Open Space initiative.)

In the morning plenary on Friday, UUA Secretary Paul Rickter estimated that more than half of all congregations had engaged in at least one action addressing racism or classism, as asked by resolution proposed from the floor of last year’s General Assembly. Several congregations gave brief reports about their activities. (See UU World’s article about congregational responses in the Summer issue.)

In the evening plenary, the Rev. José Ballester of the First Unitarian Church of Houston was reelected for a second term as an at-large trustee, and Charlie Burke of Milton, Massachusetts, who will be a student this fall at Whittier College in California, was elected as the youth trustee at large. All candidates elected were unopposed, including:

• Four members of the Commission on Appraisal, which is charged with reviewing “any function or activity of the Association which in its judgment will benefit from an independent review” and issues reports to the General Assembly. The Commission is currently conducting a review of the UUA’s Principles, Sources, and Purposes.


• One member of the Commission on Social Witness, whose mission is to engage individuals, congregations, and districts in an ongoing process of study, action and reflection on pressing social issues to deepen our faith, to foster a greater sense of association among Unitarian Universalists, and to proclaim our vision of justice in the world.


• Five members of the General Assembly Planning Committee, which selects the site for each General Assembly, sets the daily schedule, and determines which organizations affiliated with the UUA may present program material. In addition, the committee oversees the annual Ware Lecture, opening events, music, ambiance, and evening activities. The UUA Board, based on recommendations by the Planning Committee, selects GA sites four to five years in advance.


• Two members of the Ministerial Fellowship Board of Review, which hears appeals from ministers who have had their fellowship terminated by the Ministerial Fellowship Committee.


• Three members of the Nominating Committee, the body which nominated the slate elected at this General Assembly.

posted at 1:03 AM | permalink

Friday, June 22, 2007

Open Space workshop schedule

by Christopher L. Walton

Here is the schedule of Open Space workshops at the UUA General Assembly (pdf).

posted at 1:50 PM | permalink

President Sinkford announces 'Now Is the Time' campaign

by Tom Stites

In his address to the Assembly Thursday morning, UUA President William G. Sinkford announced a comprehensive fundraising campaign called “Now is the Time.” The new campaign is the most ambitious the UUA has ever undertaken—the goal is to raise $20 million in cash and $30 million in planned giving commitments—and it’s off to a fast start: More than $14 million in cash and $19 million in legacy commitments has already been raised.

“Now Is the Time” will differ from previous campaigns, Sinkford said, in that all Unitarian Universalists will be offered an opportunity to contribute through special Association Sunday collections in their congregations this fall. He said more 250 congregations had already committed to holding special services on or near October 14 and urged delegates to get their congregations on board.

He said the collection would fund a national advertising campaign, support the successful settlement of ministers of color, and allow the Association to offer growth grants for promising and imaginative new ideas.

“We are generous people,” Sinkford said. “We have the will and we have the vision. All we have to do is ask clearly, and friends, I am asking you to give generously to support our growth and our vitality. Now is the time!”

posted at 11:57 AM | permalink

Big attendance figures at Portland General Assembly

by Tom Stites

General Assembly 2007 got under way in earnest as Paul Rickter, secretary of the UUA Board of Trustees, announced at the opening of Thursday morning’s plenary session that 5,464 people had registered. Because registration typically grows as the Assembly progresses, this strong start all but guarantees that this year’s GA, in Portland, Oregon, will be the second largest ever.

The attendance record of 7,515 was set in 2003 in Boston, eclipsing the Cleveland Assembly of 2001. The closing day total in Cleveland was 4,582, only 18 more than the opening figure Rickter announced. Speculation is that final registration will be short of 6,000, but will grow substantially by the time this Assembly adjourns Sunday evening.

The Portland Convention Center’s main hall is so cavernous that even with this year’s huge throng of UUs it can easily accommodate several hundred more for plenary sessions. But there are so many people that lots of first-day workshops were standing room only.

Among the 5,464 registered so far, 1,946 are delegates from 574 congregations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, two Canadian provinces, and Mexico. And 303 of the registrants are youths.

posted at 11:55 AM | permalink

Thursday, June 21, 2007

UUA welcomes two new member congregations

by Christopher L. Walton

In the opening plenary session of the UUA General Assembly Wednesday evening, delegates welcomed two new congregations as members of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations:

• Unitarian Universalist Peace Fellowship in Raleigh, North Carolina
• Unitarian Universalist Church of Hot Springs, Arkansas

posted at 12:07 PM | permalink

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Get email updates from the General Assembly blog

by Christopher L. Walton

Get the latest posts from uuworld.org's General Assembly blog via email. Subscribing is easy:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

New entries are delivered in a single daily batch, usually first thing in the morning. You can also access the blog's feed directly, which gives you even more immediate access to new content.

posted at 12:08 PM | permalink

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Draft Statement of Conscience on 'moral values' up for vote at GA

by Christopher L. Walton

Delegates to the General Assembly will vote on a "statement of conscience" entitled "Moral Values for a Pluralistic Society" during the Saturday morning plenary, June 23. The draft resolution [pdf] is available from the Commission on Social Witness. Amendments to the final version must be offered during one of two mini-assemblies on Thursday, June 21, at 1:00 or 2:45. (The sessions are 2029 and 2059.)

Until last year's General Assembly changed the process that generates Statements of Conscience, these resolutions had required two years of congregational study and review. Statements of Conscience are regarded by the UUA's Washington Office for Advocacy as the official positions of the Unitarian Universalist Association as a whole. Last year's General Assembly extended the study/action process from two to four years, so the "moral values" statement will be the last one adopted following a two-year review process.

posted at 5:08 PM | permalink

More on Open Space conversations at GA

by Christopher L. Walton

Don Skinner reports this week on the Open Space conversations that the UUA Board has set up at GA. Don's uuworld.org news story explains how Open Space conversations will address the theme question, "In today's complex world, what is our mission as a faith community?"

Helen Bishop, who is directing the process, explains that the conversations about Unitarian Universalism's mission are part of a larger series of conversations:

“It’s been many years since the UUA as a body has examined its mission and vision statements and thought deeply about how we should position ourselves as a faith community. It’s time to do that. Also, the Board of Trustees is looking at policy governance [a management process in which the board makes policy decisions, delegating the execution of these policies to staff], and the Commission on Appraisal is doing a multiyear examination of the UUA Principles and Purposes, something that is required by our bylaws every few years. There is also a discussion across the UUA about how we should be doing ministry to and with youth.”

“All of these things will be informed by what congregational leaders consider to be important issues,” said Bishop, “and that’s what Open Space can be helpful with. It permits the participants to bring their own concerns to the fore without a framework being imposed by the board. The board will respond to what the participants come up with.”

The story also describes ways that Open Space conversations have been used in other UU contexts.

See pages 10 and 11 [pdf] of the General Assembly program book for more information about the Open Space process.

posted at 10:58 AM | permalink

Monday, May 14, 2007

General Assembly 2007 preview

by Christopher L. Walton

From the Summer issue of UU World:

Congregational leaders and representatives of other UU organizations will gather in Portland, Oregon, for the annual General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations June 20 through 24. On the schedule:

• Congregations will report on their responses to last year’s resolution on racism and classism (see "The Future We Hope To See" in UU World's Summer issue, page 33). GA will mark the tenth anniversary of the resolution that committed the UUA to becoming an antiracist organization.

• GA will also observe the thirty-fifth anniversary of Beacon Press’s publication of the Pentagon Papers. Key figures in that event will reunite to discuss its ongoing relevance. “Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman will moderate a discussion with Daniel Ellsberg and former Senator Mike Gravel, who made the Vietnam War papers public, former UUA President Robert N. West, who supported Beacon’s decision to publish despite FBI challenges and a court injunction, and current UUA President William G. Sinkford.

• Major presentations will feature Ben Cohen, cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, on peacemaking; author Kathleen Norris on a “vocabulary of faith”; the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy of the Interfaith Alliance and the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State on strengthening religious liberty.

• GA will focus this year on clarifying the Association’s mission, asking, “In today’s complex world, what is our mission as a faith community?” Using a democratic decision-making method called “Open Space Technology,” GA-goers will meet in small groups to discuss the question and will propose top answers for a vote by delegates at Sunday’s plenary session. The General Assembly conversations about the UUA’s mission coincide with the Commission on Appraisal’s review of the UUA’s Principles, Sources, and Purposes, which was announced last year.

• Candidates for elected positions are all running unopposed this year, and will be elected by acclamation. See page 51 of the Summer issue for candidate profiles. (We'll post a link when they're online.)

• Keep up with General Assembly news and events. Read uuworld.org’s daily GA news blog at www.uuworld.org/news/ga and event coverage at www.uua.org.

posted at 4:33 PM | permalink

Monday, August 14, 2006

Links to resources mentioned in our General Assembly story

by Christopher L. Walton

UU World's coverage of General Assembly in the fall issue refers to many resources and reports available elsewhere on the Web. Here's a handy guide to those resources.

Environment

Delegates adopted a Statement of Conscience calling for widespread changes in response to global warming: Threat of Global Warming/Climate Change. (Here's the magazine's earlier coverage of the adoption of the global warming resolution. See also Jon Luoma's cover story for the May/June 2005 issue, "Slaves to energy: Global warming as a moral issue," and its companion story, "What you can do about global warming.")

The ongoing initiative to make the UUA's annual convention more environmentally friendly is called "Greening GA." Find out more about how the UUA is helping convention centers and convention hotels adopt more sustainable practices from the project's website.

A major player at this year's GA was the independent affiliate organization UU Ministry for Earth. Formerly known the Seventh Principle Project, the organization promotes environmental awareness and advocacy in the UUA. It also sponsors the Green Sanctuary program and honored 19 congregations at GA this year.

Social witness resolutions

The Assembly's five Actions of Immediate Witness are:

• End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining


• Endorse the "Declaration of Peace" Campaign (which you can learn more about here)


• Pass the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act


• Stand Up for the United Nations Human Rights Council


• Support Immigrant Justice

Actions of Immediate Witness, Statements of Conscience, and the study/action issue process that leads to statements of conscience are facilitated by the Commission on Social Witness. This year's GA significantly revised the study/action issue process. The CSW will be providing explanatory materials about these changes on their website.

Delegates adopted a study/action issue for 2006-2010: Peacemaking.

Congregational leaders

For the second year, GA highlighted "breakthrough congregations" in plenary presentations. InterConnections, the UUA's newsletter for congregational leaders, profiles this year's four breakthrough congregations.

UU University brought some 400 congregational leaders together for workshops and programs just before GA this year. Program highlights are here; uuworld.org's coverage is here.

Reports

The officers of the Association presented their annual reports in plenary sessions, but there are also written reports that contain even more information.

Here's the full text of President William G. Sinkford's annual report [pdf].

Moderator Gini Courter set aside her prepared report to discuss racism and anti-racism. Coverage of her remarks is here. Video of the plenary session she addressed includes a presentation by youth and young adults of color and their allies; see links at the top of the page. (Delegates adopted a resolution in response to Courter's remarks and the presentation by the youth and young adults of color; see the "Racism" section below for related links.)

Financial Advisor Dan Brody's plenary presentation [pdf] is supplemented by a much more detailed report to congregations, in which he discusses the UUA's new health insurance proposal at length. (See also uuworld.org's coverage of the health insurance plan and the official UUA Health Plan website.)

Treasurer Jerry Gabert's annual report [pdf] includes the UUA's budget.

Executive Vice President Kay Montgomery's annual report discusses UUA personnel changes.

The UUA Board of Trustees meets during the General Assembly and reviews a wide range of committee and staff reports, which are available here.

Racism

In addition to hearing Gini Courter's report and a presentation by youth and young adults of color, delegates also heard from members of the board's Special Review Commission, which examined events during the 2005 General Assembly that affected youth of color especially. The Commission made a brief presentation during one plenary session and referred delegates to their final report [pdf], which provides a timeline of events and recommendations for the future. See also uuworld.org's coverage of the Special Review Commission.

During the final plenary session, delegates adopted a responsive resolution urging congregations to "hold at least one program over the next year to address racism or classism, and to report on that program at next year's General Assembly." The full text and lots of related resources are available at UUA.org. Paul Rickter, UUA secretary, sent a letter to congregations after GA explaining the resolution.

Worship and inspiration

Two worship services get a lot of attention at GA: The Service of the Living Tradition, which honors ordained ministers, featured a sermon by the Rev. Judith E. Meyer, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica, Calif.: To Live in This World [pdf].

The Sunday morning worship service, to which the general public is invited, featured a sermon by the Rev. Gail Geisenhainer, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Vero Beach, Fla.: "We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest."

The traditional keynote address to the General Assembly is the Ware Lecture, given this year by the poet Mary Oliver. Here's a description of her presentation, along with a letter from Beacon Press director Helene Atwan about Oliver's experience at GA. Oliver's new collection of poems, from which she read, is Thirst.

Other GA resources

Be sure to visit UUA.org's extended coverage of the General Assembly, where you'll find descriptions of many lectures and workshops, video of major events, and gavel-to-gavel coverage of plenary reports and business.

posted at 7:30 AM | permalink

Friday, June 30, 2006

General Assembly news roundup and a few loose ends

by Christopher L. Walton

My news summary of the 2006 General Assembly was published this morning. It provides a relatively quick overview of the business at GA and includes a bunch of things that didn't make it into the daily reports here.

Those of you who have been following this blog may have been left in suspense about the four responsive resolutions I mentioned in the previous post. Three were offered shortly after the Actions of Immediate Witness Sunday afternoon. One urged congregations to support the UUA's new health insurance program for congregational employees. One (described at greater length in my news story) combined aspects of two proposed AIWs related to Gulf Coast reconstruction efforts that the Commission on Social Witness did not put on the agenda. The third responsive resolution praised moderator Gini Courter's facilitation of the plenary sessions.

At the very end of Sunday's plenary, a delegate improvised a fourth responsive resolution. (I had left the plenary hall by this point.) Earlier in the day, Courter had set aside her prepared report and instead invited a group of youth of color and their allies to tell the delegates about their experiences of being treated differently than white people at GA. Courter asked delegates not to applaud or seek out the youth afterward, but instead to sit together in silence after the youth spoke. She then offered some personal reflections about the difficulty of antiracism and antioppression work and asked delegates to consider how fully they were committed to making their congregations and the Association a truly welcoming and inclusive place. Several hours later, as Courter was about to gavel the Assembly to a close, a delegate offered a responsive resolution to the moderator's report. As adopted, the resolution declares that "Delegates to General Assembly are charged to work with their congregations to hold at least one program over the next year to address racism or classism, and to report on that program at next year's General Assembly." And with that, GA came to a formal close.

Be sure to visit the extensive (and still growing) coverage of GA over at UUA.org. The plenary notes are quite thorough.

Finally, the fall issue of UU World will include an extended report on GA; unless something comes up in the meantime, I won't add something new here until that story goes online. Then, of course, I'll add a link.

Thanks for following GA here at the uuworld.org GA blog -- and thanks for your feedback.

posted at 10:20 AM | permalink

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Quick update on final resolutions

by Christopher L. Walton

Sunday afternoon's plenary session of the General Assembly adopted a Statement of Conscience on global warming, passed three responsive resolutions, and adopted another resolution at the very end -- but because I had to duck out of the plenary, I'm still scrounging around for the texts of the four additional resolutions. (More tomorrow when I return to Boston.)

The Statement of Conscience incorporated many of the amendments proposed in a series of unusually vigorous miniassemblies and extended discussions in the plenary hall. One responsive resolution addresses workers' rights, another urged congregations to participate in the UUA's new health insurance plan, and a third thanked UUA moderator Gini Courter for the way she conducted -- and inspired -- the delegates throughout the Assembly. I'll get back to you about the final resolution (which involved asking congregations to engage in antiracism work in some way before the next General Assembly) when I have a chance to watch the video or get notes from my colleagues. I'll add links to the final texts of the resolutions here on the General Assembly Blog as soon as they're available.

The General Assembly was formally adjourned around 7:00 Sunday evening. Delegates and GA-goers are now enjoying parties, the week's last dance, or well-deserved sleep.

I'd appreciate your feedback about uuworld.org's first crack at daily General Assembly coverage. Send your comments to world@uua.org.

posted at 11:04 PM | permalink

Assembly adopts five of six Actions of Immediate Witness

by Christopher L. Walton

The UUA General Assembly on Sunday adopted five of the six Actions of Immediate on this year's agenda. They are:

• AIW-2: "End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining"
• AIW-3: "Endorse the 'Declaration of Peace' Campaign"
• AIW-4: "Pass the Stem-Cell Research Enhancement Act"
• AIW-5: "Stand Up for the United Nations Human Rights Council"
• AIW-6: "Support Immigrant Justice -- Si, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!"

Delegates debated AIW-1 ("Call to Establish a U.S. Department of Peace") at length, but the resolution failed to receive two-thirds of the vote.

posted at 5:35 PM | permalink

Saturday, June 24, 2006

General Assembly reforms the Statement of Conscience process

by Christopher L. Walton

Delegates have just adopted changes to the UUA bylaws that significantly modify the Statement of Conscience process. The new process will require the participation of at least 25 percent of the UUA's member congregations in introducing study/action issues into the process that generates Statements of Conscience. Opponents and supporters of the changes both observed that far less than 25 percent of congregations have participated in the process in recent years: Oppenents said that the changes would effectively kill off many resolutions; supporters said that the changes would help guarantee that resolutions more truly reflect the values and commitments of the denomination.

The bylaw amendments also slowed down the study/action process. The current process involves a two-year cycle of congregational review, with new issues introduced each year. (This year, for example, delegates are voting on the global warming statement of conscience at the end of two years of congregational review. Congregations are one year into the "moral values in a pluralistic society" study/action process. And delegates have adopted the "peacemaking" study/action for the next two years.) The new process extends the study/review period to four years and allows the introduction a new study/action issue every other year.

The amendments were supported by the Commission on Social Witness (the elected commission that shepherds the resolutions process), the UUA Board of Trustees (24 to 1), the UUA advocacy and witness staff, and the Youth Caucus and Young Adult Caucuses. The youth and young adult vote was tied in part to a provision of the new process that allows YRUU (the denominational youth organization) and C*UUYAN (the denominational young adult movement for 18- to 35-year-olds) to sponsor study/action issues.

posted at 6:37 PM | permalink

More local news coverage of General Assembly

by Christopher L. Walton

Saturday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch features a story about the General Assembly: "'Proudly liberal' Unitarians gather here" (6.24.06). A few key passages from the story:

"It's a joyful, exuberant, spirited gathering of people of faith who are not ashamed to be called religious liberals in an era when liberal is considered by many to be a dirty word," said the Rev. Suzanne Meyer, minister of the First Unitarian Church of St. Louis. "We are proudly religious and proudly liberal." . . .

The Rev. William Sinkford, elected president of the association in 2001, says "it's very important to me and to the association to offer an alternative religious voice in the public square."

"The public square has been dominated for too long by the voice of the fundamentalist religious right," he said.

"Although they have an absolute right to have their voice present, we don't want theirs to be the only religious voice that's in public discourse on important matters of the day. We want to offer our liberal religious point of view in the public square so that the discourse is more complete."

posted at 12:39 PM | permalink

Six Actions of Immediate Witness added to agenda

by Christopher L. Walton

Six of the ten Actions of Immediate Witness proposed by delegates were added to the agenda this morning by the Commission on Social Witness. Charlie Clements, the president of the UU Service Committee, complained in his plenary report that a resolution sponsored by the UUSC was not among them.

The six resolutions delegates are considering are:

• AIW-1: Call to Establish a U.S. Dept of Peace
• AIW-2: End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
• AIW-3: Endorse the 'Declaration of Peace' campaign
• AIW-4: Pass the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act
• AIW-5: Stand up for the United Nations Human Rights Council
• AIW-6: Support Immigrant Justice -- Si, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!

The resolution sponsored by the UUSC, "Gulf Coast Workers Deserve Justice Now," was not among them--nor was the Gulf Coast-related "Rebuild New Orleans" resolution. (The other resolutions not admitted to the agenda were "Protection for Farm Worker Children in the Fields" and "Provide Living Wages and Promised Benefits to Armed Services Personnel.")

Delegates are now gathered in miniassemblies to consider amendments to each draft resolution. Delegates will debate and vote on the Actions of Immediate during Sunday afternoon's plenary.

The UUSC's Charlie Clements told delegates during his report that the UUSC will sponsor a "responsive resolution" in support of Gulf Coast workers in place of its rejected AIW. (The UUA Bylaws define a responsive resolution as "a resolution made in response to a substantive portion of a report by an officer or committee reporting to a regular General Assembly." Such resolutions require a two-thirds vote.) That vote will likely take place on Sunday afternoon, too.

posted at 12:16 PM | permalink

Another global warming statement miniassembly

by Christopher L. Walton

At the end of Saturday morning's plenary session, UUA moderator Gini Courter announced a moderated miniassembly to continue the discussion of the global warming Statement of Conscience. The conversation will be led by UUA vice-moderator Ned Wight in Room 267 beginning at 11:00.

posted at 12:09 PM | permalink

Friday, June 23, 2006

St. Louis NPR station interviews Sinkford

by Christopher L. Walton

Our news blog, Unitarian Universalists in the Media, picked up a story about the General Assembly from KWMU, a National Public Radio affiliate in St. Louis. Matt Sepic interviewed UUA President William Sinkford on Wednesday. Among other things, Matt Sepic asked him why Unitarian Universalists celebrate "liberalism."

Sinkford replied: "Unfortunately, the fundamentalist religious right has tried to give liberalism a bad name. And I'm one who believes that the liberal religious tradition is one that needs to be preserved in this country--a tradition which allows for religious freedom at its heart and religious depth at its best."

That's the only news coverage of the Assembly so far.

posted at 5:37 PM | permalink

First round of Actions of Immediate Witness

by Christopher L. Walton

In theory, Statements of Conscience adopted by the General Assembly speak the will of the denomination as a whole because they're rooted in two years of congregational engagement. (This morning moderator Gini Courter pointed out, however, that very few congregations actually took part in the process that led to the global warming Statement of Conscience under consideration this week. Only 10 percent of the Association's member congregations, she said, gave any input to the global warming statement in the past two years.)

Each year, the General Assembly also considers a handful of more time-sensitive resolutions that are understood to speak only for the General Assembly itself. Actions of Immediate Witness are proposed at GA and placed on the agenda by petition. Earlier in Friday morning's plenary, the Commission on Social Witness took an informal poll of delegates to gauge their interest in the 10 proposals submitted so far.

From where I was sitting, it looked like four of the proposals clearly generated overwhelming interest:

• "Pass the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act"
• "Protection for Farm Worker Children in the Fields"
• "Stand up for the United Nations Human Rights Council"
• and "Support Immigrant Justice -- Si, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!"

The other six proposals currently being circulated among delegates are:

• "Call to Establish a U.S. Dept of Peace"
• "End Mountaintop Removal Coal mining"
• "Endorse the 'Declaration of Peace' Campaign"
• "Gulf Coast Workers Deserve Justice Now"
• "Provide Living Wages and Promised Benefits to Armed Services Personnel"
• and "Rebuild New Orleans"

Up to six of the proposals will be placed on the agenda in Saturday afternoon's plenary, pending the CSW's prioritization and completed petitions from each resolution's sponsors.

posted at 3:39 PM | permalink

Global warming statement takes a complex turn

by Christopher L. Walton

Whew. Friday morning's plenary schedule included time for a debate and vote on the global warming Statement of Conscience, but we never got to the vote. Instead, faced with some 50 unincorporated amendements from Thursday's miniassembly, a shortage of printed copies of the texts under consideration, and confusion about the process, delegates nevertheless moved the statement forward -- sort of. Additional debate and discussion time will be added to one of Saturday's plenary sessions to continue the debate.

What happened?

Many delegates -- working in partnership with the UU Ministry for the Earth, the UU Service Committee, and other environmental and human rights advocacy groups -- thought the CSW's draft statement was too timid and did not adequately express the urgency many Unitarian Universalists feel about global climate change. More than 200 delegates attended a lively session to hash out their differences with the CSW on Thursday morning. My colleague Tom Stites attended the three-hour miniassembly and reports that it broke up into seven subgroups to talk through sections of the draft statement and fashion amendments to it. The CSW then met late into the night organizing the 70 or so amendments into a sequence to offer to the full Assembly today. That's how 50 amendments appeared on this morning's schedule, where (in theory) delegates had about an hour to consider them.

The first amendment brought to the floor -- Unincorporated Amendment 19 -- actually worked its way through the normal process and was approved before procedural confusion set in. (What about Unincorporated Amendments 1 through 18? Why were the amendments that many activists felt were most important so far down the list of amendments when time was so short?) Former moderator Denny Davidoff moved that the Assembly refer the inadequate statement back to the Commission on Social Witness -- she said she had never seen a resolution arrive for its final vote with so many unincorporated amendments -- but moderator Gini Courter replied that this would mean referring the statement back to the congregations for another year. Davidoff's motion failed.

As the clock kept ticking and activist delegates tried to figure out how to get their amendments through the process, Courter tried a new tack and moved the delegates into a "committee of the whole." This moved the process out of the constraints of formal motions and votes and into a more informal review of the amendments. In the end, Courter polled delegates about a dozen amendments that advocates seemed especially eager to approve, and an overwhelming majority of delegates concurred.

After the straw poll, other advocates complained that they had been waiting in line to ask for the committee of the whole to consider another half-dozen amendments. By this point the plenary had run over its allotted time. I won't bore you with the details, but it looks like a somewhat similar process will take up those amendments as a group. It is entirely unclear how the amendments referred out of the committee of the whole will be addressed, although it seems that the general view of the delegates is to support a "strong" statement about global warming.

Notably, amendments to the study/action process itself are on Sunday's agenda.

posted at 12:14 PM | permalink

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Peacemaking study/action issue adopted

by uuworld.org

With only one study/action issue on the agenda this year, delegates heard from the sponsor and four supporters of the "Peacemaking" resolution (S-1) -- but with no competing study/action issues on the agenda, there was no debate. Delegates overwhelmingly approved the study/action issue, which means that congregations and districts will have two years to develop a denominational Statement of Conscience in response to the question: "Should the Unitarian Universalist Association reject the use of any and all kinds of violence and war to resolve disputes between peoples and nations and adopt a principle of seeking just peace through nonviolent means?"

Later in this General Assembly, delegates will consider slowing down the study/action issue process, which the Commission on Social Witness's Susan Smith told delegates could "release us, and the congregations, from what has turned out to be a social-witness hampster wheel." The current process (adopted in 1997) introduces a new two-year study/action issue and adopts a new finished Statement of Conscience each year.

[Posted by Christopher L. Walton]

posted at 5:24 PM | permalink

We have a quorum

by uuworld.org

As the first real business gets underway here in St. Louis with the Thursday afternoon plenary, UUA secretary Paul Rickter reports that 2,043 delegates are present. This includes 1,662 lay delegates representing 601 congregations, 4 delegates from associate member organizations, 332 ministers currently serving congregations, 13 ministers emeritus/a, and 6 masters-level religious educators (a new professional designation given delegate status at last year's General Assembly). The 26 members of the UUA board of trustees are also voting delegates. (The associate member organizations are the UU Service Committee, the UU Women's Federation, and the UU United Nations Office. I don't know which of these groups has a second delegate.)

In addition to the 2,043 delegates, there are also 2,001 non-delegates and 271 youth registered at GA with a total registration of 4,315.

[Posted by Christopher L. Walton]

posted at 5:21 PM | permalink

Archives

May 2006   June 2006   August 2006   May 2007   June 2007