Follow 'Justice General Assembly' with UU World

Follow 'Justice General Assembly' with UU World

Keep up with the latest news from the UUA's Arizona GA.
Standing on the Side of Love public witness event at the 2011 General Assembly (Nancy Pierce)
Standing on the Side of Love public witness event at the 2011 General Assembly (Nancy Pierce)

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The Unitarian Universalist Association holds its 51st annual General Assembly—its first specially-designated “Justice General Assembly”—this week in Phoenix, Ariz., in partnership with local immigrant rights organizations. UU World will provide extensive daily coverage of General Assembly June 20–24, as well as coverage of meetings of the UUA Board of Trustees immediately preceding GA on June 19 and 20 and following GA on June 25.

Unlike the UUA’s typical annual convention and business assembly, this year’s GA is largely focused on a single social justice theme: immigration in the United States. This year’s program has been reshaped to keep denominational business to a minimum, in keeping with a resolution adopted by the 2010 General Assembly.

Visit uuworld.org/ga for the latest reports, photographs, video, and daily news summaries, or subscribe to our General Assembly feed. Live video of business plenaries and major events will be available on UUA.org’s General Assembly 2012 page and on a dedicated channel at Livestream. UU World will publish video interviews and short video reports on uuworld.org/ga and on a dedicated channel at vimeo.com/uuworld. On Thursday, June 21, UU World will also publish a comprehensive guide to our GA coverage, which will be updated with new links daily. Highlights of our coverage will be publicized on UU World’s Facebook page and Twitter page.

Delegates will select a new four-year Congregational Study/Action Issue, from among five proposals. (The new CSAI will join the current CSAI, “Immigration as a Moral Issue,” which is halfway through its four-year process.) Delegates will also complete a second and final year of voting on several bylaw amendments, including one that would broaden the definition of a member congregation and another that would loosen restrictions on amendments to the UUA’s “Principles and Purposes.”

Delegates this year will not be introducing Actions of Immediate Witness, the social justice petitions that the 2011 General Assembly removed from this year’s agenda. The Board of Trustees, however, has taken the unusual step of introducing a Responsive Resolution prior to GA calling for the UUA to repudiate the “Doctrine of Discovery.” Delegates may introduce other responsive resolutions at the end of the final plenary.

UU World will cover much more than denominational business. We’ll highlight major events at GA, from worship services to the immigration justice public witness events. On Saturday, June 23, many GA-goers will participate in service projects and public witness, including a candlelight vigil outside a Maricopa County outdoor jail known as “Tent City.” UUs throughout the country will be taking part in a “National Day of Witness” in their local communities, too.

Also this year: A candidates’ forum will introduce delegates to the two nominees for UUA Moderator, Jim Key and Tamara Payne-Alex. (The 2013 GA will elect a UUA president and moderator, as well as new trustees-at-large and other committee members. UUA President Peter Morales is eligible to run for a second term in 2013, but UUA Moderator Gini Courter will complete her final term in 2013.)

Read more of our advance coverage of this year’s General Assembly:


Photo (above): Noah Lystrup and Kevin Mann, both from the UU Church of Oakland, Calif., and Karen Abel, from Emerson UU Church in Marietta, Ga., attended a Standing on the Side of Love public witness event at the UUA's 2011 General Assembly in Charlotte, N.C. (Nancy Pierce)

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