This year’s annual convention of the Unitarian Universalist Association will take place in Salt Lake City from June 24-28. Every year since the 1961 merger of two distinct denominations, UU’s have gathered in late June for inspiration, education, connection and decision making. Known as General Assembly; “GA” is the official annual meeting of our Association of Congregations.
As you know, we UU’s govern ourselves. Every certified UU congregation has the right and privilege of sending delegates to GA. It is these congregational delegates who decide who our national spokesperson will be, what issues are important to us and what policies will govern how we will move forward together as an association of congregations.
I attended General Assembly for the first time in 1998. Just six months before, I had become a member of a small UU fellowship. Like many of you who are new have expressed, finding UUism and joining that congregation felt like coming home! I was already thrilled to be with that little group of 35 or so UU’s every Sunday.
I have to say, though, that being in the presence of over 4,000 UU’s in Rochester, New York in 1998 was a life-altering experience! I was a delegate from my congregation and I voted on whatever came up, which I really don’t remember. What I do remember is that being there surrounded by so many UU’s was absolutely energizing!
For the next six years, I attended every General Assembly. Salt Lake City in 1999, Nashville in 2000, Cleveland in 2001, Quebec City in 2002, Boston in 2003. For every one of those years my partner and I made wherever General Assembly took place our annual vacation spot!
Participating in making decisions that affect our collective future is important. It is fascinating to watch a convention hall full of opinionated UU’s make a decision. But General Assembly is about way more than voting.
Being surrounded by 1,000’s of UU’s is absolutely energizing! I highly recommend the experience!
I used to tell folks that I went to GA for the sermons. I have been deeply inspired, moved to the core. Our most inspirational preachers are there, and every year a nationally known speaker of interest to UU’s is invited to give an extended talk, known as the Ware Lecture. These speakers are rarely UU’s, but they know who they are talking to. Last year the speaker was Van Jones, who electrified the youth as he talked about the Green New Deal, the opportunity that is upon this nation to combine environmental and social justice, employing millions for the greening of America. His talk is still on line, if you haven’t yet heard it.
In the past the poet Mary Oliver, Southern Poverty Law Center’s Morris Dees, singer and social activist Holly Near, author and expert on raising girls Mary Pipher, and the political figure Julian Bond have all spoken to packed audiences.
This year the Ware Lecture will be given by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, who is an Associate Professor of Politics and Afro-American Studies at Princeton. You may be familiar with her from the Rachel Maddow show, where she has been a frequent commentator this whole political season. I can’t wait to hear her “charge” to us...
Besides the sermons and the lectures, there are all kinds of worship services...for every spiritual persuasion, UU Christians, UU Buddhists, Pagans; the youth led worship services are outstanding...the music and the singing are incredible.
There are groups of folks fired up about every social action issue you can imagine and some you can’t! There are workshops and meetings on absolutely everything a UU would want to know about or be involved in.
There are educational opportunities for every aspect of congregational life and leadership. This year registrants are being encouraged to follow any one of six tracks to gain intensive exposure to stewardship, justice, theology, governance, or multigenerational and multicultural leadership. Each track will include nine hours of workshops known as UU University.
After attending for six years in a row, Karen and I skipped a few GA’s. We made the journey again in 2006 to St. Louis. That was the year I was recognized along with all the other new ministers who had made it to final fellowship. It took me eight years of intensive evaluations, training and experience, to finally be included with all those who were new fully credentialed UU ministers. I wasn’t about to miss that!
Professional minister or member, nothing “seals” your identity as a Unitarian Universalist like participating in GA does!
I am looking forward to returning to GA, again this year, and again in Salt Lake City.
I am looking forward to taking an active part in determining who UU’s will be into the future! I hope that some of you will join me this year.
Every UU congregation gets to certify voting delegates, one for every 50 members, with a minimum of 2 delegates per congregation. So, with just over 90 members, UUCG will be able to certify 2 voting delegates. You don’t have to be a voting delegate to go.
This year, you can be a voting delegate, not go, and vote by absentee ballot in the presidential election. One of the two candidates running will be elected as the UUA’s next national leader.
Whether you are a delegate or not, if you can’t make the trip, you can watch in real time with a high speed internet connection almost everything that happens as it happens. It is not the same as being there, yet it is one way to connect.
The current UUA President, the Rev. Bill Sinkford, (our first Afro-American president) is at the end of two four year terms. He will be succeeded by either the Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman, who could be our first female president, or the Rev. Peter Morales.
Laurel Hallman has been the senior minister of our sister congregation in Dallas for the last 22 years. She is a graduate of Meadville Lombard, our UU seminary in Chicago. During her service with First Unitarian in Dallas, their membership grew from 550 members to 1100. She is probably most well known for her video Living By Heart: A Guide to Devotional Practice and her commitment to engaged spirituality.
The other candidate is Peter Morales, a 2nd career minister. He was in journalism before graduating from Starr King, our other UU seminary in Berkeley. After graduation in 1999, he was called to the Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, CO. When he began there, the congregation had just under 400 members. After 3 years, he left to become the UUA’s Director of District Services. After two years in that role, he returned to Golden, where he has been for the last four years. They now have 775 members. Morales, who would be our first latino president, is well known as an expert on congregational hospitality.
Both of these candidates have websites and have been profiled in the UU World magazine.
Who UUCG’s 2 delegates vote for is, as true for every UU congregation, determined by the congregation. In years past, many congregations merely handed the credentials necessary to vote to whomever was going to GA. Many times who went to GA, was who could afford to go, or who thought being with UU’s was a great way to spend a vacation! Only a few congregations made a formal effort to tell their delegates who or what to vote for. In the past those who were excited enough to attend GA, were trusted to decide during the GA process who or what to vote for.
This year, besides the presidential election, a Study/Action issue on Peacemaking may become a Statement of Conscience, if it garners enough votes. You can find the current text of this SOC on line. There is also a current Study/Action issue that is in the middle of the four year process, entitled Ethical Eating. There are excellent resources and study guides available for both of these social justice concerns...
Both of these concerns, peacemaking and ethical eating arose, as have all Study/Action Issues, because groups of UU’s used the power of persuasion to convince others that these were issues that UU’s ought to take a stand on. All Study/Action issues go through a four year process of study and word-smithing that can result in being adopted as a Statement of Conscience. Past Statements cover the wide range of social justice issues that UU’s are concerned about, such as aging, children’s rights and welfare, environmental justice, voting rights, international relations, etc. There is a 400 page document on line where you can see them all. Those that become Statements of Conscience are our way of telling the world what our stand is on current issues...how it is that our principles inform what shape we hope national policy will take. SOC’s serve as guides for the public witness that our UUA President upholds.
There are also Actions of Immediate Witness that are proposed and voted on during GA, that aren’t subject to the four year process, that reflect what UU’s at GA think needs to be said right now.
Perhaps the most controversial issue that has garnered the most attention and energy that will come before GA this year is a Bylaws change concerning the articles that currently state our principles and purposes. A much discussed and tweaked Revision to the Principles and Purposes may be approved. In the Revision that will come before GA, the principles are essentially the same. The Sources are no longer listed as six bullets, but rather included in a more expansive paragraph.
This congregation and many, many others spent time and energy reflecting on the current principles and purposes and participated in the process of revision...
If the current revision is approved by a simple majority of delegate votes at this GA, it will have to be confirmed again next year by a two-thirds majority to be adopted.
We are the ones who say who we are to each other and to the world. We do it by means of a representative democracy.
Does it make a difference?
I will speak for myself. Going to GA and connecting with so many UU’s made a huge difference in my life and especially in my sense of who I belong to.. For years, I felt isolated and alone; an oddity in my family, in my community. Going to GA that first time in 1998 absolutely galvanized my sense of connection and identity. This is what I belong to; these people are my people... So, grateful to have been welcomed into small congregations of 35 or 95; standing shoulder to shoulder with 1,000’s gave me a sense of belonging and purpose and connection, and power, like nothing else could have done.
It is that sense of connection to our wider movement that I wish for you...
If you can’t go this year, click on the live feeds, read all you can, make plans to go in 2010 to Minneapolis, or in 2011 to Charlotte!
I promise you, that getting a sense of the wider movement to which we belong, is worth the time and energy!
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