Discussion and voting on the proposed Article II language occurred on Saturday, June 22, at General Session IV.
Announcement of Results
The voting result is expected to be announced at the start of General Session V, which will begin on Sunday, June 23 at 3:00 PM Eastern.
You can see voting results at this link. There has been some lag in posting voting results on this website.
Votes is in. Results | Unitarian Universalist Association (simplyvoting.com)
Turnout: 2545 (60.7%) of 4191 electors voted in this ballot.
Proposed Revision to Article II as amended
OptionVotes
Adopt the proposed revision to Article II2025 (80.2%)
Do not adopt the proposed revision to Article II499 (19.8%)
Abstain21 (0.8%)
VOTER SUMMARYTotal2545
So 48.7% of delegates voted in favor. It’s hard to believe that 40% didn’t bother to vote- lower percentage for the other issues. Perhaps the on line voting process was tedious. Could it be that a majority of UUs ( even active ones if they are delegates) are still unaware that this issue may be an existential matter for the UUA? It’s sad in that UUism and the UUA used to be a respected national leader in important socioeconomic issues in America. The efforts to widen and expand our numbers have resulted in turning away about half of our traditional… Read more »
Time wounds all heels! This is likely a defining moment for our UU faith.
One of the delegates from my congregation tried for several days to get access to the delegate platform and couldn’t. So she wasn’t able to vote until the very last day when she wrote to UUA saying she was finally giving up. Then miraculously she was sent a link so she was able to vote against article 2. I wonder if this happened to others who weren’t so persistent in trying to get access to the delegate platform?
That’s heartbreaking.
It’s the only religion I ever knew, and the only one that could really fit me.
Good luck to those who stay.
We have found the NAUA’s services and programs to be helpful
Yes, us too. If it’s time to leave the UUA, maybe try the NAUA.
Yes!
The NAUA does not ascribe to the Seven Principles.
What do you care anyway?
Rebecca, the NAUA has made a point that congregations are autonomous and self-governing. They are empowered to make their own decisions regarding the Seven Principles.
You implication that this freedom of choice is some type of shortcoming by the NAUA is an odd observation.
I too am heartbroken. I have known for some time that the UUA was no longer a place for Universalism to thrive; now they have made it official.
I feel the same way.
Great news. Our democratic process has spoken.
Except the dissenting opinions were squished and actively silenced.
It would be interesting to find out why they extended voting last night for an additional 45 minutes. I’ve heard interesting speculation.
Matt, I surely do not know, but I do know that the session yesterday ran late, maybe almost 30 minutes late, so that’s what I assume led to extending the voting time.
Exactly. As I said above, the only way the UUA won was by lying, cheating, manipulating and abusing UUs across the world for years. I think it’s better this way, else we’d have been working with this den of thieves for the foreseeable future. Because, rest assured, they are going to keep up the same type of crap going forward, and will be just as dishonest and unethical.
It’s time for those who value the 7 principles to abandon move their congregation away from UUA and UU as it now stands. At best you are out of covenant and will be forced out. It’s time to pull support from UUA and recreate a liberal religion that celebrates diversity.
Rebecca I don’t think this is great news, but do agree that the democratic process has spoken. Our UU Association now has new words where once 7 principle and 6 sources stood. If you don’t mind sharing, why do you see this as great news? With kind regards, -Randy
Today marks the day I no longer consider myself a UU after 4 decades of deep involvement.
The question for me is, can I disaffiliate with the UUA without leaving my local congregation? Not sure this is possible given the congregation’s by-laws.
I am hoping my congregation chooses to disaffiliate with the UUA and removes all references to the UUA from its by-laws. That would make it easier for me to stay. Without that, or the prospect of that, I would reluctantly resign from my congregation but would hope to remain friends with the people there.
Hi John. Once a UU, always a UU! You won’t be able to go back, and clearly you don’t want to. Consider joining the NAUA. It is for congregations as well as individuals, so you will certainly be welcomed there. Many folks who have been UUs since the late 1980’s may have thought of the UUA as the guiding organization of our faith. Some congregations ceded this authority to UUA, but it officially never has been (and clearly never will be). It has been engaged in denominational creep for many years, and frankly, in my view, this isn’t a great… Read more »
Brian, Thanks for your thoughtful, empathetic, and encouraging comments. Until a few years ago, I’ve always thought of the congregations as being independent and never paid much attention to the UUA. I thought of the UUA as a services organization to congregations which had no sway over the life of congregations. However, ever since 2017, when I first heard the phrase “dismantling white supremacy culture”, it has became clear that the UUA was using whatever levers of power it had over congregations, mostly through the provision of services especially minister search services, to inject the new ideology into congregations. As… Read more »
I attend three UU churches, and I’m going to keep attending all of them. One will probably disaffiliate with the UUA – I’ll probably end up at that one most often. The other two will probably not disassociate themselves from the UUA, but they’re also filled to the brim with good people, albeit a little misled, and I think they’ll do their level best to make sure the UUA does nothing to ruin people’s church lives, which we all treasure. The number of people will, I think, help ensure balance, and, over time, the creepy, cult-like nature of the UUA… Read more »
Terri,
Your congregations are very fortunate that they haven’t yet been damaged by UUA’s turn towards authoritarianism. I hope that the “true believers” do indeed come around to seeing the UUA for what it has become. I hope your congregations remain beacons of liberal religion despite the UUA’s attempt to eradicate liberal religion from the denomination.
John
Feel your pain, John. I was pretty sure this would be the outcome. UU is now strictly a social justice collective steeped in group-think. Is our congregation (John and I are members-for now- of the same church) going to take a stand (sorry for the ableist microagression by using the word stand- GET REAL) and disassociate from the UUA? Maybe -since our founding in 1630 we have always moved forward. Heck, as a Calvinist church, we fought for and attained the freedom of an enslaved person, who also became a member of our congregation-back in 1653..Dorcas ye blackmore was her… Read more »
Yes, it’s definitely a social justice collective! The new business resolution , embracing transgender “ nonbinary”, etc.people and calling them holy and divine is a bit offensive to the rest of us, who are obviously just chopped liver!
i have nothing against transgender people, but no group of people are by their identity “ divine “ or “ Holy”!
Tom,
I too find irony in the fact that we have come full circle to being a repressive, puritanical religion again after two centuries of enlightened progress.
I do think the best solution is for congregations who wish to continue to embrace liberal religion to separate from the UUA. So glad the NAUA is there to offer an alternative.
John
I’m involved with the UK Unitarians. We don’t have the “universalist” part, but otherwise we’re counterparts. Here, it’s a much smaller movement with an uncertain future. Most congregations are over 50 and declining, though the growing groups for younger generations could perhaps offer a route to recovery. The concept of a religion without mandatory beliefs is brilliant. A shame we haven’t quite managed to get the execution right. For a long time, the UUA looked like where we wanted to be. But… wow… just wow. It really is sad to see them trashing their values and traditions like that. Not… Read more »
Well, that’s it. I’m out. Good luck to the JETPIG, and I mean that sincerely. It’s official now, but the institutional abandonment of the 7 Principles happened years ago.
Don’t forget that these are UUA bylaws. Individual churches can choose to leave the UUA. And they may, especially if the UUA tries to mess with Article III.
So how do individual congregations leave the UUA?
The UUA has been engaged in denominational creep for the past twenty years, so this move was inevitable. They’ve indoctrinated most of the new ministers coming out of our theological schools, and the ministers–probably out of fear–are the ones who pushed this vote over the top. But this doesn’t need to be all gloom and doom. UUA used to be a service organization that the congregations created. It has now transformed itself into a private social justice organization based on the inflexible tenants of critical race theory. All the power to them. But while they may have trademarked the Unitarian-Universalist… Read more »
The only way they “won” is by lying, cheating, abusing and manipulating UUs across the world, for several years, as we didn’t lose by much, and we know what the UUA has been up to all this time! We will be much better off without them, for those who decide to jettison the UUA from their church, and those who continue with them, ftmp, will be hyper-vigilant as to their promised shenanigans. I feel sorry for the hoodwinked “true believers,” who think the UUA has their best interests at heart. Any organization that behaves like the UUA does is not to be… Read more »
Can we still keep the Seven Principles, even if we cut ourselves off from the UUA for good? I don’t mean to put it in the name of the church, but just use the Principles, even if we are no longer, technically, a Unitarian Universalist church? As a side note, the actual UUA will no longer be Unitarian Universalist in nature, but merely a socio-political program with the title they have absconded with.
Of course we can keep the seven principles! And understand this: Being a member of the UUA doesn’t make us a UU church! There are many UU churches who are not members of the UUA! Back in 1961, when Unitarian churches merged with universalist churches, they formed the UUA to provide services for them (such as creating and publishing the hymnal and other mundane things). Not renewing membership in the UUA does not mean that technically the church is no longer a Unitarian Universalist church. It most certainly is. Membership in the UUA has no bearing on that.
Yes, I’m dismayed the Art 2 passed. A fellow UU is reviewing our bylaws and believes we can add new ones that will shield us from UUA fiats. Don’t know if that is possible, but I’ve asked several members to draw up an organizational chart that would depict how we want power to flow, in our relationship with UUA. We’ll see where that takes us !
I have my doubts your church will be able to do that for long, David, and get away with dodging UUA scrutiny once the juggernaut rolls out. I read Widening the Circle of Concern clear through and (perhaps wrongly) interpreted the following as “Expect the goon squad, because Big Brother will be watching.”: “Ongoing monitoring is needed to ensure that work to counter bias and oppression is not interrupted again….” (bold in original) [And a bit further down…] “The UUA should establish an ongoing independent body to identify systemic changes and monitor accountability on work toward equity, inclusion, and diversity. This body should be… Read more »
WHAT
what is naua
North American Unitarian Association. Visit the NAUA website for more information. In brief, The NAUA “is a member service organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the practice of liberal religion by embracing freedom, reason, and tolerance…”