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Because we know that there is much attention to and interest in the results of yesterday’s voting, we are sending the results now so that you can absorb and process them before today’s general session. The results will also be announced at today’s general session.
Bill Young, UUA Secretary
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Ballot Results
All Items on Saturday’s General Session IV Ballot
were adopted or affirmed
Complete details are available on uua.simplyvoting.com.
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Care Teams are available. If you are not sure who to contact, email gachaplains@uua.org.
Save the Date – Post General Assembly Town Hall MeetingUU the Conversation is sponsoring a post-General Assembly Town Hall meeting. A pre-registration link will be provided at a later date. Save the date and time below.
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We gather here to remember Unitarian Universalism, a beacon of liberal faith that once stood as a proud mosaic of diverse opinions and beliefs. It was a spiritual home that welcomed all seekers, a place where questions were cherished more than answers, and the journey mattered more than the destination. Unitarian Universalism taught us that the sacred tapestry of life is woven from threads of many colors and textures. It showed us the beauty of a pluralistic vision, where each unique strand was integral to the whole. It was a tradition that found strength in its openness, its commitment to… Read more »
I don’t have the words, so, may I borrow yours?
John, please feel free to share these words that help share a bit of the loss I feel.
Mark, Do you have a title for your words.
GA Teaparty, preordained for 7 years.
BTW, UUA HQ is 0.2 miles from the Teaparty Museum. Fitting.
Thank you. Beautifully said. May we quote you?
Please feel free.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down (Dylan Thomas 1943)
That is a powerful writing, thanks. I was attracted to UU for the embracing of Reason and Humanism. With the voting down of Reason and the absence of any reference to Humanism, I now feel abandoned and set adrift. The Enlightenment principles are now considered rooted in white supremacy and are to be abandoned with contempt.
I don’t feel like a racist, but I don’t want anti-racism to define who I am and what I do. I certainly don’t want to be held accountable for someone else’s agenda. I can no longer relate to what UU has become. 😥
Hopefully we can share our loss and begin healing with the understanding that we are each, not alone
What the UUA “had to” change
Thank you, Mr. Bostrom, for including “Truth” in your conception
of UU values. I felt that the new UUA “flower of values” lacked this
important value which many UU congregations state that “the search for truth is its sacrament”.
Thank you, well put.
Hi Mark
We would like to post your profound words to the NAUA website and NAUA social media. Do you mind if we do this? Please let me know.
Terry
Thanks for the call and please share this.
Your view of what the essence of UUism was and the way it has been changed by the new article 2 is so close to my view and and so beautifully expressed that I ask your permission to share it with others. You are right, the bylaws officially define UUism. But in my heart Uuism will always be the way it was. And one more comment. Many of the supporters of the new article 2 say that for UUism to survive and thrive we need to change in order to stay relevant to the changing world. That those who opposed… Read more »
Thank you, Mark, for that eloquent eulogy. I, too, suspected something was off back in 2017 when I heard about Peter Morales’s resignation and did not know why that came about. And then, I discovered that there were no letters to the editor of UU World anymore. But, life concerns prevented my investigating further as I’d learned to do some years prior. Sadly, I think that many UUs are still as trusting as I once was that UU leadership is as worthy of that trust as we expect them to be. Many UUs, I think, pay no attention to what UUA bylaws… Read more »
Mark,
This is a beautiful statement. My name is Justin Lapoint, Minister Emeritus of Outlaws Bridge Universalist Church. I would like your permission to use your words in a sermon I plan to deliver in August.
I have been living within the national UU headquarters compound in the Philippines for the last 8 years. We were and are 100 percent happy with our principles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOsWUA7cK50
Thank You Jim. I listened to several versions. You picked the exact one. Placed two links on my Facebook Page that I am also closing. 39 years ago the first issue of UU World arrived at my door. I still have it. Called CLF yesterday to discontinue my membership. Taught RE 1985-1995. Barber’s Adagio captures the moment. Thoreau, Emerson, Parker, Channing…Garrison at the Liberator. No more.
Leaving the UUA some decades ago was probably one of my better decisions in life. This, of course, was well before the current ideological takeover, Nonetheless, I could sense something of that nature coming down the road. If anything, I am surprised that it didn’t happen sooner. Even so, I am indebted to the UUA for (inadvertently) helping me to conceptualize and embrace the basic religious principles and beliefs which I still hold to and affirm today. Since that time, I have moved on to another religious/denominational tradition which affirms those same basic teachings or principles -minus the leftist political… Read more »
I hope this a appropriate to ask. Which denomination did you find fit better? My UU ties are very thin?
Yes– please tell us! I left in 2018, but I still miss my church community. My minister was on board with everything the UUA said to do– no debate was allowed. I walked then.
Sasha, would you let us know to where it is you moved on ? It appears there is no going back, now, after this vote.
I have hesitated to mention it on this venue, since I didn’t want anybody to think I’m just some kind of “troll.” (Then too, everybody has their own religious/spiritual journeys, and what works for someone might not necessarily be a good fit for someone else.) Anyway, for those who have asked, some years after leaving the UUA I began learning about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or “Mormon” church). This may come as a surprise, but I came to realize that the basic concepts which had initially attracted me to the UUA in the first place,… Read more »
Thanks for your reply!
Your comment brings the response “What is the name of your new tradition” but that’s not necessary. A local congregation that endorses traditional Unitarian concepts can continue as traditional Unitarian. Just break all ties with UUA. If no local congregation severs UUA ties, a handful of individuals can declare themselves to be a Unitarian fellowship, and ignore UUA. For people who need an existing organization, there’s Society of Friends (Quakers), several humanist groups, and probably a few independent groups. And, of course, there’s always the NAUA
As mentioned above, I later came to the LDS Church. Interestingly, some Mormon writers have used such terms as “liberal religion” and “creedless religion” to describe their faith. (It’s also interesting how much of the antagonism, animosity, and malice directed against the LDS Church has come for decades from religious fundamentalists on the Far Right.)
I have been following the NAUA online. Also, reflecting my Unitarian “heritage,” I have biographies of W.E. Channing, Hosea Ballou, and Thomas Starr King, along with Rev. Todd Eklof’s books and David Cycleback’s “Against Illiberalism” on my shelf.
I left the UUA in 2002. I was attending the Meadville/Lombard UU Seminary then– My goal was to become a UU Community Minister and a Social Worker in a dual degree program offered in conjunction with the University of Chicago (I already had a Masters, with honors, in Human Services Management). I was called to minster to persons experiencing homelessness. In 2002, the UU Commission on Appraisal had recently published a rather scathing report on congregational polity as governance. In January 2002, which was halfway through my first year at seminary, President Sinkford came to Meadville to announce the immediate… Read more »
I received an e-mail from the Article II Commission urging me as a delegate to vote for the passage of Article II. I wrote back and questioned how they were able to access my information to be used for such a purpose.Was the opposing viewpoint given such an opportunity? This is exactly what is wrong with the current power structure. Misuse of information and the system to apply unequal pressure to get their own way.
I got the same message, “Vote for the New Article II”, “Sponsored message from Article II Study Commission” <event-noreply@whova.io>. We were told that UUtheConversation, as a Platinum Level Sponsor for $4000, was “prohibited from advocating “for specific votes on business items” as part of the video ad they placed just before the plenary began. https://uutheconversation.org/index.php/banned-from-2024-general-assembly/ Of course, those are different venues (whova email vs video ad in the live stream). How much did the Commission pay for their whova email? Was everyone made aware of the various sponsorship options? How will such things be handled in the future? WIth more… Read more »
What future?
Neal, you are correct. The UUA Executive Vice-president rejected the UU the Conversation Platinum Level advertisements because they violated, per the Exec VP, the Terms and Conditions for an Exhibitor. That is, the materials advocated for a No vote on Article II. Advocating for an item on the business agenda was prohibited. We can say we are shocked, shocked that the rules for those not favoring the UUA’s position were enforced, but the rules were not enforced for those favoring the UUA. Such is the state within the UUA. The Article II Commission was a Platinum Level Sponsor. Makes one… Read more »
Thank You Mark Perloe. I have cut and pasted your parting poetics. Exquisite. What I needed. Will save it to the end of my days. 39 years ago the first issue of UU World came to my door. Yesterday I left a phone message for CLF to discontinue my membership. I lift a parting glass.
Rev Denise, can we see the text of that email? I was a delegate and don’t recall reading that.
Here is a sample, From: Sponsored message from Article II Study Commission <event-noreply@whova.io>Date: Jun 22, 2024, 10:08 AM (Mountain time) Subject: Vote for the New Article II Reply-to: dplante@uua.org Mailed-by: mail.whova.io Dear [name of delegate], Thank you for your conversations and creativity over the past year. The Article II Revisions draw on our past, engage with our present, and set us up for a bold future—at least for the next 15 years, when we’ll revise it again! Our living tradition calls us to do so. It has been a great gift for each member of the commission to have had the chance to deeply engage with our faith, and we… Read more »
The results of the Article II vote should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention. The UUA is not composed of a “diverse” cohort and feelings rule all. Serious inquiry of any sort is discouraged. Any interest in the supernatural is verboten. Thus you have a membership of a single political ideology, complete unity in social justice issues and means of change, eco-pseudo science with a focus on partisan policy proscription rather than quantified results oriented solutions that consider unintended consequences, the elevation of the “marginalized racial and sexual minorities” to deity status (you can’t speak on the subject… Read more »
Thank you for a good reminder of why I also left the UUA some decades ago.
As expected, the radical A2 revision is escalating the exodus. For me, yet another process of manufactured consent was a major setback in my four-year search for a path to membership. Our UUA-obeisant minister cheerled the overhaul monthly by extolling each proposed principle. JETPIG was deployed. And former UUA President Susan Frederick-Gray came to twist and (literally) shout about love. It was quite a blitz. Critiques were heard only in small groups — in the home stretch, after most opinions were formed. Remarkably, when the congregation voted, a very UUA-aligned couple (including a former BOT president) abstained. The illiberal pattern… Read more »
Several former members of UUCCWC in Oregon have formed a new group which we are calling the Unitarian Society of Tualatin Plains. Look for us on Facebook. We meet monthly and have been having a great time together. Also I am finding Buddhist practices to be most helpful, practical and joyful. I joined a sangha in Portland and meet with them often and we all just assume we are good people seeking truth, justice and peace. Besides which, I am a lifelong Pagan and still find the Wheel of the Natural Year inspiring. Lots of groups out there for former… Read more »
Current and former members of my congregation in Seattle have formed discussion and support groups. These groups should exist at the congregation, but that hasn’t happened. The congregation no longer meets the interests and needs of numerous current/former members.
When liberal congregations are liberal in name only
We could not get into the town hall despite having preregistered for the Wed. night post-mortem. Will there be a video shared of it?