Just some updates.
NAUA Summit Speaker
The originally scheduled speaker for the North American Unitarian Association (NAUA) Summit could not fulfill that commitment. A new speaker, John Wood, Jr., has been identified.
The Summit will be held October 17 – 20, 2024 in Spokane, WA. You may attend in-person or virtually. For more information visit this link.
John Wood is a national ambassador for Braver Angels, the United States’ largest grassroots, bipartisan organization dedicated to political depolarization.
A nationally recognized public speaker on the subjects of political and racial reconciliation, Wood has spoken across America to a wide range of the nation’s most respected think tanks, universities, corporations, philanthropic organizations and political associations.
Wood was raised in a musical family. His father is noted Jazz Pianist John Wood, and his mother is the popular Los Angeles-based R&B singer Deonda Theus. Wood’s grandfather was record industry pioneer Randy Wood of Dot Records and founder of Randy’s Record Shop. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.
UUA Membership
After several years of not providing current membership statistics, the UUA has finally updated its membership statistics from 2021 to 2024. The most striking takeaway from the official UUA membership statistics is the precipitous drop in Association membership from 2017 to 2024.
Since the UUA launched its drive to purge the denomination and Association of its alleged complicity with white supremacy culture, it has lost 23,309 members. The official membership of 130,265 represents the lowest membership count in the entire 63-year history of the Association.
Even the reported numbers may have some softness. Although the officially reported count of churches is 1,000, the 2024 count of congregations from the List of Certified Congregations records only 981 congregations. The Commission on Institution Change, in its 2020 Widening the Circle of Concern, was even more pessimistic about the number of congregations.
While we typically refer to 1,000 congregations, in truth we now have 819 congregations that would meet the standard to become a congregation today. (Trends, page 1-2).
Accurate information on congregations and membership may be elusive. What is apparent is that there is a downward trend in the health of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Bear in mind the Association is NOT the denomination! The Association is just a business organization with bylaws, staff, and a building in Boston. Individual congregations and fellowships hold the heart of the denomination.
Which leads us to our next update.
Ending Membership in the UUA
We have received several unsolicited requests from congregations and fellowships seeking assistance on how to end their Association membership.
We feel compelled to respond to these requests by creating both a community of like-minded congregations/fellowships and formally documenting the pros/cons and steps for terminating membership in the UUA.
We are in the early stages of this endeavor and welcome your comments and observations.
If you would like to participate in this effort, please use our Contact Us page to share your thoughts.
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What a score! John Wood is fantastic.
Thank you for this great graph. I had to do a lot of counting bars to find out that the graph begins in 1961. and the two “drop” years. each preceding a recovery, were 1981 and 2000. So I worked with the graph to add dates. I discovered that there are missing years. Two years missing somewhere between 2000 and 2009. Another year missing somewhere between 2017 and 2024. The number of lines doesn’t add up to the number of years. I fixed the graph two ways. I left a blank space between 05 and 08 – though again, the… Read more »
PS. I messed up the 2023 line, put it in twice. Here attached is the correction.The 2024 number is still repeated from 2023, stretched out. The missing year could be anywhere after 2017 – assuming that’s correct. I also misspoke about the “drop” years. The were 1990-91 and 2000-01. PPS I’m very interested in what happened in those “drop” years – the only single-year dips, both of which were quickly recovered from into new gains in membership. 2009 -2024 is now starting to look like 1968-1982 – a fifteen and an fourteen-year decline respectively. Maybe the UUA will follow this… Read more »
John, thanks for all the extra due diligence on the membership numbers. The graph was designed to illustrate the membership health of the denomination. With your extra and excellent detail, there is still an alarming drop since 2017.
But the point is still that the Association is mis-managing the movement. In fact, I would argue that they’re mis-managing it more than before!
It’s important to note that the membership data is collected at the beginning of the year and reflects the actions of the previous year. Hence, the effects of passing the Article II Rewrite in June 2024 won’t be apparent until 2024 membership data is collected in January 2025 and published as the 2025 membership.
Good point, Steve. That said, I don’t expect the full effect of the Article II rewrite to show for a few years. I suspect some UUs, myself included, won’t officially drop UUism until we see how our local congregations respond to the Article II rewrite. I have chosen to give my congregation a one-year “grace period” to decide whether to initiate a process of evaluating the congregation’s relationship with the UUA. If no process is initiated by our annual meeting in May 2025, I will resign my membership in 2025 which will then show up in the 2026 data. If… Read more »
I hope you will at some point mention how an individual should proceed in order to remove their membership from the UUA. My congregation will not likely withdraw but I plan to withdraw my membership before the next pledging season. My current plan is to write a letter of resignation to my local congregation. Need I do more? Thank you.
We believe the process you noted to end your membership in your home congregation is correct. We recommend before you submit your letter of resignation that you speak with a board member and share your thoughts. You may find reason to pause your departure or, at least, ensure the reason you left are understood.
https://www.liznorell.com/fallen_angel/?
Food for thought regarding Braver Angels.
Yes, I’m shocked someone who is clearly pointing out how horrible it is that most folks there were white and (most horrific of all) middle aged or <gasp> OLD, had a problem with this organization. This is one my biggest beefs with this Identitarianism Ideology. They claim to hate racism (at least certain types) and ableism, but BRING ON THE AGEISM. That’s a feature, not a bug. Many of them claim to embrace indigenous cultures. You know what Native Americans would not do? Disparage their elders.
I am finding these posts helpful in grasping what has and is happening. Thanks to all of you. This film I have come across does provide some humour to the situation. It is a ‘Borat’ like assualt on DEI culture. Definitely cringe worthy…”AM I RACIST?” is not every one’s cup of tea, or poison. I felt like going out and getting plastered after seeing it. DEI culture is one of the problems we face.