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UU World reports from the annual General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. Click here for a comprehensive guide to our 2011 General Assembly coverage.
By Tom Stites in General Assembly 2011 June 26, 2011 at 10:57 pm Their business done, the closing ceremony’s benediction said, and with the band’s rousing postlude propelling them, a throng of Unitarian Universalists strutted exuberantly out of the huge plenary hall to head home.
After the General Assembly choir had processed down four of the wide hall’s nine aisles, Kellie Walker, the General Assembly music director, led the throng [...]
After impassioned debate on the future of Actions of Immediate Witness at Unitarian Universalist Association General Assemblies, delegates overwhelmingly voted in favor of a bylaw amendment that would eliminate AIWs at the 2012 Justice GA in Phoenix. The amendment also reconstitutes AIWs with the 2013 GA, reducing the allowable number of AIWs to three from six.
An amendment that would have eliminated AIWs from the GA agenda with no provision to restore them failed. It was the first of the two AIW amendments under consideration by the delegates. It needed a two-thirds majority of delegates to pass. However, 508 voted in favor and 406 delegates voted against, short of the two-thirds needed.
Continue reading Delegates vote to eliminate AIWs at 2012 Justice GA
Saturday’s “CSW Alert,” the daily General Assembly social witness business update that delegates will receive as they enter the plenary hall Saturday morning, includes the text of four proposed Actions of Immediate Witness. The Commission on Social Witness could have brought additional proposed AIWs to the Saturday morning plenary, from which delegates could have [...]
Love rained down on the streets of Charlotte, N.C., as 600 people marched from the convention center, site of the Unitarian Univeralist Association’s 2011 General Assembly, to Marshall Park to rally for rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
Heavy rain also came down in Charlotte, bringing the rally to a hasty end, just as UUA President Peter Morales took to the podium to offer a prayer.
But even with soaking wet Standing on the Side of Love t-shirts, the crowd was in generally good spirits. That’s despite discontent before the public witness event that the 10-minute march from the convention center to the park was not accessible to people of limited mobility. Standing on the Side of Love organizers had originally planned an event at the convention center for people in wheelchairs and scooters. However, after complaints that a separate event was not equal, organizers invited people with disabilities to take a taxi to the park and submit their receipts to the UUA for reimbursement.
Continue reading LGBT rights supporters rally in the rain in Charlotte
Coffee with Rev. Don from UU World on Vimeo.
This morning I had a cup of coffee with the Rev. Donald E. Robinson of the Beacon House Community Ministry in Washington, D.C. Beacon House has been partnering with area Unitarian Universalist congregations for over 20 years to enrich the lives of local [...]
Unitarian Universalists took their values into the street Saturday holding a noon rally at Loring Park, swarming the Twin Cities Pride Festival with their yellow Standing on the Side of Love shirts and their messages about marriage equality.
The visual high point [...]
GA delegates are about to debate a proposed Peacemaking Statement of Conscience that calls UUs “to the work of peacebuilding, peacemaking, and peacekeeping,” and to “advocate a culture of peace through a transformation of public policies, religious consciousness, and individual lifestyles.”
Delegates will debate and vote on the statement during this morning’s plenary session. The statement must [...]
With only one day left before it goes for a final vote, GA delegates and other peace activists met with the Commission on Social Witness Thursday morning to discuss and suggest amendments to a proposed Statement of Conscience on Peacemaking. The Statement calls UUs “to the work of peacebuilding, peacemaking, and peacekeeping,” and to “advocate [...]
The UUA’s Commission on Social Witness and peacemaking activists met Wednesday evening to discuss strategies for successfully passing a proposed Statement of Conscience on Peacemaking. The Statement calls UUs “to the work of peacebuilding, peacemaking, and peacekeeping,” and to “advocate a culture of peace through a transformation of public policies, religious consciousness, and individual lifestyles.”
The draft [...]
The six social witness resolutions introduced by petition and adopted by the 2009 UUA General Assembly in Salt Lake City last month are now online:
Action of Immediate Witness 1: Advocate Pending Legislation Toward Clean, Honest, and Fair Elections in the United States
Action of Immediate Witness 2: U.S. Ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban [...]
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