UUA General Assembly 2019, Spokane, WA June 19-23
Our main purpose at GA was threefold:
- Thursday: to update the Draft Statement of Conscience (SOC), which is the concluding document with recommendations for next steps following the 2016-2020 Congregational Study/Action Issue “The Corruption of Our Democracy.” At the Mini-Assembly we offered numerous amendments that had been drafted by a team including UUs Michael Greenman of Columbus, Ohio; Joan Marshall of All Faiths Unitarian in Ft. Myers, Florida; Anne Burnham, of UUs of Clearwater, Florida, Greg Coleridge of the Move to Amend Coalition, and Michael Bleiweiss of the Ethical Society of New York City. A key focus was the proposed 28th “We the People” amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
- Friday: to pass the updated SOC at the full assembly Friday with the link to the Move to Amend Interfaith Caucus. This caucus is reaching out to all faiths to address the existential threat of climate change.
- Friday, Saturday and Sunday: to reach out to UU congregations all over the country to sign up for information needed for their congregation to pass a resolution for Move to Amend, and encourage their members and interfaith colleagues to join the MTA-Interfaith Caucus.
First, we attended the CUUSAN Assembly before the official start of GA! UU Justice Florida and Martha Kirby from University UU in Orlando started with the CUUSAN Annual Assembly (Coalition of UU State Action Networks). This is a great annual event for all involved in social justice in their state networks—or for those who may want to be involved. Watch the Powerpoint presentation from that assembly (it’s a long one—102 slides!!) including a brief slideshow from 8 networks (Scroll down to slides 34-43 to see UU Justice Florida’s display.) In addition, two networks created their own videos: North Carolina and Maine.
We participated in the Mini-Assembly on the Draft Statement of Conscience (SOC) for the 2016-2020 Congregational Study Action Issue “The Corruption of Our Democracy” on Thursday with a series of proposed amendments. Although many were not adopted because they were considered too detailed, we persuaded the full assembly (of 2600+ delegates) on Friday to adopt the first two unincorporated amendments and pass the final strengthened Statement of Conscience.
Pressing the assembly to pass the Statement of Conscience to work to OVERTURN corporate constitutional rights and money as speech; 99% voted YES!
The final Statement of Conscience will be posted on the UUA website by early July.
NEXT STEPS—UU congregations nationwide:
Will you join the UUA, UUSC (UU Service Committee), and UUJEC (UUs for a Just Economic Community) in support of Move to Amend and 1) pass a resolution for Move to Amend and 2) encourage your members, friends and interfaith partners to join the Move to Amend Interfaith Caucus to address the urgency of the existential threat of climate change? Download the model resolution for UU congregations of all states.