Speaker: Rev. Charles Howe

"If you don't know who you was, you don't know who you is; and if you don't know who you is, you ain't nobody." So spoke Alex Haley's grandmother.

The Rev. Charles Howe helped us know who we 'is' by leading us down the stream of modern Unitarian thought, from its headwaters in 16th century Spain to Geneva, where Michael Servetus was executed. The outcry after Servetus was burned stimulated two new branches, one led by Francis David to Transylvania, another with Socinus to Poland, and from there eventually to England and the USA.

Parts of this stream appeared to dry up, but recently it has begun to flow again in 20 countries. Dr Howe believes the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) is an organization whose time has come. "Grab the moment," he urged. "It is time for us to leave our isolationism behind us and look at UU through a global lens".

The Principles and Purposes, developed by member congregations and adopted by them at ICUU's Founding Conference in Essex, Massachusetts on March 25, 1995, turned out to be amazingly similar to the UUA's Principles & Purposes. The member groups of the ICUU affirm a belief in liberty of conscience and individual thought in matters of faith, as well as in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. One of their purposes is to facilitate mutual support, for example, by promoting an exchange of ministers and by bringing member groups into dialog. This dialog is becoming easier with the availability of email services in many parts of the world, with the increasing use of the Internet, and with an email list (ICUU-L) sponsored by the UUA. Subscription information for ICUU-L can be found at http://www.uua.org/lists.

Report submitted by Mike and Kok Heong McNaughton, formatted for the web by Margy Levine Young

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