General Session 5, General Assembly 2020

Program Description

Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Co-Moderators Mr. Barb Greve and Elandria Williams preside over the general sessions in which the business of the Association is conducted.​

See the Final Agenda (PDF, 12 pages) for more about the business process.

Agenda

  • Call to Order
  • Opening Words
  • GA Theme—Rooted, Inspired, and Ready
  • Installation of Elected Volunteers to the Board of Trustees, General Assembly Planning Committee, and Nominating Committee
  • Voting Process Review
  • Consideration of Actions of Immediate Witness
    See the CSW Update (PDF) for more information
  • Music
  • Proposed Responsive Resolutions
    • Widening the Circle: Establishing Ongoing Intersectional Accountability Commission and Sunsetting the JTWTC—Adopted
    • Supporting and Investing In Youth and Young Adults in Unitarian Universalism—Adopted
    • The Pandemic: a Religious Response—Adopted
    • Responsive Resolution to the Report from the Commission on Institutional Change—Not admitted to the agenda (not adopted)
  • Closing Words
  • Announcements

Rough Edited Captioning

​CART captioning provided by Alternative Communication Services, LLC.

This is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.


>> Let us welcome with gratitude those who have said yes for the call to serve.

>> Do you covenant to affirm and promote justice equity compassion human relations? As you Signify—may serve as an instrument of reconciliation, open welcome. Do you covenant to affirm and promote a goal of community of peace, justice and liberty for all?

May you deal forthrightly and honestly with us, keeping foremost in your heart the health and well-being of our movement, speaking your truth without fear of repercussions and encouraging others to do the same.

Do you covenant to affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process?

In the spirit of hospitality and understanding of all people, may also cross your path feel that they have been heard and seriously considered. Do you covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of all?

We the general assembly covenant to support you as you serve our movement. May our trust carry but through both difficulty in triumph in gratitude. We thank you for your willingness to serve.

>> Hi I'm Carey McDonald. Executive Vice President and thanks for being a part of the business sessions a virtual assembly 2020. Let's explain how this will work. While it is similar in some ways to the big, in person plan research session, the virtual session will have a different feel but will hopefully allow more people to participate directly with the business of the Association.

To participate, you must be registered and locked into the GA portal. In the Mayhall session you may see a live feed of the meeting and chat rooms and delegates will also be able to view the polls and voting window.

If you have ever been an off-site delegate you will recognize this portal. It's been developed in-house since the UUA started making off-site delegate participation available in 2011. The meeting feed in the main hall will be held a meeting is planned. It's a live stream zoom meeting with the moderation team and other multimedia content. It includes eco-moderators, other members of the UUA board, our parliamentarian and our legal counsel.

Participants can join one of the five chat rooms. They are birch, maple, opal, Palm and Spruce in the operate coat weekly at the same time. You can join any chat room or switch to another one but can only be in one single chat room at a time. They all have hosts to help everyone participate.

During the meeting delegates can comment under consideration by omitting written statements into the Pro comic-con or procedure amendment gives through the submission form. Pro and con statements are limited to 200 words. Tellers read your submission into the meeting. You can only have one submission live at a time to be able to see wherever you are in the queue. You might get a response from the teller. You can also submit advanced video or audio statements of up to two minutes about any item on the agenda, up to two hours before the start of the session in which is being considered. Pre-submitted content will be captioned and sequence at the beginning of the business discussion.

Both will be announced and shared through the video feed, but only delegates will have access to develop window and button. Review the rules of procedure and the participation guide.

Great places to check. You can also email the tech team at GA online support and UUA.org. Thanks for being a part of the first ever all virtual general assembly.

>> On Thursday, the commission on social witness published a pool via the online participation portal in general assembly for the assembly to review the actions of media witness media criteria as outlined in the bylaw and articulated on the UA website.

The poll allow delegates to vote in the actions of immediate witness that they support being placed on the agenda for this session. After the poll closed on Friday, at 1 PM Eastern time, we publish an update via the online participation portal and the GAF the final text for all to review. For those wishing to view this now, the update is posted on the online participation portal under news and updates, that is to the left on your screen. And in the GA app this post has links to the text under notifications at the bottom of your screen.

In consultation with the proposers and UUA legal counsel, we made only one revision since the poll was posted on Thursday. The revision is underlined now in the text posted with the title uprising a commitment and call to action. It clarifies with whom the UUA is called to collaborate with in this eighth paragraph of that text. The clarify text is this " we call upon the UUA to collaborate with organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to the work outlined in this a IW. For example, national bailout. Reclaim the block. Black lives of UU. In education support and resource development for congregations. And so forth,".

We may know further revisions and acknowledge the powerful, prophetic words and actions call for by the proposals. Words, voice from the emergency and courageously calling us as a faith toward a collective vision of beloved community. We invite the assembly to demonstrate respect for the people whose voices experiences wisdom and vital prophetic insight are authentically and powerfully expressed in these a IW's. Both a IW's receive report from over 90 percent of the delegates voted. Based on the strong boats of the delegates the commission on social witness moved to admit the following draft actions of immediate witness to this general session agenda. This vote is to admit these to the agenda. We will have a vote to adopt. We will make a motion to adopt later.

So first, the first action of immediate witness under consideration, the commission on social witness moves to admit the action of an immediate witness titled address 400 years of white supremacist colonialism to the agenda.

The second AIW under consideration, the commission on social witness, also most to admit the AIW titled Amen to Uprising, A Commitment and Call to Action to the agenda.

>> On John Newhall. One of your members of the Board of Trustees and a member of the moderation team. We are going to be taking vote on the—is whether to admit to the agenda the 400 Years of White Supremacist Colonialism.

This requires a two-thirds affirmative vote in order to be admitted to the agenda.

This is not—please, put up the poll now. Please, put up the poll now.

>> We are still waiting on the results from our tech team. I'll announce those as soon as I get them.

The results are in. We've got 95 percent in favor. Two percent oppose. And two percent are abstaining. This item has been admitted to the agenda.

We will now take a vote on whether or not to admit to the agenda the second action of immediate witness, Amen to Uprising, a Commitment and, Call to Action. This is not a debatable motion. It requires a two-thirds vote to admit to the agenda. Will the poll please go up now?

We've got our vote tallies in. We got 93 percent in favor. Four percent oppose and three percent abstaining. This item has also been admitted onto the agenda.

We are now going to move into our discussion on whether or not to affirm these actions of immediate witness beginning with 400 Years of White Supremacy.

We are going to move into our first—Hold on.

We have a video by Ann Gilmore was Clyde Grubbs speaking at the mic.

>> Hello. I'm Clyde Grubbs. I'm the chair minister and a member of the Texas Turkey band. I've been working on indigenous rights since my young adulthood. And I've been working with unit Unitarians all my life. I would like to talk about this action of immediate witness that have introduced, addressed 400 Years of White supremacist them. And in Gilmore and Karen Ben Foster and myself drafted it and we drafted it to mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower.

What happened with the Mayflower is it brought a form of colonialism in which the settlers themselves were the colonialists. And that sometimes is hidden in U.S. history that that is a colonial act and replace the original culture. And genocide. The original culture. And people.

So the resolution explains how the consequences of this and then some of the things that we can do. And what we are doing the part of the resolution that I ask you to read is developing in coordination with actual indigenous struggles that Unitarian universals are in contact with. So this is a way to help spread the word and the joy of being in solidarity. We also salute the other resolution that is being offered for the actions of immediate witness.

And because Standing Rock itself was an uprising and we know all about police. Indian country has been riddled with police. White supremacy needs to be deconstructed and we need to do it together.

>> Thank you, delegate. A reminder that we are voting to affirm these actions of immediate witness. They can both be affirmed. We've heard your concerns. About suspending the rules.

We request that we take to pro statements and two con statements before we move to suspend the rules. There is a question in the procedural queue. Based on this determination, it is not in order at this time.

I now recognize the delegate at the Pro microphone.

>> Hello. From Karen Warman of Cedar Lane Unitarian versus church in Bethesda, Maryland. I support the a IW—AIW because I come from a white family that can trace more than one branch of my tree to some coldness. We trace ourselves to complicated mix of the Irish and Scottish sure impressed into the English pressures. I say this because as a white Anglo-American, I need to own and deal with my past to be a better antiracist and to live my UU values.

I also expect as UU to deal with our past and stop with our theological and congregational forebears. I strongly support increased relationships with the Mashpee a walk the try. I acknowledge and support the indigenous UU among us and all the indigenous people of the Americas. I support this.

I recognize the delegate at the concern queue.

>> I'm from the Unitarian church in Seattle Washington. Concerning the 400 years of colonialism. He says hello, my beloved UU. Thanks for listening to me. If you favor this AIW I accept you and support you in your free and responsible search for meaning—truth and meaning. Today I'm asking you to—whether this level of negativity is healthy for our liberal religion. It seems that we UUs here—what we hear from our leaders is mostly negative. We liberal UUs are accused of allergy to authority, theological emptiness, blindness to oppression, racism and fragility. This AIW fits this narrative in its one-sided negative view of Western civilization. The Western tradition is a complicated mix of good and evil and our UU tradition is a proud—of the—our leaders constant negativity is resulted in deep conflict throughout our community. If you would like our community to embrace a more balanced narrative, please vote no on this AIW. If you vote yes, I love you as a fellow UU, support you and accept you. Thanks for listening.

>> Jonathan tweet from the University Unitarian Church of Seattle Washington.

>> I—before we move on to the Pro mic I've been asked to remind people that we can vote both of these, but we cannot vote on both of them at once. We must vote on them individually.

And now I recognize the delegate at the Pro mic. From Diana in Florida. Pro statement regarding the AIW statement on or hundred Years of White Privilege appeared we cannot undo history but we can write a new future. Now is the time to institute this AIW. Empowering us to move beyond 400 years of entrenched culture.

There is currently a motion to suspend the rules. What purpose does the delegate wish to suspend the rules? While we wait on that response, we are going to move to the con microphone. I recognize the delegate at the con microphone.

>> I'm speaking on behalf of Frank Casper, Unitarian congregation of Atlanta. Brookhaven, Georgia.

The slogan, defund the police, conveys a message that is precisely as anyone would initially take it. To simply dismantle them. And that is exactly why—what is meant by some who advanced that slogan. And while it is true that there are many good ideas beneath it, the average person will not see them and because of the slogan, will not hear them. It makes people uncomfortable and it should because the public policy, of the slogan itself is insane and a nonstarter among many African-
Americans.

We can help in the fall that those doing the explaining of what it means and doesn't mean will get their message across to the American voter, but you can also be sure that those we need to defeat in order to have any hope at all of implementing the needed change, will be busy handing the slogan around our next.

The larger concern is to be considered is will this slogan attract moderates and right of center voters that are needed to achieve electoral victory? That is, do we want to be mad or victorious? Frank Casper, Unitarian Universalist congregation of Atlanta, Brookhaven, Georgia.

Just to be clear, this was about the other AIW.

>> There don't seem to be any other concerns about 400 Years of Colonialism. Which means, you are ready to vote.

A reminder that this requires a two-thirds majority vote in order to affirm this AIW. Tech deck, if you would put up the poll now. Thank you.

We have our results in. 94 percent are in favor. Four percent oppose and three percent abstain. We have affirmed this a IW. Before we move on to the next one I want to announce that to please, when you are putting your statements into the Pro and con queues, please specify to which item you are referring. To make sure that is clear going forth with the responsive resolutions later today as well.

We will now again discussion on the second AIW, Amen to Uprising. We first go to the video prepared by Jason Longman.

>> The video by Jason Lyman.

>> (Music)

I recognize the delegate of the concern queue. We will be rereading the statement from the previous discussion.

>> Again, this is from Frank Casper from the Unitarian Universalist congregation of Atlanta from Brookhaven, Georgia. I read it in the wrong place. So we will reread it now.

The slogan, defund the police, conveys a message that is precisely as anyone would initially take it. To simply dismantle them. That is exactly what is meant by some who advanced that slogan. And while it is true that there are many good ideas beneath it, the average person will not see them and precisely because of the slogan, will not hear them. It makes people uncomfortable and it showed. Because, as public policy, the slogan itself is insane. It's a nonstarter among many African-Americans. We can help in the fall that those that are doing the explaining of what it means and doesn't mean will get the message across to the American voter. You can also be sure that those we need to defeat in order to have any hope at all in implementing the needed changes will be busy hanging the slogan around our next. The larger concern to be considered is will the slogan attract moderates and right of center voters that are needed to achieve electoral victory? That is do we want to be mad or victorious? Frank Casper from Unitarian Universalist congregation of Atlanta.

>> I recognize the delegate at the Pro you.

>> From Leilani Devon Berry of Westside UU congregation in Seattle, Washington. Pro statement regarding the AIW Amen to uprising. We are called by black, young people, mom is in her future great when the world paused, times of burnings and uprisings came. We acted in alignment with our UU values. We side with all the black and brown children to remove the police from schools. Children slated to be funneled into the new Jim Crow, mass incarceration system.

We sided with people experiencing disabilities. Almost half of the people die in police custody have a pulley—disability. We did not just do performative acknowledgment of indigenous people. We saw indigenous communities were more likely than any other group, including African-Americans, to be killed by the police. We saw interconnected web of poverty, trauma, white supremacy, misogyny, mass incarceration and xenophobia and sided with the inherent dignity of all.

We joined the movement to end the system that permanently keeps million second-class denied basic rights including the right to be free of legal discrimination in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits. We stop believing and responded to violence with more violence. We acted on creating justice, healing, accountability, community care, resources and resilience in our communities.

And that was from Leilani Devon Berry, delegate of Westside UU congregation was his occupied lands of the do warmish people, one of the coastal college. Colonized place name, Seattle.

>> I recognize the delegate. At the con Q.

>> This is from David Mitchell of UU church in Kirkland, Ohio. I am concerned with the part of the AIW Amen to the Uprising about deactivating security systems that mobilize police response when triggered. I feel this is a step too far and will create safety issues.

Are you deactivating a call to the police or to the fire department? Most people don't have the technical knowledge to determine the difference, otherwise I support this AIW.

David Mitchell, East shore Unitarian Universalist church, Kirkland, Ohio.

>> I recognize the delegate at the Pro queue.

>> From Aisha Hauser, from Church of the larger Fellowship in Boston, Massachusetts. I am supporting Amen to uprising because I believe we need to create containers of love and transformation. We need to expand our imaginations beyond punishment and incarceration. We have it in us to learn a better way of being and existing.

>> I recognize the delegate at the con queue.

>> Stephen Knowlton of the UU congregation in Lincroft, New Jersey. Stephen writes I think that our congregation alarm system should be connected to the police station for our protection. Stephen Knowlton, UU congregation Lincroft New Jersey.

>> I recognize the delegate at the Pro queue

>> From Leanne loose skin of first Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond, Virginia. As a delegate of first UU Church of Richmond, Virginia, I am in strong support of the Amen to uprising AIW. This is a message of putting our faith into action. We have spent a great deal of time and energy on educating and encouraging white people to step into doing anti- racism work. And it has been good and powerful. And we need action that will have a real impact on the lives of our assemblies.

The call to action contained in this message is in line with every one of our principles and offers a vision of how to move forward with healthier, more just, communities.

>> We have more delegates—we have no more—thank you. Have been asked to speak louder. I will do my best.

We have no more delegates at the con queue and so it's time for us to vote. A reminder, this takes a two-thirds vote to affirm. And would the tech deck please put up the slide for voting?

>> Our results are in. We have 82 percent in favor, 13 percent opposed and five percent abstain. This AIW has been affirmed.

I am now going to hand things over for Benjie for some music.

>> Hello everyone. Both of these actions invite us to throw in our own lot with each other in the rest of the world. So I would like to sing a song about that about going it together.

It's called where you go I will tell. It has a drum circle and structure and that you in just a fabulous song leader. We do have slides so if you want to pull up those slides, where you go

I will go here we go.

>> (Music)

>> Can we keep Benjie going? I'm not quite ready yet.

>> (Laughing). Are you serious? Yeah. Sure.

>> You have another song for us, Benjie?

>> Of course. Of course. Sure.

>> I can use my zipper song if you've got it.

>> Let's do over my head. That's a nice, hopeful song. I like that one. And it's short.

(Music)

A pleasure to know that you are all singing with me, folks.

>> Thank you so much, Benjie. Thank you for filling time and for aching sure we had joyful singing.

We are now ready to begin consideration of responsive resolutions.

We have determined that amendments to responsive resolutions are not in order. This is consistent with our policy that amendments must come before the assembly of many assemblies for them to be on the floor.

Since we did not have many assemblies about responsive resolutions, we do not have them. Amendments are not in order at this time. The first phase of responsive resolution is admitting it to the agenda, which is followed by a two-minute pro statement advocating for that item.

The first responsive resolution on the docket is the JT WTC, the journey toward wholeness, filmic transformation many and the commission on institutional change response. For that, JTWTC is presenting the video that was submitted by Ben Gable. Tech deck, can you get that on?

>> I am the Reverend—I serve as the halftime minister for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Pickett's plea in the first Unitarian Society in Westchester New York. And soon to be the minister of the coast of Virginia Unitarian church in Virginia. But today I speak to as a member of the jury 12—toward wholeness committee. I moved the adoption of this proposed responsive resolution widening the circle establishing ongoing intersectional accountability commission and sunsetting the JTWTC. I and the other members of the JTWTC, recognize the important work of institutional change and we acknowledge that the way to transformation requires action. Immediate action in this case because what has been happening in our denomination has been going on for far too long.

Those of us who have been on the margins in our faith both historically and in current times need to make sure that the UUA and our communities are committed to institutional change. This resolution seeks to implement immediate actions to bring about the love community through commitment to antiracism and antioppression work.

As members of the JTWTC we recognize that a new accountability structure directly involving Board of Trustees and with representatives from marginalized groups can bring stronger relationships and new strength to this work.

Therefore, the JTWTC supports this resolution which effectively sunsets this committee for the purpose of creating a new and stronger accountability structure, which this denomination so desperately needs.

>> JTWTC has moved, admitting the responsive resolution to the agenda. This is not debatable. it requires a two-thirds affirmative vote in order to be admitted to the agenda. Tech deck, can we get the appropriate poll to admit the resolution?

>> Please remember to hold displaying the results until we have everyone's votes cast.

>> We are still seeing no one in the queue, right, Kathy? We are still seeing no one in the queue? It is?

>> Not so much fun. It is (Laughing). It is always a joy to meet yourself when you're declaring the results of the vote. And so, again, we have 95 percent in favor. We have one percent oppose and four percent abstaining from this vote. Which means we have admitted this to the agenda.

We have something in the procedural queue. I recognize the delegate at the procedural queue.

>> This is from Aaron White, fourth Universalist Society in the city of New York, New York City. We are voting on admitting the wrong resolution.

>> Would the delegate clarify which resolution we believe were voting on? We are—there are two about the institution of change. This is particularly about the accountability body. Very well I recognize the delegate at the Pro queue.

>> This is from Lauren Strauss from first parish of Watertown, Watertown, Massachusetts. I am in favor of this responsive resolution. The time is now to affirm and move forward on the CO ICs recommendation and to make changes in our denomination Association.

>> I recognize the delegate at the procedural queue. Good to hear from you, Lauren.

>> This is from Joanna Lipkin at all souls Church of Braintree in Braintree, Massachusetts.

A number of us have been trying to enter comments since the second AIW and submit buttons have not been working for us. Is there any way to confirm that our comments are actually getting through?

This is from Joanna Lipkin in Braintree, Massachusetts.

>> I'm very sorry to hear. We are having some technical issues. From our IT team on getting the announcement that we may need to refresh your delegates page. We've had several come through just now. There were some issues what we are going through the AIWs. But to our knowledge we corrected those issues at that time.

I recognize the delegate at the procedural queue.

>> This is from grand Worman Cedar Lane unit tearing church in Bethesda Maryland. It has not been clear where we find the responsive resolutions. Please have the mods add these links to each chat room.

>> Very well. I will leave that to our chat host. A few of the folks on the mods squad might be able to pop that in to the chat rooms. I'm getting confirmation from our IT team that the chat moderators have been popping that in as well.

You can also find the responsive resolutions in the app. There was an alert today. It should be under the business menu when you click on the little hamburger at the bottom of your screen. New an event should also have it if you are inside the delegate portal.

Something else at the procedural queue. I'm going to address it directly. We are very sorry that we are having some issues with bandwidth and spotty connectivity. And so, we will continue to work on that.

The IT team is on life with us so they are working on that. I will feed you any updates that I have.

All right. I recognize the delegate at the procedural queue.

>> From Rick Whitten, first UU congregation of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Will there be a statement providing context for this resolution?

The statement of context for the resolution is found inside of the commission on institutional change report, which is available online unless COIC institution change website. It's also available for purchase through our ins. Bookstore. Each of your congregations will also receive a copy of the report in hard copy in the fall at some point. But it is available right now.

If there is more context needed, please resubmit to the queue and I'm happy to get someone to answer the question a little bit further.

All right. Friends, I'm seeing a lot of stuff in the procedural queue. And sometimes we use the procedural queue to slow down the conversation that we want to have. All right. And so, I want to make sure that we are using the procedural queue to have a discussion about things that we cannot otherwise have discussion on about regarding the discussion that we are actually having.

So accessibility concerns, you want to move the conversation along, we've spent the last five minutes just answering questions, which is not counted against the actual discussion time, but does count against REALTIME. Time marches on.

All right. I see another procedural that I will address. There is some concerns that we are not able to use the tools that we need. I have confirmation from IT that everything is working again properly. And so, as a matter of fact, tech team, help me out.

Could you put up a poll about whether your technology is working? I would like a question—is your technology working yes, no, third option. Let's go ahead and take that test, folks. We will make sure everyone's information is working properly.

All right. We have our poll up now. The votes are coming in. It looks like a few people's tech is working.

We have two percent that is saying that their technology is not working. Almost—I'm okay with almost. I have a reminder from our IT team that if you have tech issues, please email GA online support at UUA.org.

And tech team, let's go ahead and close the poll.

All right. It looks like most everyone's tech is working.

So we will go ahead with those. I see a couple of items in the procedural queue. I am noting that some people need more time to vote and we will go ahead and slow down a little bit more so that people can get their votes in.

All right. I also see a question in the procedural queue to—for a motion to vote. A motion to vote is not an order right now. However, there are only Pro statements. And so, we will take one more pro statement and it sounds like you are ready to vote. I recognize the delegate in the Pro queue.

>> This is from Amy Young, delegate from Church of the larger Fellowship, Boston Massachusetts. As a wheelchair user with additional disabilities and mother of a multiethnic household, my family has experienced multiple instances of marginalization in your use basis. I urge all delegates in the strongest ways possible to support this resolution and build reconciliation into our communities with pressure for the local level to match the aspirations and experiences available at general assemblies, even as an off-site attendee.

>> All right. I also see some more concerns in the procedural queue. There is a concern about showing the poll before the vote has closed.

We are sensitive to that. If we are in a live hall, you have also seen the way other people were voting. So, whether it is —or not, this is the context of what we have voted all along. I also see some items about suspending the rules. We don't need to do that just yet. We are actually finished with discussion. So we are ready to go ahead and vote.

And I see a concern to read the issue that is in voted on just prior to the vote.

I can go ahead and do that.

Tech deck, queue up the poll. We are about to vote on the responsive resolution that calls for accountability body similar to the commission on the institutional change to take over from the journey worlds—towards homeless community and also sunset, the jury toward homeless transformation committee while we are forming that accountability body.

Please post the poll now.

>> Once again, a reminder, this takes a two-thirds majority in the affirmative that is in favor in order to pass.

>> We have closed the poll. We have 97 percent in favor, one percent opposed and two percent abstaining. I have some information from the procedural queue about stating that 66 percent is the threshold. It is not 66 percent. We actually need above 66 percent. So 67 percent or higher is the threshold for all of these.

And it looks like we have gone ahead and affirmed this responsive resolution.

We are ready to go ahead and switch.

>> My name is Kemy. I'm a delegate from first Unitarian Church of Orlando. We are submitting this statement in favor of the responsive resolution. From the GA use caucus.

>> My name is Carey Gottfried. On the delegate for the UU in Oregon. On behalf of the young the doll caucus would like to submit the statement in favor of this responsive resolution.

>> We are the backbone of this state.

>> IEM and we are the past, present and future of this faith.

>> We are obligated to support and recognize the value of youth and young adult leaders in this church.

>> Now is the time for Unitarian did Universalists to support and invest in youth and young adults.

>> In the past 24 hours, while we have been writing and revising this document, which not only receive support from over 100 nondelegate and delegate UUs we received the port of the Laredo board and the drum steering committee.

>> We need vibrant use and young adult ministry so that my daughter have a faith that will love her into adulthood.

>> Unitary Universalists need your support.

>> There the past, present and future of this faith.

>> We must hear, value and support our youth and young adults to fully live into our values as Unitarian Universalists.

>> Vote Pro on our responsive resolution.

(Audio Lost)

>> Okay. I've got so many things going on. Again, I'm Kathy and I am leading the discussion for this responsive resolution which we received from the youth and young adult caucuses. Give her the sponsors speak.

I am not seeing any procedural or con statements. So I will give people a minute because I know sometimes when we switch gears, some folks got to get a drink of water and I don't want them to miss anything important.

So it has been a real thrill to see so many people.

Okay. So I recognize the delegate from the Pro mic.

>> This is from Emily Garrick, the you—supporting and investing in youth and young adults in Unitarian Universalism in line with the report from the commission on change UU adults would like to bring up issues surrounding their experience especially in adults of color. The Unitarian reversal is dissociation, both as an organization and as a coalition member conversation—and affiliated groups, has a history of failure to meet the needs with young adults with our membership.

That history is decades long. It encompasses both an inability to stay in contact with the transmit population in the fundamental misunderstanding of how to connect spiritually.

Young adults of color are disproportionately affected. We have the data. We know from years’ worth of research and reports exactly what the problems and solutions look like. The works of Reverend Wiley McKnight, Sharon and Emily Parker come to mind. Again, young adults of color are especially in need of our connection and support.

Anything we can do that will uplift and support young adults of color will have the added benefit of supporting everyone in our religious community. Without meaningful allocation of resources and funds, we will lose and not engage with young adults.

>> Next up will be Leslie.

>> I move this onto the agenda. And I will accept a motion to place this on the agenda. Do we need to vote it on the agenda. So will I ask the tech deck please open the poll. This vote is to admit the item to the agenda. So we can have a discussion.

>> And people look asking where they can find this in the business section of our—somebody from the—one of our folks can put up the link so that people can see where to find it. That would be helpful. I can't move back and forth through my screens and do that myself.

Tech deck, do we still have votes coming in?

Since there's no opposition it looks like we have voted to move this item onto the agenda. So now we are open for discussion.

I'm not seeing any procedural so I recognize the delegate at the

Pro queue.

>> This is Leslie, administer at the UU church in Walnut, California. The outgoing commission on change wishes to would endorse this responsive resolution and endorse inclusion of youth in the accountability structure.

We consider ability to name is in the report and omission and a sign at the cost of young adult structures in our cessation for more than a decade. We publicly apologize for this omission. Again, we urge you to support this resolution.

>> Next up will be Joanna Lumpkin.

>> I recognize the delegate at the con queue.

>> Is that me?

>> I'm not—I'm in the procedure queue. I'm the procedure microphone.

>> From Craig—from first Parish in Bedford, Bedford Massachusetts. What is the anticipated impact of this resolution on the UUA budget as a whole?

>> Can I ask—can I ask a member of the—that is not a concern. That's a request for information. Can we get a very short answer from—from Carey McDonald, our Executive Vice President. Carey says that they will be evaluating that in the coming months and discussions between the Board and the administration. Thank you for your question.

I recognize the delegate at the Pro microphone.

>> A statement from Reverend Joanna Lumpkin, minister at all souls Church in Braintree, Massachusetts a former UU chaplain at Wellesley College.

I urge you and boat—to vote in favor of this use resolution. As a college chaplain I have seen and heard so many first-hand accounts of programs, staffing and funding for our youth and young adult programming. And now I serve in a congregation that wonders what we have no young folks. I mourn for lack of resources for them. I you urge you to vote for our youth.

>> Okay. We—it may have been explained earlier, we have lots of things happening on the mod squad side with various people calling in and giving information to the discussion Phyllis's ears—facilitators. It's fun.

There's a request to have all the votes read.

I think we can leave the chat up for a little while, but really, we need to move on to other items. So we will try to figure out a way to see if we can show the comments or I will as the people who are putting Pro comments into the queue to go to a chat room and share them with the delegates that way.

Seeing that there is no con in the terms of the opposition are concerned, it sounds like we are ready to vote.

So again, if the tellers—if the tech deck would please get the poll set up that would be great. We are voting on a resolution sponsored by the youth and young adults to help meet their needs.

We do have the lecture would gives us a hard stop which is why we cannot take the time to read all the comments. Please share your comments in your chat rooms and that will help the delegates to understand better the rationale for your petition.

>> If we have—we have some music between this one and the next one. Thank you.

All right. We have 99 percent in favor, one percent opposed. We have zero abstentions. So we have affirmed this responsive resolution. Thank you all for this participation and I will invite Benjie to give us music while we shift over. We are playing musical chairs here as we take turns doing this job.

So thank you for your votes and thank you for your patience and let's enjoy some music.

>> Sorry about that. Hello again. There is something I forgot to say earlier. You know, one of the songs we sang were you go, I will go, is used as the theme song of finding her way home which is the annual gathering of religious professionals of color. And I really should have acknowledged that context before leaving it in this majority white space. I apologize for not doing that.

But we do have time to sing one more. I'm going to ask if the slides can, for we shall not be moved.

I'll tell you the Spanish if we get that far and we haven't had slides yet.

(Music)

And Greg, do just cut me off when it's time because this song has so many verses.

Let's do the Spanish.

(Singing in Spanish.)

(Music)

Thank you all.

>> Thank you, Benjie. Our next responsive resolution has to do with the religious response to the pandemic. We need a motion to admit this to the agenda. While the sponsor please make that motion?

You will need to make a motion in the discussion queue, the box that is on your delegate page. Okay. We are having a little technical difficulty getting the delegate—here we go.

Okay. I recognize the delegate at the procedure will—procedure microphone.

>> Almost.

>> Okay. We have Caitlin also made the motion. I will treat that is the second. The first thing we will do, then, is conduct the boat to admit this to the agenda.

While the tech deck please put up the poll. Your voting to add this to the agenda as a responsive resolution.

The of 94 percent in favor three percent of opposed.

>> We need to get the—composer on zoom, please.

>> I can hear you. We need the video. There we go.

>> All right. Without having the proposal right in front of me, I'm just going to say at this point, we've had a lot of issues with healthcare and racism and fitting it all together. It's really created a lot of problems. We need to do something about the way we deal with our pandemics and our healthcare.

>> Thank you, Terry. I recognize the delegate at the Pro microphone.

>> This is from Robert Murphy at the Unitarian Universalist church in Florida. Our delegate, is there minister emeritus and encourages support resolution.

>> Thank you. There is—okay. Can we stop the poll, please.

It took a while to get the queue out. All of the delegates want to speak for the—so please,—I have a delegate at the concern microphone.

>> Sue hand of the Unitarian Universalist of Clearwater Florida incorporated says this resolution is very vague and will be hard to follow up on.

>> Thank you. We have a question about whether we have the vote to admit this. We did. I am not seeing any further Pro statements. I suggest we get ready to vote.

All right. With the tech deck please put up the poll again?

>> We will give people a few more seconds to get their votes in. The poll is not closed yet.

>> In regard to read the resolutions we do not even do that one we're live, the various resolutions are posted. And also they are posted early enough that you have time to read them.

Okay. I'm not—I'll give it another couple of seconds.

You can change your vote while the poll—I'm not seeing further movement in the poll. So please close the poll. We have 81 percent in favor and 10 percent against. One percent abstention. The motion is carried. Thank you.

Now we will switch to the next resolution. So give us a couple of minutes to reset the mod squad. Thanks for your concerns in your interest.

Benjie, if you could give us another short musical interlude, that would be fantastic.

>> Okay. Well, hello, again, everyone.

>> This is a great song that I know from singing the journey. But I looked up the video. It's a British band that plays it and wrote it.

(Music)

>> Back to our business at hand.

>> Hello. I'm Tom and I'm going to be the discussion facilitator for this, our last responsive resolution. We will be going through the—the same procedure as before. First, will have a motion—this responsive resolution is entitled responsive resolution to the report from the commission on institutional change.

It's not very specific and is the last one listed. It's actually very—is the shortest one if you're looking for.

Do we have a motion to admit this to the agenda? Greg, are you there yet? Okay. We don't have anyone yet to make the motion, so you make your motion in the discussion queue.

Movers are at the procedural Mike.

Who made that motion? Somebody—several people. All right.

Well it's noted for the permanent record.

We have—if there are several people, that we have a second.

So this is a motion to admit they responsive resolution to the report from the commission on institutional change to our agenda. —And let's vote. Let's take our time and vote.

Can we put up the slide or the vote, thank you.

Just in terms of concerns about when—how much time you have to look at these, these responsive resolutions came in last night because there in response to things that happened earlier in the business meeting.

They've been posted since 9:00 AM Sunday, you know, on the various places that is been posted. We have a question that has come up while we are voting on is that—it was submitted by Dick Burkart.

The threshold for agenda is two-thirds vote, 66 percent +1. If it is that close, will have to work out the corrections. But that's the general idea. Well, we have only 1380—usually, we have been up over 1400. When we get to 1400, we will close it. All right. Let us close the polls.

This was—this was only affirmed by 55 percent, but they took away the numbers for me. It was only for by 55 percent which is short the requirement. So this item does not go on our agenda.

So we are done with the responsive resolutions.

I turn this back over to the co moderators to tell us what is next. Thank you.

>> Hello, friends. My name is Sarah and Jones and I'm a Board of Trustees member. For a few more hours here, for the Unitarian Universalist Association. I've been asked to close out this general session time and I'm happy to do so.

I just want to lift up gratitude, gratitude for the staff and all the hard work they have done in all of this time, of which requires flexibility.

I went to lift up gratitude for my fellow UUA board members and all the hard work that we have done not just for this general assembly, but in the past four years I've served on the board in taking a hard look at where we are and in dismantling white supremacy within our own system and with gratitude to the institutional change for their wisdom and hard stories that that you listen to ensure with us and the recommendations that they've given us. I want to lift up gratitude for all of the volunteer committees that we have that help us function as a Unitarian Universalist Association, most especially, the GA planning committee, which is a volunteer committee. They work with the administration and with the board and with the various groups to train and educate and inspire us

And then want to lift up gratitude for you, all of you, for being a part of this virtual general assembly, or a part of this faith movement that is working so hard to come into our best selves.

So I am going to leave you with number 1009 meditation on breathing, which I wrote right after September 11. This song is spoken to a lot of you and it still speaks to us today.

So I'm going to sing the various parts and you can join in. Join in on any and all parts that resonate with you.

(Music)

I love you, friends. Take care of yourselves. The kind to one another. Breathe in, Breathe out.

>> Breathe in the hard truths that the commission on institutional change ask us to address. Breathe out the love we have for the people who have given so much for this report to come forward. Breathe in and hold your anxiety and hopes for the future. Breathe out, love and belief in our faith in the work we can do together.

We would not be here without the strong hard work of the members of the commission on institutional change. On behalf of myself, Annalee Andrea, and your Board of Trustees, the UUA Stefan on behalf of everyone of us who are here, who was here before us and who has yet to come, we say thank you.

>> I want to thank you name all the members of the commission. The Reverend Leslie, she is the chair, Larry Byron, Mr. Byrd Junior, the Reverend Doctor Natalie Fenimore, Dr. Ortega, Caitlin Breedlove, they were on the team. And then, of course, the Reverend Marcus. Without we would not have a whole bunch of things we have. We are so grateful for the commission on institutional change and we are also extremely grateful for the transformation committee for all the work you did to get us here so that we could be rooted. And Barb and I do trainings and lead them and have been impacted by all the things that have been lifted up in this report. We are very grateful for the hours bearing witness. So the people do not hold the many hours of bearing witness to the struggles, the stories, and the recommendations. I really encourage everybody to get the book. It's a beautiful book. I printed mine out. Get the book—you maybe can't see the book, but it's here. Get the book writing the circle.

Thank you to the commission members and all your hard work and the board and everybody is committed to carrying it on. As you can see we are ready to go on riots.

>> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

(Audio Lost)—this general assembly shall stand in recess 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific today.