Event: B2017 0623 Presidential Candidates Forum 800PM CST Captions Provided by: Hear Ink Http://www.hearink.com Phone: 314 427 1113 **********DISCLAIMER********** THE FOLLOWING IS AN UNEDITED ROUGH DRAFT TRANSLATION FROMN THE CART CAPTIONER'S OUTPUT FILE. THIS TRANSCRIPT IS NOT VERBATIM AND HAS NOT BEEN PROOFREAD. TO DO SO IS AN EXXTRA FEE. THIS FILE MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. PLEASE CHECK WITH THE SPEAKER(S) FOR ANY CLARIFICATION. THIS TRANSCRIPT MAY NOT BE COPIED OR DISSEMINATED TO ANYONE UNLESS YOU OBTAIN WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE OFFICE OR SERVICE DEPARTMENT THAT IS PROVIDING CART CAPTIONING TO YOU; FINALLY, THIS TRANSCRIPT MAY NOT BE USED IN A COURT OF LAW. **********DISCLAIMER********** [Applause] >> Good evening and welcome to our presidential candidates forum. Please join me as we light our chalice, Committee members of the election practices campaign Committee. Beth McGregor and KC Slack will be lighting our chalice. We light our chalice to remind us of the fiery spark that lies within Unitarian Universalism, our passion, our love, our deep caring for the world and one another. Tonight as forum to further the possibilities of our faith and remind us of the best of who and what we are. May it be so. Thank you, Beth and KC. Good evening, and welcome to our final again forum featuring the candidates who are running to be the next President of the Unitarian Universalist Association. I'm the Reverend Manish Mishra‑Marzetti, and I serve as Chair of the UUA Election Campaign Practices Committee, alongside committee members Beth McGregor and KC Slack. We are a Board‑appointed committee that is charged with supporting our UUA election processes. As you are likely aware, our Association is currently holding our UUA Presidential elections. [Applause] The polls have been open since June 1st, and we encourage all credentialed delegates who are here and watching at home to vote prior to the close of the Election, which is tomorrow, Saturday, June 24th, at 5:00 p.m. Central time. Delegates have until that time to cast their votes. Our candidates, the Reverends Susan Frederick‑Gray, Alison Miller, and Jeanne Pupke have jointly decided the rules for tonight's forum, which included the opportunity for General Assembly participants to submit questions in advance to the Election Campaign Practices Committee, which was charged by the candidates to determine the questions for tonight's forum. Our candidates will begin with opening statements of up to five minutes each, followed by the opportunity to speak for up to two minutes on each question. At the end, they'll each have four minutes each to offer some concluding remarks. Alison, Jeanne, and Susan have elected to use the visual timers and bell that are used in our plenary sessions for time‑keeping. As has been the practice in prior Presidential campaigns, our candidates have developed a shared covenant that has guided and informed how they have run their election campaigns. As we [Applause] As we begin our time with them tonight, I'd like to share with you these words of covenant that they have jointly crafted: "We [the candidates] will work together to create campaigns and conversations that foster the health and well being of our faith and our Association. We affirm the need for issues‑based debate and creative, healthy competition during this campaign. We affirm our collegial relationship which is based in the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association Covenant to which we are accountable. We affirm an anti‑oppressive feminist ethic in the campaign, which is respectful, trusting, and honors interdependence among the candidates and our supporters. We are committed to each other's ongoing significant leadership in the UUA." [Applause] Holding these words as your shared commitment to the Presidential election process, we'll now begin. As a reminder, we invite all attendees to please refrain from applause until the very end of this forum, at which time we'll join together in expressing our shared appreciation for all three candidates.I invite Alison to begin our opening statements. She'll be followed by Jeanne and then Susan. >> I am a lifelong Unitarian Universalist who knows firsthand the saving power and message of our faith. You were there for me before I was born, when my parents went out in search of a place to be married. When so many other houses of worship shut their doors to a marriage between a Jewish woman and a Christianne man, you said yes, their love was worthy of celebration. And that's why I will be a president who not only embraces the questions of how we honor religious diversity, including humanists, agnostics, and theists. I will be a president who also moves us toward a journey of embracing religious complexity and inclusion. The couples showing up in our congregations today are Hindu and Jewish, Muslim and Catholic, earth‑centred and atheist and more. You were also there for me when I lived for a time on a pediatric cancer Ward as a teenager. Unitarian Universalists showed up in so many ways, especially my youth group who brought worship to my bedside on Sunday morning and 150 congregants who gave blood so that I could survive. They helped me to glimpse heaven in a place I called hell. They did not wait for me to be well enough to come to church. They brought the church to me. And that's why I will be a president who implements a vision of Unitarian Universalism that shows up wherever you are. People are longing for our healing news online, around the globe, in prisons, on college campuses, retirement communities, on the streets, working for justice and in institutions that facilitate good works. I am minister who has tended with you and launched and built up with you UU ministries in all of these places and I will be a president who isn't afraid to experiment with change, who will learn from failure, and will count these as part of success. You weren't always there for me, though. When I was in college, you left many of us alone and showed little interest. But enough of us had a fire in the belly that we were able to rebuild the networks of college students, social justice activists, young families and young religious professionals into a movement that has shaped many of the leaders who serve our faith today. And we aren't always there for the people of color in our movement and certainly not yet, not in the way that we promise. I have a vision of rebuilding the learning networks around anti‑racism and anti‑oppression, around supporting the leadership development pipeline for people of color and supporting projects where our siblings of color determine their future through entities like black lives of UU and DRUUM and also collaborate with all of us to determine our shared future together. I will be a president who will use my fundraising skills to support these initiatives and who is also determined to help connect congregations with coaching around fundraising. We can do both if we are engaged in building communities where we practice seeing the Beloved in one another and seeing the Beloved in all of our neighbours in the communities in which we live. I will be a president who pays attention to the people who are at the margins of our faith, wondering if there is room for them here. And I will be a president for those of us who have been here for generations. This faith, which lives in my bones, has taught me something about what it means to have a generous healing faith that falls short sometimes and at other times helps our spirit soar to the places that we most long to go. We are facing into challenges and controversy, as we have done before, but I see that we are finally lifting excuses about the resistance to change. This face belongs to all of us. It is not mine or yours to hoard. It is ours to share. I think we are ready. I know we are ready to lead, to ignite faith, advance justice, and empower change. [Applause] >> Good evening, good people. It for being here tonight. You could have been out dining in New Orleans, so I consider this an extensive sacrifice on your part to be here. I wanted to tell you a little bit about who I am and where I'm from. I'm Jeanne Pupke. You know that. You've probably seen too much of all three of us for a while now. But I'm happy to tell you about where I come from. First of all, I come from a family of seven children in New York. We grew up in a Catholic environment. We were there six or seven days a week. I'm the eldest of those seven, and one of the things I learned early on is if you leave with six brothers and sisters, you should come home with six brothers and sisters. Though at times I was sorely tempted. I guess that was the start of being responsible, and in part, I decided at a very young age that I wanted to be very responsible. I loved my church, because it was active in social justice. Father Henry marched in Selma. Father Daly took us to places where we could see that we were privileged people compared to the folks we might be serving food to. That was a good thing, because I fell in love with the social justice wing of the Catholic Church and that was handy, since the theology didn't sit readily with me. When John Paul II was elected, I knew the jig was kind of up. The inconvenient problem was that I was in the convent. [Laughter] I was there, because I wanted to serve. But I went on a journey and I had in my mind and heart one truth that I knew from a paper I had done in college where I had learned about Unitarian Universalism. What an exciting idea it was for me that there could be a faith that would welcome people with different beliefs, because I knew so many different people. I grew up with Jewish kids. I grew up with folks who were non‑believers. And I thought, wow. We could all be in community together? Unfortunately, I searched for quite a while, but I didn't find the right place until I walked into the first Unitarian Universalist church of Portland, Oregon, where the music was beautiful, where the preaching was supreme, where we were greeted as we walked in and the people in front of us turned to welcome us, and then invited us for coffee afterwards. Church at its best. And I cried. I was home. It wasn't long after that I went off to seminary, although he had a great gig. I was the Head of a coffee company in the Pacific Northwest. That is the closest you can come to being a deity. [Laughter] I loved it. But I loved this faith more, and I want to search this faith as your president. I come from a congregation where we are in the former capital of the confederacy doing the work of anti‑racism, a social justice church serving Latinx communities, a place where we form community and we discern and we make mistakes and we try again. We serve other congregations as they need us and we celebrate when July is upon us. Now, I know we've been through some rough days now. This wasn't the job we all put our application in for. But 46 congregations have nominated me and I feel like I want to be here to tell you, I have the skill set that we need to put the UUA back together and turn it towards serving our congregations so that our congregations can be whole, healthy, and well in this world, because no matter what the UUA does, the congregations and covenanted communities can do so much more. I hope that you'll find in my resumé the skill set that we need to put an organization together, but do so glued with our UU values. And that is the way I have ministered. That is the way I have lived. And we have grown as a result. Just this year, we welcomed 85 new members. If you want to grow the faith, then I'm your candidate. And if that's not for you, perhaps another candidate, but I hope you'll let me serve. [Applause] >> My name is Susan Frederick‑Gray. I'm a lifelong Unitarian Universalist. I grew up just up this mighty Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. I've served congregations in all five regions of the association. I've been serving in ministry capacities in congregations for 18 years. And I was honored when I was asked by the presidential Search Committee to run for UUA president. This campaign has been quite a journey. When it began more than a year ago, the conversation was about how to grow the membership of our congregations. In November, the conversation began to turn to how to protect our democracy, how to protect our neighbours and one another. And now, in this moment, we are in larger conversation about how to transform the culture of our faith beyond norms that have held us back, beyond dominant norms of patriarchy, white supremacy, Colonialism. Beyond these norms so that we can build a new way in our faith, a new way in ourselves that might more fully reflect the Beloved community that lives at the heart of our theology. From the beginning of this campaign, I have said that there are three things that are essential. Number one, spiritual vitality. Number two. Partnership and collaboration. And number three, being organized for impact. They are even more true now. Spiritual vitality. The challenges that we face today will require a depth of spirit, a strengthening of compassion, a deeper spiritual core and practice than the protections of privilege have either allowed or required. In this time, people and families are looking for places that make room for deeply broken hearts and loss. Places that offer resiliency and courage. Yes, the work of justice is calling us, but our best justice work comes from a strong spiritual foundation. Number two, partnership and collaboration. Unitarian Universalists, we have to move beyond individualism and a kind of elitist exceptionalism that keeps us separate. They are part of the culture that we must transform within ourselves. In this time when the planet has never been more connected, the voices of nationalism, isolationism, and fear are on the rise. We name interdependence as a core value, but we need to learn to live it more fully. And not just in how we talk about our relationship to the planet, but in how we talk about our relationship to our collective humanity. For the challenges that we face will require deeper collaboration and partnership at the intersections for justice. We cannot change our country or our world by ourselves. It is time to practice stronger relationship collaboration and humility in how we lead, in how we work across congregations, and how we partner beyond our faith. And number three, we have got to be organized for impact. Too often, our work on justice issues is overly focused on language and resolutions, forgetting that impact matters. More than anything, what the UUA needs is a clear and compelling vision for who we are called to be and we need to but the this vision at the forefront of all we do, guiding our resources and attention so that we might realize it. This is an invitation to move past business as usual and to create practices that better reflect and help us live our values in ways that make clear and measurable differences in people's lives. This is why I'm running for UUA president. I'm Susan Frederick‑Gray and I ask for your vote. [Applause] >> We turn to our round of questions. Each candidate will have a minute to answer the round of questions posed. The first question relates to institutional leadership. It goes first to Jeanne. How do you see yourself continuing and deepening the work of our interim co‑presidents. >> Well, first of all, let's name that our interim co‑presidents are a gift of unbelievable proportion. Right? [Applause] I'll give them some seconds. That would be fine. They're leading us right now not just filling the role, but expanding, opening up, and extending the role of the president, and that is something that I like to do. I am an institutional leader who likes to build teams. I like to bring people forward. I like to discover what their talents are and coax them into what they're doing. And you can check that out with the people who are sitting there in blue shirts. I love to build up institutions that help people realize their inner dreams. And for me, our faith has to be held to a standard of religious accountability. Somehow, we make mistakes when we start to act like we're some sort of business. That's not who we are. I want to lead us as a faith to live out our values, to stand together, to work out in the public square, but even more, as these co‑presidents are showing us, to share our authority, to be inventive, to be resourceful, and to be Unitarian Universalists while we're doing all of it. So for me, when I look at the co‑presidents, I think, huh, okay, they're queer and they're male and they're female and they're lay and they're ministers. That sounds just excellent to me. I think it probably does to you as well. So let's just imagine a team here, a team there, new teams all the time bringing forward our faith in love and justice. I want to lead that UUA. [Applause] >> Susan? >> I am thrilled that our curb, one of our current co‑presidents, the reverend Sophia Bettencourt is willing to lead the Commission on institutional change for the next three months. This is critical work and I'm serious when I talk about our need to move past business as usual and to move past the power structures and the way that power operates in our faith. By power analysis of the UUA is we disburse power in such confusing ways and across so many groups that it's actually a system, and this comes from a lay leader in New Hampshire, a system of dis‑accountability, because it's never clear who's really holding the responsibility. We need clear and transparent lines of authority and accountability and we need collaborative leadership. So with the Commission on institutional change, it is critical that this group isn't working off to the side for two years and then producing a report to the leadership. There needs to be intentional bridges between the Commission and the president and the senior UUA staff and the Board of trustees so we are learning as we go. We are making change and experimenting with new models, and that we are learning immediately from the input that the Commission on institutional change will be receiving. This is a time to experiment. If I had one thing I wanted to say to all of us, it would be let us be a little bit more comfortable with some messiness as we see our way forward in this privilege to and transforming moment. I worry that we'll want to ‑‑ we've had so much upheaval that we want to fix it all and make it all just okay, but you know, in the mass, in the work, with the joy in it, we can make deep and profound change. So bridge, I want to work with bridges from the leadership and the commission. [Applause] >> Alison? >> The co‑presidents are modeling for us the importance of shared ministry and shared leadership. I am someone who has worked with religious educators, lay leaders, and ministers and custodians and been with the stewardship team and so many different parts of the staff systems in our congregations, in our UU institutions, and even at the Unitarian Universalist association. I recognize deeply the wisdom that comes when you empower the people who are sitting in different chairs to bring the fullness of their perspective from their role and from their lives to the table of shaping our faith for the future. We must be accountable to future generations of Unitarian Universalists not yet morning and to people who long for our faith, but show up and find a disconnect between who we say we are and the reality of the experience they find in some of our spaces. I was so heartened to see that the Commission on institutional change is going to begin with a process of truth and reconciliation. This is the time for us to do the work of repair and renewing our covenant with one another, for our faith belongs to all of us and we must build systems where it's not just one Central group of 11 that shape the directions of our faith, but rather we have concentric circles of leadership that inform and collaborate and move our faith forward. >> Thank you. [Applause] >> A reminder to our attendees, if you do hold your applause, our candidates will be able to answer more of your question. The next round starts with Susan and relates to the first 100 days of even of your presidencies. What do you see as the number one issue that you feel called to work on within the first 100 days if elected to the presidency? >> Relationship and partnership is a key part of my platform. We've been talking about it all along. And that's what I think to be the most important thing for the UUA president to begin. To be developing relationships with the Board of trustees, I want to open up a conversation of creating a covenant between the board and the president, about how we share leadership for this faith, how we work together to live into the dreams that we hold, and how we will be accountable to one another. We know this in our congregations and we know that this in the UUA. When the CEO or the lead minister, the Executive, and the board of trustees are not on the same page, almost nothing can get done, because so much energy gets sucked into the conflict of relationship or difficulty. We are a covenantal faith. And the work that we do needs to be grounded in covenant. In addition to building those relationships with the board, I want to build strong covenantal relationships with the UUA staff, to ground our work in teamwork, to work together to strategize about how we will realize our mission. And then number three, I am so excited about the work of the covenant taskforce that is inviting us into a general conference for discernment as Unitarian Universalists about how we are being called in this moment, how our faith can meet this moment. So I look to engage in a conversation across our association about our mission. The UUA mission hasn't changed virtually at all since merger, but the world has. It is time for us to engage in this deep discernment that might guide us for the long term. >> Thank you. Alison? >> Earlier, I spoke about the need to address broken trust. It is going to be essential to be able to reach out to the different parts of the wider Unitarian Universalist association and really hear the stories of the times we have fallen short and to set up processes to forgive and figure out ways to move forward more faithfully with one another. Something that's a high priority for me is shifting. The Unitarian Universalist association has a lot of internal work to do around anti‑racism and encountering a culture of white supremacy, but of course it is not the Unitarian Universalist headquarters' work alone. It is the work of all of our congregations. And everything that we do at the UUA, whether it's building young adult and campus ministries, whether it's holistic movements for justice, whether it's countering white supremacy, we must reorient to serve our congregations that actually drive our movement forward. What I'm hearing from lay leaders around the country of all ages is how the leadership pipelines have been dismantled. That there's a lot more work to be done for regionalization to feel like it's moving us closer toe the people on the ground who are making a difference in the lives of Unitarian Universalists and who are helping Unitarian Universalists make a difference in the lives of the people who live in their communities. A high priority for me is going to be crafting a vision of implementation that takes our congregations and covenanted communities seriously and also looks to plan for growth in places where we have been under serving our populations. >> Thank you. Jeanne? >> Well, first I want to know, can I have a day off? [Laughter] Well, I'm going to start on Sunday, having conversations with people who really think it's important for us to start talking now. Pretty clearly in the next 100 days, we have to focus on the fact that we have started a conversation around white supremacy, and if we're not careful, our new definition of the word white supremacy can become a parking lot for inaction. So we've got to move and we've got to keep the momentum that is there, and I think we have teams of people who have been working on this and we, ourselves, need, as an association, to be out in the front helping congregations engage. It's great to say 700 congregations that the white supremacy teaches. Well, did anyone else offer to help the other congregations? We have to find out how we can all arrive into this conversation together. We are a commonwealth of congregations. We're not autonomous separate bodies. The next thing is I need to get up to Boston. Boston, the staff, and the leadership of the UUA have, in fact, suffered greatly in this chaos that has engulfed us in the past few months. We can get to the heart of the matter and start confronting the systems of oppression that are in the system, but first, first we have to have some healing. I don't intend to go into the glass Office of the president. I intend to take my computer, plop down on the big table, and welcome all the conversations from staff members who happened to join in. And since I've been on the board, I want to tell you that I actually know what I think I can do in this board. I'm not sure we've yet tried policy governance. So I'm eager to get in there. I'm eager on this coming Monday morning to become partners to our leaders. >> Our next question pertains to the pastoral role of the president and it goes first to Alison. How would you understand your pastoral role as president of our association? What is needed from you at this time? >> My call to the Ministry is about a call to healing. It is my understanding that our faith offers us a kind of resilience for the challenges that we face in our lives and also to face the challenges that exist in our communities. And right now, we have found parts of our system in conflict with one another and we use words like systems, but it's also people, people who have been hurt, and there's a real need right now for a leader who understands the work of a pastor and who values listening, truly listening to the stories in which there is so much information about how we treat one another, about our aspirations, and about the ways that we might move forward together. There is a need for healing throughout the staff of the association. There is a need for healing, for leaders that feel that they haven't been connected to the resources they need so that their ministries might thrive. There's a need for healing. We have heard that somewhere between 40% and two‑thirds of our congregations have had experiences of abuse of power and privilege. Yes, some of that is a culture of patriarchy and white supremacy and some of that ministers and other leaders misconducting. There is a great need for lending the rituals of our faith, sharing our stories and moving forward on a journey towards healing and addressing conflict in healthy and direct ways. >> Thank you. Jeanne? >> My highest concern is that the community of people of color amongst us have suffered greatly. They've suffered for a long time. And most recently, they have suffered very intently to discover how very white supremacist, white centred we are and think we can keep being. My pastoral presence needs to be to them and to make some serious promise to his them, because in pastoral care, nothing is really meant sincerely unless it is paired with a prophetic commitment to the future that is different from this presence that has hurt so many. To be pastoral is to listen, to be open‑hearted, but also to be accountable. And I don't want to let the pastoral swamp my accountability and my call to the prophetic. If I lead this organization, we must understand that the two will go together, but the comfort of all of us isn't the issue. The marginalization of so many who have been with us so long is Central. That's the pastoral focus that I want to focus upon. >> Thank you. Susan? >> So I would break the president's responsibility into three things, and it is number one is the national pastoral and prophetic voice for our faith. Number two is the Executive administrative leadership of the UUA. And number three is the Chief fundraiser for the UUA, ensuring that we have the resources to live the mission that we're being called to. So number one, that pastoral voice, I see this in a large frame and a small frame. The large frame is about speaking to our faith as a whole, as well as speaking to the world beyond our faith, about compassion and heartbrokenness. We see the need for the pastoral voice of our president too often these days. And yet, that voice must be there. And that voice, one thing I would lift up to all of you is that I believe when our hearts break open that they break open wider and that we grow deeper when we make room for broken openheartedness in our faith. But the president also has a pastoral role in a smaller way. There have been a number of heartbreaking crises in the past few years in our faith, and I have tried diligent throw reach out to ministers in those communities to say how are you? I'm sending you my prayers. What do you need? The president does have a pastoral role for the ministers and religious leaders of our faith when they are con fronting crisis and they are trying to lead in moments of heartbreak. And the president can be a pastor to our ministers in a way and makes them feel held and a part of this larger faith. >> Thank you. Our next question is a getting to know you yes and will go first to Jeanne. What feeds your soul? >> Well, one thing that feeds my soul is seeing the young people in my congregation grow up into adults, especially the ones who never leave. That feeds my soul. When young people ‑‑ I recall bringing folks to Salt Lake City. We had a lot of young folks who came with us from the youth group and a bunch in particular were setting there one night talking to me, and they asked me what my spirituality was. We had one of those conversations that went on for an hour and a half, and then at the end, one of those folks told me that she wanted to grow quickly very much. She came back to subsequent GAs. She was elected Hooper at the time, business manager now, I think, and she went on to the University of Virginia where she was an adamant advocate for protection against sexual crimes on the campus. She did an outstanding job and she made me proud of her beyond belief. The whole congregations busted its buttons. After that, she went on to do the work of finding housing for people whose housing is marginalized. When I look at her I think, there is the future of our faith. And it's a whole village in our church that raised her. Her family, her friends, and her faith. That feeds me. If that's what winds up in my legacy, that's great. That's enough. >> Thank you. Susan? >> Prayer feeds my soul. I'm not a theist, but I pray every day. Dancing feeds my soul. Those of you who know me well know that. My family feeds my soul. And you all feed my soul. Being in our communities, being in our congregations, the joy of this campaign has been traveling and visiting congregations and UUs all over the country. Hearing your stories of what inspires you about your faith, how this faith has changed your life, that feeds my soul. And this faith saved my life, too. When I was young and my fabulous parents were ‑‑ my mom was becoming a feminist and they had to renegotiate everything about their marriage and it was pretty tense for quite a while [Laughter] Tom Shade said they're divorced on his web post. They're not divorced. But it was difficult and the congregation was a place of joy for me. My kindergarten teachers, BJ Lyon‑Grubler, newly married, second marriages, showed me that marriage can be loving at a time when crip that model for me. Our communities, our people feed my soul. And this space. >> Thank you. Alison? >> Well, I'm the mother of a five‑year old who just graduated Pre‑K, and he feeds my soul every day with the element of play. I think it's so important to be able be to see the world once again through renewed eyes and to really feel gratitude and a connection to all things and to curiosity and wanting to figure everything out and to have meaningless fun as well. So he feeds my soul and my family feeds my soul. I'll say this. This faith, this Beloved faith absolutely feeds my soul. It's fear that I learned to pray. It's in this context that I learned spiritual practices. It is this place and all the places that we exist around the world that feeds my soul. And I'll be honest. I don't know if you know this about me, but I am an off the charts extrovert. So something that feeds my soul, which is unusual in my profession, is to tell the person next to me that I am a minister if to tell them all about Unitarian Universalism and to listen to what is the place that feeds their spirit and to learn about their tradition? And about 50% of the time they ask me where the nearest Unitarian Universalist congregation is. [Applause] And our works of justice, when we actually glimpse those moments of transformation, when we live up to our highest ideals and partner with people on the margins and actually create spaces in a way where there was none, that feeds my soul. >> Thank you. From the sublime to the more practical, our next question is on associational finances. It will go first to Susan. [Laughter] >> What do you intend to try or do differently to strengthen the financial health of our association? >> So as I said yesterday, the president is the Chief fundraiser for the association. The experience in fundraising, relationship is key: I am committed to strengthening the relationship between the UUA and our congregations. I'm committed to working with the UUA staff so that each congregation's leadership has a meaningful conversation with someone from the UUA every year. The UUS shouldn't be talking to our congregations. And I'm not saying this always happens, but only when congregations are in difficulty. The UUA needs to be listening to what the needs are of the congregations. What the best practices are in the congregation so that we can share that with other congregations. So a meaningful conversation every year. What's going well? What are you excited about? What's your best practice? What are you struggling with? What are the obstacles? There could be shared realities among congregations about where those obstacles and strengths are. That needs to inform what the UUA offers. So relationship. Grounding what the UUA does in the realities of the congregations, number two. And number three is the UUA being able to show clear and measurable be outcomes of what happens through your generosity of the association and outcomes and outputs are not the same thing. Right? We produce this many curriculum. Outcomes are this many more children receive religious education and inclusive religious community because of the work of the UUA or because of the work of the association in our congregations. Clear and measurable outcomes. Relationships, outcomes, and making sure we're grounding our work in the realities of congregations. >> Thank you. Alison? >> One of the most important roles of the president and one of the powers that the president certainly has is to fundraise and help make our vision a reality, to actually put strong foundations under that and to work as a partner with the development department and all of the volunteers across our association who fundraise for our faith. So I'm excited about this part of the job. I actually worked at the development department at the UUA and led the largest capital campaign to date for youth campus and young adult ministry. And here is what I have learned. I have ‑‑ and this is important at this time. Yes, fundraising is about building relationships and truly understanding what the needs are in the field of our faith. It's not only raising the funds. It's also about deploying our staff resources which cost funds and the funds we raise in accountable ways. Stewardship has two sides. Both increasing the generosity and helping uncover alternative sources of revenue critical in these times. I know so many of our congregations are wondering about this. And accountability in terms of how we spend our resources and if I am elected president, I will absolutely support a partnership with the board to have more accountable spending limits so that your hard‑earned dollars are not wasted away from our mission. And my vision for stewardship at the UUA has a parallel vision for coaching around stewardship in the congregations. Your financial health and ours is linked. So often when congregations can't pay dues, it's because they're wrestling. Can we pay the staff or can we pay our dues? So my goals are shared stewardship among all of us. >> Thank you. Jeanne? >> So in addition to my background as a COO and CEO, I have a lot of good experience with finances, but here is the thing. I was your finance chair on the UUA Board of Trustees. I know well the challenges we face as a faith in a time in which income inequality and the heartbreaking rise in the expense of healthcare has risen and risen and become very difficult in the life of congregations. I want to start by saying the first thing I would do differently is to try to communicate clearly and transparently with all of us so that everyone knows what money came in. How was it used? Where did it go? Did we spend it with communities and businesses of color? Did we include minority groups? Businesses as our purveyors? Did we, in fact, accomplish the things we spent your very carefully sent and Beloved funds with? We need a new level of transparency in the UUA, clearly. But in addition, you know, I have taught stewardship. How many of you were at the UU University a while ago where I taught about how we actually always are trying to change it is tools that we work with in stewardship. Oh be let's try in this year. Let's try that. But the truth of the matter is that the president most affects the finances of the congregations in the UUA by the ability to present a dream of who we are yet to become. We are about 150,000 adults and another 40 some odd young people in our faith. Let's grow. >> Thank you. Our next question is related to associational systems and structures. The question will go first to Alison. Which of our associational structures do you think are working well? Which ones need overhauled? Why? >> So I think that we have life span faith development department that creates really powerful resources. And the problem is that they get locked up at the universalist association and we never really communicate out. And this could go for many other resources that are at the UUA. When I worked at the Unitarian Universalist association, I actually called all 1,000 plus congregations, because when I was fundraising for youth campus and young adult ministry, I wanted to connect people to the resources that were at the UUA, but they had no idea existed, and I got called in to the Executive vice president's office, and she said, is it true you're calling every congregation? And I said, yes. And she said, nobody on staff has ever done that before. And I said, I'm glad I didn't ask permission. [Laughter] Which brings me to the next point. We need to take our vision of regionalization more fully to where congregations can expect more service than just one meaningful phone call a year. We need to have our primary contact be supported so that they can be in a deeper relationship. Our congregations need to experience UUA staff showing up on a Sunday morning over time, because there's nothing like being together to really understand the systems. We have fabulous resources, but too often they're like recipes, downloadable pdfs without intentional, intentional adapting for a particular context. My ministry and support of the church of the larger fellowship online is very different than the ministry in the brick and mortar congregation that I serve Morristown, New Jersey. We need to spend more time to further regionalization until it works. >> Thank you. Jeanne? >> The UUA is designed on a model that was brought forward by Frederick Mae Elliott and some others in 1936. It was really good then. [Laughter] I don't want to stand here as a candidate for the presidency and pick out one department or one place in the UUA that I think is doing exceptional work. That would be disrespectful to the other developments. So I'm going to say that I believe there are people in every part of the Unitarian Universalist association working hard, devoted to this faith and making sacrifices to be there. And that needs to be respected. So what I want to do is to arrive there to ask a few questions that are visible in my logo. How can we take this old‑fashioned structure which hardly anybody uses anymore. Right? And put ourselves back together to deliver services to the congregations and the covenanted communities and to raise our voice to the world? Those are the things that are so fundamental to who we are and what we need to do, and yet we're a stodgy old corporate structure. That is not us. I'm eager to lead us in new development and new ways, but I'm most eager to liberate our UUA staff to do what they can do well, to try new things, to be inventive, innovative, to have the freedom to come up to the president and say, I think we're getting this wrong. And for the president to say, really? Let's sit down right now and talk. I believe that the last person we hired at the UUA is just as valuable as the people in the Executive suite, and I would not allow differences in policy to go forward without approvals. >> Thank you. Susan? >> So this may not be popular among everyone, but I do like policy‑based governance. We've been using it in the Phoenix congregation and it has unlocked our capacity to be mission‑focused and to be focused on clear and measurable ends. And it's helped our congregations thrive. It does provide clarity of roles and accountability, and I think that that is crucial. However, our overall structure with our committees across the association and the many committees that come from the General Assembly, that system doesn't necessarily work so well in policy governance. There's some challenges there. And I'm not saying that policy governance is the only way or I'm not open to other things, but I feel like that structure could offer some hope, but we just have not fully lived into it. And I think the work again as a commission of institutional change to help us think about new ways of being, of moving past this power structure that keeps us stagnant and preserves the status quo is crucial when we think about what's working and what's not working. I also want to lift up the good work of the UUA and that I realize that a lack of resources also prevents the UUA from being as strong and vital and healthy as it could be. So I'm going to go back and say 20 seconds worth of money talk. I enjoy fundraising. This year, because I haven't had a lot going on, we laid 1.5 million dollars capital campaign at the Phoenix congregation. It was the second major capital campaign I've led since I've been there, as well as a capital campaign in Youngstown, Ohio. In Phoenix, we've increased pledge giving by 91% over the course of my ministry, and by 50% in Youngstown, Ohio. We need the resources to live the mission we're being called to. >> Thank you. The election campaign practices Committee received a high number of questions about each of your views on social justice. This next segment offers an opportunities to explore several of these areas. We'll begin with the topic of racial justice and this question will go first to Jeanne. How do you understand the term white supremacy and what does your understanding of this term require of you? >> Supremacy, supreme, over, better than, white, an attribute to Caucasian, Caucasian culture being supreme, better, above, normative, Central. Folks, we have to face this. We have persevered in a convenience and a comfortable way to center our comfort over our welcome and inclusion. We've asked people to show up at our congregations and then figure out how to adapt to the way we like things. For people of color, for people of other nationalities, for people who are trans, we've asked them to become more like us. Instead of asking what they bring, what they want to see, what they hope. I say as a minister, I'm so often given the opportunity to speak and I get to choose who I will neglect this Sunday. Of different groups and interests and theologies, who he will not pay attention to. But the commitment always has to be there that I respect all the persons in the congregation and I will come back next week and be including what is Central to them. We've worked on an efficiency European style model and a Protestant worship that has been off putting to people, and we haven't even noticed that we were asking them to code switch. That time needs to end. >> Thank you. Susan? >> So the culture of white supremacy is a system that tends to privilege ideas, policies, decisions that favor white people to the detriment of people of color. Education is a great example of this. So many white families talk about the need to get the best for their child and choose private schools, which draws resources away from public schools where so often children of color and poorer children are left in those schools. So personally, it's about choosing public schools. As a white person, it's also about learning to step back, to shift, to question my own thinking, and most importantly, to listen deeply and learn to follow the leadership, strategy, and truth is telling of people of color. >> Thank you. Sorry? Go ahead. >> In Phoenix, our congregation, myself, I've had an unbelievable opportunity to be a part of some of the most powerful justice making in this country. I didn't do it. I just listened and showed up and followed and said, what do you need me to do? The strategies around Sheriff Arpaio and fighting the brutal policing practices in Maricopa county were all led by undocumented leaders of color. And our congregation has learned not to have to define the strategy, but to show up faithfully. >> Thank you. Alison? >> As I've been traveling, many people have been asking about my understanding of white supremacy. And this is part of an understanding that has helped in those dialogues. When we talk about racism and white privilege, we're talking about the effects. We need to name the cause of racism and white privilege. The cause is white supremacy. And until we can name and understand the cause of that injustice, we will always be working to try to deal with the effects. We must dismantle the cause. My understanding is also that I must follow the lead of people of color in our movement and in the communities in which I serve, and over the last 20 years, I have been engaged with leaders of color in our movement who have mentored me and insisted that this was an important part of leadership. And I am so grateful for it, because it has transformed my understanding of what our faith calls us to do. The president's role, in part, as a spiritual and prophetic leader is not just dealing with a crisis that might happen, a natural disaster or, in this case, in a culture of white supremacy the latest shooting which the president is absolutely called to do, but to show on a daily basis how it is that I work to dismantle white supremacy in my own life and to lift up other voices so that all of us can do this long haul work on a daily basis so that we might transform our faith in ways that we say it belongs. >> Thank you. Our next question is on the topic of climate justice and will be directed first to Susan. What do you believe the association can do to address the reality of climate change? >> I want to go back again to partnership, because I think it is so important that we work for climate justice in partnership with communities of color and global communities. Indigenous leaders around the world are doing some of the most powerful organizing to push back against extraction industries and push back against industries that are pollute and go devastating our planet. And so when we work on climate justice, which should be a priority, there are two justice issues closest to my heart and they are racial justice and climate justice. We need to do that work following leaders of color. We also, as a faith community, need to deepen our theological understanding about our connection to this earth. And our place in this interdependent web that holds us all. I would love to see us use more specific language around gratitude for this earth that gives us all life. And deepen our own theological practice that shifts us from a paradigm of dominance into a paradigm of I believe dependence. We have theological work to do to shift our own selves and our faith to be climate justice activists and practitioners of an ethic of climate justice. >> Thank you. Alison? >> I felt called to show up at Standing Rock, because I believe that our principles do call us, our first and 7th principle, to show up at the intersection of climate justice, ecological justice, and also racial justice it is about generational he can wet I. It's about understanding our responsibility and to be in right relationships with one another, with all beings, and with the natural world. And I have invested into supporting institutions that are engaging in community organizing, education, public witness, the UUA has really focused on public witness like the works that we did today as we Marched together in the streets of New Orleans, and we must also engage in legislative advocacy so that we can restrain the heartless. We must pay attention to those who are disproportionately affected by climate justice and we must understand how to use all the powers available at our disposal and who we are in the system and the answer for each of us will be different. So I support a more robust holistic of the staff to helping our thousand congregations and other entities to engage in interfaith partnerships in advocacy, agitation, and education. When I called the UUA, they said we don't help congregations do more effective social justice. That is something I want to change. Will it affect climate justice? Social justice? And everything that we care about. >> Thank you. Jeanne? >> Here we are in this City of New Orleans, 12 years of Katrina, after the BP oil spill. And one thing we know is that rich white people didn't suffer in the same proportion as the people of color and the poor suffered. When we talked about the questions of earth justice, we see how related all these things are. This state has the highest cancer rate. This state suffers to make the goods that we will later consume in our automobiles and in our homes. Our consciousness does not always help us here. We fail to see that our actions are connected to those of the rest of the world and that when the levees failed here, and that is what happened, the levees failed here, those manmade contraptions, what poured in was misery. What poured in was accusation and threat to people of color. Folks, all of these injustice cannot be taken apart. Our consciousness needs to be lifted up. We need to live more lightly upon the earth. And that is why I would like to form 503B companies. I would like to form companies that solarize our churches, that reduce our foot present upon the earth, that involve our young people in learning to lead those companies. I want to see us stand forward and name that the injustice on the poorest and the minority communities is environmental threat. >> Thank you. This is our last question before moving to your closing statements. The topic is classism, and we'll go first to Alison. As the Commission on appraisal as invited us to consider in its new reports, Unitarian Universalism struggles with issues of class. How should we be addressing this? >> I think General Assembly is a great place to have this conversation. This conference is inaccessible to so many people and certainly because of class. We need to look at how it is that we have economic justice issues around who has access to shaping our faith tradition and make some significant changes to the ways that we do things. And I want to tell you something. Economic justice is an issue that is deeply important to me. I see it as also intersecting with racial justice, but it hasn't been always Unitarian Universalists that have wanted to partner on these issues. I've actually had an experience of being on a leadership team, a founding board, a refounding board of a $16 million United Way that decided to bend its structures from being a charity pass through to being accountable to the working poor. And we have actually started a public be policy advocacy group there. This is not your grandfather's United Way. Unitarian Universalists, unfortunately, and I know many of you have been engaged in raising this, but too many others, we really haven't made a difference in the daily lives in ways that affect change. And this experience I've had has opened my eyes that when we join together beyond partisan party politics and are accountable to our cherished faith values, we can move the conversation forward around economic justice, and to this day, most of that work in the part of the county live in has been outside of Unitarian Universalist communities. >> Thank you. Jeanne? >> Classism exists here in Unitarian Universalism. It exists in the world. It was evident last November. It was evident that our country is separating. It is evident that people don't trust one another. And for me, I think that sometimes when I attend UU functions that are in beautiful hotels and require several thousand dollars to get there, the congregations don't undertake, I ask who's here? Now, this year some bold moves were made and scholarships were offered, but when are we going to confront the system, the system that keeps other people who want to be here away? I've advocated throughout this whole campaign that I want to see us go to an every other year General Assembly. I want to encourage congregations to save all those years, to put together funds to support a team of leaders to accepted on their behalf. And in the off years, I want us to gather regionally where more people can gather, on college campuses that are affordable places to stay. And sometimes someone will come up to me and say, oh, we can't do that. And I say, Suzie, we can, we can, of course, do this. We want to have as many congregations and as many UUs in the conversation as we can. We want to be together in joy and in love. We want it to be multigenerational. And we do not want it to be elitist. I'm hoping we will make these basic changes, but if I'm elected as your leader, I'll begin the discussion so that we can make GA and other systems affordable to all. >> Thank you. Susan? >> So whatever happens in the election, Jeanne, I want to work with you on that every other year General Assembly. [Laughter] Because it is easier in the local congregation to provide scholarships to help folks go to a regional event were it's easier for people to have a weekends offer than a whole week and other presidents have run on that. It hasn't happened, so we could do it. We could do it. I love that idea. A couple other things I want to lift up. I really appreciate the Commission on appraisal's report that talked about having curriculum. I mean, I think there was even a proposal for an idea of something like welcoming congregations, that congregations could go through to develop inclusivity around class difference. So I think looking at the recommendations of that report is critical. Having those resources for congregations to begin to do this work is important, and having that available. And having that work be led by people who are working class or working poor at the heart of it. And when we talk about diversity in the leadership of the UUA and the Board of trustees, we need to think about class diversity. That's essential, too. And we also need to think about race and class, and we can't allow a focus on class to leave behind issues of race, which is what feminism did historically and left out women of color in white feminist leaders. So we have to learn from the mistakes of the past and be working at the intersections for change. Two more things I want to lift up. One is the culture of exceptionalism that we still struggle with. You know, one of the things I notice, and I grew up, I am middle‑class, I grew up middle‑class, is a hesitation around naming our needs and when we need help, and it makes our congregations sometimes difficult places for people to name when they need help and difficult for our communities to really show up. Arizona has a lot ‑‑ oh, I want to say more. [Laughter] >> Thank you. >> Tell me. [Laughter] >> We're going to shift into our closing statements for which you'll each have up to four minutes to speak. We'll begin with Jeanne, then we'll hear from Susan and then finally Alison. >> Okay. Thank you. Well, it has been quite the campaign. I'd never expected to be here and I'm very grateful and I want to say thank you to all of you who have worked hard on my campaign. I want to say thank you to all of you who have asked and wondered and studied and prepared to cast a vote that is meaningful. And I want to thank my co‑candidates. It has been a privilege to travel this journey with you. Friends, our faith has broken up new possibilities. I know the words used to describe it might be crisis or trauma or difficulties or challenges, but we have more opportunity right now to do good work than we have had since 1969. No, no. We're not allowed to do that. Sorry. What I want to say is this. If we could get our congregations to come together and share what they have, and that's no small thing to overcome, to really trust one another and to believe that we don't have to reinvent the wheel all the time, that we could relate to one another, trust one another, help one another, train one another, and pray for one another. If we believe that, we could create that commonwealth of congregations, which is strong, so strong that 700 congregations said yes, we're going to study white supremacy. It's a little awkward for us to hear those words, but we're going to power through it, because religious educators have given us a path to go forward. If we can re‑org the UUA so that everybody in the UUA, the board, the staff, the committees, the leaders, come together in ways that allows them to do their best work, focused on things that are most important to our values, who can stop us? No one can stop us. And if, in fact, we partner with folks in such a way that we deeply face the challenge that racism has placed in our lives, stuff that the whole of society has been swimming in, and whether we are white or black or brown or yellow or red will not matter, as Margery Bowens‑Wheatley told us, because those of us who need to stand in humility and contemplate our errors and be still with the discomfort will do so. And I believe when we do these things, more people will want to be with us. I believe that you are good people who will speak to the world a word of hope that the world so needs right now. So that those who voted for one or another could sit down and speak with each other. So that young people could grow up without the fear that they're not good enough, a fear that seems rampant among so many. That our faith could speak to the world, to give that hope which says, we will make mistakes and we will try again and we need not think alike to love alike. That's the UU actually vision. I see, because it's a seed planted in me by those who went before, many of you out here, and those that I've had the privilege to serve as a minister. I hope to serve all of you soon as your president. I ask for your vote. >> This is a defining moment. This is a time of incredible challenge for this country, for the planet, and for our faith. I do not believe be that we can fully know what the next four or six years will look like. And so in this time, we need leadership that is prepared. To the presidency, I bring leadership forged in the fire of defining times. Nine years ago when I accepted the call to serve the UU congregation of Phoenix, I knew that immigrant rights would be core to our justice work. What I didn't know was that Phoenix and Arizona were about to become the epicenter of a national crisis. In 2010 when Arizona passed SC1070, the most punitive anti‑immigrant law seen in a generation, I called on Unitarian Universalists to come to Phoenix to fortify the movement led by young undocumented leaders of color. And we did, you did. We showed up like no other faith community. Over two years, including the powerful justice General Assembly, thousands and thousands of Unitarian Universalists showed up to help resist the Human Rights abuses unfolding under Sheriff Joe Arpaio. And today, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is just Mr. Joe Arpaio, and tents city jail is closing. We are not the leaders of this movement. But we showed up as faithful witnesses to fortify and flank the movement. This is who we are. This is who we are when we are at our best. For we are a people of faith and our faith is love. And we know, just as Dr. Cornell West, says justice is what love looks like in public. SC1070 also created conflict within the UUA. The question of whether or not to boycott Phoenixes as the GA felt like it might split us apart, but through that conflict, the Board of trustees created the accountability group of leaders from marginalized identity groups in the UUA. We modeled in justice GA a stronger practice of collaboration, both within and beyond the UUA, and it made all the difference. And it is a model for what we need to do in the future. Coming to Phoenix was the harder road. It asked more of us. But it also showed us a new way of living our faith beyond business as usual to faithful, spiritual leadership, grounded in partnership and organized for impact. As I worked on justice GA for the UUA, there were times when internal conflict and politics threatened to negotiate the mission right out of the room. And to this, I brought clear strategic skills to keep us focused on the mission. And I also saw an opportunity for the UUA to be more effective in dealing with our opaque power structure, moving past silos of power around a clear and compelling mission for how our faith can meet this moment. In The Times like we face today, we need clear strategic and relational leadership. We need leadership that understands the fire and can listen for the way forward. But the good news? We have been readying for this moment and we are up for it. >> What would it look like if we were truly a 365 day a year Unitarian Universalism who showed up wherever you are? How can we become a full week faith and all that means? The last time I was here in New Orleans, he met with black lives of Unitarian Universalism when I heard people testify that their spirits were being nourished in a way that they had not experienced before. They felt that they had finally experienced worship. It reminded me of what I had heard from youth and young adults at the end of camps and conferences or justice trips. So often they'll share that their spirits came alive, that they were more fully themselves, and they were at home in a way they don't feel in their congregations. While it is important to support and spend time in particular identity groups, I want us to move together in the direction of a faith where the people of the rising generations and the rising tide of diversity in our movement share that we are their faith 52 weeks a year. This is one reason why my vision includes supporting meaningful experiences, worshipful experiences, and spiritual practices and equipping our congregations all across the country to be able to offer them and helping to support growth in emerging paces of faith, because this is what brings a resilience to our lives and to our justice work. Many of us and I will say by that white middle‑class people talk about a particular person who showed up in our community, a leader by many names, perhaps Trump or in my case Mayor Cresetello. What we miss is that the people of color who have lived in our communities don't experience this as an all of a sudden crisis. They have bipartisan living with a daily crisis that we have been ignoring. Spiritual maturity and depth help us see the eyes of the communities that we live in and see reflected back our own pain and challenge, our own possibilities and hurts, our own aspirations that we can fulfill with one another. Experiences at GA can be renew and go revitalizing, and it's powerful to move together toward justice here, but guess what? That's not about one week a year and there are powerful justice leaders of color all around this country that I've worked in. There is not one state that has monopoly on it. Vote for me as your next president, someone who wants to unlock the power of not one location or one name, but rather that seeks to empower all Unitarian Universalists in our efforts to create spiritually alive communities, to empower change, and to advance justice as the Chair of the board of the church of the larger fellowship not far from here in Angola, our 40 Unitarian Universalist prisoners, is this movement moment is about serving the people who are on the margins of our faith and on the margins of our cities and saying yes to the risks that love demands. Vote for me and together we will lead with love. >> Thank you. On behalf of the election campaign practices Committee and your UUA Board of Trustees, we thank you for your interest in our election process. Please vote if you're a credentialed delegate and join me in thanking our very fine three candidates, our three choices to be the next president of the Unitarian Universalist association. [Applause] **********DISCLAIMER********** THE FOLLOWING IS AN UNEDITED ROUGH DRAFT TRANSLATION FROMN THE CART CAPTIONER'S OUTPUT FILE. THIS TRANSCRIPT IS NOT VERBATIM AND HAS NOT BEEN PROOFREAD. TO DO SO IS AN EXXTRA FEE. THIS FILE MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. PLEASE CHECK WITH THE SPEAKER(S) FOR ANY CLARIFICATION. 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