General Assembly 2008 Event 1030 (Plenary) “I now call to order the Forty-Seventh General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association!” Gini Courter, Moderator of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) thus began the first plenary session of General Assembly (GA) 2008 in Fort...

Minutes Official Minutes (PDF) of the Forty-seventh General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, held in Ft....

Hometown Press Release The "Hometown Press Release" below is a basic template for General Assembly attendees to adapt and send to local media outlets. Hometown Press Release June 29, 2008 | from the UUA In the Media Unitarians Oppose Anti-Gay Marriage Ballot Measures July 5, 2008 | The Salt Lake...

Sunday, June 23: Wrapping Up General Assembly has that odd quality of simultaneously seeming eternal and being over too soon. I just finished my write-up of the Ware Lecture for the General Assembly web site. (A marvelous talk about the Middle East by Rashid Khalidi: scary, informative, and...

Sunday, June 23: Contagion A lot has happened since my last post. Right after I wrote that, I went to the session celebrating the 35th anniversary of Beacon Press publishing The Pentagon Papers....

Saturday, June 23: The Other Other The presence of six thousand Unitarian Universalists (UUs) is bound to change a city in lots of unexpected and unintended ways. Yesterday in the park next to the Lloyd Center I saw a panhandler whose cardboard sign claimed he was a homeless veteran. Today in the...

Friday, June 22: Personality Test Aphasic. That's the word. I've been staring at the ceiling of my hotel room trying to remember it for...how long now? A while. If you've ever wondered whether you're an introvert or an extravert, GA will sort that out for you. After a day of worship services,...

Friday, June 22: Advice to New Speakers After participating in UU World's session on Spiritual Writing yesterday, I come away with the following advice for first-time speakers at General Assembly: Get yourself on a panel with someone who draws a crowd. Being a nervous beginner, I skipped the...

Thursday, June 21: Emerging Themes Maybe it's me, or maybe I'm just over-generalizing from two events, but I'm hearing a more forceful theological message than I expected. I'm not protesting—forceful beats the heck out of bland, and the particular messages I heard are ones I happen to (mostly)...

General Assembly 2007 Event 3048 Speaker: Robert Fulghum It is with deep gratitude and pleasure that Gini Courter welcomes The Reverend Robert Fulghum as the inaugural speaker for this keynote address for congregational leaders. Rev. Fulghum served congregations in the Pacific Northwest for...

General Assembly 2007 Event 4057 "Imagine what it would be like to be a child in your church," asked presenters Gail Forsyth-Vail and Dr. Tracey L. Hurd, as they opened their workshop, What Children Need to Grow Faith....

General Assembly 2007 Event 3043 Speaker: Rev. Dr. Rudra Vilius Dundzila Rev. Dr. Rudra Vilius Dundzila is a professor of humanities and comparative religion at Harry S Truman College (City Colleges of Chicago). As a young man of Lithuanian descent, he first became interested in paganism when he...

General Assembly 2007 Event 2033 "We don't know how many people remain in secret prisons, and those secret prisons have not been closed," said Linda Gustitus, president of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), who led a workshop on the topic attended by about 50 people at GA....

General Assembly 2007 Event 2033 Eight people have been tortured to death by U.S. interrogators or their agents since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Another 34 people have committed suicide while in secret detention as suspects of terrorism in a program that has rounded up as many as 1,000 people.

General Assembly 2007 Event 3028 Annie Scott, Director of Religious Education, Atkinson Memorial Church, Oregon City, Oregon, Rev....