One of the hallmarks of our tradition is our congregational polity—the idea that ultimate responsibility for the governance of both the congregation and the association lies in the hands of its members. We are fast approaching the time of year when we exercise our democratic muscles in service of our faith, both at a national and congregational level, a time of year that often makes me most proud of being a Unitarian Universalist.
We’ll be holding our annual business meeting on the 26th of this month. Each year, we gather to vote on the proposed budget, and elect a slate of candidates to serve on the board of trustees and other elected positions. The Nominating Committee is currently hard at work filling this year’s slate. You may be hearing from them, and I ask you to keep my remarks from last month about joy and responsibility in mind. If you’re interested in serving the congregation in new ways and would like more information about the available opportunities, I encourage you to get in touch with me, or with Larry Schultz, our Nominating Committee chair.
At this year’s meeting, we’ll also be voting on the continuation of our two service schedule. The Two Service task force will be holding one more informal feedback session on the 19th. Members of the task force will be available in the Assembly Room after the second service to take your comments and critiques. If you are unable to come that day, I encourage you to seek out any of the task force members to pass along your comments. Task force members are: Felicia Orth, Kristine Coblentz, Danise Begnaud, and Cary Neeper.
On the national level, it’s time for a presidential election. Rev. Bill Sinkford’s second term is coming to an end, and we have two very strong, very qualified candidates to take on the office of president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. The president is elected by the congregational delegates to this year’s General Assembly in Salt Lake City. The candidates are the Rev. Laurel Hallman, senior minister of the First Unitarian Society of Dallas, and the Rev. Peter Morales, senior minister of Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, CO. I invite you to get to know these candidates as best you can. We’ll take a straw poll at the annual meeting to give our delegates some direction in casting their votes.
You can learn more about Laurel at: <hallmanforuuapresident.com>, and about Peter at: <moralesforuuapresident.org>. I also recommend checking out <uuapresidentialdebate2009.wordpress.com> and <www.uua.org/aboutus/governance/elections>.
As I mentioned above, this year’s General Assembly will be held in Salt Lake City at the Salt Palace Convention Center from June 24-28. It’s a relatively short trip from here, and a city within our own Mountain Desert District, so we’re expecting a large contingent of Southwestern UUs to attend. While we are allowed only four voting delegates to the Assembly, this does not bar anyone from attending who wants to. If you’ve never been to a General Assembly before, now is the perfect opportunity. I guarantee you’ll come away from the week with a new perspective on Unitarian Universalism, joining with several thousand fellow UUs for worship, workshops, and fellowship. Information on General Assembly can be found at uua.org. If you’re interested in serving the congregation as one of our delegates, please get in touch with Mike McNaughton, our chair of Denominational Affairs.
Finally, the Mountain Desert District’s annual Russell Lockwood Leadership School will be held at St. Malo’s Retreat Center in Allenspark, CO from July 26th to August 1st. The school prepares UUs for congregational leadership. Expect stimulating discussions, new friendships, collaborative worship, exploration of beliefs and values, singing and music empowerment, group process, laughter, congregational problem solving, examination of leadership styles, and a refining of leadership technique. RLLS provides information about Unitarian Universalism, a closer look at District policies and services, and opportunities for people to expand their leadership gifts. Information on the school is available at <rlls.mdduua.org>. If you’re interested, please contact me. Funds for registration are available from the congregation.
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I had the privilege last month of attending services at All Souls church in Tulsa, OK, one of the largest churches in the association. The speaker that morning was Rebecca Parker, president of Starr King School for the Ministry. She spoke on the topic of her new book (co-written with Rita Nakashima Brock), Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire. It was one of the strongest messages of Universalism I’ve heard in a long time, made even stronger because of the circumstances of the setting. All Souls is going through a rather radical transformation of late, welcoming into its doors the members of a church called New Dimensions. New Dimensions is led by Bishop Carlton Pearson, a former Pentecostal minister and protégé of Oral Roberts who lost his large church and the support of most of his fellow ministers when he began preaching a message of Universalism. He and the remaining congregants of this formerly fundamentalist, Pentecostal church have begun participating in the life of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. It was powerful experience to sit in a church that is putting the Universalist message into practice in such a visible, radical way while hearing a strong message of the Universalist spirit given by one of our current theological greats.
Rev. John Cullinan
