2024 GA Delegate Report

Ballot Results

  • Proposed Revision to Article II as amended 
    • Passed with 80.2%
  • AIW: World on Fire: Humanitarian Work and Climate Change 
    • Passed with 95.6%
  • AIW: Centering Love Amidst the Ongoing Impact of COVID-19 
    • Passed with 86.1%
  • AIW: Solidarity with Palestinians 
    • Passed with 73.5%
  • Responsive Resolution: UUA GA Support for October 7 Hostages 
    • Passed with 77.0%

Attendance was 2757 delegates from 734 congregations


Here are comments from the delegates to the General Assembly

It is always good to meet Unitarian Universalists from the wider world. Their energy and perspectives let me know that there is dynamic change going on, a move to a poetic democratic process. Julia Watts Belser’s Ware lecture is evidence of inclusion of people with disabilities. Her book is “Loving our own Bones: Disability wisdom and the spiritual, subservience of knowing ourselves whole”. Our President Sofia Betancourt affirms inclusion of Love as the center of Unitarian Universalism. 

We lived our faith in cautious moderation by Charles DuMond and Meg Riley during Business sessions, heard from delegates, and passed Article II to the UUA Bylaws restating our principles and values. This will lead us into the next 15 plus years of change in the face of ever more challenges.

Leslie Pohl-Kosbau

Although I’m new to First U, I’ve been a UU for over 35 years. I registered to fully participate in all presentations and the business of GA as a First U delegate. I’ve gone to GAs in the past. This one felt different. Lots of emotional moments. Plus, presentation leaders and staff of the UUA represented 30-50 year olds (instead of older, gray haired folks like me) and radiated a rainbow of colors on their skin and clothing!

This General Assembly was a very important one for me to attend. I hoped our denomination would complete the work related to the 8th Principle and Article II revisions. And, we did! It took 5 debated votes to get there.

 The 8th Principle calls EACH and every one of us to be antiracist and to commit to dismantling racism. The new values of Equity, Pluralism, Justice and Interdependence, grounded in Love, all speak to this work. 

Each day I attended a discussion group focused on “Living Our Antiracist, Multicultural Commitments.” I am excited to learn about MOSAIC, a new UUA program. It provides a resource library, all age curriculums, workshops and conferences on antiracism and building multiculturalism to help congregations in our anti-racism work. I have been involved in racial justice ministry for 6 years. I longed for this kind of support when I began this work back in 2019 at the congregation I attended in New Jersey. MOSAIC will harness the power from congregants and congregations that have been doing this work so that we can learn from one another. 

Sharon Copeland

I began my GA experience this year attending the DRUUMM (Diverse & Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries) Juneteenth celebration, on June 19. The following days I attended all sessions and participated in all of the ballots. I attended all business sessions and training for Palestine support and fat person acceptance. Attended other BIPOC meetings. I also attended several or most of the worship services. This year, different from past years the delegates spent a good deal of time talking with one another. This was helpful. I feel blessed to be a part of our denomination.

Theo Harper

I feel so honored to allowed to be a delegate to General Assembly and be trusted to vote my conscience as a representative of First Unitarian of Portland. I feel happy with the results of the voting although I know I voted for the Palestinian AIW (Action of Immediate Witness) with a heavy heart. I have been following the UUJA email streaming messages and I have concerns particularly in relation to the impact on our Jewish Unitarian members across the country. 

I fully supported the business resolution Embracing Transgender, Nonbinary, and Intersex People as a Fundamental Expression of UU Religious Values. Hearing the concerned testimony from Unitarians who expressed negative feelings and what I believe are false statements was very painful. My heart goes out to all the people truly affected by those comments.

I am very excited about the passage of Article II. I think that First Unitarian is already on the path of providing our members with opportunities to explore the concepts of Article II and am looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Nancy Panitch

I’m grateful to have served as a First Unitarian of Portland delegate to the UUA General Assembly this year and in 2023, when the revision to UUA’s Article statement of values and principles was discussed and a sufficient majority of delegates approved it for further consideration. One of the most enjoyable parts of this work has been opportunities to hear from the other First Church delegates about their prior GA experiences and their anticipations of conversations we would witness and participate in during the 2024 GA. As I’ve learned from attending past GA’s, democracy in action can be frustratingly inefficient, but it’s always revelatory. I listened carefully to pro statements about the proposed revision to Article II, and to the statements of concerns, and chose to vote for adoption of the revision to the UUA’s statement of purposes and values, as did over 80% of other delegates from congregations in the US and Canada. This vote is not the end of the story, but the beginning of a process of exploring this new statement of our deepest values, while also learning together what we can do to live and act in accordance with them. 

Teri Martin 

I joined the delegate team this year particularly because I cared deeply about the discussion of and vote on the proposed revision of Article II. These discussions were deeply philosophical and most interesting, including the discussions of proposed amendments to the revision. I actually changed my mind about a couple of those. I was very impressed by the efforts to keep discussions positive and respectful. There were lots of strong feelings in the assembly. I learned a lot about this faith of ours and about the huge diversity of constituents that our faith encompasses. 

In addition to Article II, there were stimulating and often heated discussions of many other items of interest. I was particularly moved by the discussion of the business resolution entitled Embracing Transgender, Nonbinary and Intersex People as Fundamental Expressions of UU Religious Values, which was passed overwhelmingly, but not unanimously. I was also very moved by an emotional and sometimes difficult discussion of one of the AIWs, a statement of UU solidarity with Palestinians in the present crisis. This issue is particularly important to me, and I was very gratified that it passed. On the whole I was proud to be a UU and pleased to be part of some very important decision-making.

Ethel Gullette

I was a business only registrant so can’t comment on the general programs. On the business part I have to say I was disappointed. I was on the losing end of most of the votes and felt that most con arguments seemed to get short shrift. The thought police addition was disconcerting. It seemed they only chimed in on the con arguments. In particular I note that during the discussion of the AIW on transgender support, one of the con folks read some info from the Dr. Hilary Cass report. As you probably know, this report raises some cautionary notes. The thought police interrupted the program to criticize that input as “harmful.” 

I’ve read much of the report and it has many thoughtful insights, troubling findings, and supportive recommendations. When I mentioned this in the off-line chat I was told by one participant that unless I was transgender or the parent of a transgender person that I had nothing to say. This is a trend in our faith community that I find troubling. In the discussion of the AIW on Gaza and the terrible situation there, another con person read off a history of attempts to reach a peaceful resolution of this conflict. Again the thought police came on and criticized his input as harmful. Finally, one of the pro commentators ended her talk with the statement “from the river to the sea” which is definitely hurtful to many Jews yet our helpful thought police did not comment. Truly a disturbing experience. This will be my last GA.

Randy Russell

I was a business-only delegate to General Assembly, so I attended only the business meetings. 

I found the business sessions to be very informative on the issues, and agendas were completed. very efficiently. Unfortunately, strict time limits on the comment periods and the length of each commentator introduction meant that only a few delegates actually had the opportunity to speak. 

I was a bit surprised, given the high threshold requirements, that several amendments were submitted, voted on, and passed. Clearly there were congregations that were much more organized and active in their consideration of the proposed Article 2 than was First Unitarian Portland. 

I’m sure I would have had more to say, had I registered as a full delegate and had the opportunity to participate in affinity groups and workshops, but I didn’t have the time this year to fully commit to GA. I hope to serve as a delegate in the future to an in-person GA.

John Hutzler

One thing I appreciated about the 2024 UUA General Assembly was the efforts by the leadership to “keep love at the center.” Often at the beginning of a session the moderator read a kind of covenant of right relations about the appropriate way to be in right relationship. (Start your opinions with “I feel”.) Twice when a delegate’s remarks were considered inappropriate, that person’s remarks were terminated mid way through their comments. When a number of persons felt hurt by some comments made while speaking against the business resolution: Embracing Transgender, Nonbinary and Intersex People as Fundamental Expressions of UU Religious Values, a transgender person designated by the leadership made extended remarks the next day about their feelings. From time to time a process observer made comments such as explaining that some African-Americans don’t like White folks referring to themselves as light skinned rather than as White, since some African Americans consider themselves light skinned.

Arliss Ungar

What surprised me at this GA was the difficulty of using the online technology. There have been several prior Assemblies, either online only during COVID, or hybrid. There are large staffs, paid and volunteer, who prepare carefully. Nonetheless the process for organizing the speakers for discussion of resolutions takes more than five minutes before the first speaker begins. There were occasional sudden pauses for minutes without explanation. In order to accommodate views with visual limitations, each speaker had to describe themselves (often many times). I think it is a process that could be made much smoother using Artificial Intelligence. For example the description of each speaker could be put in a sidebar.

On the other hand there were lots of opportunities for delegates to chat online. Some were for discussion of items that would be voted on, and some were for whatever topics people wanted to talk about. There were also many online presentations that were available for viewing any time.

Arthur Ungar

Another perspective from the delegates from the UU Church of Vancouver:


[Last week, five UUCV members were delegates to the Unitarian Universalist Association’s annual meeting, called the General Assembly (GA). This year’s GA was all virtual and four of us spent the time together sharing the experience: Christina Dodds, Sue Oshiro-Zeier, Chris Smith and Penny Slingerland.]

The four of us, who were together for the duration, experienced during General Assembly (GA) a multitude of emotions: enthusiasm, frustration, joy, excitement, discouragement, appreciation. In anticipation of the power of emotions to charge exchanges, moderators referenced the covenant delegates agreed to as a condition of attendance. Process observers addressed times of broken covenant and care teams were available to counsel those harmed by others’ words. We, as UU’s, honor that we are an imperfect people modeling and learning, practicing being human; coming together – with love. And we saw that happen each session.

General Assembly this year mirrored many emotions, including the pain we see and feel in the larger world. Front and center were the divisions caused by the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, leaving some of our Jewish members feeling as if Unitarian Universalism was no longer a safe religious home for them. Also holding sway were the divisions over the proposed Article II changes to our Association’s bylaws, causing some bewilderment at language reworked so that it seemed, to some, to water down our heritage.

This year’s GA theme, Love Unites, Stories Ignite, challenged the GA community to remember to lead with love as we went about our business and asked us to hear with acceptance and compassion the fears and doubts expressed by some other delegates. We were asked to hold, at times, multiple, conflicting truths; to explore the deepest values of our faith in reflecting on issues not only before us in the general assembly but also in the larger world. 

The emotional smorgasbord began with the President of the UUA, Sofia Betancourt, addressing the assembly in the President’s Report, spoke of the suffering in the Middle East of both Palestinians and Israelis. She did not speak, specifically, to the continued holding of hostages by Hamas. This omission was viewed, by some in our Jewish community, as a lack of acknowledgement of the real suffering of Jews in the world, as well as within our Association. This led to the introduction of a responsive resolution put before the assembly on the final day. (“Responsive resolutions” relate specifically to something said or done in the course of GA.) That resolution spoke to the “real harm that has come to and continues to be suffered by those affected by the October 7 attack.” The resolution calls for the immediate release of all Hamas held hostages and the GA acknowledgment “of the real suffering of Jews within our association and beyond.”

Also prompting many emotions were the amendments to the Article II language and the final vote itself. One amendment spoke of the need for reason to be explicitly noted as a Value. This amendment was not approved. Discouraging to those who felt that “reason and the responsible search for meaning” were central to UUism and so should be a core value. Defeated was an amendment to make “peace” a value while the amendment to change “Equity: Every person is inherently worthy” passed.  

Saturday’s final vote approved the proposed and revised Article II language. See the link below for more specifics about the business of the assembly itself.

While we have differing ideas, it is important to remember that we value, overall, the good of this, our church community. 
 

Chris, Christina, Penny and Sue