This past week, The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) hosted the 62nd General Assembly (GA) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a first-timer to GA, I was dazzled to see thousands of Unitarian Universalists coming together, in the City of Bridges, to conduct their yearly ritual of business resolution and communal worship. As a faith tradition, Unitarian Universalism has been in a state of rebuilding. The pandemic has seen major changes in our associated congregations resulting in a shifting landscape that, for some, has felt disorienting. Recent events at the UUA have caused us to become more aware that change is necessary in our stance toward dismantling systems of oppression and racism. Yet in this time of transformation, there has been positive movement toward redefining who we are as an association of congregations and what it means to be Unitarian Universalist.
As a result of the business last week, our associated congregations chose to call and elect the Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt to the position of President of the UUA. Rev. Betancourt previously served as one of three interim presidents and now succeeds the Rev. Susan Fredrick-Gray. Rev. Sofia is the first out, Queer person and first woman of color to serve as UUA President. Along with electing the next president of the UUA, delegates present voted by an 86% majority to advance the proposed amendments to the Article II bylaws that govern the UUA. A final vote to codify the proposed changes to Article II will take place at the General Assembly in 2024. The last revision to Article II occurred in 1987.
During one of the general sessions, Rev. Sofia answered questions related to what she saw as the goals of her presidency and her thoughts about the Article II process. “I want us to have a shared language that doesn’t separate us from what matters most. We don’t need to claim the language of someone else’s values, but lean into our own pluralistic, diverse, language.” Rev. Sofia spoke about how she sees this as a time when we need to lean into our covenants with each other while we explore our shared values. “We are in a reimagining and rebuilding moment where risk-taking is central to who we are.” Rev. Sofia summarized her thoughts by saying, “Article II allows us to dream again.” She then asked, “Will you dream with me?”
During the Service of the Living Tradition, Rev. Chris Buice of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation (TVUUC) spoke about our metamorphosis into who knows what. The music that accompanied the service asked us, “What do we need to imagine… change.” He reminded us that “We are not changing because we want to. We’re changing because we have to.” As Rev. Buice so eloquently stated in his sermon, “In the Unitarian Universalist church we believe in evolution. Now we actually have to practice it. We have to adapt to change. We have to evolve.”
As we are soon to enter a new church year, what do we at the Unitarian Universalists Congregation of Asheville need to be able to adapt to change, to reimagine our commitments to one another, to reinvest in our shared values? Can we recommit to Love, Justice, Interdependence, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, and Generosity? Can we learn to stay at the table and rebuild relationships with ourselves and with those in our community? Rev. Sofia stated it so well when she said, “I want us to be publicly obnoxious about our values.” So, Dream with Me UUC Asheville. Let’s step into a world of imagination and wonder as we continue to live into Beloved Community.
Blessed Be,
Shawn Gibson (He/Him)
Member since 2018, Seminary Student at Meadville-Lombard Theological School