Event 503 with ASL ULL at General Assembly 2021

[Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] good morning good afternoon and good evening i am charles dumond one of your co-moderators along with the reverend meg riley and it is a blessing to share this work with meg i use he him pronouns i am an older cisgendered white male with gray hair and a gray beard i'm wearing a coral colored button-down shirt i now call to order the fifth general session of the 60th general assembly of the unitarian universalist association as we gather today we want to say that we are holding the people of florida in our hearts as emergency workers continue to search for missing people after the collapse of the champlain towers building in miami other buildings are being evacuated on the coast to see if they are also in danger of collapse we know that the stress and the uncertainty weighs on all floridians heavily and we want to acknowledge the immensity of the loss you and we are experiencing we have invited reverend clyde grubbs from the native caucus of the diverse and revolutionary uu multicultural ministries to speak at this time we felt in this difficult week it was important to hear from an elder familiar to many of us from his years of activism and leadership i am the reverend cly rob's reverend dr clyde grubbs he his pronouns and i'm a tall silver-haired elder with dark shirt with stripes my background is a stone wall when i was a child growing up in east texas i remember the adults talking about boarding schools my family was texas cherokee and the band had many stories of threats and violence that had been visited upon them and what talk about boarding schools was something that scared me the wisdom that i was told was that you don't talk to those outside the band about your family or about your community about the band so i learned to suspect outsiders later when i was a young adult i met survivors of the boarding schools several of those survivors went on to become active in the american indian movement they were angry about the boarding schools others left the schools traumatized by beatings and sexual assault alcohol and drugs became ways to overcome their memories of mistreatment the violence that had been visited on them the boarding schools were set up by the united states and canada in the mid-19th century and even even laters many of the schools were opened as early as the 20th century and the idea was to eliminate the original peoples of this land to eliminate those people children were taken from the schools with the goal of teaching them not to speak their native language not to practice their customs not to dress in the way that they had been taught by their parents and their aunts and their uncles to make them culturally part of the united states that's what was said hair was cut hair was the hair was cut down and they often were told not to speak their native language not to not to do that these schools were run by church-affiliated organizations almost always unitarians ran a school in montana directed at the crow people children the slogan of the schools was to kill the indian and save the man they failed on both counts those who survived did not who hated white culture that imprisoned them beat them abused them they didn't feel assimilated into whiteness many died the boarding school is also a story of cover-up those children who died were not reported the greys of the two canadian schools that were just discovered early this week and late last week had markers removed a cover-up on the part of the missionary order of the church that ran the schools they were trying to hide what had happened the violence against the original peoples of this land is ongoing educating ourselves about the boarding schools will help you use overcome the violence against original people will help overcome white supremacy it will it will be helpful to understand part of the history of the united states the ongoing attempt to make the original people of the united states disappear last year on the 400th anniversary of the mayflower invasion we collectively passed an aaiw an action of immediate witness to address the 400 years of white supremacist colonialism that destruction has been go ongoing violence against the original people and also against the land that is beautiful and sustains us we are reminded by the red nation and national movement of activists that we cannot address the crisis that we are inflicting on this earth without respecting the indigenous peoples especially their sovereignty their right to control the land under treaty today the astronomy people in what is known as northern minnesota call all of us into solidarity as they resist line three pipeline which is slated to pass through their treaty lands destroying their rivers and waters responding to this call hundreds of people including roughly 20 unitarian universalists have been arrested jailed released and are now awaiting trial please join us in resistance through direct action local community organizing and if possible financial support for the line three arrestees for info on how to support this indigenous-led movement kindly visit treaty people gathering just one word treaty people gathering period calm c-o-m slash donate treaty people gathering calm donating remember the violence that has been inflicted on the first people of this land and on this our beautiful planet and organized to do something to do something concrete in your neighborhood and on as elimination thank you thank you thank you um and we are all called to do more work so thank you we also have an important message from the election practice campaign committee or the ecpc the reverend matthew johnson is invited to speak delegates beloveds i'm matthew johnson a member of the election campaign practices committee along with beth mcgregor and reverend casey slag the election and campaign practices committee is charged with holding those who present themselves for leadership in our association accountable to our bylaws and our rules among those few rules are our requirements for campaign finance disclosure our rules require candidates to disclose the number and amount of donations they received in specific ranges including substantial in-kind donations and names of in-kind donors they also require candidates to document their expenses these rules ensure fairness between candidates and ensure that we the delegates have good information about how the candidates raise and spend money this transparency is vital for our democratic process and is required by our rules by your rules a preliminary financial report was due wednesday evening from candidates in contested races jake hiskle's report was provided to the ua secretary and the ecpc on thursday on friday the ecpc discovered it was incomplete and apparently inaccurate a corrected report was requested on friday evening due by noon eastern today sunday but has not arrived mr kiscall has been informed that he is in violation of our rules even though he did not get the most votes in the election which concluded on friday the rules of our association still matter the ecpc believes that you the delegates have a right to know this a final report of contributions and expenses is due 60 days from now and we expect it will be complete and accurate thank you thank you today's business agenda includes in the following order opening words we we had intended to put the beacon press report in next but we may be pressed for time so we will be making a decision the final report from the ga care teams discuss and vote on responsive resolutions consider the statement of conscience undoing intersectional white supremacy postponed from yesterday we'll have some music we'll have the installation of the newly elected leaders there will be an invitation to ga 2022 we will recognize all who made ga possible there will be the final credentials closing words and then an opportunity for you to vote to adjourn this meeting thank you good day and welcome to the final general session of the 2021 unitarian universalist association general assembly my name is leslie mcfadden i use she her pronouns and i am one of the vice moderators of your unitarian universalist association board of trustees today as we gather once more after a week of amazing connection and community i will share with you this piece from this amazing book conversations with the sacred a collection of prayers edited by our own reverend manish mishra marzetti and jennifer kelleher this is holy disruption written by aisha hauser a religious educator co-creator of the white supremacy teaching and part of the lead ministry team of the church of the larger fellowship holy disruption some days it feels like it's just too much some days i want to hide and shut it all out some days i want to channel the ancestors who fought for liberation and for the right to just exist every day i want to know when to speak up and disrupt injustice even in the seemingly insignificant moments each moment is significant each day an opportunity arises where we can bear witness and choose to disrupt injustice spirit of life give us the courage and wisdom to become holy disrupters and truth-tellers when called upon grant us the humility to know that this is a practice and when we make mistakes we will try again with love and patience we are called to the caring and growing of souls and we are all in this together as a people of faith who affirm the interdependent web of which we are all apart we are called to become holy disrupters because we are all in this together greetings my name is mary beth spencer and my pronouns are she her or they them i am a fat white woman with brown hair sitting in front of a teal backrest i am the co-lead of the accessibility and inclusion team with patty cameron this ga has been a very different one than previous years for the accessibility and inclusion team with no physical items to loan out we have been devoting our time to find ways to connect people with disabilities and access needs to and through the technology we are all encountering rather than through the halls of a convention center it has been great to see the ways in which we all help one another this year both before and at general assembly our team focused on enabling the active full participation of all the attendees and ways to be as inclusive as possible we found that this ga was successful in some ways but has a long way to go in others for instance all of the disabled people i communicated with yesterday were glad that the wording in the aiw was changed to disability however many were unhappy that they hadn't been asked how they self-identified to begin with some were upset that it had been referred to as a minor change given the emotional work that had gone into that situation on their end i also know of other ouches that took place over the weekend we will always be looking to find ways to have fewer of these issues and to solve them when they do arise we also worked on many technology problems and we'll spend time figuring out ways to work around the limitations in zoom hoova and our portal or whatever technology we use next year when we do we will find ways to make guides and instructions that are easier to follow and find what you need we will find ways to make closed captioning better and more accessible next year as we try to improve them each year and we will find ways to better communicate as to what we need to do to help all of us better access general assembly i want to thank patti cameron for being a great co-lead she has certainly taught me an awful lot about doing this job i am so grateful for all of our wonderful volunteers they did a great job helping answer all of the questions that they encountered i want to appreciate all of the other care teams for helping out and sharing the load i would like to thank laura conkle for being amazing over in disability caucus she was open to letting me hop in and out she answered many of my questions and i felt welcomed and loved over there and finally thank you everybody at mount diablo unitarian universalist church for all of your support this week thank you all of you for attending ga this year i look forward to being with you at general assembly 2022 dear siblings in faith i am the reverend christina spouty one of your co-leads for this 2021 general assembly chaplain team i use she her pronouns i am a young looking middle-ish aged white woman with shoulder length curly brown hair and blue eyes i'm wearing a textured coral shirt and i'm seated on a dark couch with plain ivory wall behind me entire chaplain team wishes to express their gratitude to all who participated in making this virtual general assembly a vibrant and caring expression of the best of our faith aspirations we were grateful to witness how often so many of you sought to supplement the ga care teams in your loving support of each other we witnessed you forming lively communities of support education and advocacy in the hoova app we witnessed you seeking to provide technical answers and information to each other as well as affirmations of gratitude in the different tree rooms and identity spaces this was heartening to witness in the growth of our ability to love each other into living into our faith dreams and values as chaplains we also witnessed how challenging it is and remains when we harm each other intentionally or more often unintentionally harm is harm regardless and it is important that we turn toward and listen to each other it is important that we create and respect what is meant to be safe space particularly identity based spaces for our bipoc and disabled and trans and non-binary and lgbtq plus siblings only by doing so do we practice being a beloved and inclusive community of justice we know there were failures this year failures that were structural and systemic and nature with broad pastoral impact for many of you and we will be communicating these failures in our final report to the general assembly planning committee so that structural barriers and issues are addressed and they will not be repeated next year i am and we are so grateful for our team and we recognize and honor the added a burden of our bipoc disabled and non-dominant identity chaplains have carried during this ga and responding we give thanks to our chaplains the reverend madeleine campbell sanjay hawk reverend laura hulk reverend ren mcfadden reverend dr richard speck and reverend linda susan ulrich and to my co-leads the reverend carol thomas sissel reverend julianne lapp and reverend dr michelle walsh many of us look forward to serving you again for next year's general assembly finally beloveds as you re-enter the world beyond our virtual general assembly please remember to prioritize the care of your bodies and spirits and your family and friends in both the ongoing traumatic challenges of these times as well as the opportunities for new and creative visions remember particularly the precious vessel that your body is hydrate eat sleep move dance sing and create find the spiritual practices that renew and sustain you personally and in community connect connect connect for it is in and through communal practices that we will find and create our collective liberation and salvation may you be well blessed and beloved community i am the reverend elizabeth mount my pronouns are they and them i am a white person with dark hair wearing purple lipstick glasses black headphones and a grey top blessed beloved community we have spent the last few days together creating this ephemeral community of communities the general assembly of congregations and communities of the entire unitarian universalist association each year this community comes together and coalesces never without its tensions and hiccups and misunderstandings and yes even some instances of serious conflict and harm to one another and yet even through all of this we continue to rebind the ties of faith between us to affirm the hope of the unitarian universalism that is not yet and yet can be so we notice we notice the many of you whose engagement has been generous and joyful gentle and loving we noticed the quiet ones the praiseworthy for your everyday actions of care and repair when things have been difficult we notice you who reached out to say i did a thing and i noticed the heart on another's face or in their voice how may i repair the trust i have broken what comes next we notice all of you who moved bravely through your uncertainty and did better you who helped others to notice what they did not know for we are not a learned but a learning community not grown but ever growing not perfect but ever in progress and we notice real harm done we regret the ways in which error and unknowing have led to real wounding of our trans and non-binary siblings of people of color among us and with us of indigenous people of those who are disabled or neurodiverse and especially of those multiply marginalized in marginalized in these and other ways we know that explicit and coded racism in our spaces especially on the hoover app caused those spaces to become a source of further pain for many of those who are black indigenous and people of color we regret the ways that our technological limitations have sometimes made it hard to move conversations which cause harm to observers into venues where trained pastoral care or content warnings or identity-based caucus facilitators can choose to work with people who share identities of privilege the harm is real and it is real that self-awareness and repair are happening in ways that they did not when the right relationship team was first created back in 2006 or even just a few years ago we know being in covenant does not protect us from being harmed by the words and actions of others but it does promise that when we lean into relationship find curiosity about people's actions acknowledge especially for those of us with privilege our own capacity to hurt and harm others we can grow together in responsibility and discover ever more flourishing ways of being together so let me say thank you to all of you and to our conflict and covenant team and to all those working in and around the general assembly to make it happen we are better but not yet good enough beloved and trying to love more fully we are complex and diverse and stretching our ever-widening circle and so may it continue in this year and years to come good afternoon and evening general assembly attendees i am tessa ellis my pronouns are she and her i am one of the co-leads for the systemic justice team this general assembly has been amazing we are in awe of this beloved community and are honored to have a role in contemplating and supporting the creation of future general assemblies that feel more welcoming inclusive and justice centered general assemblies that anticipate nurture and support the full participation of everyone and seek to ensure that everyone feels they belong we want to equip attendees with guidelines and tools to participate in difficult and vital conversations while being in covenant and respecting the inherent worth and dignity of all and two celebrate together using approaches that are responsible compassionate and kind the systemic justice team has been communicating multiple times every day to review observations and attendees documented concerns we would like to reassure you that we will continue to meet discuss and create a final report that fulfills our charge briefly we would like to highlight some of the concerns we observed and received reports about we noted despite enormous dedication and planning from the technology team the various tools still presented difficulties for some in terms of getting and staying connected and fully participating in general assembly current platforms used for general assembly presented opportunities for microaggressions oppressive verbal and non-verbal communication that affected our transgender non-bi non-binary disabled black indigenous and people of color members this behavior resulted in hurt feelings unsafe and even toxic spaces despite the efforts of many in our community to mitigate those harms music both selected in the moment and recorded weeks before brought several concerns to the forefront for our transgender non-binary black indigenous and people of color members and their allies we heard the concerns about misnaming and misgendering members in live and recorded videos we also recognize the profound pain that resulted when people were identified by their dead name a name that a person no longer uses the volume and cadence of programming created various for members speaking too quickly or too softly meant not everyone could receive the ideas and information to fully engage future general future general assemblies will require additional work to be fully inclusive however we express appreciation for the many in the moment pivots and fixes that help this general assembly to be more accessible all of us on the systemic justice team are grateful for the opportunity to serve our beloved community and look forward to having an even more inclusive and justice field general assembly next year hello friends i'm kathy burek i'm a member of the michael cervetis unitarian society in fridley minnesota land of the anishinabe and dakota people i'm a member of your uua board of trustees and our mod squad i use she her pronouns i am wearing a short i am a short white woman with short gray hair i'm wearing a white blouse with a blue jacket i'm john newhall i use they them and he him pronouns i'm a member of the first church in salem massachusetts home of the wabanaki people and i serve on the uua board of trustees i'm a white genderqueer 24 year old young adult today i'm wearing a pair of black glasses a light blue button-down shirt with a purple tie well we did quite a few things yesterday we had heartfelt discussions passed a consent agenda some bylaw amendments and affirmed three actions of immediate witness congratulate yourselves for your good work in the next section of our business agenda we will be considering responsive resolutions since we have many first-time delegates and thank you for being here i'd like to explain what a responsive resolution is our uua bylaws section 4.16 point c 1 states a responsive resolution is a resolution made in response to a rest of subs to a substantive proportion of a report by an officer or committee reporting to a general assembly a substantive portion of a report is more than a passing comment or casual reference rather it is a topic in a formal report that the presenters spent some time discussing a responsive resolution reflects the sentiment of this general assembly it does not make policy nor is it binding or enforceable a responsive resolution does not change a formal policy of the board or the uua and cannot compel the board to take an action which would violate those policies while the adoption of a responsive resolution is not binding on the board or the administration we do take them seriously these resolutions provide important feedback for us and we appreciate the effort that goes into drafting them some proposed responsive resolutions we received did not meet the standard for a responsive resolution nonetheless we appreciate the feedback and will consider your comments in our future work there is another category of resolutions called business resolutions a business resolution according to rule g4 18.2 directly involves the administration and structure of the association proposed business resolutions are more complex and have more detailed criteria which must be met to be considered in order proposals for business resolutions must be submitted to the board by february 1st business resolutions have more force than responsive resolutions we understand the process for writing and introducing responsive resolutions and business resolutions is confusing we will be working to clarify these processes over the next several months some of you may be inspired by our discussion today to propose a responsive resolution or business resolution for next year's general assembly we your board of trustees would love to help you in that process please reach out to us as soon as you have an idea we'll explain the criteria and suggest ways your language can meet those criteria we will be considering two responsive resolutions today the first asks the article to study commission to include a principle on systemic anti-racism in their revision of article 2. the second proposed responsive resolution asks for divestment from pipelines and institutions that fund pipelines and they request that young adults be included in discussions about uua investments the text of both resolutions have been posted on the ga website an important difference between our process today and yesterday is that responsive resolutions are not amendable you will be voting to approve or reject them john will you please facilitate the discussion of our first responsive resolution thank you kathy i call on bruce pollock johnson author of the resolution for an explanation thank you kathy uh hello dear ones my name is bruce johnson my pronouns are he him his i'm a delegate from the unitarian universalist church of the restoration in philadelphia pennsylvania who just voted to change our name to unitarian universalists of mount airy we occupy unseated ancestral lands of the lenie lenape nation i'm a cisgendered able-bodied heterosexual male with european ancestors who has been raced as white i have shortish straight brown hair and i'm wearing a maroon shirt the two major crises of our association have been the black empowerment betrayal of the late 1960s and early 1970s after which we lost many by poc siblings and the resignation of our president in 2017. both crises reveal the systemic racism that has been baked into our national culture and therefore into the culture of our association with the help of the journey toward wholeness campaign our acting co-presidents in 2017 and the widening the circle of concern report by the commission on institutional change we are realizing what we need to do to evolve from a movement of individual freedom of conscience to a spiritual movement that balances this with collective liberation to build beloved community where every person can thrive our principles are what we you use think of as our core our essence we have expressed the importance of systemic anti-racism and anti-oppression in resolutions but until we express the commitment in our principles our siblings of color and from other oppressed groups will not be able to have confidence that they can count on us to follow through as delegates ministers and religious professionals at this ga this responsive resolution lets the article 2 study commission and the uua board know that we believe that expressing this commitment to accountable systemic anti-racist and anti-oppressive action in our principles is essential to our fulfilling our tremendous potential as a movement in this country and in the world thank you thank you you're going to take a couple of moments for you to discuss this proposal amongst yourselves talk with the people in your chat room and send a text to a friend if you would like to speak to this proposal please go to the information room so you can be added in the appropriate line [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] now that you've had time to discuss the proposed resolution i call on the delegate in the pro line please put 12 minutes on the discussion clock thank you hello my name is sarah libera jr of the unitarian universalist church of akron ohio my pronouns are he him his and i live on the former shared hunting grounds and training past the iroquois confederacy i'm a mid-30s cisgender black man with dreadlocks and reading glasses wearing a green plaid shirt five years ago the 2016 general assembly in columbus i went to the podium with a challenge to the general assembly to turn away from white supremacy culture since that moment we have embraced the black lives within unitarian universalism and began widening our circle of concern meanwhile the right wing in the u.s has attacked the movement for liberation with armed militias voter suppression laws and by rallying against what they call critical race theory really an attack on truth telling this corruption and confusion has even made its way into our own space so today i call on our assembly to pass this responsive resolution and make it plain in our principles that this is an anti-racist faith this is a courageous faith and for those seeking racial justice as our beloved teacher in landrieu williams taught us this is our faith thank you thank you i call on the delegate in the con line hello uh my name is alan lindrup i'm a delegate from the unitarian universalist community church in park forest illinois my pronouns are he and his i wish to speak against this proposed responsive resolution i think the articles do study commission should be unburdened by any such constraints it should go out and listen to all unitarian universalist input from around the country and should be free to uh incorporate any proposed new uh principles change any current principles they should you know if they want to incorporate wording about anti-racism they may want to incorporate them into one of the current principles through uh et cetera they should be free to do what they choose uh after getting all the input from used around the country and they should not be constrained by this kind of directive in advance is what i have to say thank you i call on the delegate in the pro line hello my name is hannah kiley and i'm calling from the unitarian universalist church of corpus christi here in texas i am a white cisgendered female also a young adult and i'm wearing a hair clip i have brown hair and glasses with a flower dress our unitarian universalist faith and values building beloved community addressing white supremacy ending the exploitation of black indigenous and people of color and building world community calls us to address this publicly and with accountability with our wider community currently the uua holds shares in companies like enbridge which directly funds the line 3 pipeline bank of america walmart and so many other companies that profit off the backs of black indigenous and people of color the uu common endowment fund made 50 million dollars over the course of the pandemic which appears to be a historic high many times over previous year's returns from many of these companies and more profiting from the suffering and oppression from others is not living into our faith values and it is a founded reason to respond with divesting from the named institutions in the responsive resolution we are a faith community guided by promises to one another stop you for a moment um this seems to be about the next responsive resolution uh and so i'm gonna rule it out of order at this time and to ask you to come back in the next in the next responsive resolution that kathy will be moderating with that i recognize the delegate in the con line hello can you hear me thank you my name is bruce wiggins from first unitarian society of milwaukee i don't want to argue against the merits of this i just think it is premature we want to have a robust discussion in our congregation about the article 2 study commission and i understand that is the purpose of the commission so uh responsive resolution now i think is premature and prejudges the outcome i think we should be waiting until next year thank you i call on the delegate in the pro line good afternoon i am the reverend sheryl m walker from the unitarian universalist congregation of wilmington north carolina i am also co-chair of your article 2 commission i'm voting in the pro line because this is already in our charge we already have been charged by the board to consider the eighth principle as an integral part of our work this does not limited us to actually putting the wording as it is into our new article too but it does give us direction your affirmation will tell us that this is important it is one way you will be giving us feedback this is important that we articulate that we are anti-racist anti-oppressive multicultural if you have this does not mean that we've stopped the discussion but this is one way of telling us in which direction we should head so i urge you to vote yes on this responsive resolution thank you i recognize the delegate in the con microphone or line hello this i'm donna starr and i live with the saily sea the home of the salish sea native tribes uh i'm a older white anglo she her and i love the wording of this but i am con because i have been studying our principles and i think that our sixth principle about loving peace liberty and justice for all is a little bit mealy mouth and that that's where this ought to go is to replace that weak spoken one and put in a powerfully spoken one so i think it's premature to do this right now i think there's a lot of discussion that has to be done among the community members and this would be a viable something to be done at next year's ga thank you very much i call on the delegate in the pro line hi i'm rob sperko i use him pronouns i'm a member of the foothills unitarian universalist fellowship in maryville tennessee i'm also on the article 2 study commission and i just want to speak in favor to echo what reverend cheryl m walker said this is definitely a former feedback and we would love to get the sense of the assembly on this i want to add that we want to make sure that you continue to engage after this vote with the article 2 commission um we don't want it to be just like up vote it on that what scrimmage is done you know um please stay engaged with us look at the page on the uua website because there's there's a lot we're considering and we want uh still to be in conversation about these issues of justice anti-oppression etc so yes please vote and let us know how you all feel about this portion of our charge thank you i recognize i call on the delegate in the con line okay hi can you hear me all right my name's anne schneider i'm from the valley unitarian universalist congregation in chandler arizona and i think this is premature and i urge you to vote no it's it's jumping the gun we don't want to be sending messages uh one way or the other that will then be given way too much weight when in fact we need the time to discuss this in our congregation there are serious issues with the eighth principle and we need to have time to discuss them thank you i call on the delegate in the pro line hi i am the reverend dr richard speck wilmington delaware and i am a white male with gray hair black glasses and wearing a flowered shirt i wish to speak in favor of this statement because i have been working in unitarian universalism for 30 years trying to make sure that our racial justice had uh something that we lived out in what we did and i have wanted to see this kind of a statement in our principles for a long time and so i want to not have any more discussion i want us to go ahead and tell the commission that we want something like this in our principles and i urge all of the delegates to support me in doing that thank you i call on the delegate in the con line yes my name is branwyn drew i'm a delegate from upstate new york my pronouns are she her i'm a member of the trans community and i am voting in to support the resolution uh we are we need to tell the commission what is what we want done this does not tie the hands of the commission it just provides them with more input thank you call on the delegate in the pro line hello my name is samara powers and i use shive pronouns i'm calling from gainesville florida a middle-aged white woman with glasses and a dark t-shirt i just want to say that in response to some of the others in the comm line i understand the reservations um but i believe that what we are talking about is the chance to begin this conversation in earnest it's not about taking time to have a conversation we've had more than 100 years 200 300 400 years to have this conversation i think it's time for us to invest in action thank you thank you and as the motion clock has run out of time we will not be hearing from anyone else in the alliance um i do want to clarify as we move to a vote now uh that this is a request to the commission's study to study uh not a vote on adding a principle uh the the vote will be on the dr on the draft of the article two revision uh in 2023. um this this particular vote is about a responsive resolution uh calling on what on the commission's direction of study as opposed to um adding a principle and with that it's time to vote um if you vote yes you're voting in favor of this resolution if you vote no then you wish to then then you do not wish to affirm this resolution please vote now [Music] so [Music] [Music] and with that i think we're going to come back and close the polls let me just let me consult with the rest of the mod squad to confirm the results of the vote [Music] thank you john our next responsive resolution i call on suzanne fast trustee to present the board's position on this resolution you're muted suzanne i'm the reverend suzanne fast because of the nature of my disabilities this slide in general assembly i have trouble producing much volume in my voice it may vary so you may need to adjust your speakers i use she her pronouns i'm a white identified woman late middle age with long dark brown curly hair and glasses before we consider this responsive resolution i want to share a little bit more about how we got to this point as kathy said responsive resolutions reflect the sentiment of the general assembly but they can't make policy we have a different process for that business resolutions that gives more time for people to read and digest time for consideration of amendments more time for dialogue so when the board received this responsive resolution we hadn't been part of conversations as it was drafted and i wish we had because we agree with the direction and the sentiment this resolution gives important feedback to the board and to our investment and socially responsible investing committees it shows the uua still needs to do more as we continue to implement the 2020 business resolution on human rights and investment we need to do more to reach out to our uu activists and social justice partners it points to the urgent need to leverage our common endowment to fight the line 3 pipeline we support these things is personal for many of our board members who are young adults for some like kathy who were at the line 3 treaty people gathering that's important yet the resolution draft that we received was really trying to do something that a responsive resolution can't do to direct you a policy like a business resolution we engaged with the sponsors to try to come to agreement on language we could all unequivocally unequivocally support and unfortunately we ran out of time a shortcoming of the brief responsive resolution process we waited as long as we could even at the cost to some excess accessibility because we were late posting the draft we faced a tough choice and we spent a long time deliberating on the board with our legal counsel how can we let this proceed even though it goes against the guidelines of what a responsive resolution is and in the end we decided to admit the responsive resolution and allow the delegates to have their say we don't want this important work to be hung up by process concerns which would have felt like it invalidated the important organizing that created this resolution those process concerns are real they sit at the intersection of our deepest held values our relationships in our communities the futures of individual congregations invested in the common endowment with millions of dollars at stake clear and consistent process is an important tool for equity we recognize that as kathy has said the board needs to do more to clarify the process for responsive resolutions so that everyone can engage fairly and if this resolution is affirmed the board will do additional work this summer to clarify how the uua can follow the sentiment of this resolution within our policies of how investment decisions get made and now i'm going to read for you a message from our amazing financial advisor lucia santini field who's at a family engagement right now but is deeply committed to the groundbreaking work of our socially responsible investing she's going to explain a little bit more about how our investment decisions work okay here's lucia's message we are grateful for the leadership and commitment of the young adult community at general assembly as expressed in their statement opposing white supremacy culture and their opposition to line three pipeline in this responsive resolution the investment committee and socially responsible investment committee have worked collaboratively and steadily over the past year to both advance the association's commitment to racial justice in policy and practice as well as to advance policy and practice with regard to the 2020 business resolution on human rights we encourage you to read the detailed and informative report on the progress of the committees which will be pasted in our chat rooms the common endowment fund is a pool of endowment funds of over 343 congregations and other uu groups including the association it's a legal entity overseen by volunteers appointed by the board and managed on a day-to-day basis by the uua's chief financial officer andrew mcgeorge and his team investments in the fund are legally bound to adhere to the policies and procedures in effect the committees understand their fiduciary duty is not just to the uua but to the considerable number of congregations and affiliates who have invested in the common endowment fund sorry about that the governing policies and procedures may evolve and be amended through a business resolution but not through a responsive resolution the very short-term nature of responsive revolution process does not provide sufficient time for discussion reflection collaboration and understanding the uua's common endowment fund implement implements uu values through corporate engagement and public policy advocacy screening and community investments engagement has long been prioritized to achieve social change and the uua has been successful with a broad range of companies across key issues of important to unitarian universalists lgbtq plus rights climate change labor rights and the environment 2021 saw a seismic change in corporate governance as shareholder proposals which result when engagement stalls saw overwhelming support for climate proposals and proposals related to racial justice initiatives we are committed to engagement with members of the young adult community in the committees this will be an important part of the analysis and development of policy and practices to support indigenous rights the environment and climate justice while honoring our commitments to legal structures in place and to all investors in the common endowment fund thank you suzanne we've had a request to read the vote results from the previous vote out loud there are 1176 votes cast 73 yes 26 no and 2 abstain to clarify what we are discussing now is the responsive resolutions titled creating a more just future through divesting from pipelines and investing in young people i call on caitlyn hill from the young adult caucus to introduce the motion and to explain it to the delegate body in the meantime please note that the wrong version of this responsive resolution was initially posted but it has now been corrected so please reload your browsers by clicking control r to make sure you have the correct link i now call on caitlyn hill to move the proposed amendment caitlin hill i am from the first unitarian church in portland oregon where i'm also a member of the board of trustees i'm also a member of the younger adults i am a white fem presenting an individual with glasses my hair is in a top knot with a growing outside undercut as unitarian universeless young adults we are distressed and disturbed that our faith organization the uua through its common endowment fund is still invested in corporations that drive and profit off of fossil fuels and are violators of human rights many of us only just learned about the common endowment fund this week and we're appalled to find out its investments in corporations such as enbridge jpmorgan chase amazon walmart bank of america uber technologies inc facebook canoco phillips comcast general mills blackrock microsoft chevron and wells fargo we strongly believe that any continued investment in fossil fuel corporations and companies that commit human rights violations fails to live up to our values and is out of the covenant of our shared faith since many of us only just learned about this issue this week we haven't had the chance to submit a business resolution by the february date we believe this responsive resolution is a powerful way to show our values as an assembly anishinabe and other immigrant indigenous leaders in the climate justice movement have explicitly asked for allies to divest from the banks and other stakeholders funding the line 3 tar sands pipelines as part of upholding indigenous treaty rights stopping extraction and creating a more just world for all divesting from banks funding climate chaos is an important strategy in aligning uu actions with uu values and would build off the momentum that was mentioned at the beginning of this general session of several uus taking direct action and even being arrested for stopping construction of the line 3 pipeline this pipeline is being built right now as we speak and the uua divesting would not only honor commitments to justice within our faith but also potentially have wide impact within the broader interfaith movement to stop line three and create climate justice we call on the uua to fulfill its obligation to its congregational members and to society at large these investments go against our principles and our faith as you use we remain committed to our central values and we know that the people are holier than the process the planet is more important than the procedure we submitted a responsive resolution which calls for the uua common endowment funds to divest from these human rights violating companies immediately and also include young adults in the process of determining these and future divestments as young people the world that we are living in and inheriting is literally on fire if the uua is committed to the 2020 responsive resolution to support youth and young adults listening and responding to this year's resolution is one immediate action our faith can take today i am talking to you now from portland oregon where it's currently 101 degrees and predicted to get to 115 degrees today and tomorrow pipelines are under construction we are in a climate emergency and the urgency to divest from fossil fuels could not be more urgent divesting from fossil fuels is a faithful action and we call on delegates to vote yes thank you thank you caitlyn i need to make a correction somebody pulled the wrong vote totals and gave me one from yesterday on the uh responsive resolution to add a statement about institutional racism to the uh revisions of article two the correct vote total is 91 yes 7 no and two percent abstaining i apologize for the error now we will give you two minutes to chat among yourselves uh please talk with the people in your chat room send a text to a friend and if you would like to speak to this proposal i see we have a few people already in the pro and con lines so if you're interested in speaking please and start moving to those lines now you'll start in the information room two minutes please [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] a good discussion now that you've had time to discuss the proposed resolution i call on the delegate at the pro line please put 12 minutes on the discussion clock hi my name is hannah kiley i use she her pronouns i am a white cisgendered female and young adult i am wearing my hair up in a clip i'm wearing glasses in a flower dress i am also the director of religious exploration and the administrator at the unitarian universalist church of corpus christi here in texas our unitarian universal's faith and values building beloved community addressing white supremacy ending the exploitation of black indigenous and people of color and building world community calls us to address this publicly with the accountability with our wider community currently the uua holds shares in companies like enbridge which directly funds the line 3 pipeline bank of america walmart and so many other companies that profit off the backs of black indigenous and people of color the uu common endowment fund made 50 million over the course of the pandemic which appears to be a historic high many times over previous year's returns from many of these companies and more profiting from the suffering and oppression of others is not living into our faith values and it is a is it it is a founded reason to respond with divesting from the named institutions in the response of resolution we are a faith community guided by the promises we make to one another and remaining in covenant with one another i'd like to reiterate what was lifted up earlier by leslie mcfaden as people of faith who affirm the inherent interdependent web of which we are all apart we are called to become holy disruptors because we are all in this together please remember what's important people not the process thank you thank you i now recognize the delegate at the con mike good afternoon good afternoon good evening my name is david michael i'm from east shore uu of kirtland ohio i have i am cis male brown hair i'm wearing an orange polo and have glasses i applaud the youth for coming up with this resolution because it's a very difficult and a very complex question but if we completely divest ourselves from pollings in these companies we completely cut off any possibility of bringing our concerns to them during a stockholders meeting holding a minimal amount of shares in a lot of these companies allows us access to put resolutions on their annual meeting these resolutions have been appearing on a lot of the a lot of the corporations and you can see that just by reading their annual reports this gives us a way to bring our concerns to them and they do listen now it's a slow process but it does work thank you thank you i recognize the delegate at the pro mic hi my name is ian evans i'm a delegate from first parish in cambridge my pronouns are he him i'm a 31 year old white cis man with shoulder length dark brown hair and wearing a multi-colored striped button-up shirt and black headphones this responsive resolution was written and signed by 95 young adults and i support it because i am dismayed that our faith organization is making money from corporations to violate human rights profit from the destruction of the natural world violate our uu principles and embody white supremacy well i understand that some investments by the uua's common endowment fund are meant to promote shareholder activism from within we've seen too little progress that takes too long and we can't rely on companies that make so many promises and constantly break them and we're running out of time there are many more fires burning and there are more waters rising and our bypass siblings are bearing the brunt of this corporate sanctioned violence and how can we live into our values and principles if we make even one cent from companies that so flagrantly violate them these companies thrive on the idea of extracting value and making profit white supremacist ideas this meeting of the general assembly has made clear that white supremacy is far stronger in our own ranks than we would like to believe by immediately divesting all money from these corporations the uua can send a powerful signal of its values furthermore the process of how we invest in a socially responsible way needs to be reviewed and that review needs to have the active participation of young adults this is not about money it's about the lives and futures that we are threat that are threatened and the work uh threatened by the those corporations that we invest in and we the young adults are asking you to hear us and to vote yes on this responsive resolution thank you thank you i recognize the delegate at the con mike hello my name is jim hurtis i'm with the unitarian universal fellowship of raleigh north carolina first i'd like to echo the comments of the previous person in the con mic if we divest all our investments you use have no longer will have a voice in the corporate boardrooms in the corporate elections that's the purpose of investments that is how uh our corporate capitalist world works uh secondly there's a couple of nitpicking things about this resolution where it kind of goes off the rails diverting from discussion down the pipeline to discussion on divesting from almost all the corporate world the other issue i have with this is on page three the resolution talks about invoking the eighth principle which has not been approved by the uua so again invoking this principle is out of the line and my final opinion is this is a business resolution and no fault to you folks but this should not have been allowed to even have a discussion because this is not the appropriate venue thank you thank you and i wish to remind the assembly that this is the young adults who are sponsoring this resolution not the youth the distinction is that youth are generally high school or younger and young adults are people who are graduated high school or 18 to 35ish i call on the delegate at the pro mic hello my name is ali tharp my pronouns are she her and they them i am a 31 year old white femme person i'm a delegate of the wildflower uu church in austin texas and i am also the director of programs and partnerships for the unitarian universalist ministry for earth the uu ministry for earth endorses this responsive resolution we understand that it is a responsive resolution a recommendation for what we as the body of the general assembly would like to see and it is a non-binding thing it is not a business resolution but it still deserves to take this space today in this assembly today so i encourage and ask you for your support and i want to share a few things so the uu ministry for earth was involved in bringing forward the 2014 resolution on fossil fuel divestment and we are very grateful for all of the collaboration the continued work of coalition building between justice organizations and the uua common endowment fund and socially responsible investment leaders thank you for the progress that we have made in these last seven years to put our values deeper into our financial decision making we also feel we have room to grow and and a long way to go to actually make these things aligned so i want to share that it was brought to our attention by kurt bevell with the uu for justice in the middle east who had a major role in bringing forward the 2020 resolution from last year and bringing all of our justice groups together with the common endowment fund leadership so kurt was the one who notified ministry for earth that we still had bonds in enbridge like fifty thousand dollars invested in enbridge and so we had a meeting with our chief financial officer in drew mcgorge and with kathy mulvey who is a corporate social responsibility on climate energy organizer with the union of concerned scientists and also leads our socially responsible investment portfolio so kathy and andrew were very very willing to work with us and to divest you know to take this as a special case because this is a frontline issue that we're currently organizing on at at many different levels to stop the line three pipeline it makes no sense to invest in this company over here or invest in the banks who are funding that pipeline construction over here and then to be you know you're trying to with our other hand okay um we have no more speakers in the con line and we do have a time crunch we have uh asl interpreters with whom we have a contract and we can't exceed the time we've contracted for we also have a statement of conscience to get to which i know a lot of people are interested in um so i'm going to ask if the people who are currently sitting in i need to do one more pro okay we will do one more pro and then what i would ask is whether or not the other people in the pro line would be willing to um step back so that we can get the vote on this and then go to our statement of conscience i recognize the delegates at the pro mic hello my name is ian mcvan hinkleman i am a 17 year old youth uh cis white male and i'm a member delegate for first universalist church in minneapolis uh one of the things i want to talk about here today and why i'm in the pro line is because the unitarian universal's common endowment fund has a policy of what's called socially responsible investing if you don't know what that is it's a way before another website that ensures that our investments are aligned with our values none of us want to make our financial returns at the expense of seriously harming ourselves other humans or the environment and one of there's really four components they talk about here and one of them is screening and they say negative screening is trying to avoid unnecessary harm such as avoiding investments in companies that are serious polluters employ sweatshops or have racist or sexist policies many of the corporations that were named here today such as amazon and other corporations that support the line three pipeline have do many of these things and are not part of members of sustainable social responsible investing that being said this responsive resolution is a way to fix a problem that occurred this is not like some new brand new solution the reason we're proposing this because a serious problem has taken place and we're not meeting our guidelines or our values as unitarian universalists what matters in our investing and in our day-to-day life is that we meet each of our seven principles and we do that by socially responsible investing the board has maintained that it is impossible to fully and totally uh see this resolution in the time frame provided but that shouldn't be a reason to not pass such a resolution or not affirm it in the sense that it's fixing a problem that occurred and should not have occurred in the first place i dealt with that thank you uh i don't see anyone else in either line and so it is uh time to vote uh will the tech tech please open the polls okay if you're ready to vote you will vote yes if you're in favor of this resolution you will vote no if you're opposed if you simply have no opinion please refrain from voting this takes two thirds in order to pass [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] all right there being one thousand 1221 votes cast the the motion passes with 80 percent in favor 16 against and i can't see the abstentions four percent extensions thank you all right this completes our portion of the business agenda and again if you would like to propose a business resolution please get in touch with the board as soon as possible business resolutions for ga 2022 are due by february 2nd 2022 for responsive resolutions connect with us early at next year's general assembly thank you again for your hard work and for faithfully representing your congregations at the general assembly i now call on greg boyd to facilitate discussion on the proposed statement of conscience oh hi i'm i'm greg boyd i use he him his pronouns i'm a brown-skinned queer black man and older young adult i'm 35 so not for very much longer uh and i'm wearing a maroon shirt with some black piping around the pocket square uh and some piping around the sleeves as well we are going to get through this we are not going to end on time and that is going to be okay it is absolutely going to be okay i do not want to be between you and our fabulous closing celebration so we are going to move at the speed of trust which need not be slow it is time for us to consider the draft statement of conscience undoing systemic white supremacy let me briefly tell you what a statement of conscience is so according to our bylaws the purpose of a congregational study action issue process is to provide member congregations of the association with an opportunity to mobilize and mobilize energy ideas and resources around a common issue the end result will be a deeper understanding of our religious position on the issue a clear statement of association policy as expressed in a statement of conscience and a greater capacity for the congregations to take effective action so this is the end of our bylaws say it's a three-year process but it's actually a four-year process the process for the next statement of conscience would actually begin this fall if we pass this statement of conscience today so in the fall of a year where we have just passed a statement of conscience congregations can submit ideas to the commission on social witness we send them out to the rest of the congregations to figure out if we want to consider any of them at the following ga that's the first year if we're successful we vote on a congregational study action issue for two to three more years of study in the second ga or the ga after we have selected a congregational study action issue we have workshops to figure out how to go deeper into the study of these issues to figure out what our congregations have already been doing to act on this in the world and then the year after that we have a draft statement of conscience the versions of this draft were sent out to congregations over the course of the last year and obviously there was so many assemblies recently for some final changes if you want any more information on the congregational study action issue process please refer to section 4.12 of the bylaws and g rules 4.12 1 through 3 and rule 4.12.4 so after this multi-year process the general assembly we have three options right now we can either adopt this draft and then it becomes a statement of conscience with the full effect of uua policy this is policy that we will use to advocate for our values out in the world as congregations and the non-profit organization that is our unitarian universalist association we can reject the draft statement and so then it doesn't exist anymore or we can refer back to the commission on social witness for one more year of study and revision one little caveat about those two things if we vote it down we cannot refer it we have to either decide to refer if we think we don't agree or vote it down all together all right adopting a statement of conscience or uh making sure that it has the full force of policy that we wanted to have or referring it back to the commission on social witness for an additional year of study and revision both take a two-thirds majority vote and with that i recognize the co-chair of the commission on social witness in the procedure amendment line to make the appropriate motion thank you i'm reverend dr pippin whitaker and i use she her pronouns i'm a middle-aged white cisgender femme person with long straight brown hair i'm wearing a white shirt with a brown room divider background draped in fabric that's white blue batik and one with rainbow color designs i serve as co-chair of the commission on social witness i began by acknowledging an ouch i created yesterday i included the revision to disabled people in one action of immediate witness at the bottom of a list i called minor changes i should have made it very clear we had two minor typo corrections and one important revision to ensure the statement is in line with our values and our stated criteria on anti-oppressive language grouping these together and rushing i did not do a good job explaining this i am very sorry for the hurt it caused as i tell my kids accidents have an impact just the same sometimes worse i will be more vigilant so that i do not let that happen again and in the future the commission on social witness will engage with people in the disabled community to help us grow and do our work more fully engaging in anti-oppressive language and behavior is never minor it is essential to our criteria and our covenant as you use it's essential to our collective liberation we must be accountable to our impact on one another and it's important to take time to engage in accountability practices thank you beloveds for allowing me this time now i must take one more moment to remind us all that agreeing to support a statement is not a process of perfection it is a process of getting a good enough statement that we can all gather around good enough to serve as a collecting place for our collective witness good enough to be a guide as such it's a beginning not an endpoint to collective witness for example 13 years ago we passed an action of immediate witness to end modern-day slavery in the agricultural fields but this was a rallying point not an endpoint uus called on one another to join the struggle and we became part of a broad movement supporting the coalition of immokalee workers in establishing the landmark fair food program a partnership among farmers farm workers and retail food companies that ensures humane wages and working conditions for workers in the field today we join in solidarity with the coalition for their 10-year anniversary of this historic agreement another example is how we gathered around the statements on democracy and voting rights contributing to the powerful action through the uu the vote campaign i can go on and on and i won't in the sake of time but our statements must not be an end point agreeing on a statement of conscience or an action of immediate witness or any other statement whatever technical terms or structure we give them in the bylaws our collective statements should be a beginning a celebration of a new part of our covenant as you use a new place to gather strength and inspiration as we go forth to create love and justice through action in a hurting world thus we turn to the statement of conscience with this in mind and ask are you ready to begin work in earnest on friday we announced a poll to find out what our congregations and groups are already doing to implement the draft statement of conscience and we're excited to go over those results with you there were 373 respondents to the poll i hope the tech team can still get the slide up i know it was planned for yesterday thank you so much we know it was a short turnaround on the poll but 221 people reported doing advocacy 355 were doing education in their congregation or group 110 were engaging in education for the wider community 264 related were doing relationship building activities 257 have participated in public protest or agitation 106 had organized protester agitation 694 were incubating new ways of doing things through pilot projects or new ways of imagining and finally 121 were amplifying or advertising wider anti-oppression actions isn't this exciting you are already doing the work in earnest at this general assembly alone and just among those who were able to complete our rapid poll we have all this incredible activity what an inspiration to acknowledge and celebrate i'm excited i hope you are the commission on social witness is thrilled to receive this good news from you and we're eager to bring forward this draft statement of conscience to this general assembly so we can discuss and vote whether to adopt and if adopted we get to move into the next phase for us we plan to use this statement as a hub on the uua website where we'll highlight what folks are doing include contact information where desired and promote connections and collaborations and who knows maybe even get our dream of creating an app so people can access each other and connect in real time but we'll need some generous donor for that toward all of this and inspired by all you are already doing the commission on social witness proposes that we adopt the draft statement of conscience titled undoing systemic white supremacy a call to prophetic action with the following amendments that i shall now describe we make these amendments in response to suggestion suggested revisions accepted in the mini assembly we held friday at 5 00 pm eastern time this is required in our bylaws these are the only amendments we can discuss we incorporated nine of the amendments and i'll describe the changes in a moment first i'll note that some of the amendments were deemed to be out of order and we'll come back to that as we need to turning to the amendments we were able to incorporate if the tech team could please place the document on the screen i'll describe it the pdf of the document is also posted in the portal and on the woba app so if you are looking on screen which i unfortunately cannot see so hold on a moment we have replaced the word ability in the first paragraph with the word disability including the more appropriate desired language from the community of the community in the if you scroll down to the paragraph with a bold heading engage with the movement in our communities and nation to heal the evil of racism we have included the following line now i'm going to read what we included and then i'm going to read the sentence the whole entire sentence so what we included was ableism in all its forms which discriminates and harms disabled people in parentheses with variations of body and mind close parentheses fat discrimination criminalization of poverty and now i'll read the whole sentence but without stating parentheses so that it may flow better for you we can fortify this movement for justice by participating in and organizing social action to denounce injustices such as police brutality theft of native lands environmental racism mass incarceration cruel responses to immigration ableism in all its forms which discriminates and harms disabled people with variations of body and mind fat discrimination criminalization of poverty restricted reproductive rights transphobia lack of health care and education and more that ends the sentence that we revised in the second paragraph we also made a revision in the second note to correct a phrase we were calling on our one of our principles with these words and we replace the word of with with and we realize now that that is an error we kept the word of and should have just had the word with to replace it so let me read this sentence or this note the way it should be considered with the word with peace and justice with in there so here's a whole note the harms of systemic white supremacy defy the inherent worth and dignity of every person deny justice equity and compassion reject acceptance of one another with encouragement to spiritual growth prevent free and responsible meaning making undermine democratic participation and rights of conscience mock the goal of world community with peace and justice and disrespect our interdependence in short they are a direct affront to every one of our principles and so we made that correction amendment to replace of with the word with again if you are looking on screen you will notice that the word up is still in there and we fully intend for that to not be there lower on the second page there is a point that is bolded that begins with the work sentence build relationship excuse me build relationships across boundaries of privilege and oppression in this paragraph the amendment or the requested revision was to remove the word yet in one sentence and then also to move the following sentence later the sentence we moved is we believe systemic white supremacy is embedded in all oppressions in the united states so this revision i will read it as it flows the way we intended from from the yet that was removed actually i'll do the same as before that because i think that will help you understand the flow especially if you aren't reading it on screen from unequal access to housing to poverty health care barriers and environmental degradation we all suffer when one group seeks help from a problem such as racism another oppressed group that is a member of the dominant race may feel that the roots of their own suffering will not be addressed unitarian universalists must forge relationships beyond boundaries of privilege and power as we struggle for justice for all oppressed people while continually focusing on the vital work of undoing systemic fro white supremacy we believe systemic white supremacy is embedded in all oppressions in the united states we approve of the placement of that sentence that was a requested change and we placed it there now in the very next sentence we have included the asian pacific islander caucus in the following sentence which was not included in the prior draft so now i will read this sentence which includes the asian pacific islander caucus there are many there are myriad groups to partner with on anti-racism including groups like black lives matter black lives of unitarian universalism blue black youth project diverse and revolutionary unitarian universalist multicultural ministries drum including the asian pacific islander caucus the mash p wampanong tribe the movement for black lives the indian collective and indigenous led organization the poor people's campaign and standing rock nation the last amendment or revision that i shall go over that we have included is to include the following entire paragraph which begins with a bold sentence and then continues not in bold fulfill our uu role as a spiritual anchor to bipac you use our uu role as a spiritual anchor to bypak you use requires the financial and administrative support of the spiritual healing systems within the uua infrastructure and programming that serves goals of five pac-only efforts with the concept of reparations still in discussion nationwide we can be a model for how to consider with each social justice gesture how to always consider the singular healing needs of bypak you use when planning any event or effort that concludes the revisions that we have incorporated thus the commission on social witness moves that we adopt the draft statement of conscience titled undoing systemic white supremacy a call to prophetic action with the amendments i just described thank you thank you reverend dr pippen the draft statement of conscience has been moved it comes to us from our commission on social witness and does not require a second i'm going to give you two minutes inside of your chat rooms uh maybe take a little bit of a break rest your focus your eyes however you're engaging two minutes of discussion begins now [Music] [Music] three [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] all right there are a few amendments to the draft statement of conscience rule 4.12.4 in our bylaws and rules requires that we prioritize those amendments and our commission on social witness did just that incorporating these amendments requires a simple majority vote as a reminder a motion to amend the draft statement of conscience is not in order until we have had at least eight minutes of discussion or there are no more speakers in both the pro and concern lines i recognize the delegate at the procedure amendment mike charles bidner i my pronouns are he him and his i'm a delegate from unitarian universalists of southern delaware which is in lewes delaware i'm very concerned about this statement of conscience i think it is very important that we do you have an item of procedure or an amendment to offer i have an item of procedure please make the procedural motion the procedural motion is that we refer this document back to the commission on social witness for one year with a request that they bring it to the ga next year and considered comments and suggestions that i would like to make okay thank you for the motion the motion has been made this motion is debatable we have not done this before so now folks who are already in the lines you are here to address the assembly on the main issue the draft statement of conscience we're now embedded a little bit and we're going to entertain any pros or concerns on the motion to refer for one additional year of study if you are ready to vote on this immediately you do not have to make your way over to the lines and we can move to an immediate vote but we will wait a little bit for folks to make it over to the lines we can begin the clock this is part of the discussion time of making your way over let's play a little bit of music while i figure out if folks are in the pro or concern line because they want to address the motion to refer back to the commission on social witness for one additional year of study [Music] so [Music] do [Music] to refer back to the commission on social witness for one additional year of study if you can update all of the speakers on the line to say whether they are speaking to the main motion or the motion to refer back am i on you're not on i haven't recognized you yet thank you um no no tech team i needed to say if they're ready to speak to the motion to refer or the main motion this is going to get a little bit complicated and i need your help in order to facilitate well the delegate has not been acknowledged i recognize the delegate in the pro line i is that me okay i am mary ellen gonzalez and my pronouns are she and her i'm an elderly white-haired half-mexican anglo woman i am honored to serve as president of the uu congregation of santa fe new mexico i have a concern that this proposal would create a new class of oppressed people with this statement there is pr passing reference to this class in the third bullet point nodding recognition but nothing more let's not facilitate new oppression is it difficult to meet the needs of all sure but we you use have many hands many hearts and mutual smarts we have to look no further than today's palestine to see though how those who are so severely oppressed for so long are now oppressing others let's not follow that example let's learn from it so let's study this for another year to see how we can keep from creating another class of oppressed people thank you thank you mary ellen i recognize the delegate in the concern line um hello am i on hello am i on you are i need you to pause the video i'm carolyn woodbury i'm from first unitarian universalist church in san diego i'm 77 white hair glasses a sleeveless t-shirt blue i'm white i am opposed to to delaying the vote on this uh this is not a business thing it is the feeling of to this assembly today not of an assembly that's going to happen next year and i'm horrified to find out that the money that i'm sending uua and the money that i'm giving to my church that we give to uua to hold on to is being placed with these kind of companies and if we need to be part of them i i need to put a thousand dollars in each one okay please cut off the speaker we're not referring to anything that has to do with divestment this is the statement of conscience on undoing systemic white supremacy that was a previous vote i recognize the delegate in the concern line i recognize the next delegate in the concern line is there a delegate in the concern line okay looks like there all right uh there are no other speakers in the pro line for the motion to refer back the draft statement of conscience on undoing systemic white supremacy a call to prophetic action for one year of study and additional revision that means we are ready to vote i want to give my tech team just a little bit of time to create a slide and pull for a motion to refer back for an additional period of study so let's get ready to do that if you vote yes for an additional year of study that means that we have not passed a statement of conscience we will not vote on a new congregational study action issue at general assembly 2022 uh and we will still be in the process of seeing uh of examining if we want to pass this statement of conscience if you vote no we go back to discussing whether we are going to pass this draft statement of conscience this year if you don't feel strongly one way or the other please do not vote if you want to abstain that lets us know we need more time to make it clear okay go ahead and open up the polls yes means refer back for one more year of study no means that you want to figure out if we can pass it now abstain means i need to clarify some more things so [Music] please close the polls you want to confer with the mod squad [Music] [Music] failed we needed a two-thirds majority vote in order for that to pass we have 89 saying no we don't want to do that so we will not be doing that we are now back to discussion of the main motion we did not have any time elapsed on the main motion so we still have 12 minutes to discuss this although we paused debate time we did not pause real world time so we are still only 10 minutes away from when we originally had closing celebrations scheduled it's all right it's all right our rules say that we will we can be here all the way up until 6 pm eastern time we don't necessarily want to do that i think we can move a bit more quickly than that but we are going to take the time that we need we want to take the time that we need in order to make sure that such a statement of policy is one we truly wish to make i recognize the delegate in the procedure and the pro line i apologize start the clock hello my name is william young i am a doll get from clf i'm a 17 year old i have tanned skin my black hair is pulled into a braid with wisps coming out i'm wearing a dark colored shirt with the color words one voice can change the world i'm a member of the youth caucus and have spent time with the disability caucus equal access during this ga these revisions were made with cooperation between the disability and drum by park caucuses during the emergency meeting i was selected to be the ones to submit the proposed revisions on page 95 first paragraph line seven i proposed to change ability to disability in the original sentence it reads we acknowledge the impact of of systemic white supremacy is intersectional meaning it impacts both p impacts people differently across race income slash class gender age ethnicity immigration status sexual orientation religion ability and more the reason for this revision is that centering language on ability is ableist using the word disability is using our language to describe us when you are including us in something you must make sure to use the correct words otherwise it can feel like you're suppressing us the second revision i propose is on page 95 the second paragraph line 21 following cruel responses to immigration i propose that adding the following ableism in all its forms which discriminates and harms disabled peoples with variations of body and mind fat discrimination and the criminalization of poverty the reason behind this request is that these forms of discrimination have profound impacts on the bypoc community we are working to raise awareness of the words that words have on group identity and i hope you will help support these changes to reflect our values thank you so much liam i appreciate that feedback i believe that you were trying to make an amendment to the statement of conscience at the same time as you were requesting that we pass it over all if you'd like to make an amendment we're only able to make amendments from the list that you should have in the participation portal you can go back to the information room and ask for assistance in moving one of those amendments but additional amendments are not in order if we find that we are not using contemporary language we can fix that a little bit later so i'm going to request that you head back to the information room so that we can make sure we follow through on what you would like to do i recognize the delegate and the concern line i'm catherine trustrail from the unitarian universalist church of spokane i strongly disagree with the term white supremacy in our proposed statement of conscience i believe we should be talking about systemic and cultural disempowerment the entrenched systemically powerful have not always historically been and are not now exclusively white imperialists have not always been and are not now exclusively white the slave trade including the sexual slave trade has not always been perpetrated upon black bodies currently the sexual slave trade is mostly being perpetrated upon young bodies of all genders and all races systemic cultural disempowerment explains violence against women including transgender people in the workplace the marketplace and the home better than the term white supremacy does this violence is not exclusively perpetrated by whites nor exclusively against blacks systemic cultural disempowerment explains entrenched white poverty as well as entrenched black poverty better than the term white supremacy does when we widen a lens and think systemically about the power differential behind the disempowerment of any group both in our own nation and globally not only do we more clearly see targets that need dismantling we also are more able to work in alliance with those who are disempowered in our own country as well as globally consider how it widens the lens to include russia and china and latin america africa india and the middle east the u.s must include education about the mostly white and mostly male perpetrators of systemic disempowerment and violence against black people and indigenous people and against women as part of our country's origin story but to label this white supremacy is a shortcut and too narrow thank you for sharing behind please cut the speaker thank you your time has elapsed alrighty uh i have some feedback from my mod squad cohort uh that the amendments that liam was speaking to have already been incorporated again liam did also speak in favor of the statement of conscience altogether i recognize the delegate in the pro line good afternoon my name is evan younker i'm a delegate from the mount diablo unitarian universalist church and i am a white cisgender male my pronouns are he him and his i for one am tired of white supremacy culture i am tired of white fragility i am tired of hearing all the excuses why we can't use those terms and how it's offending people or keeping them from doing the hard work ahead of us i'm ready to move on this i want to make this happen i'm tired of hearing the calls to change this and change that it's time to get to work to stop over intellectualizing and trying to make something perfect there is a lot of beauty and work and goodness that went into this creation of what's before us and i see opportunities abound for all of us to engage in this really important work if we can just get out of our own way i strongly encourage you all to vote in favor of this i certainly will be thank you very much i yield the balance of my time thank you man said he's tired of white supremacy girl sane i recognize the delegate in the concern line thank you my name is diane haney i am a delegate from the uu congregation at shelter rock in long island new york i am a cis woman white and wearing black i believe that this statement as it reads now is racist i actually support all of it except for one word but that one word occurs 15 times i believe it makes it more difficult to achieve our goals and i believe that if you take that one word out that it does not weaken the statements we're not just a move against white supremacy we are people of principle and we are against all racial supremacy we are against it whoever and wherever that turns off i believe that this will cause us to lose support make it harder to achieve our our principles and i believe that we should remove we should reject all systemic racism and similar behaviors wherever it occurs thank you very much for listening thank you i recognize the delegate in the pro line okie dokie there's actually no one in the pro line uh tom are you reading on behalf of the delegate nope all right let's cut that feed there is no one in the pro line we have heard back and forth discussion uh for pro and concern um i'm seeing another message from my line team that someone might still be there let's try again i recognize the delegate in the phone there we go good afternoon my name is reverend edith love i am a delegate for the church of unitarian universalist congregation of tupelo mississippi where i'm an affiliated community minister this is my daughter phoenix who just climbed into my lap when we went live i am wearing a green shirt glasses my hair is blue y'all we can't keep arguing about this this is hurtful this is profoundly and deeply hurtful to all of the unitarian universalists who are not white in our denomination cut it out just stop it this is enough we need to move forward on this issue and stop hurting our siblings because we're going to lose them and that's a problem thank you are you mad at them thank you i think she is mad at them yes uh i recognize the delegate in the concern line am i right though my name is marie cobbs i'm from first new of chicago i'm 83 years old and i'm a black woman i'm definitely voting against this proposal because i don't believe that all white people are white supremacists i don't believe that all systems of whites and society fighting are accepted as being better than those of of any other culture and there's actually only one homogeneous demonic white cup culture rather than a multi-faucet culture i joined first shoe five years ago when i joined there wasn't a discussion at white as uh of the um white people being white supremacist a year or so after that the ua adopted that concept i always asked myself whether i would have stayed in they at first you if they were saying that they were white supremacists but i've been in this congregation for five years i began i began to uh really enjoy the principles and i am definitely fighting against this proposal thank you so much we're out of time i i do need to make sure that we know as a denomination we have been discussing the concepts of white supremacy institutional systemic and cultural racism in addition to personal racism since the early 1990s we became much more explicit with our use of the term white supremacy in 2017 because it allowed us to do more partnership in dismantling that concept in the wider world you are ready to vote this is one of our final votes at general assembly if you vote for this yes we will adopt this statement of conscience a policy statement that we will use to advocate for our values in the world if you vote no you are saying that you do not want to pass this statement if you abstain you are letting me know that i need to clarify some concepts if you do not feel strongly about this statement at all please refrain from voting a two-thirds majority vote is required in order to pass this statement and for us to adopt it as a policy that we will use to advocate for our values in the world please open the polls now [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] okay i'm gonna consult with the mod squad i do not think you will be surprised at this outcome [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] okay let's go ahead and put the results up on the screen this is the last issue that i'll be facilitating for you it clearly passes we will be adopting this statement of conscience as policy to advocate for our values in the world as unitarian universalists we oppose white supremacy and the harm it does in all forms we know when we raise our children our black and brown children when we respect the wisdom of our black and brown elders we move closer to the concept of the beloved community of healing hope and justice that is big enough wide enough comfy enough to meet each and every one of our needs general assembly thank you has been an honor and a pleasure to facilitate with you i yield the podium to bill young secretary of our unitarian universalist association for the installation of our newly elected leaders i'm bill young your uua secretary and a member of the unitarian universalist meeting of south berkshire in housatonic massachusetts i use he him pronouns i'm a little under six feet in height have gray hair and i'm wearing a black and white shirt and glasses the following individuals have been elected by this general assembly to serve on the following board commission and committees for the board of trustees reverend elizabeth mount for the board of trustees for the board of trustees reverend sam trumbor for the commission on appraisal adrian graham financial advisor lucia santini field general assembly planning committee chelsea surface nominating committee tim atkins nominating committee reverend daniel de bona nominating committee christie cardinal guided by love for this tradition and hope for the future this general assembly has dually elected members of the board of trustees committees and commission of the association and the financial advisor we welcome your gifts skills time sacrifice and voice to be shared in love trust and dedication in the years to come please join with me as we coven it together to install these leaders to the offices to which we have elected them may our unitarian universalist faith and heritage inform your work and deeds as you serve with your leader our leadership our congregations and our staff may your efforts and work inspire goodwill among all as you signify as you signify unitarian universalism in the wider world may you serve as an instrument of reconciliation hope and welcome may you deal fort forthrightly and honestly with us keeping foremost in your heart the health and well-being of our movement speaking your truth without fear of repercussion and encouraging others to do the same do you acknowledge and accept the trust that we have placed in you do you covenant to affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process do you covenant to affirm and promote justice equity and compassion in human relations do you covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of all i do joyfully covenant yes let's do this i do my covenant i covenant i covenant covenant hi coven in the spirit of hospitality and understanding among people may all who cross your path feel they have been heard and seriously considered we the general assembly covenant to encourage you and support you as you serve our movement may our trust carry you through both difficulty and triumph in gratitude we thank you for your willingness to serve hello i'm meg riley co-moderator of the uua with charles dumont i'm a fat older white woman with gray white hair pulled back a huge black headset and black round glasses a dark shirt and a moderator blue background as we move into leadership transitions on the uua board and within our committees i want to thank those people who will be moving on from your dedicated service i especially want to lift up departing board members and say thank you for making this first year for charles and me the blessing it has been thanks especially to the mod squad who have led us so skillfully through these plenary sessions at this general assembly making general assembly truly takes a village we thank the following groups and people our conflict and covenant team our systemic justice team our chaplains our accessibility and inclusion team our young adults our youth jerome diverse and revolutionary uu multicultural ministries equal access and the disability caucus blue black lives of uu trust transgender religious professionals you use together the liberal educators association religious educators association the eu ministers association the association of uu administrators the ga music director sander choi association of uu music ministries and all the wonderful musicians and singers who've been part of ga this year everyone who facilitated or took notes during the breakout groups our tellers our ga planning committee your board of trustees the incredible tech deck including ga production manager carmen moon larry strudoff and the always creative supportive and knowledgeable its staff everyone who led programs worship workshops the amazing uua staff the general assembly and conference services director latonya richardson and her staff our remarkable president susan frederick gray behind the scenes and absolutely indispensable holding things together carrie mcdonald and stephanie karen mitchell and all of you who attended general assembly thank you thanks to all of you who discern learn and continue to grow on this faith journey we call unitarian universalism i just said stephanie's name wrong and if i did i feel terrible because she really has held everything together don't be strangers our board house our board meetings are always open we have monthly zoom open houses to come and share what's going on you talk to us we listen we talk to you follow the board of trustees page on uua.org or on social media to find the dates and we love you stephanie kerry marin thank you i am back with you again to now to give you the final credentials report there are a total of 2278 made up of 1 727 member delegates 415 minister delegates 133 religious educators and three associate member organization delegates there are a total of 656 congregations represented from 49 states in the district of columbia as well as the canadian provinces of british columbia manitoba and ontario also mexico and the philippines there are a total of 4224 registered for this general assembly including 37 youth 329 emerging and or young adults and 3 915 people accessed the portal we draw this general assembly to a close with the words of asada shakur and southerners on the ground and their director mary hooks black you use please repeat after me call and response call and response call in response the mandate for black people in this time is to avenge the suffering of our ancestors it is our duty to win we must love and support each other earn the respect of future generations and be willing to be transformed in service of the work we have nothing to lose but our chains the mandate for black people in this time is to avenge the suffering of our ancestors it is our duty to win we must love and support each other earn the respect of future generations and be willing to be transformed in service of the work we have nothing to lose but our chains the mandate for black people in this time is to avenge the suffering of our ancestors it is our duty to win we must love and support each other earn the respect of future generations and be willing to be transformed in service of the work we have nothing to lose but our chains we have nothing to lose but our chains we have nothing to lose but our chains amen and blessed be amen and blessed be i want to apologize once you start thanking people it's always scary you'll forget and we did not thank the commission on social witness who worked incredibly hard to bring the actions of immediate witness and the state the statement of conscience to us so thank you csw due to time constraints we dropped a couple of things we'd originally put on our agenda today and we also apologize to those who prepared a wonderful beacon report and the invitation to ga2022 those will be emailed to you later today i now call for the adjournment the official adjournment of this assembly is there a motion from the board moved that this general assembly is now adjourned okay it's time for one last vote please open the voting window if you are ready to adjourn vote yes please vote yes if you are not go ahead and vote no and we'll try and figure out what it is you want us to do but please vote now [Music] do [Music] so checking with the mod squad i think we're all in agreement the motion to adjourn is accepted we declare that the 2021 general assembly of the unitarian universalist association is now fully adjourned have a wonderful summer we look forward to being with you again next june god bless you all [Music] so [Music] manual [Music] you

Channel: Unitarian Universalist Association

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Length: 169min 54sec (10194 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 27 2021