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General Assembly SundayAugust 4, 2002 |
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At this Sunday service, some Nashville church members, who attended this year's General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Québec, shared their thoughts. Perspectives ranged widely, from first-timer to 30-year veteran, from youth to not-so-youthful, plus some behind-the-scenes observations, including:
Special thanks go to Eva Close, Bill Ades and Mary Katherine Morn for coordinating this service.
1st Time Delegates & the Joy of GA I’m Bill Ades and I attended the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly in late June, along with my wife, Martha, and several other members of this congregation. You have seen written reports from Paula Etheridge and Bryant Brown, and from Dick and Gail Sphar, in recent newsletters. You will hear from several others of us today. This was my first GA as a delegate and I enjoyed it enormously. My most striking personal experience there took me back more than a decade. When I returned to school 14 years ago to study Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Biology, I knew I would enjoy the material. I was surprised, though, to find that I had discovered a family of 40 other people, my colleagues, that I hadn’t known before. It turned out that the commonality and confluence of perspective, world view, and values that I found among both faculty and students was nearly perfect. So we never felt the need to go through the complex social dance that real strangers usually need in order to feel each other out. We were trusted and trusting friends from the very beginning! I never thought I would have that feeling again so you can appreciate that I was even more surprised 3 years ago when I found a new, warm, loving family, this time of 400 people, here at First UU. Imagine my astonishment, then, at finding still another family, but of 4,000 people, in Quebec!! This was a truly wonderful experience and one that I won’t soon forget. GA – How It Works Now I’d like to tell you a little about GA and how it works.
If you would like to see the choices that were presented this year and the votes on them, I’m sure that you can find that information at the UUA website. Beacon Press One other important issue required action this year because of its implications for the denomination as a whole: The Beacon Press has been associated with our movement, publishing intellectually rigorous, often liberal, and sometimes risky ideas for 100 years. While the Press has been self-supporting the majority of that time, in the last few years they have fallen short financially and the UUA has been asked to “divert” operating funds to cover those shortfalls. Because this has happened several times, now, and because the funds had to be diverted from already-budgeted UUA activities, the Association thought it necessary to discuss how long, and at what level they should continue to support the Beacon Press. There was a good deal of discussion of how long and how much, including the possibility of letting the Beacon Press sink or swim on its own after two or three years. Finally, though, one thought changed the whole discussion. At some point during the discussion, it was suggested that perhaps we should not think of the Press as an associated but independent enterprise, expected to pay for itself. Instead, in the end, by a near-unanimous vote of the delegates, The Press was recognized as an integral part of our outreach and social missions. In the future, funds to augment publishing revenues will be allocated to The Press as a normal part of the UUA budgeting process. Program Between plenary sessions, there were several wonderful worship services and hundreds of workshops. The workshops were on dozens of topics and were presented by UUA staff members and members of UU congregations. With very few exceptions, every workshop that any of us attended was truly splendid. They were consistently helpful, informative, useful, and often entertaining! I’d love to describe all the workshops I attended but there couldn’t possibly be enough time. So I’ve teased out just a few of the new ideas that I gleaned from the workshops:
These provide just a quick glimpse of the ideas and information I encountered in Quebec. I accumulated many materials and learned of many more available resources that can help us all to get better at the things we want to accomplish here. I certainly hope to distribute them to the right people and committees. But I think all of the delegates would appreciate it if you would track us down and tell us what kinds of issues you have been having trouble with as you carry out the work of the church. Chances are good that one or more of us encountered something or someone who could help. And that would really make the GA experience perfect!
GA from the Perspective of the Planning Committee I went to GA to work. From January through June, I was a temporary associate member of the General Assembly Planning Committee. What they do is plan and direct much of what goes on at GA. They are responsible for keeping 4,000+ UU’s safe and happy for almost a week…not an easy job. Members are elected to 4-year terms. They meet four times per year and are always in a mode of planning the next two GA’s while selecting sites for the GA’s to come. They are a hard working group and I was honored that they called on me to fill in for one of their members. I arrived on Tuesday before GA and left the Tuesday after. I didn’t have much time for seeing Quebec except the route from the Chateau Frontenac to the convention center and back. I never sat through an entire program or workshop. My responsibilities were varied. I helped coordinate or served as liaison to the banner parade, chaplains, spiritual practices program, Young Fun, several meal functions and the GA service project. The purpose of the service project is to give back to the city where GA is held. This year’s project was the Café Rencontre du Centre Ville, an inner city soup kitchen run by Michel Godin, director, and his able staff. The project consisted of staffing an exhibit in the Exhibit Hall, asking people for donations to support the Café and giving them a sticker to show they had contributed. We raised over $21,300 in four days. There were rewards but mostly it was demanding and exhausting. So why do it? It all came together at the Closing Ceremony. I had invited Michel and his wife, Ghislaine, to attend to celebrate the success of the service project. It was a glorious celebration! They loved the wonderful music of a local Quebec band and the GA choir. Then there was a dramatic presentation of the story of the loaves and fishes that told how the people who had come to hear Jesus, inspired by his teachings and example of unconditional love, began to share their bits of food until all were fed. To my left, I was aware of Ghislaine whispering to Michel. She was translating what was going on since his English was not so good. When the performance was over, Michel leaned forward and pointing to the stage and then to himself, said to me “This is what UU’s do for us.”
Virtual GA Author's note: this is the talk I would have given were there time. As it happens, there wasn't. Thus this is truly a virtual talk on GA. I first became involved in the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) nine years ago. For those of you who like date-time math, you will know this means 1993, and for those who know the history of this church you will doubtless recall that this was our "year from hell," with issues of clergy sexual misconduct at the center of the uproar. As a complainant, I was one of the people most involved in this particular hell, and while I wouldn’t recommend it, this is a very effective way to quickly learn about our denomination. I rocketed from being an obscure friend of the church whose sole understanding of the association was that it had something to do with Boston to having knowledge that rivaled even (I suspect) Joan Moore’s and John Norris’s. As was true for most (maybe all) denominations at that time, the mechanisms the UUA had in place to respond to our crisis were woefully inadequate. To their credit, though, the UUA’s executives agreed then and now that what had happened here in Nashville was very wrong and that they bore some responsibility. Four years ago they formed a panel to respond to victims of UU clergy misconduct, and asked both Mary Katherine and me to serve on it. We met for two years, made recommendations titled “Restorative Justice for All,” and since then have done various smaller things. This year at GA the panel’s chair and I spoke on “Restorative Justice.” Restorative justice is a systematic response to wrongdoing that emphasizes healing the wounds of victims, offenders and communities. It’s an approach that holds great promise and I’m hopeful that our association will soon move from trailing to leading edge in its response to misconduct. And speaking of leading edge, there’s the web, which of course is my other window into the association. In 1993, I started to email the denomination’s leadership. I did it mostly because it was cheaper than long-distance. But back then email was a novelty around the UUA and thus I came to the attention of Deb Weiner, their Head of Electronic Communications. Deb is now a dear friend, and this year, to my great delight, she asked me to help their very talented webmaster, Julie Albanese. I was one of a team of 17 volunteers and 4 staff. We were reporters, editors, photographers, videographers, technicians and webmasters, working elbow-to-elbow long into the night. Our tables, strewn with an astonishing variety of equipment and connected by a sea of wires, were in a circle. I don’t know if it was intentional, but the circle reminded me of our chalice, plus having the more practical result that we all faced each other, and communication flowed freely across and around the room. The highpoint for me came Sunday morning. This was our first year to do live webcasting, and it was supposed to begin with “The Service of the Living Tradition” at 10:00 a.m. We were flying by the seat of our pants, and back in the webworkers room, we discovered at the last minute that the rental machines couldn’t handle streaming video. 10:00 came and machines around the room were giving error messages. My laptop showed no broadcast. Then there was a frantic call from the convention center floor, some technological wonder was wrought in seconds flat, and suddenly, on my laptop, there was a gorgeous live video stream of the Service. A big cheer went up around the room and everyone clustered around my machine. Then emails started coming in from around the continent as grateful UUs let us know that even though they couldn’t be in Quebec, they were with us. Today, this continues to be one of my favorite parts of the vast and rich website we produced. The videos (15 all told) are still there. So are over 75 stories, hundreds of photographs and countless handouts. There is something there for all UU’s, including coverage of things others are talking about today. All you have to do is go to www.uua.org.
An American in Paris, well Québec GA in Québec was unique. In many of the worship services, including the choir closing celebration, the language used was French, then translated into English or vice versa. You’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about GA and Québec City this morning. I can’t say all MY experiences were pleasant, however. In fact, some of them were downright frustrating, especially when it came to travel. Travel day, June 10th, was a nightmare. I was hand-searched at both the Nashville and Toronto airports. Connections were tight, and I was not allowed to carry on my carry-ons. The first week up there, the weather was really cold, windy, and rainy. I wasn’t prepared for winter in June. My first umbrella turned inside out and the second blew away. I don’t have good luck with umbrellas. And I encountered so many technological challenges in Québec, I won’t elaborate. It would make me cry all over again. Just imagine EVERYTHING going wrong in your world. We really rely on technological gadgets, don’t we? As Bill said, for 10 days I spent the mornings in French immersion school. My teacher was exceptional. She was so flexible and funny and her accent was standard French, unlike the other professors who had Québecois accents. The Québecois accent compared to standard French is kinda sorta like “Brooklenese” to Southerners. Afternoons were reserved for exploring. There were so many things to see. Québec City is the capitol of the province. Between French lessons and exploration activities, there was fooood. The Québec City food was incredible. I didn’t meet a restaurant I didn’t like. Light touch; little in the way of greasy fried stuff. Every restaurant I visited rated a 10 + from my queasy stomach. These restaurants were in the most picturesque European style buildings in the Old City. And there were narrow, winding, cobblestone streets and sidewalks. The entire city was cute. There were three memorable highlights of this trip. Horse-back riding in the foot of the Laurentian Mountains was glorious. Of course, the stable owner spoke little English and my guide, who had a thick Québecois accent spoke less English. And guess what? My horse didn’t speak any English. As Becky mentioned, French became the official language of the province in 1974. An entire generation has grown up knowing only French. In email posts I advised GA-ers to bring dictionaries if they were traveling outside the city. A cause des chevaux, bien sûr. On account of the horses, for sure. The second wonderful memory was a trip to Wendake, about 30 miles north of Québec. Since it was a Sunday (the 16th), I had to find a church, right? There were no UU churches in the Québec area. I found a quaint little Catholic church in Wendake and attended service. It was fun to hear the mass spoken in French. And only 45 minutes! They get ‘em in and out fast up there. That afternoon I visited the Huron Village, on the Huron tribe reservation. I learned about the history of the tribe, the unintended almost extinguishment of the natives by the British via smallpox and the intended demolishment of the tribe by the Iroquois tribe who declared war on the Hurons. It was amazing to me how similar the beliefs of the Hurons are to our UU Wiccans. Their on-site restaurant was more than a 10 +, and it was warm in body and spirit, while the weather outside was 48 degrees and falling, and raining. Finally, the GA experience. There were two workshops - only two - that I was able to attend: “Five Important Rules for Healthy Church Finances.” It was about canvass and raising pledges. Bill, I think you attended that one on Saturday, right? And purchased copies of a book for Larry Benno and Bob Day? Becky, you received some emails about canvass, and weren’t they interesting? The second was “Care And Feeding of the Choir” delivered by Sally Murphy, GA choir director. A terrific workshop for musicians presented by an awesome woman. Last, but not least, GA choir. But for you to have that musical worship experience you’ll have to order the video of the closing celebration or view it on-line. The web site and ordering information are in your Order of Service. Music took up fully 50% of GA for me, what with daily rehearsals and spending time with my fellow musicians, notably Bob Hurst and Leon Burke from Elliot Chapel, Susan Grey’s home church. Plus, I was constantly seeking an available piano to resolve difficult choir passages. One of the things I live for is music. Then, the return trip. OH GOSH! Inbound was far worse than outbound. Without further amplification, I did my version of ‘Planes, Trains, and Automobiles’. What a learning experience. You know what? Airline travel these days is arduous. A real pain. Can I hear an AMEN, please? Bob Hurst, in his fakey Okie accent is fond of saying: “Dang, Eva, if you didn’t have bad luck, you wouldn’t have no luck at all.” Actually, I’m still mired in bad luck. The sale of my condo fell through on Tuesday. I would go back to Québec in a New York minute. Would someone please babysit my cats? Pouvez vous avoir des rêves plaisants des chevaux, des chats, et de la musique. May you have pleasant dreams of horses, cats, and music. The next and final hymn was sung at the GA closing celebration, with an eye toward the freedom of the Québecois from the British. Later, you all. |
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