Two community-wide discussions about the proposed revision of Article II of the UUA Bylaws finished this past week. The Board invites your written feedback about the Article II proposal via a congregational survey. Attached are two documents: the original Article II followed by the rewritten Article II in one document (from the Article II Study Report to the Board of Trustees) and a side-by-side comparison of the two versions. It may be helpful to review these before completing the survey.
Responses are due, and the survey will close on May 17th, two weeks from the posting date. If you have difficulty accessing the form, please email Terry at TASantmann@gmail.com.
The survey will guide WUUC delegates to GA 2023 about whether to support or oppose moving the Article II proposed language forward for further discernment within the UUA in the coming year. Results will be shared with the congregation without attribution to individual respondents. Your name and email address will be held in strict confidence by Terry Santmann and Carol Taylor solely to determine participation eligibility. The survey is open to members, friends, and regulars of WUUC (definitions are in the survey). A survey format has been chosen instead of a formal congregational vote because the final form of the Article II proposal will not be determined until the review and revision process occurs just before the vote at the General Assembly. The survey results will provide general guidance to the delegates. Delegates will be expected to notify the Board and congregation how they each voted on this measure.
The Board and Rev. Dan encourage WUUC members and friends to take advantage of this opportunity to share information, thoughts, and feelings regarding the UUA Bylaws Article II proposal. If you have additional suggestions/ideas, please contact any of the Board members or Rev. Dan by email at Board@wuuc.org or via individual email addresses.
Our director of Religious Education, Skylar Hopkins, who aspires to be a professional educator, will be pursuing her own education in support of that vocational goal. She has been accepted at Western Washington University, where she will work toward a degree in Education.
Congratulations Skylar!
However, Skylar’s move to Bellingham to attend school means that her time as our Director of Religious Education is coming to an end. Her last day with us here at Woodinville UU Church will be July 31, 2023.
Skylar writes:
Dear Community,
I am saddened to say that my time serving WUUC will be shorter than I anticipated. It has been a pleasure and an honor working with you and I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to make a difference in your children’s lives. This has felt like the perfect start to my future career as a teacher and solidified for me just how much I love working with children. WUUC has been a home to me for the past twenty years and I hope that I have fostered that same sense of community in your kids. I hope they continue to enjoy church and that it continues to be a safe space for them for many years. I thank you again for this opportunity, and I’ll leave you with the words of one of my favorite camp songs sung at our UU youth cons, “this is goodnight and not goodbye.”
As someone who grew up at WUUC, and now having served as our DRE, Skylar will always have a special place here in our community. We are grateful for her efforts this year to begin rebuilding a new RE program in our first year back in person after going virtual during the pandemic. That’s not an easy thing to do, and we were lucky to have someone who brought so much ingenuity, dedication, and enthusiasm to her role during her time here as DRE. We are sorry to see Skylar go, and we will miss her!
We will formally honor and thank Skylar at a future Sunday service (date TBD). In the meantime, Skylar will be working with me (Rev. Dan) and church leadership and volunteers to help us set up our RE program so that it can continue into the future. So in the next three months, please feel free to express your gratitude and wish Skylar well when you see her at church!
As you probably know, WUUC is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). Significant changes to Article II of the Association’s bylaws have been proposed for consideration and vote at the 2023 General Assembly. Article II lists our Seven Principles and Six Sources, the Purposes of the UUA, a Statement of Inclusion, and a Freedom of Belief statement.
Our community has a wide range of opinions and feelings about this proposal. In the WUUC April newsletter, our Racial Justice Task Force (RJTF) outlined reasons for their endorsement of the proposed changes to Article II of the UUA Bylaws. Thank you to the RJTF and all who worked on composing that endorsement for our consideration. In the same spirit, I would like to share a perspective that may help explain why some people oppose the changes to Article II.
The rewrite of Article II removes the seven principles and six sources, replacing them with six values and a paragraph entitled “Inspirations.” An article by Kenneth Ing brings up points I believe it’s important to consider. I’ve included below two excerpts from his commentary that particularly stood out to me:
“It is likely that the [current] Principles and Sources in Article II were a magnet that brought you to UU and are a vital glue that binds together your UU community… [They] are guiding lights for becoming a better person and making the world a better place… The Principles, as written, make it clear that there is no boundary on our circle of concern and care.”
To me, this is the perfect way to articulate the value of our current Principles. Ing also points out in his article that change is only sometimes better. I’m open to the possibility of change, but in this case, I believe what we have is better than what is being proposed.
And finally, from Ken Ing’s article, his outline of the case for retaining the current Article II concisely summarizes why the principles as they exist are, in my opinion, better than the rewrite. The highlights are listed below. If you would like a more detailed explanation, please check out his full-length article at https://savethe7principles.org/why-retain-the-uu-principles/ The full text of the current Article II is shown side-by-side with the proposed rewrite starting on page 13 at the link.
Ing offers these reasons for retaining the current Principles:
“Clarity: A strength of the Principles is clear, concise, and cohesive language. The Principles show what makes UU unique.
Freedom: The Principles protect the freedom and sovereignty of each person, whereas the rewrite emphasizes the collective.
Tolerance: The current Freedom of Belief explicitly protects freedom of belief. The rewrite removes that language.
Inspirations: The list of specific Sources is a potent visual reminder of UU’s embrace of spiritual and intellectual diversity.
Polity: The current primary purpose of the Association is to serve its member congregations. The rewrite removes that role.
Agency: The Principles let us decide how to express our values. Covenants in the rewrite will determine our priorities.
Accountability: … Standards are unknown. Enforcement is not defined. UUs judging other UUs would be divisive and toxic.
Universality: The current language is easily understood. The rewrite adds ambiguous words and phrases that have special meanings. These can be misinterpreted all too easily.
Covenant: The proposed covenants through the Association would reverse the flow of power and authority in UUism to be top-down, with congregations subject to UUA control.
They Work: The Principles are fully capable of inspiring and guiding us. Replacing them is not necessary nor wise.”
My only goal in presenting this perspective is to explain why someone in this community, where we share so many values, might oppose the new Article II. I offer this respectfully in the spirit of bridge-building and curiosity. There are people in the congregation with whom this perspective resonates. I know it resonated with me. For those who feel differently, I want you to understand my viewpoint. Disagreement isn’t the same as conflict. We can disagree and still be a joyful and inclusive spiritual community that accepts and celebrates all our diversity and supports each of us on our life journeys.
I want to make it clear that I’m sharing this article as an individual member of WUUC, not as a Board member. A 2022-23 Board Goal is to:
“Foster the development of healthier congregational communication and interactions, aiming to grow mutual understanding among the diversity of perspectives and beliefs represented and build a community where all belong together.
“…The Board as a whole groupwill NOT take a position on any of the topics of concern … Individual members of the Board may express their own personal viewpoints, but those opinions do not represent the Board as a whole.”
Regardless of the outcome of the Article II process, I hope that our WUUC community can be a source of support, joy, acceptance, and inclusion for all its members, now and beyond the vote. Thank you all for journeying with me.
Thanks to five anonymous donors who pledged a $10,000 match, as well as generous donors who seized the matching opportunity, the $10,000 pledge drive match has been met, boosting our annual campaign significantly! As of 4/30/23, our WUUC pledge drive total now stands at $305,977.
Our goal is $326,000, so we are still facing a shortfall. Although the drive has officially ended, if you are considering increasing your pledge, now is the time to do so.
Exact figures are likely to change as this newsletter goes to print (and as you decide to increase your pledge!), so watch your email for any updates on final pledge drive totals.
The Finance Committee and the Board will decide how to best manage the shortfall for the coming year. Revenues from the preschool rental, auction and rummage sales help, but our goal is to not be dependent on these sources of revenue to meet our operating expenses.
Thanks again to everyone for your ongoing support of WUUC.
If you have not already pledged, it is not too late.
Pledges and pledge increases will continue to be gratefully accepted at: https://forms.gle/LE7pCmTgZjY7VkG18 or by completing and returning the pledge form.
The Advocates for Social Justice will be sponsoring its monthly Special Collection during the service on May 21 for NAMI – Eastside, a non-profit organization committed to improving the quality of life for those impacted by mental illness through advocacy, education, and support. Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States experience a mental health condition; NAMI – Eastside supports families, friends and individuals living with these challenges.
In March the monthly Special Collection raised $382 for Camp Ten Trees, the Pacific Northwest’s only residential summer camp programming for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth and their allies, and for children/youth of LGBTQ or non-traditional families.
The ASJ Committee thanks WUUC members and friends for their generous support of our monthly special collections, which take place during services on the third Sunday of every month. Instructions for giving are posted during the service, and you can also donate anytime the following week at https://onrealm.org/wuuc/-/give/now, or by sending a check to WUUC at P.O. Box 111, Woodinville, WA 98072. Please make checks out to WUUC and write “ASJ Special Collection” in the notes.
