Communion, General Assembly, and Openness

I will admit that, when I go to General Assembly, I’m there for two reasons. The first is because I feel I have a duty, as a Unitarian Universalist in a professional leadership position, to be aware of and to participate in the leadership decisions of our association. This, however, is rarely what excites me in the days that lead up to GA. It is important, but it is a responsibility, not a joy for me. I do love committee meetings (really, it is true) but not when those committees are 3000 strong and primarily set-piece presentations (my experience, and I know there are hopes of changing that).

For both theological reasons, and to build up some suspense for myself (something that Plenary sessions distinctly lack) I am very careful not to make up my mind on any of the particular issues until I arrive and hear the arguments on the floor… until I’m able to listen to my colleagues in person, not just words in an article or on a blog. I want to see how the issue is presented, I want to feel the passion that is brought to it, I want to see it debated on the floor…

And then I will decide where my single, solitary vote is going to go. Not before.

I’ve had several people attempt to get me to commit one way or another on the various issues that will be before this GA. I was asked to endorse the current Peacemaking Statement of Conscience several times… and I did not. Not that I have anything against it. As I am an advocate of “Just Peacebuilding” to replace the Just War/Pacifism false dichotomy, I was actually a fan of last year’s version of the Peacemaking Statement of Conscience. I’ve read the new statement, I’ve thought about it and let it roll around, and I will decide what I will do about it at GA. I’m inclined to vote for it, but at this time that inclination is just because I want it to be done. I’ve also thought about voting against it, because perhaps we as a faith tradition are just not yet ready to handle a statement on peacemaking.

And obviously, as a soon-to-be military chaplain (more on that in a few days) it is the resolution that may most directly affect me.

I’ve been listening to all the sides on the debate of whether or not to move GA out of Phoenix in 2012, and I have to say my overwhelming reaction has been to be disappointed. I have been disappointed by the knee-jerk reaction of the Board of Trustees. I have been disappointed by the arguments that it would cost us too much to live out our values. I have been disappointed by colleagues and lay-members who have attempted to cut off the debate with implications and accusations of racism. I have been disappointed by the rush to judgment, by the need to have a decision before we even get to the debate. I have been disappointed by the seeming lack of any “liminal space” being allowed for us to find a creative solution that allows us to follow our values and still serve as more than just a gesture, one among many.

I will say that, I am inclined toward something like the proposal that has been made by the UU Allies for Racial Justice, to move (as I understand it) to bi-annual General Assemblies (something I do support and have supported for a long time) beginning in 2012, and instead go to Arizona as a Social Justice event. Let’s cancel the hotel contracts, move all GA Business that year to 2013, and inhabit a state park while we conduct different advocacy and witness operations throughout Arizona.

Let’s start teaching our faith tradition (clergy and members) about how to do large-scale advocacy and witness operations (which have a lot more in common with military operations than people might think), and lets consolidate the business of our association into a bi-annual format.

However, I know how unlikely it is that we are yet willing to go this route (imagine all of us UU’s living in tents at a State Park, using communal showers, and bussing to the Arizona – Mexico Border to stand witness to what is occurring there… such is my dream… sigh. ) So, I will go to GA, without having made a decision, and will listen to what occurs on the floor. I will share my dream among friends and colleagues, I will speak of a UU “deployment” to Arizona in 2012… and I will decide what to do with my single, solitary vote.

I will say that the issue I’ve had the most internal reaction to though has been neither of these… it has been the plan to change how we elect the offices of President and Moderator of the UUA. My initial reaction, upon hearing the proposal, was an out and devout “NO!”… and I’ve done some internal work to open that up a bit, to get past my polity-fundamentalist reaction and begin listening to some of the ideas behind it. While I will claim that I am still skeptical, I can report that it is at least possible I could find a way to support the idea… but it will take “som convincin”, as we used to say back home in Tennessee.

I said there were two reasons why I come to GA (other than that the UU Committee on Military Ministry requires my presence at GA or another national event once a year, barring deployments). The other reason is that it is the chance to commune with colleagues and lay-members from across the nation. I come not for the workshops or the lectures, not for the music or the exhibit hall… but for dinner with a colleague who is having a baby. I come for the annual gathering of UU Military Chaplains and Chaplain Candidates. I come for the debut of the new book, “Bless All Who Serve”, and to thank the donors who made it possible. I come for the lunch with a senior minister nearing retirement, for the handshake in the hallway with fellow UU Bloggers, for the lunch with the CLF to plan new ways to reach out to isolated communities, for the chance to see my seminary colleagues, for the chance to re-connect with UU groups (such as the UU Christian Fellowship) that I get pulled away from by distance and responsibilities, I come for the look in a friend’s eye, the hug of a colleague not seen in years, and for the joy of meeting someone new.

In this relational faith we call Unitarian Universalism, General Assembly and other events like it are, in essence, a sacrament. It is a time of meeting, where we re-build and re-affirm the bonds between us, where we re-kindle the spark that makes us a community, and were we re-engage with one another in person, not through electrons and websites. We remind ourselves that our liberal faith movement is larger than any one of us can know, comprehend, or even see. We remind ourselves that we are more than one church, one school, one interest organization. We re-light our own commitment to an interdependent world made whole, where the inherent worth and dignity of all is respected.

In short… I come to GA (and DA, and Convocation, and congregational worship services, and other meetings that bring our liberal faith movement together) as an act of communion… I believe James Luther Adams was wrong about this… such Communion, not the offertory, is the last sacrament of the liberal church.

Yours in faith,

Rev. David