• Protest Representative Peter King’s Hearings on “Muslim Radicalization” (blog coverage)
• Support Southern California Supermarket Workers’ Struggle for Decent Wages and Benefits (blog coverage)
• Oppose Citizens United—Support Free Speech for People (blog coverage)

Moderator Gini Courter, who chairs the Board of Trustees, responded to criticism on a UUA email list: “Unitarian Universalist congregations are going to Phoenix for a Justice GA in 2012. On our borders human[s] are being treated inhumanely. People are dying. Children are dying. Families are being torn apart. We go to Phoenix because we believe that [we] may be able to help end this tragedy. Therefore, we should choose very carefully the issues that we allow to distract us from that purpose. We have an entire future where we can argue about governance, starting in July 2012.”

Read more at “Resignations raise flags around planning for Justice GA” (July 11, 2011).

Don Skinner reports that the off-site delegate experiment at this year’s General Assembly, which allowed 49 delegates to participate in all plenary business remotely, was a technical and social success. In a survey of the off-site participants, more than 90 percent rated their overall experience as “excellent” or “good.” Twenty-eight percent said they actually participated in GA at their congregation’s building, often in company with other members of their congregation. Read more about the test and plans for expanding the off-site delegate system for the 2012 General Assembly: “Positive reports stream in from off-site delegates” (July 11, 2011).

Full text below.

Responsive Resolution to the Report of the President

Rev. Dr. Michael Tino, UU Fellowship of Northern Westchester, Mount Kisco, NY
John Hawkins, UUA Trustee, Metro New York District
David Friedman, UUA Trustee, St. Lawrence District

Whereas the Standing on the Side of Love campaign was recognized by President Peter Morales in his report as the major public witness campaign of the UUA,

Whereas this campaign has advocated fiercely for marriage equality, and

Whereas, while Unitarian Universalists from throughout the world met in Charlotte at General Assembly, the New York State Legislature, in a bipartisan vote, passed marriage equality legislation that that was signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and

Whereas multiracial, interfaith coalitions, including Interfaith Impact of New York State, were instrumental in the passage of this law by showing the legislature that diverse people of faith stand on the side of love, and

Whereas Unitarian Universalists from the Metro New York and St. Lawrence Districts played significant roles in these coalitions,

Be it therefore resolved that the 2011 General Assembly celebrates with the people of New York on the occasion of this historic victory and expresses enthusiastic joy for this step toward equality.

Be it further resolved that we recognize that the struggle for equal marriage rights is only one small piece of a larger movement for full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Lastly, be it resolved that the delegates call upon our congregations and institutions to continue our religious witness and advocacy for love as well as the dismantling of inequality and oppression wherever they are found.

Full text below.

Responsive Resolution in Response to Moderator Gini Courter’s Report:

Whereas, the assembled delegates of the 2010 General Assembly passed business and responsive resolutions acknowledging the importance of engaging and empowering youth and young adults to bring their unique gifts to the planned Justice General Assembly 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona,

Therefore, be it resolved: We the delegates of the 2011 General Assembly do hereby call on the UUA Board of Trustees, staff, and GA Planning Committee to facilitate the creation of an Arizona Youth and Young Adult action ministry, tasked with organizing, educating, training, and energizing our youth and young adults around the issues surrounding Justice General Assembly, and empowering them to help plan and attend this historic event.

Full text below.

Responsive Resolution Regarding Report of President Peter Morales

WHEREAS President Peter Morales’s Annual Report referred to communities with a “spiritual hunger” that can be fed by Unitarian Universalism, he referred to the need for multicultural competence in serving these communities, and he cited the Strategic Review of Professional Ministries, which states in part:

“Our UUA President, Peter Morales, believes that vibrant multicultural congregations are essential for a thriving Unitarian Universalism of the future”

and

“Our ministers, religious educators and musicians must be equipped with strong multicultural competence”

and recommended that we should

“Strengthen RE and music credentialing and continuing education”;

WHEREAS some fluency in a second language is one of the paths to multicultural competency (as our Latina/Latino/Hispanic colleagues have already demonstrated) and enhances our ability to engage effectively with diverse communities,

WHEREAS the 50th Anniversary of the consolidation of Universalists and Unitarians offers a powerful challenge and opportunity for our meaningful presence in the future,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the General Assembly strongly urges members of congregations and religious professionals to engage in continuing education programs in the Spanish language, beginning as early as July 2011.

Full text below.

Environmental justice includes the equitable distribution of both environmental burdens and benefits for populations of residents and workers.  Marginalized people have often been able to find housing or work only in areas exposed to environmental pollutants, with consequent negative health and quality of life effects.

As Unitarian Universalists, we are called to address our relationship with food.  Our Principles call for recognition of and respect for the other.  As we search freely and responsibly for truth, meaning, and spiritual wholeness, we will make a variety of individual choices about food.  Ethical eating is the application of our Principles to our food choices.  What and how we eat has broad implications for our planet and society.  Our values, Principles, and integrity call us to seek compassion, health, and sustainability in the production of food we raise or purchase.

Food production involving growing, processing, packaging, transporting, and distributing food has become a vast worldwide industry.  The mass production of food often maximizes production while minimizing price.  This mass production has greatly increased food supply, but has resulted in the overuse of fertilizers and pesticides with crops and the mistreatment of animals and workers in food production.  Both this overuse and the large waste streams from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) result in pollution of water, land, and air.

Access to an adequate supply of healthy food and clean water is a basic human need and right.  Many people do not have adequate food, while others have a surplus.  In many locations, poor distribution of food is a major contributor to hunger and malnutrition.  The effects of climate change, weather conditions, and armed conflicts can also expose many people to starvation.  Paradoxically, an abundance of food does not guarantee access to healthy food.

We acknowledge that aggressive action needs to be taken that will ensure an adequate food supply for the world population; reduce the use of energy, water, fertilizer, pesticides, and hormones in food production; mitigate climate change; and end the inhumane treatment of animals. These steps call for an evolution of our eating habits to include more locally grown, minimally processed whole foods. We acknowledge that this evolution must respect diversity in cultures, nutritional requirements, and religious practices.

Minimally processed plant-based diets are healthier diets.  Some of us believe that it is ethical only to eat plants while others of us believe that it is ethical to eat both plants and animals. We do not call here for a single dietary approach. We encourage a knowledgeable choice of food based on understanding the demands of feeding a growing world population, the health effects of particular foods, and the consequences of production, worker treatment, and transportation methods. We commit to applying this knowledge to both personal and public actions, recognizing that many of us might embark on a dramatic change in eating choices and some might pay more for food that is ethically produced.  For congregations, helping congregants gain this understanding and supporting their choices will require a long-term collective process of engagement, education, discernment, and advocacy.  Unitarian Universalists aspire to radical hospitality and developing the beloved community.  Therefore, we affirm that the natural world exists not for the sole benefit of one nation, one race, one gender, one religion, or even one species, but for all.  Working in the defense of mutual interests, Unitarian Universalists acknowledge and accept the challenge of enlarging our circle of moral concern to include all living creatures.

As individuals and as congregations, we recognize the need to examine the impact of our food choices and our practices and make changes that will lighten the burden we place on the world. We also recognize that many food decisions will require us to make trade-offs between competing priorities. These priorities include: taste, selection, price, human health, environmental protection, sustainability, adequate food supply, humane treatment of animals used for food, and fair treatment of farm and food workers.

Environmental concerns include the use of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and hormones and high volumes of animal wastes produced by CAFOs, all of which can contaminate soil, air, and water. Contributors to global warming include the overreliance on fossil fuels for food production; the methane produced by animals, including but not limited to cattle, sheep, and pigs; and the long-distance transport of food. Expanding agriculture and animal farming often removes natural habitats and reduces natural biodiversity. An additional environmental concern is the deterioration of the oceans and their life forms due to overfishing and pollution.

Human Health concerns include producers’ use of growth promoters, pesticides, and antibiotics that can affect child development, antibiotic resistance, and other health conditions. Advertising and marketing can encourage overeating, poor food choices, a focus on body image that can contribute to eating disorders, and the use of infant formula in preference to breast feeding.

Concerns about the Humane Treatment of Animals include intensive confinement and abuse in CAFOs, and inhumane conditions during production, transport, and slaughter.

Concerns about the Fair Treatment of Food and Farm Workers include low pay, poor and unsafe working conditions, exploitation of undocumented workers, and enslavement of others.

Policy concerns include agricultural subsidies that reward the production of certain crops and animal products that are less healthful and environmentally friendly than unsubsidized ones and that penalize small to moderate-sized farming operations.  Agricultural subsidies of exported crops have driven small farmers in developing countries off their land.  The consequences of agricultural subsidies and mono-cropping include increased gender disparity where women have been the traditional agricultural producers.  We recognize replicating corporate agricultural modes in our aid to developing countries is not in the best interest of humanity.  We support the development of farming models that safeguard the environment, produce safe foods, provide economic benefits to all economic levels, and create environmentally and economically sustainable models.

Classism, racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression are deeply connected to economic justice, which is a prime determinant of access to food. Some of us will not be able to pay more for ethical food. Others of us will. Yet all of us can have a role in improving the ethics of food.  We affirm that the fight for environmental and economic justice is inherently a fight against all forms of oppression. As a result, ethical eating requires different ways of thinking about these issues that reflect their interconnected nature, and we understand that this work will require creativity, patience, and resolve.

CALLS TO ACTION

Individual Actions

Recognizing that individual circumstances vary, we aspire to buy, raise, and consume food for ourselves and our families that:

• increases our proportionate consumption of plant-based foods, which increases the global access to calories, provides health benefits, and prevents injuring animals;
• minimizes the pain and suffering of animals by purchasing meat or seafood produced under humane conditions, for those who choose to eat meat or seafood;
• minimizes the negative environmental effects of raising animals or plants by purchasing organically produced food, and seafood certified as responsibly farmed or harvested;
• minimizes transportation-related carbon dioxide emissions by obtaining foods locally produced through home or community gardens, farmers markets, or community supported agriculture (CSA);
• provides farm workers with living wages and safe working environments;
• contributes to social harmony by encouraging communal eating;
• promotes health, consuming food in quantities that do not lead to obesity; and

We advocate for the benefit of animals, plants, food workers, the environment and humanity by:

• purchasing fair trade–certified products as available.
• asking food sellers and producers to label where their products come from to determine distance of transport and whether the products were irradiated or contain Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs);
• pressing food sellers to require that their suppliers certify the humane treatment of animals;
• supporting legislation that requires the labeling of products that are irradiated or contain Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), distribution of adequate ethical food supplies, effective safety inspection of food production, and realignment of agricultural subsidies to support growing more produce and the viability of small farmers; and
• protecting and encouraging organic food production and its producers.

Congregational Actions

As congregations, we aspire to:

• provide and sell more plant-based, organic, locally produced, and fair trade foods at congregational events;
• promote economic accessibility to safe, ethically produced food by organizing members to work for food justice through activities such as: urging grocery chains to locate stores in low income neighborhoods, supporting local food co-ops, helping people obtain food stamps, advocating for increased funding to alleviate hunger, and assisting local meals on wheels and food bank programs;
• support the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office, and other relevant UU organizations in their efforts to ensure that everyone has adequate nutritious food, produced sustainably;
• provide educational programs for all ages that address the issues of environmental justice, world hunger, gardening, food preparation, and nutrition;
• become Green Sanctuary—accredited and include ethical eating in programs;
• advocate for healthful food for school and other institutional meals; and
• engage in direct action in solidarity with workers and labor advocacy groups to support agricultural and food workers.

With gratitude and reverence for all life, we savor food mindful of all that has contributed to it. We commit ourselves to a more equitable sharing of the earth’s bounty.

On the last full day of the 2011 UUA General Assembly, the Sunday morning worship service was followed by six hours of plenary business and a closing ceremony. (See UU World‘s previous daily summaries—Thursday, Friday, Saturday—for quick guides to this year’s GA, or see the complete guide to our coverage.) Here’s what we covered on Sunday:

Business resolutions

The Assembly did not approve the Board of Trustees’ proposal to eliminate Actions of Immediate Witness from GA business, a proposal the board had made in order to clear away business for next summer’s “Justice GA” in Arizona. In the only manually counted vote this year, the motion to end AIWs failed to reach the two-thirds threshold with 508 in favor and 406 opposed. Delegates overwhelmingly approved a second proposal, however, that drops AIWs in 2012 but restores them in 2013.

Delegates approved without debate changes to Article XV that govern how the Principles and Purposes may be amended. The changes make it possible for the General Assembly to refine a proposed amendment to Article II in the first of two years in which the GA is considering the amendment.

The Assembly also approved a series of amendments that keep the bylaws up to date with changes that the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, the Religious Educators Credentialing Committee, and the UUA staff have made.

Finally, delegates amended the bylaws to allow off-site delegates to vote in GA business. In 2010 and again this year, test groups of delegates participated in GA from their homes but were not authorized to vote. This year the off-site delegates addressed the Assembly during debates and cast votes on GA business, although their votes weren’t formally counted.

Social witness resolutions

The Commission on Social Witness deemed only four proposed Actions of Immediate Witness eligible for consideration by the full Assembly, although the CSW could have approved up to six. Delegates agreed to vote on all four, but passed only three: AIW 1, which protests Rep. Peter King’s “Muslim radicalization” hearings in Congress; AIW 2, which supports California supermarket workers in a labor dispute; and AIW 4, which opposes “corporate personhood” and the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC.

For the second year in a row, a proposed AIW expressing opposition to U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan failed to achieve a two-thirds majority.

Responsive resolutions

[Updated 7.6.11:] In the closing moments of GA, delegates approved three responsive resolutions, offered from the floor in response to a report of a committee or officer. The first celebrated the New York State Legislature’s decision to approve same-sex marriage. The second called on UUs to learn Spanish in preparation for next summer’s “Justice GA” in Phoenix. The third called for a youth and young adult “action ministry” in preparation for the Justice GA. Delegates also reaffirmed a responsive resolution adopted in 2010 that called for a “covenant of right relations.”

[Correction: We initially reported that four responsive resolutions were adopted, but one simply reaffirmed a resolution passed last year. No new text was introduced regarding a "covenant of right relations."]

Reports

The Commission on Appraisal offered a report on the progress of its review of ministry and authority in UU congregations. UUA President Peter Morales and the UUA’s environmental justice staff reported on congregational and denominational environmental work, in response to last year’s “Green Revolution in Religion” resolution. The final credentials report announced that 2,059 delegates attended GA this year, and that total registration was 4,082.

In her annual Moderator’s report, Gini Courter told delegates that in congregational polity, “there’s no higher authority, there’s only deeper down.” She discussed the complexity of planning for next year’s “Justice GA” at length. “If we’re going to build the GA we need in Phoenix,” she said, “we can’t look to someone else for a vision. . . . We need the wisdom of all of us.”

Video reports

Peter Bowden continued his series of short video interviews, profiling the volunteers supporting off-site delegates, highlighting a new film about UUSC founders Martha and Waitstill Sharp, sharing growth tips from a Florida congregation that gives away its Sunday offering, introducing a UU addictions ministry, and profiling the crew that streamed video of major events.

More

The UUA website, meanwhile, offers on-demand video of plenaries and major events, as well as scripts, transcripts, and workshop materials from other events.

After the General Assembly choir had processed down four of the wide hall’s nine aisles, Kellie Walker, the General Assembly music director, led the throng through hymns old and new as well as justice songs. Despite tired feet after five long days and nights of GA activity, the music kept spirits up, and twice the people were not just singing but holding hands and swaying with the rhythm in the aisles.

In the ceremony’s centerpiece six ministers and lay people active in justice efforts led a review of the long UU history of efforts for peace, racial justice, women’s rights, economic justice, immigration rights, marriage equality and GBLTQ rights, the environment, and accessibility for people with impairments.

As the ceremony came to an end, Dan Furmansky, the UUA’s Standing on the Side of Love campaign manager, issued a rousing call-and-response invitation to the special 2012 Justice General Assembly in Phoenix, which will focus on action against Arizona’s draconian anti-illegal immigration laws and mistreatment of immigrants.

“The future of our religious movement is in our hands,” UUA President Peter Morales said in his benediction. “This is our time.”

And the historic 50th General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association came to an end.

Watch the Closing Celebration and read the text of the service at UUA.org.