Our UUA Connection USH

Our UUA Connection (September 01)

Some material comes from Warren Ross's new book “The Premise& the Promise”. (Skinner House 2001)

Thanks also to Betty Garvais for sharing UUA documents from her Denominational archives.

Our Society is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association of America, known by some as “25”, in reference to its headquarters at 25 Beacon Street in Boston. Today's UUA is the result of the 1961 merger of The American Unitarian Association (founded in 1825) and the Universalist Church of America (founded in 1866). At the first UUA General Assembly in 1961, former American Unitarian Association president, Dana Greeley, was elected first president of the UUA. At the June 2001 General Assembly in Cleveland, Rev. William Sinkford became the 7th UUA president.

What is our Society's

relation to the whole?

No local society, all by itself, could possibly train ministers, prepare an adequate church school program, or even effectively create the state of mind which is the Unitarian Universalist faith. With our own Society's 400 members, we would be unlikely to have any world presence at all. We would still be a great group of people, but only a shadow of what the 157 year old Unitarian Society of Hartford is today. In short, we need, and depend on, the UUA!

Yet, our “fair share” bill seems like a hard one to pay. The UUA considers our Society's “fair share” to be $45 per member, yet we canvass by “Giving Units”, as households which are sometimes individuals, but more often couples and whole families. We are assessed as individual members, but unless we're single, we don't give that way. The UUA, with its own publishing house, its glossy WORLD magazine, and dynamically organized General Assembly seems, by comparison to ourselves, strong and invulnerable. Some years we simply didn't have a choice... we had to take care of ourselves first. What's hard to realize is the degree to which the UUA IS ourselves!

Under Jim Venneman's tenure as president, an objective was set to increase our giving by 5% a year until we reach 100%. We've come a long way in that uphill battle. We now pay 100% of our Clara Barton District dues, and a greater percentage of our UUA dues than ever before.

Our Hartford Society most likely would not have come to be without the American Unitarian Association. We were “born” in July of 1844; a decade earlier, Boston Unitarian Samuel May was traveling the countryside setting liberal minds on fire with his Unitarian ideals ... sparked by the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Ellery Channing, and Theodore Parker. The AUA matched funds for start-up churches like our own to build, and though they didn't always come through with all that was promised, heartily supported the growth and development of new congregations across the country. Unitarianism and Universalism have always relied on the power of the written word; in 1901 the Beacon Press was founded. (70 years later to print the Pentagon Papers!)

The UUA is a voluntary association of autonomous, self-governing local churches and fellowships which have freely chosen to pursue common goals together. There are over 1,000 UU Societies in the U.S. and Canada, ranging from large city churches with professional staff to small lay-led Fellowships. The UUA recruits, prepares, and accredits candidates for ministry, and provides assistance and services to help its member societies to:

• Conduct professional, discreet ministerial searches, matching candidate to congregation, serving member

congregations as a ministerial “employment agency.”

• Provide a Religious Education curriculum for our youth

• Offer meaningful Adult Education programs

• Help societies strengthen fund-raising and financing

• Give ministers greater security and benefits than a small individual congregation could do; pensions, medical care programs, professional development opportunities, etc.

• Reach out nationally and internationally; because the UUA exists, so can the UU Service Committee, UU United Nations, UU Young Adults Network, UU Ministers Association.

The UUA helps represent liberal faith to the larger world.

In Salted with Fire, Scott Alexander writes: “As the radical religious right has unashamedly attempted to influence both public policy and private morality, religious liberals have slowly awakened to the fact that we remain silent about what we believe at our own peril. If we continue to remain hidden, then by default it will be the beliefs and dreams of others that will influence and instruct the shape of our society and the lives of those around us.” UUA President John Buehrens said; “I believe that the world needs our faith, now perhaps more than it ever has. I also believe that we are called to be a stronger, more visible presence of hope and healing.”

Let us know of any comments, errors and corrections - thanks (revised 2/21/05)