Submission 174
Galen Guffy
Saltwater Unitarian Universalist Church (Des Moines, WA) 8135
What is your suggestion or idea?
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I like the new Purposes - C.2.1
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Section C.2.2 Values and Covenant - seems like “Justice” should be included in the heritages listed in the second sentence of th first paragraph. I love the concept of “spiritual discipline of Love.”
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In shared values:
- · Interdependence - I really appreciate the substitution of beings for people. We need to start signaling care for all the children of the Earth, not just humanity. To this effect, I think you should add the words “communities,” and “environments” to the last sentence after “relationships.”
- · Pluralism - please consider replacing the word with “curiosity” with “wonder,” which signals greater acknowledgement and respect for other perspectives than our own individual, cultural, and environmental backgrounds.
- · Transformation - I really appreciate the substitution of this word and concept for “Evolution.” This is the only inclusion of a spiritual concept in this whole new set of ostensibly shared values. I don’t think it’s enough - I think Spirituality should be a shared value in and of itself because a sense of wonderment and revelry in the Universe and the Unknown Mysteries of Life are the reason many people wish to belong to a religious institution like the UU church. Our spirituality is what we crave nourishment for when we go to church. It should not be relegated to barely a mention. Please consider adding Spirituality as a shared value. You could easily replace Generosity with it since the concept of generosity is vetted well in the first paragraph - Purposes C.2.1.
- · Equity - The first sentence is awkward. I would change this sentence to "We declare that all beings are inherently worthy and deserve our respect, consideration, and compassion.” Also please replace the word “money” with “funding.” Not everyone in the church has money and the church doesn’t have money either. It has funding.
- The last three paragraphs: Inspirations, Inclusion, and Freedom of Belief are excellent. See note below for an addition to the Inspirations section.
Additional Suggestions:
Please do not disappear entirely the 7 Principles and the 6 Sources. They are much loved by a plurality of UU members and should be archived and available for viewing on the UUA website in a “History” tab. They still resonate and move so many of us and are a part of our UU history, I think it is a mistake to eliminate them entirely. Please archive them accordingly and link to them within the body of the new proposed Article II. For instance, you could include a sentence in the description of the Shared Values graphic that says “these values evolved from our original beloved 7 UU Principles. Similarly, please do not discard the 6 sources which are also much loved by UU’s everywhere. Please archive them in a history tab and link to them accordingly “These sources ground us and sustain us in ordinary, difficult, and joyous times.” Or you could just put a little footnote at the end of Paragraph C.2.3 that says something like “These inspirations were adapted from our beloved Sources of Our Living Tradition.”
What is the reason for your amendment idea?
I explained my reasons thoroughly thoroughly in the file I uploaded.
Have you discussed this idea with your congregation or other UUs?
This is the same file that I uploaded on my Congregation’s Article II Feedback survey that they sent out to us to prepare our delegates for GA.