About the Prioritized Article II Amendments category

General Assembly 2023 Prioritized Article II Amendments
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These prioritized amendments submitted by delegates may be discussed during General Sessions per the time allocated in the final agenda.

The numbers refer to the order in which they were received.

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Question: The prioritized amendments have numbers. Do those numbers reflect their actual order of priority? Thus, for example, are numbers 1-10 the ones that the Mod Squad expects to discuss? or are the amendments simply listed with numbers to distinguish them, no inherent prioritizing by number intended?

A friend has observed that they have a high number and therefore will not be heard. That can’t be the case a-priori, right?

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Larry, Could you provide any guidance on reviewing these prioritized amendments? Searching through and commenting on submissions was facilitated by the inclusion of amendment topic; that’s absent in this presentation. Help!

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The numbers refer to the order in which they were received. All of them are being considered and reviewed.

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Thank you. I thought so.

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@CharlesD Do you folks have a spreadsheet organizing these by number and content/topic? I have a free day and am starting to build such a spreadsheet. But if y’all have one. I’ll wait for your share.

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A couple of us - Rev Landrum and I - are working on a spreadsheet organizing by topics

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Sorry, no, I do not have such a spreadsheet.

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Thanks for your response, though I must comment that the listings would have been much more accessible if they had included topics/tags. I’m grateful that involved delegates are working hard to provide such a guide.

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The number reflects the order in which the amendment was received. We have not set priorities for amendments to be heard at GA yet.

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Here is a list of all the amendments with my summary (the ones I’m supporting are in bold).

Here is the list of what each amendment does:

1: Adds 6 sources to inspirations

2: adds 7 principles back in, after values

3: add 7 principles back in, before values

4: changes “through the spiritual discipline of Love” to “resting on the foundation of transformative love” and makes a large number of other changes

5: My amendment to inspirations: puts “direct experience” back in.

6: adds “and we remain committed to individual and congregational freedom of belief and individual right of conscience” in the freedom section.

7: adds “wonder” as a value.

8. amendments to Pluralism value, mostly to elevate the free and responsible search language – my amendment

  1. restores current sources in total, but adds Buddhist and Muslim language.

  2. same as #3, but adds language about “manifesting love”

  3. Adds “highest” to the “purpose of the UUA is to actively engage its members in the transformation of the world through liberating love."

  4. In freedom section, replaces “central to” with “essential to and inseparable from” and adds “and practice” after heritage.

  5. adds “within our congregation and the society at large” to our support of inclusive democratic practice in the Justice value.

  6. Redoes purposes to make “serve congregations” as central, with the rest as sub-points.

  7. Adds “No covenants or pledges expressed in Article II of these bylaws may, by themselves, be used as the basis for the Association or its member organizations to take punitive action against a congregation, organization, or person.” to the freedom section.

  8. In the Justice value: changes “racism and all forms of systemic oppression.” to “all forms of cultural and systemic oppression, including but not limited to racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, gender, etc.”

  9. changes “dismantle racism and all forms of systemic oppression" to “affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations**.”**

  10. Moves the “covenants” in all the values to their own section.

19. Moves sentences around in the equity section, so it would read: Equity. We affirm the inherent worth and dignity of each person. We covenant to defend, build, and sustain fully accessible and inclusive communities. We work to create a just and peaceful world in which all can flourish. I helped make this amendment.

  1. removes “racism” and adds “worth and dignity of all” to the Justice value.

  2. Keeps existing principals and sources, and adds an “action” section that uses some but not all of the values language.

  3. Weakens purpose section and removes liberating Love sentence.

23. Amends Transformation value – changes “adapt” to “embrace possibilities” and adds language about accepting ourselves and one another as well as transforming. My amendment.

  1. Makes a ton of changes to the values – including making Pluralism into Diversity, removing “multicultural Beloved Community”, making Transformation into Change, and uncapitalizing Love throughout. And more.

  2. Removes the discipline of love sentence and replaces it with the Blake covenant.

26. Adds “support and encourage the creation of new UU community” to the purposes. From me and David Schwartz.

  1. Makes the graphic into a flower with leaves and a sun and writes about the meaning of this metaphor. Adds paragraphs about wonder, wisdom, and grounding to the inspirations section.

  2. Changes assist to serve congregations, and other small changes to purposes.

  3. Functionally the same as #3 with some other conforming changes.

  4. Adds “and spiritual development” after “lifelong faith formation” in the purposes.

  5. Adds value of Reason.

  6. Adds value of Peace

  7. Changes colors of pedals.

  8. Adds “We draw upon our experience of creation, nature, wonder and the inherent wisdom of each and all.” to inspirations.

  9. In purposes, changes “faith formation” to “religious exploration” and changes “heal historic injustices” to “work for social justice.” Deletes Liberating Love sentence.

  10. Changes “covenant” to “pledge” throughout the document.

  11. Non-specific call for “wonder” as value.

  12. In Equity value, changes “flourish” to “live”, worthiness to worth, and “money” to “financial and other”

  13. Adds a new section at the end about “earth solidarity”

  14. Agrees with #19.

  15. Removes values, puts in shortened/changed principles.

  16. Non-specific call for sources to be added.

  17. Removes “all sacred beings” from pluralism value.

  18. Same as #3

  19. Removes liberating love sentence from purposes.

  20. Changes Love to Compassion.

47. Duplicate to #23.

  1. Adds “We heed the findings of science and resist the temptations of dogma” to pluralism.

  2. Similar to #3, but amends principle language with more active verbs and has a version of the 8th principle and puts them in a different order.

  3. Adds Wisdom as a value.

  4. Adds edited version of sources back into the inspirations section, with additions of science and creative arts.

52. Strengthens Interdependence amendment, – from “cherish” to “protect” and “care” to “repair mutuality and justice.” From John Gibb Millspaugh and UU Animal Ministry. I support this.

  1. Adds to inspiration section – naming indigenous knowledge, humanism, science, arts, and direct experience.

  2. Adds **“**aimed at the equitable distribution of power and wealth” after democratic process. Kinda kick-ass when you think about it. I like it.

  3. Replaces democratic process line with “We support democracy and aspire to trust in democratic decision-making processes within our congregations and in society at large.”

  4. Replaces Love is the power and Liberating Love lines with “Love is the beating heart of our faith, welcoming all. It shows up in the ways we care for and about each other, in sorrow and in joy. It shows up in the ways we make our values real in the world, holding ourselves and each other accountable for living our values with compassion and respect. The love of our communities gives us a deep sense of belonging, of being recognized, valued, and cherished.”

  5. Changes purposes in a few small ways and adds “Democratic” [sic] before UU values.

  6. Same as #3.

  7. Same as #3, with a sentence introducing values.

  8. Adds to inspirations, similar to #53.

  9. Similar as #3, naming them as “remain important” and that the values expand them.

  10. Adds science to values intro paragraph.

  11. Non-specific call to add specificity to inspirations.

  12. Same as #16.

  13. condenses values (including love) to single sentence each.

  14. Same as #59

  15. Changes “generosity” to “service” with related changes.

  16. changes inclusion line from “all who share our values” to “who will embrace UU values in their own search for truth and meaning.”

  17. Amends Interdependence value – changing “beings” to “living things” and adds “to live sustainability in the future.”

  18. Adds value of Gratitude

  19. Adds “by opening exploring the depth and breadth of many wisdoms” to Pluralism value.

  20. Freedom section: changes “freedom” to “polity” and adds line about responsibility to align to our values.

  21. Non-specific requests for more powerful language in values section.

  22. Changes to Interdependence – makes our “dependent” place in the great web, and says damaged relationships “we have caused.”

  23. Same as #1.

  24. Equity section: Removes inherent and worthiness (so just dignity) and adds “Prioritizing the leadership of the marginalized, we work for a redistribution of power and wealth that creates a more equitable, just, and peaceful world.”

  25. changes “liberating love” to “building Beloved Community through universal love”

  26. Similar to #49

  27. Adds both principles and sources before values.

  28. Adds examples in inspirations section – various theologies and world religions.

  29. changes liberating love sentence – though keeps concepts. Just in a different order.

  30. change “discipline” to “practice.”

  31. Similar to #49

  32. Same as #61

  33. Adds principals explicitly to each value, with conforming changes.

  34. changes purposes languages in a variety of modest ways, inserting Beloved Community and removing “discipline of love.”

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Rev. Matthew, way way cool. This will help as Rev. Cindy and I are going along. We’re doing spreadsheet format with columns and values for sortability… Are up to about #55. back to it. Superb summary you’ve got there.

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Thanks for you work on this. Much appreciated!

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Thank you so much! This is very helpful. The other information I would like is which of these are the result of the feedback workshop/ mini-asembly, or whatever that was called. I found that work really helpful and interesting, and thought that those amendments that resulted should get priority, having already had a bunch of commenting incorporated.

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I have completed the spreadsheet guide in draft form. Waiting for my partner to get out of meetings to talk a bit before sharing. But it will surely be available tomorrow, Thursday… From Bek Wheeler and Rev. Cindy Landrum

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Your messages says “these prioritized amendments…”
How can I see them?

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ok, so I understand that the #s do not reflect priority order. Will there be further prioritization by the UUA of the order in which amendments will be presented (subject to whatever time limit is decided on)?

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Here is a link to the Google Sheets built by me and Rev. Cindy Landrum – Prioritized Amendments to Article II. We still have some tweaks to do, but this is ready for use. You can sort on the Column C to see the areas for which amendment was sought. And the numbered amendments are LIVE, so click and go to the discuss-uua-org.

@UUA-Larry , @CharlesD , @MegRiley , @DeniseRimes, @UUFPMichael, @manningmiller @Janet

Let us know how it goes!!!

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People are starting to put the background/rationale with their amendments, and I would hope everyone would do this. :slight_smile:

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