4005 Plenary IV Sunday
Planning Committee Sponsored
Statement from the Canadian Unitarian Council on ratification
of the separation of the UUA and the CUC
(June 23 - Québec City, QUE) North American Unitarian Universalists took a significant step towards forming a new cross-border partnership today in Québec City. Delegates from congregations across the continent voted on by-law amendments that will enable Canadian Unitarians and Universalists to become responsible for their own movement in Canada.
The decision was made at the Unitarian Universalist Association annual General Assembly, a convention of some 4,000 lay and ministerial delegates from more than 1,100 congregations across the continent.
Under the ratified agreement, Canadian and American UUs will become separate national denominations, while preserving the bonds of faith and friendship which have existed for 170 years.
"The agreement marks a coming of age for the Canadian Unitarian Council," said the Rev Charles Eddis, first president of the CUC and now Minister Emeritus at the Unitarian Church of Montreal.
"This transition recognizes that Unitarians and Universalists in Canada have both the means and the desire to sustain their own movement and to deliver services and programs suited for their congregations. But the agreement will also allow us to form new partnerships across the border even as we strengthen some existing ties."
The historic agreement between the CUC and the UUA was reached after a year of friendly negotiations. The Rev. William Sinkford, president of the UUA, said, "Unitarian Universalists in Canada and the United States will always be united by our commitment to the faith we share. But in our faith community, when the congregations speak, the Association must listen. I congratulate the Canadian congregations on the new autonomy of the Canadian Unitarian Council, and I support their commitment to live out Unitarian Univeralism in a Canadian context."
The Universalist and Unitarian churches were founded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the United States and Canada. Some Canadian congregations were founded with joint British and American assistance; some others were American missionary efforts. In 1961 the Unitarian and Universalist denominations consolidated. Also in 1961, the tiny, fledgling Canadian Unitarian Council was formed.
While the CUC has grown in staff and resources over the past four decades, Canadians have recently represented only 3 percent of UUA membership. In recent years, leaders on both sides of the border recognized the need for a new kind of relationship. The goal was to honour long-standing relationships while responding to a perceived need for Canadian autonomy.
"This is a win-win situation," said Rev. Brian Kiely, minister at the Edmonton Unitarian Church, "Canadian Unitarians and Universalists get to chart their own course while American UUs get to focus their resources and efforts on strengthening their congregations."
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