GA Hometown Press Release

Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
For Immediate Release

Unitarian Universalists Conclude Largest-Ever General Assembly

(Boston – June 30) The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) today concluded its largest-ever General Assembly by passing a Statement of Conscience on economic globalization that calls upon congregants "to bring our Unitarian Universalist principles to our understanding of economic globalization and to help mitigate its adverse effects."

More than 7550 Unitarian Universalists from around the world attended the five-day General Assembly in Boston, site of the UUA’s national headquarters and the historic birthplace of American Unitarianism and Universalism. On Sunday, at the largest gathering of Unitarian Universalists in history, more than 9,000 heard the Rev. Gary Smith preach at the Service of the Living Tradition at the Fleet Center, the Boston sports arena.

In addition to the statement on globalization that had been studied by Unitarian Universalist congregations for two years, delegates passed five Actions of Immediate Witness intended to address recent events. The General Assembly called for the United States Congress to conduct open bipartisan hearings to examine the justification for the invasion of Iraq; to restore funding for AmeriCorps; to pass proposed legislation that would mandate studies of the effects of depleted uranium on the environment and the health of those exposed to it; and to appropriate complete funding for studies of global HIV/AIDS. The final action called for continuing support for women’s rights and reproductive freedom, including participation in the March for Reproductive Freedom scheduled for April 25, 2004, in Washington, D.C.

Speakers at the General Assembly included Robert Reich, Wendy Kaminer, Jonathan Kozol, and Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, who delivered the annual Ware Lecture. Harvard professor Diana Eck received the Melcher Lifetime Achievement Award for her pioneering work in exploring religious pluralism in American culture and its implications for people of all religious traditions. Major programs included one on the abolition of modern-day slavery and several programs in honor of the bicentennial of the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a major figure in the Unitarian movement.

Invoking the language of the Association’s principles, the globalization statement says, "Seeing the world as an interconnected web challenges us to turn from self-serving individualism toward a relational sense of ourselves in a global community of all living things, and toward practices that help create economic structures designed to serve the common good."

Unitarian Universalism is a liberal, creedless religion with Judeo-Christian roots; it traces its history in North America to the first Pilgrim and Puritan settlers, and has numbered among its members five U.S. presidents. The UUA, headquartered in Boston, MA, was formed in 1961 through the consolidation of the Universalist Church of America and the American Unitarian Association. 1,010 congregations in North America belong to the Unitarian Universalist Association.

The UUA website (www.uua.org) contains extensive coverage of the General Assembly. For further information on Unitarian Universalism, please contact John Hurley, UUA director of information and public witness, (617-948-6131), or Janet Hayes, information officer (617-948-4386).

Unitarian Universalist Association
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