Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (RVUUF) Ashland, OR

June 19-23: 2013 Louisville, KY

June 20-24: 2012 Phoenix, AZ

June 22-26, Charlotte, NC. Unitarian Universalist Congregations will gather for the 50th General Assembly (GA), the annual meeting of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).

Highlights from the schedule of live streamed (online access from your computer) events:

• Wed, Jun 22, 4pm-6pm (PDT): Opening Celebration and Plenary
• Thu, Jun 23, 11:45am-1pm (PDT): Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) Worship Service
• Thu, Jun 23, 4:30pm-6pm (PDT): Service of the Living Tradition
• Fri, Jun 24, 4pm-6pm (PDT): New Epiphany Revival and Synergy Worship
• Sat, Jun 25, 5pm-6pm (PDT): Ware Lecture by Karen Armstrong; -- to be shown at RVUUF under the Balcony
• Complete streaming schedule: http://www.uua.org/ga/2011/ (times EDT)
• Main GA pages, with all events and other info: http://www.uua.org/ga/

Jun 23-27: 2010 Minneapolis, MN; uua.org/ga

Pacific Northwest District Blog. We invite your delegates to join our reporting team, and we encourage your leaders and all others to "follow" our blog posts in order to hear what we have to report to you on GA actions and activities. Anyone can read the blog, which already has a couple of posts for this year. Any reader can comment on blog posts, too! Don't hesitate to share your opinion or ask a question. Those on the reporting team will do our best to respond!

Coordinator: vacant
Ministry: Administration

• UUA: Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (uua.org)
• Calendar
• Newsletter: Congregational Bulletin
• Newsfeeds: UUA; UUSC; UU World
• PNWD: Pacific Northwest District (pnwd.org)
• Calendar
• Newsletter: Congregational Packet
• Chalice Lighter Program
• RVUUF: Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (rvuuf.org)
• Calendar
• Newsletter: Rogue Unitarian
• Newsfeeds
• other UU Resources: blogs, email lists, audio, video, newsfeeds, social networks, print material

Workshop description.

Discussion questions for first Fri (1/18) and first Wed (1/23):

• How might globally cooperative institutions such as the United Nations create and maintain effective conditions for human rights, economic justice, religious tolerance, and sustainable environmental practices?

• What successful models exist for the reduction of violence in situations of conflict?

Workshop description

Discussion questions for 2nd Fri (1/25) and 2nd Wed (1/30):

• What role do human physiology and psychology play in the perpetuation of violence?
• Should we, the Unitarian Universalist Association and member congregations, adopt a specific and detailed "just-war" policy to guide our witness, advocacy, and social-justice efforts?

Discussion questions for first Fri (1/18) and first Wed (1/23):

• How might globally cooperative institutions such as the United Nations create and maintain effective conditions for human rights, economic justice, religious tolerance, and sustainable environmental practices?

• What successful models exist for the reduction of violence in situations of conflict?

After Sunday's service on Peacemaking, 36 attendees completed questionnaires about the upcoming workshops on the topic. The questionnaires asked responders to mark those questions among the five below that they would like to consider at the workshops. The tally was as follows:

1. Should we, the Unitarian Universalist Association and member congregations, adopt a specific and detailed "just-war" policy to guide our witness, advocacy, and social-justice efforts? [=14]
2. Should we, the UUA and member congregations, reject violence in any form? [=8]
3. How might globally cooperative institutions such as the United Nations create and maintain effective conditions for human rights, economic justice, religious tolerance, and sustainable environmental practices? [=25]
4. What role do human physiology and psychology play in the perpetuation of violence? [=18]
5. What successful models exist for the reduction of violence in situations of conflict? [=25]

At our follow-up workshops, we'll explore the top two questions (3rd and 5th) at the first sessions and the others at the second ones, starting with the 4th one and moving on to the first. Perhaps, given exploration of those four questions, we could essentially call for a yes/no vote (by workshop participants) on the 2nd one.

Many questions intertwine with those above, and it's not as though the UUA has remained silent on them in the past: related past statements that our denomination has made; Congregational Study/Action Issue (CSAI) on Peacemaking. In our workshops, we will strive for some guidance we can give to the UUA Commision on Social Witness as it drafts a resolution on Peacemaking for GA 2009.

Ultimately, what we do is more important than what we say. All of this effort finally is intended to guide the UUA Office of Advocacy, UU Congregations, and us as we engage the world in which we live. We'll strive toward this end at the workshops, which are scheduled for two Friday afternoons, Jan 18th & 25th, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm and two Wednesday evening, Jan 23rd & 30th, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm.

Result: Peacemaking Document

The Unitarian and Universalists roots extend back to early centuries. The American Unitarian Association and the Universalists of America developed along converging paths and merged in 1961.

• Unitarians believed in the Unity of God - as opposed to the Trinity.
• Universalists believed in the Love of All.

One humorous characterization of UU after-life beliefs:

• Unitarians believe they are too good to be damned.
• Universalists believe that God is too good to damn them.

RVUUF offers formal and informal instruction on the history of Unitarian Universalism. We also have an excellent library for these studies.

• UU History (UUA)
• Unitarian Universalism (Wikipedia)
• Famous UUs; Randy Pausch
• Tim Berners-Lee: The World Wide Web and the "Web of Life"
• UU Biographies (UUA)
• Notable American Unitarians (Harvard Square Library)