Remembrance of policy past

Ought policy statements — particularly those related to public — of the Universalist Church of America (Universalist General Convention) and the American Unitarian Association inform the policy of the Unitarian Universalist Association today?

Since the UUA is the legal (and I’d add moral) successor to the UCA and AUA, I’d say yes, provided said policy statement isn’t a non-sequitor. After all, we have a legacy of at least 220 years of democratically-decided public policy. We should look back to it, and reflect.

Oh, one problem! So far as I know, it isn’t complied anywhere. And the minutes are devilishly hard to get. Oh, for a summer at the HDS library!

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

2 comments

  1. Of course! Knowing our own history is essential. The UUA website didn’t even keep old good stuff when it updated (I’m still mourning the loss of the online Curriculum Mapping).

    Doesn’t the UUA have an archive? Not online, of course, because the internet’s only been around for thirty years now, so we’re on schedule to put up essential documents in about another 40 years, but in the files?

    If not, with a grant of several thousand dollars, the UUA could offer a paid summer in Boston (not this summer–a nice, cool summer), travel, housing, access to all the files, access to the HDS library, and a little extra for a weekend on the Cape. Solicit nominations from congregations of our best archivists, pick one, and then (because she’ll be an 80 year old woman who hasn’t mastered HTML) hire someone to put the docs on the website.

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