Ron Robinson is the executive director of the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship; he also writes an independent blog (Planting God Communities). While he’s careful not to speak for the UUCF, I can trust he speaks from knowledge of the independent affiliates controversy.
Check out this post, and make it all the way to the end.
I’m not going to speak for the UUCF — I hold no position in it anyway — and I’m not even going to speak about it until I speak to leadership and some stakeholders, but I think all Unitarian Universalist organizations — former and continuing independent affiliates — have to recognize that if they don’t provide their own services currently (formerly?) provided by the UUA, they’ll always be at risk of having these services withdrawn. That’s too much crisis and uncertainty for most organizations to suffer.
I believe that future General Assemblies will be a draw and that independent organizations will “do their thing” near it. There are 368 days until GA 2008.
Yes, and Actually for those affiliates like ours with a strong base it could be a blessing in disguise; we could have an opportunity to break out during GA all over the place; rather than hoping people will come just to our booth or scheduled events, we could also be holding gatherings, events, random acts of kindness, etc. wherever people are gathered, hotels, streets, et al. We might become more of an organic leaven. Of course this has some effects beyond just GA but that’s what is on people’s minds now. Take care. We are all thinking of you here in Portland.