UUA BYLAW AMENDMENTS

At UUA General Assembly (GA) in June, one of the major pieces of business will be consideration of a new Article II.

The current Article II titled Principles and Purpose would be replaced by a new article titled Purpose and Covenant. Many of the concepts and phrases in the current article are used in the proposed rewrite.

For a Side by Side comparison of the current and proposed versions of Article II, click the button below.

Please consider attending and/or being a delegate for all virtual General Assembly 2024 on Thursday June 20 through Sunday June 23rd. To learn more about General Assembly and for links to register, click the button below.

To learn more about covenant and some past conversations that helped bring about the Proposed Article II, you can listen to “A Conversation on Covenant” Part 1 & 2. Click the button below.

In March of 2023, UUA staff prepared answers to some of the more frequently asked questions. While a year old, they provide background and maybe helpful for your understanding.

Below are the 24 frequently asked questions that are answered in the document. They are in the order that they appear on the linked webpage. So if you’re interested in a question that’s near the bottom, be sure scroll down in the document.

1. What is Article II? Why is it in the bylaws?
2. What is the history of previous changes to Article II since 1961 consolidation creating the Unitarian Universalist Association?
3. Why did the UUA Board initiate this process now?
4. Why Article II now?
5. Who selected the commissioners?
6. Why are we only just hearing about this?
7. How did the Commission work with congregations?
8. Why was it called the Article II Study Commission and not something “catchier”?
9. What is the process for considering and adopting the Article 2 Study Commission’s proposal for Article 2 revisions?
10. Where do I send my suggests for the proposed changes to the A2SC proposal?
11. Why did the proposal do away with the word “principles”? If this passes, what happens to the principles?
12. Why did the proposal not include any of the sources?
13. Is covenant a new idea?
14. Are there governance changes that will happen for congregations or the UUA because of the changes proposed to Article II? Will these proposed revisions create other changes around congregational polity?
15. Why worthiness?
16. When will the UUA start creating things based on the new proposal? e.g. Will we get a new children’s song for our values? What about a rainbow bookmark?
17. How does the 8th Principle work with Article II?   Our congregation is working on passing the 8th principle… should we stop?
18. Is this a creed or dogma?
19. Is this meant to be used as a personal code or set of commitments?
20. What is the definition of Love that you’re using here?
21. What about my individual freedom of belief?
22. Why are the values in the order you chose?
23. Why this values/covenant format?
24. What do you mean by “we are accountable to one another?