Town Hall Meeting District Name-change

Town Hall MeetingDistrict Name-change

Thomas Jefferson District Webinar

March 4, 2010

December 2009 2

Webcast Procedures

To ask a question during the presentation:Type the question in the message window.

To send a message just to me, select my name from the Send To drop-down list.

Note: I might not be able to answer technical questions during the presentation.

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Webcast Procedures

If you can’t see the entire slide, change the Zoom percentage using the Zoom Control at the top of the screen.

When we move into verbal Q&A mode Press 6 on your telephone keypad to

unmute your phone Press 6 again to mute again when you

are finished.

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Agenda

7:00 Welcome and opening wordsObjectives of webinarGovernance and name-change contextHistory of name-change District name-change proposal Process of name changeQuestions

8:30 Adjourn and Closing Words

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Webinar Objectives

Acknowledge the history of our name Understand the context of the name

change proposal Encourage a process in congregations

of charging delegates to the Annual Meeting

Provide time for questions

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Opening Words

We summon ourselves from the demands and delights of the daily round: from the dirty dishes and unwaxed floors; from unmowed grass, and untrimmed bushes; from all incompletenesses and not-yet-startednesses;

from the unholy and the unresolved. We summon ourselves to attend to our vision

of peace and justice; of cleanliness and health; of delight and devotion; of the lovely and the holy; of who we are and what we can do.

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Opening Words

We summon the power of tradition and the exhilaration of newness, the wisdom of the ages and the knowing of the very young.

We summon beauty, eloquence, poetry, and music to be the bearers of our dreams.

We would open our eyes, our ears, our minds, our hearts to the amplest dimensions of life. We rejoice in manifold promises and possibilities.

- Gordon McKeeman

TJD Governance Context

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August ’06 – Board retreat that created vision; facilitated by Paula Cole Jones

August ’07 – Board retreat on governance-as-leadership training; facilitated by Gini Courter Text: Governance as Leadership, Chait, Ryan,

Taylor August ’08 – Board retreat to update

strategy; facilitated by Robert E. Smith

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August ’09 – Board retreat to transition to Policy-based governance; facilitated by Joe Sullivan Claimed our values Revised our vision Drafted our ends statement

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October ‘09 – Board Meeting Developed a schedule to write all board policies

December ‘09 – Exposure draft of policy manual made available on website

March ’10 – Engage congregational leaders via town hall meetings and webinars

April ’10 – Delegates will be asked to ratify at TJD Annual Meeting

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TJD Values (draft)

We strive to embody the following values in all of our work: the inherent worth and dignity of every person rational, emotional, and spiritual maturity peace based on justice equity and compassion continuing revelation respect for the interdependent web of life responsibility inclusivity integrity in living out our values

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TJD Vision (draft)

Grounded in our covenantal tradition, we are a vibrant faith community of healthy congregations who grow through connection, right relationships, and service, thereby transforming ourselves and the world.

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TJD Global Ends - Within

Healthy congregations Are made up of members and leaders who

are spiritually and emotionally mature, generous, live with integrity, are in right relations with each other, and who serve and support each other in times of need

Are fiscally sound, competently managed, and led with vision

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TJD Global Ends - Within

Healthy congregations Are transformative for its members through

structures and programs that provide emotional support and promote integration of our rational, emotional and spiritual lives

Are growing in spirit, depth, and numbers by practicing radical hospitality and through multigenerational worship services and programming that are joyful, exciting, and challenging

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TJD Global Ends - Among

A vibrant faith community that Is in right relations with other

congregations Is in covenant with other UU

congregations in partnerships, clusters, districts and with the UUA to share our strengths, gifts and talents

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TJD Global Ends - Beyond

Our faith and values call us to Share our saving message with individuals and

organizations in our community and society Serve our communities and society to make real our

vision of wholeness Transform our society by engaging other faith and

secular communities in promoting our prophetic visions of peace based on justice, equity, and compassion in human and national relations, and of a healthy and sustainable environment that promotes the flourishing of life

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Sources of Authority and Accountability (Owners)

Our sources of authority and accountability are: Our member congregations Current and future generations of Unitarian

Universalists The heritage, history, and ideals of Unitarian

Universalism The vision of beloved community The spirit of love, life, and the holy

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Next Steps on TJD Governance

Board approved policy manual exposure draft at Feb ’10 meeting

Expose policy manual for comments via website and webinars Dec ’09

Delegates will vote to ratify policies at

April ’10 annual meeting Establish work group to examine by-laws

and recommend revision as appropriate

Name-change proposal

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Context of District Name

GA Charlotte ’93 Costume Ball – “Must African Americans attend such

events in rags and chains?” Rev. Hope Johnson "Our [UU] history in regard to racial justice is brave

enough to make you proud, tragic enough to make you cry, and inept enough to make you laugh once the anger passes.” Rev. Dr. Mark Morrison-Reed

DARTT District Identify Team studied name change issues ’95 – ’97

Motion at TJD Annual Meeting ’97 to change the name to Southeastern District failed by 9 votes

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District Identify Team ’03 – ’04 Board Discussion ’05 – ’06 Board Retreat Aug ’06

Developed vision with anti-racism, anti-oppression, multicultural emphasis

Board Retreat Aug ’07 Focused on Governance as Leadership

Board Meeting Oct ’07 Name-change committee established

Status report at annual meeting April ‘08

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Knoxville Tragedy July ’08 Board Retreat Aug ’08

Deferred name-change given focus on Knoxville Board Retreat Aug ’09

Worked on transition plan to policy governance Revised vision with focus on how we wish to be seen in

our communities and the broader world Decision to propose new name of Toward Justice more

appropriate to our vision Asked Annette to develop a proposal to create a new

position of Social Justice Coordinator to support congregations in their work

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Board Meeting Oct ’09 reviewed responses to proposed Toward Justice District name 19 individuals responded 8 were enthusiastic about the proposed name 5 were positive about the need for a new name

but critical of the Toward Justice name 4 were disappointed in the process that seemed

to preclude other names 2 were opposed to giving up the Thomas

Jefferson name.

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Oct ’09 Survey of district leadership 45 congregations represented in

response 63% oppose any name change 84% oppose Toward Justice

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Feb ’10 Board Meeting Accepted recommendation from the Virginia

Area Cluster of Unitarian Universalist Ministers & Religious Educators regarding an alternate name and a process for selecting

Offered three possible names: Atlantic Southeast Towne-Jordan Toward Justice

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Next Steps on Name Change

Town Hall Webinars in March Town Hall meetings at Annual Meeting Solicit alternate names from

congregations Annual Meeting April 30 – May 1,

Beaufort, SC at Historic Penn Center

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Rationale for Name Change

Sources of our authority and accountability Our member congregations Current and future generations of Unitarian

Universalists The heritage, history, and ideals of Unitarian

Universalism The vision of beloved community The spirit of love, life, and the holy

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Thomas Jefferson is important to UUs Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom,

1786 The Life and Morals of Jesus of

Nazareth (Jefferson Bible)

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But Thomas Jefferson was Episcopalian, albeit a Deist Slave owner Father of slaves Freed only 5 of 135 slaves at his death

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Thomas Jefferson’s views “The amalgamation (of blacks and whites) produces

a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of human character, can innocently consent”.

Black people “brought up from their infancy…are by their habits rendered as incapable as children of taking care of themselves. Left to their own devices, they lacked the capacity to care for their own offspring.”

Twilight at Monticello, Alan Pell Crawford

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“Ethics to Jefferson was little more than a process by which the rational individual chooses the most commonsense course from among a finite set of options. By reducing morality to a matter of rational selection and removing it from…influences of religious faith and practice, Jefferson ruled out the bold, the adventurous, (and) the imaginative, by which great challenges, such as ending slavery, might be accomplished…this seems a surprisingly constricted view of the moral universe, especially from the author of the Declaration of Independence with is soaring sense of human possibility…He could always insist, as he did throughout his life, that the time to end slavery had not arrived. But tragically, that was in no small part because Jefferson had resolutely chosen not to hasten its coming.”Twilight at Monticello, Alan Pell Crawford, pp 100-104

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Where we are now

District board has voted unanimously for three years to change the name of the district

Town hall and webinars planned in March ‘10 to hear from congregations

Annual Meeting to vote on new name May 1, ’10

Committee of the whole to consider all names that come forward from congregations

Requires super majority to approve

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Questions?

Why bring the name-change up again so soon?

Why denigrate a national hero? Why are we caving to political correctness? Who gets to decide a new name or keep the

current name? What is the process to change the name?

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Closing Words

We have a calling in this world:

we are called to honor diversity

to respect differences with dignity

and to challenge those who would forbid it.

We are people of a wide path.

Let us be wide in our affection

and go our way in peace.- Jean M Rickard Rowe

Documents

Town Hall Meeting District Name-change