Love at the Center: Exploring the New UU Values
From the Article II Study Commission Report: a visualization of the new proposed language for Article II, defining six Unitarian Universalist Values, with the value of Love at the center. Design by Tanya Webster (chalicedays.org)
If you’ve been tracking the next 6 months of Quest themes, you may have noticed something: we’re using these themes to explore the Values of Unitarian Universalism, as articulated in the proposed new Article II of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Bylaws.
In the February 2022 issue of Quest, in an article titled “Embracing the Living Tradition,” Rev. Michael Tino introduced these new values and the process through which they may be adopted by our Association. During the 2023 UUA General Assembly, delegates voted to move forward with the proposed language; there will be a vote during the 2024 General Assembly on whether or not to adopt these as the official articulation of our shared faith.
We’re looking forward to exploring how we relate to and understand each of these values over the next six months. As Rev. Michael wrote last February: “One of the defining characteristics of our Unitarian Universalist faith is that ours is a ‘living tradition.’ We do not etch our faith in stone precisely because we hold sacred that it must change. It must adapt to new challenges, it must meet new understandings, and it must evolve based on new experiences and connections.”
As beloved as the Principles of Unitarian Universalism have become in the almost 40 years since they were adopted, working with these new values is an important way to lean into the promise of our living tradition.
For those of you who will be submitting reflections for upcoming issues of Quest, I invite you to consider these values through the particular lens of how they may shape our shared faith. If the new Article II is adopted as our official faith language, that is the next phase of work ahead of us: to continue to co-create this faith with these values in mind, shaping and expanding their meaning by how we live them together. I’m so looking forward to being in that work together.
- Love at the Center: Exploring the New UU Values - January 10, 2024
- Turn the Year Around (A Winter Solstice Story) - December 20, 2023
- Samhain (Learning to Hold Ancestors Close) - October 1, 2023
