Unitarian Universalists Vote For Love

At this June’s annual assembly of the Unitarian Universalists in Rochester, NY, the voting delegates decisively embedded love into the bedrock of the faith, as 80 percent chose to adopt changes to its covenant clause, otherwise known as Article II of the faith’s bylaws.

The change in the bylaws, which are essentially a mission statement, is the first since 1987. This year’s vote was made possible by a vote at last year’s assembly, allowing the revision to go forward to a final vote this year.

Central to Article II are the Seven Principles, which guide those who wish to join the religious community. These principles have included “The inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relations; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; and the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.”

Of the Seven Principles developed four decades ago, co-chair of the Article II Study Commission Rob Spirko said last year, “not everybody immediately printed it out and slapped it on their wall and said, ‘Yay, Big Seven!’” He added that while the Seven Principles of the current Article II “will still be there, people can still see them, maybe this new vision can help bring new people in” to the faith.

The new vision is immediately distinct from the former vision in two ways. First, it contains verbs (“We honor,” “We celebrate,” “We covenant,” “We work,” “We adapt,” etc.), whereas the former Article II has none. Second, it is steeped in love: “Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values. We are accountable to one another for doing the work of living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love.”

The new Article II even posts a graphic described as “a chalice with an overlay of the word “love” over the flame, with six outstretched arms that create a circle around each of the core values [interdependence, equity, transformation, pluralism, generosity and justice] and form a six-petal flower shape.”

For the first time, then the seven core values of the faith are not co-equal but are six that are held together by a seventh: love.

In a dramatic demonstration of the centrality of love, Rev. JeKaren Olaoya used the 90 seconds allotted to her to give a special message to transgender, nonbinary and gender diverse people: “I love you, I love you, I love you. . .”

According to the faith’s bylaws, Article II must be reviewed at least every 15 years. The process for the current revisit began in 2020. “What I’m excited about is the tens of thousands of Unitarian Universalists dedicating four years’ worth of time to expressing the values of this faith,” the Rev. Sofía Betancourt, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, said. “We understand ourselves as a living tradition in the line of the free church tradition, and having our congregations represented by their leaders and members and in articulating what we hold most dear, to me is really, really powerful.” By its very nature, the Unitarian Universalist Church is an evolving faith. As co-chair of the Article II Study Commission, Cheryl M. Walker reflected, “We are not writing a creed, we are not etching in stone, we are writing in pencil, and we hope that in twenty to thirty years, as the world has changed again and there are things we need to say that we did not say this time, that somebody changes it again—so that we are a Living Tradition, not one that is stagnant. If we are not changing, we are not living.”

Photo credits: We are Unitarian Universalists by UU World. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.