Liberal Beacon: https://naunitarians.org/liberal-beacon/
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I am thinking that NAUA is its own grassroots organization, however, I am not at all comparing it to, or suggesting that UUSE move away from the UUA. The NAUA could be an additional resource for liberal religion as well some day. I would love to have an in-depth conversation around it at some point after the discernment. In the meantime, I have been checking information from NAUA's website, however, have not fact-checked all that is out there: https://naunitarians.org/ I will also hold off on any further comments for now.
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Regarding HAUA, I have read this excerpt from it's founder in Dr. Eklof's annual 2024 report at the UU Church of Spokane and found is troubling. An excerpt of his annual report: "It became clear to me in late 2022 that the Unitarian Universalist Association no longer represents our liberal tradition and principles, and, as importantly, no longer supports its members in any meaningful way. " He continued: " Despite the hardships we have faced over these past few years, including the capture of our religion by extremists, the attempted capture of our own congregation by some of them, " These are troubling statements and either I am terribly nieve or just out to touch, I have not witnessed or felt any "extremist" language coming from the UUA. In fact as a member of our personnel committee for over 20 years, I have always gotten assistance when asked for and morally supported.
I've known about the NAUA for some time, and I was reading through some of the newsletters that you have linked on this forum. I think we all understand why the NAUA came about and who it appeals to.
While I think the idea of this forum is a good thing, I'm concerned about timing. I don't want this to become something that conflicts with our planned Discernment Process, so I'm going to hold off on further comments for now.
Jim - you may be misinformed about the NAUA. While Eklof is one of the founders, he is not the entire NAUA. While there are some facets that NAUA does not agree with UUA on, it is not indicating that NAUA is in opposition to the entire UUA and NAUA frequently tells people they can belong to UUA and NAUA. It is not an either-or decision. NAUA has some very good liberal religious focus. I am now a member of both, the NAUA as an individual and the UUA via our congregation UUSE.
The NAUA is a new organization for those strongly opposed to the UUA and who sympathize with Dr. Rev. Eklof. I love the UUA and all its doing for us, and I'm not a fan of Dr Rev Eklof.