The Social Witness Process
(A Review)
The social witness process has two different ways of putting important issues on the agenda of the UUA and its member congregations. The first is the process leading to Statements of Conscience, and the second is the process leading to Actions of Immediate Witness. The process leading to Statements of Conscience begins with the proposal by a congregation or group of congregations of a Study/Action Issue. Every year, a number of proposed Study/Action Issues are received by the Commission on Social Witness. The Commission reviews these issues and selects what they believe to be the best proposals to present to the congregations. Then, each year, there is a congregational poll, in which we rank which issues are most important to us. This tells the delegates to GA which issue to vote for on behalf of the congregation. At General Assembly, the various proposals for Study/Action Issues are debated and amended and ultimately voted upon. Then, the Commission on Social Witness (CSW), together with the original proponents of the Issue put together a resource guide on the issue which helps get congregations started in their study of and actions on the issue. After the first year of study and action on the issue, congregations report to the CSW what they’ve been doing, and the Commission compiles a progress report on the issue which is presented at GA. At this point, the Commission begins drafting a Statement of Conscience on this issue. During the year, the draft statement is sent out to congregations for review and amendment suggestions. (The Denominational Affairs committee at Prairie generally does this.) At General Assembly, the debate over the wording of the Statement of Conscience continues, and ultimately, the delegates vote on whether or not to adopt the Statement of Conscience. Once adopted, the Statement of Conscience becomes the official position of the UUA on the issue, and action on the issue should continue at both the UUA and the congregational level.
An Update on
Study/Action Issues and Statements of Conscience
2001-2003: Economic Globalization
The Statement of Conscience
was adopted at last year’s GA, and continues to inform the actions of many
congregations, as well as the UUA.
2002-2004: Civil Liberties
The Statement of Conscience
was adopted at this year’s GA, and a resource guide exists to help us continue
our exploration of and actions on this issue.
2003-2005: Criminal Justice and Prison Reform
An update on our progress on
this issue was presented at GA, and a resource guide exists to help us continue
work on this issue. The Commission on
Social Witness is currently drafting a Statement of Conscience on this issue.
2004-2006: Threat of Global Warming
This issue was selected at
this year’s GA as our new Study/Action Issue.
There is a preliminary resource guide available to help us begin our
work on this issue, as we think about it and decide how to act on it over the
next two years.
All of the resource guides
and more information can be found at the CSW’s
website: http://www.uua.org/csw/
The second process for naming issues that UU’s ought
to be aware of and addressing is the Action of Immediate Witness process. This is something that occurs entirely at GA,
and is attended to address issues that are of such immediate concern that they
cannot wait for the longer Statement of Conscience process. Groups can propose Actions of Immediate
Witness, and if they can collect enough delegate signatures, then the issues
are officially presented to delegates, who then vote on whether or not to adopt
them. When these issues are adopted,
they are not official UUA policy in the same way as Statements of Conscience,
because the congregations haven’t had the opportunity to comment on them or
participate in the process. But, as they
are voted on by the delegates of the GA, they do provide guidance to the UUA
and congregations in general.
The Actions of Immediate Witness that were adopted by the
2004 General Assembly were:
1. The
Alien Tort Claims Act and Accountability For Multinational Corporations
2. Electronic
Voting
3.
4. Oppose
Federal Marriage Amendment
5. Renew
the Assault Weapons Ban
Details on these can also be found on the CSW website. There are also several copies available for
your perusal on the back table.
Other useful websites:
UUA: www.uua.org
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee: www.uusc.org
Faithful Democracy Project:
www.uua.org/news/2004/voting/index.html
UUA Washington Office for Advocacy: www.uua.org/uuawo
Beacon Press: www.beacon.org
Unitarian Universalists for a Just
Economic Community: www.uujec.org
Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist
Multicultural Ministries: www.druumm.org
Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Network: www.uuyan.org
Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (This is the teen-age group.) www.uua.org/YRUU/