When the Universalists & the Unitarians Voted to Consolidate, My Mother Voted NO!

THE MORNING PROGRAM: https://redriveruu.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/TMP-07-11-v.1.pdf

VIRTUAL VISITORS AND FRIENDS:  You can now join us @ 11:15 am on ZOOM as we live stream the morning assembly.  MEETING ID: 989 0789 7878

A month ago, the Unitarian Universalist Association turns 60. A good time  to take stock and wonder, “Would liberal religion have died if the Universalists and Unitarians hadn’t joined forces?”  “Why consolidate and not merge?”  “What fueled the desire to change?”  “Why didn’t they find a shorter name?”  And if you thought the children of Israel took a long time (40 years!) to go next door and find the Promised Land, it took 100 years for these two groups – whose offices were walking distance from one another – to do ….what?  Find the promised land?  Hardly! They nearly went bankrupt before reaching 20! It’s an intriguing thing, history and an important thing, too.

About Sunday’s Guest Minister:

Doug family history is full of Universalist and Unitarian connections tracing back over 100 years, from his great grandmother to a distant great cousin who was a Unitarian minister.  As a teen he was active in LRY and in his 40’s was a local, district and continental LRY advisor.  Doug ponder ministry in college and after a decade career as a national officer of the American Red Cross – servingin the states and overseas (Viet Nam, Korea and Spain)  he left Red Cross, received his M Div degree from Starr King School for the Ministry (a UU seminary) and for the next 40 years ministered to UU congregations (ME, VA, MA, CA, AZ, WI, and TX) both as a settled minister and an Accredited Interim Minister.  He was elected 4 times and spent 16 years on the General Assembly Planning Committee, 4 as the chair.  After the death of his husband in 2011, Doug moved to Texoma and is a lay-member of Red River Unitarian Universalists, the congregation he co-founded in 24 years ago.  He lives in Denison, dabbles in graphic design, and walks with his bloodhound Emerson, and after making a new year’s resolution 12/31/2019 to walk every blood day, he – and Emerson – haven’t missed one day since.