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| The Orlando UU Congregation at the front of the hall |
I always come back from our General Assembly with an incredible mixture of emotions and it takes me a few days to untangle those emotions. Still working on the untangling so in the meantime I figured I would write about one of our chance encounters.
At the beginning of General Assembly there is a banner parade when congregations walk into the big conference center carrying their
banners. This year, before the banner parade started the congregation from Orlando stood at the front of the big hall holding their banner, in their purple shirts that had been made in Orlando after the terrible shooting in the Pulse nightclub just two weeks earlier.
The shirts were striking and colorful. As we returned to the hotel later that night I spotted 3 women in their Orlando shirts and stopped to tell them how sorry I was. We talked to them for about 20 minutes as they told us of some of the events that had happened after the shooting. They gave us each a ORLANDOUNITED bracelet and sought us out the next day to give us a sticker. We took a picture with them and they took our picture.
We connected with them for the rest of General Assembly as they took action, authored an Action of Immediate Witness (AIW) on gun control, and marshaled this through our somewhat messy democratic process. The near 1000 delegates voted to approve their Action of Immediate Witness on our last day. I can only imagine what they would have felt like if we had not voted to approve it. Voting on these AIWs is how we as a denomination make statements on issues that are pressing and cannot wait the 3-4 years of study and discussion that our Congregational Study Action Issues (CSAI) take.
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| Orlando congregant speaking to the Action of Immediate Witness |
This is why I travel most years to our General Assembly. To educate myself about social justice issues, to see what is going on in our denomination and to have the opportunity to have these chance encounters which change my life forever. That quick chance encounter on our first evening set the tone for the rest of the General Assembly conference. Regina, Kimberly and Denise from our Orlando congregation became fast friends because we all opened our hearts to each other, and were willing to have a conversation at 10:30 after a long day. We all shed a lot of tears and shared some stories and laughter too. Those connections between people are what form my theology and renew my faith in this troubled and troubling world.
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| First Parish UU in Arlington MA's banner on the screen |
We connected with them for the rest of General Assembly as they took action, authored an Action of Immediate Witness (AIW) on gun control, and marshaled this through our somewhat messy democratic process. The near 1000 delegates voted to approve their Action of Immediate Witness on our last day. I can only imagine what they would have felt like if we had not voted to approve it. Voting on these AIWs is how we as a denomination make statements on issues that are pressing and cannot wait the 3-4 years of study and discussion that our Congregational Study Action Issues (CSAI) take.
