• Coverage in The Scotsman   
• There was a good photograph of Rev Maud Robinson and Rabbi Mark Solomon of Liberal Judaism at the press conference 
• A Press Association article released before the event was carried on several websites  
• And from BBC Scotland   
• Derek McAuley's response

Faith charities delivering public services 'could increase discrimination'
By Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 16 May 2011

Contracts should be awarded only to groups that have demonstrated commitment to equality, Unitarian body warns Public Administration Select Committee

Giving more responsibility for delivering public services to local faith charities as part of the big society agenda could result in increased discrimination against marginalised groups, according to the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

Derek McAuley, chief officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, told Third Sector he was concerned that gay and lesbian public sector staff who were moved to local faith charities under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations might face discrimination by other staff at those charities.

His submission to the PASC says: "Non-religious people and those not seen to confirm to the dominant ethos of a religious body, such as being in an unmarried relationship or divorced and being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, could find themselves subject to discrimination.

"Contracts should therefore only be awarded to faith-based organisations that have a public commitment to, and can demonstrate compliance with, the promotion of equality in line with the commitment of recent governments."

The "Big Society", a policy much promoted by the Government, and built around social action, public service reform and community empowerment, needs to be inclusive. You cannot have a "Big Society" and then implicitly or explictly exclude and marginalise some groups. Unitarians have long worked to promote social justice and led many initiatives for social improvement. We have never applied religious tests to our work.

We need joined up policies. One risk is that encouraging faith groups to be more active in delivery of public services could in some cases lead to a conflict with equality and diversity policy.

1. Comment on other bloggers' posts - if your comment is interesting and polite, they might drop by to read your blog
2. Add other blogs to your blogroll - they may return the favour (but never ask to be added to someone's blogroll, it's really tacky)
3. Follow other bloggers and add them to your Google Reader
4. Get yourself added to Unitarian Universalist and Unitarian blog aggregators
5. Have a Twitter account, link it to HootSuite and have HootSuite update your Twitter and Facebook accounts automatically whenever you publish a new blog-post

New President - Neville Kenyon

Friendly and forward-looking Neville Kenyon, a life-long Unitarian who lives in Bury, Lancashire, was installed as the President of the General Assembly for 2010-2011 at the Annual Meetings in Nottingham on 11 April. He is emphasising the openness and flexibility of Unitarianism, and his wish to encourage the quest for spiritual understanding and innovation, by choosing 'Nurture Your Freedom' as his theme.

Both practical and imaginative, Neville has a long history of energetic service to the denomination. He joined the Unitarian Young People's League in the 1950s and was its President in 1961. He has been a member of the General Assembly's Council and served from its inception on the successor body, the Executive Committee, until he was elected Vice-President in 2009. He is passionate about publicising Unitarianism and is a member of the General Assembly's Communications Commission and a Director of the Board of the Inquirer Publishing Company (2004) which produces the Unitarian paper, The Inquirer. He is chairman of the congregation of Bury Unitarian Church. Among his many achievements is the adoption by the General Assembly of a colour-scheme, typography and imagery which gives the Movement a 'consistent identity'. He is a steadfast supporter of any cause he takes up, is unfailingly genial, and, with a flair for selecting silk ties and elegant suits, is very possibly the best-dressed man in the Movement!

Neville recognises that Unitarians are in an ideal position to provide, in the 21st century, a home for those who have a spiritual hunger but are repelled by the creeds and dogmas of more orthodox faith groups. He says "We are in an ideal position, to reflect a growing imperative for a spirituality unfettered by narrow creeds and dogmas." He wants to encourage social networking between the newer members throughout the country. "People come to us from a myriad of backgrounds", he says "but they have all made a journey to find their spiritual home with us. The mutual support provided by networking on the web adds a valuable communication dimension for newcomers stretching beyond their local congregation".

» Read more

New Vice President - Rev Dr Ann Peart

The Reverend Dr Ann Peart, a distinguished Unitarian scholar and leading woman minister was appointed as vice-president of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches at the close of the Denominations Annual Meetings in April 2010 in Nottingham. She is looking forward to visiting Unitarian congregations and other groups both in Britain and overseas. "I am particularly interested" she says, "in exploring what keeps such a diverse collection of groups and individuals together."

» Read more

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (May 10, 1900 – December 7, 1979) was an English-American astronomer who in 1925 was first to show that the Sun is mainly composed of hydrogen, contradicting accepted wisdom at the time.

Cecilia Payne wrote a doctoral dissertation, and so in 1925 she became the first person to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe (now part of Harvard) for her thesis: "Stellar Atmospheres, A Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars". Astronomer Otto Struve characterized it as "undoubtedly the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy". By applying the ionization theory developed by Indian physicist Megh Nad Saha she was able to accurately relate the spectral classes of stars to their actual temperatures. She showed that the great variation in stellar absorption lines was due to differing amounts of ionization that occurred at different temperatures, and not due to the different abundances of elements. She correctly suggested that silicon, carbon, and other common metals seen in the Sun were found in about the same relative amounts as on Earth, but that helium and particularly hydrogen were vastly more abundant (by about a factor of one million in the case of hydrogen). Her thesis thus established that hydrogen was the overwhelming constituent of the stars. When her dissertation was reviewed, she was dissuaded by Henry Norris Russell from concluding that the composition of the Sun is different from the Earth, which was the accepted wisdom at the time. However, Russell changed his mind four years later when other evidence emerged. After Payne-Gaposchkin was proven correct Russell was often given the credit.

She published several books including:
"Stars of High Luminosity" (1930),
"Variable Stars" (1938),
"Variable Stars and Galactic Structure" (1954),
"Introduction to Astronomy" (1956),
"The Galactic Novae" (1957)
"Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin : an autobiography and other recollections" (1984) ed. Katherine Haramundan)

Payne-Gaposchkin was a many-sided personality known for her wit, her literary knowledge, and for her personal friendships with individual stars. She became the first woman in the history of Harvard University to receive a corporation appointment with tenure, and the first woman department chair in 1956. 

Paganism 101: A Unitarian Exploration of the New Paganism
by Louise Bunn with Fritz Muntean and Kara Cunningham

Today’s Pagans revere the Earth and all its creatures, seeing all life as interconnected, and striving to attune ourselves to the cycles of nature. Pagan practices are rooted in a belief in immanence – the concept of divinity residing within.

The many contemporary Pagans who have found a home in the Unitarian community are grounding our work in the rational structure, the intellectual balance, and the humanist core values that have descended to us from the Enlightenment. We’re working to develop a religiosity that is entirely compatible with, and complementary to, modern Unitarian rationality.

The new curriculum represents contemporary Paganism as:

• A thoroughly contemporary and well-tested approach to Mystery.
• A performative, lively way of attending to the rhythms, wisdom, and demands of Nature.
• A way of using the richness of myth and ritual to build religious community.

An interactive curriculum in 10 sessions including:

• student lesson plans
• leaders' guides related articles
• reading lists
• an audio selection of chants

• Read the UUA's "Common Read" book for 2010-2011, The Death of Josseline.
• Read other books on immigration.
• Read just about everything on the UUA's webpage on immigration.
• Read countless e-mails and websites from social justice agencies on the subject.  
• Attended workshops designed to prepare us for "Justice GA" at my district annual assembly at two consecutive district assemblies.  
• Attended a training from Standing on the Side of Love.
• Attended workshops and discussions at past GAs on the subject.
• Held congregational discussions on the subject.
• Preached on the subject.
• Participated in press conferences and social justice events at a state level.
• Held a Community Forum on the subject with local experts.
• Taken one or two semesters of Spanish and perhaps also immersed myself in an intensive study course, as urged in the Responsive Resolution from GA 2011.
• Participated in a UUMA chapter gathering focused on immigration justice and preparing us for the "Justice GA."

• No exhibit hall.  It's become more and more pointless anyway.  All of these agencies can be found online.  We can shop online, and we can see their justice issues online.  Instead, create a virtual exhibit hall that people can visit from anywhere.
• A Justice Hall instead.  If people need downtime and a place to wander or socialize, give them small tasks to do, like letters to write to elected officials. 
• One or two workshop slots only.  There may be some workshops that are essential to hold, or exiting lecturers that we really want to feature, and there can be a some large justice-oriented workshops on how to build a movement, how to do social justice, how to engage cooperatively with other organizations, ARAOM work, etc.  
• Instead of workshop slots, we have justice slots.  As for the all-justice slots, I would like to see not just large social justice rallies in these spots, but places where small groups go off into different parts of the area to work with local organizations on different projects.  There needs to be great variety.  And this probably means a sort of schedule where we commit to what we're doing in advance.  And it means buses. 
• I would like to see the following cornerstone elements of GA: the Ware Lecture, the Service of the Living Tradition, and the Sunday morning worship service (which I would love to be the SLT again, but that's a whole other argument).  I think all can be themed around this justice work, and all are important to what makes up a General Assembly.  For the newcomers to GA, they would give the important taste of what GA is usually about.
• All Reports -- all reports -- given in written and video ahead of time and no reports -- no reports -- presented verbally during plenaries.  We can do our homework ahead of time.  
• A single plenary session to deal with all remaining business that we haven't been able to put off or voted this year to do next year.
• Yes, more worship.  When we can't be doing justice work, we should be praying, singing, and celebrating.
• I would like to see Ministry Days themed around the Justice GA in the following ways: a Berry Street Address that's on theme; minimal business; a group action project; drop the "collegial conversations" element in favor of group social action; drop the usual conversation with the UUA President in favor of having him lead us in justice work as well.