Where are we going? An online Unitarian discussion

On 18 August 2020, 12 Unitarians from across the UK, invited by our Chief Officer Liz Slade met online for a discussion about the issues we’ve experienced as Unitarians, the challenges we think we face as a movement, and what our future might be. Facilitated by Mirka Packard, the Director of Verto Consulting (doing this for free as part of her academic work) the aim was to learn about the dynamics and attitudes that exist in our movement, and how they are experienced. It was a mix of ministers and laypeople, chosen for their different experiences, their congregational experience – and their ability to attend! Some were familiar faces, including Rev. Tony McNeile, others, new friends.

I really enjoyed the session. I feel we had a challenging, but constructive discussion. Some of what we discussed would be familiar to Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians, including the disconnect between the national movement and local congregations, and the challenges of publicity for a movement that varies so widely from location to location. I put across the view we’ve often expressed here; that if we are not going to be one homogenous movement across the UK, then local congregations must do local publicity – with support and (some) resources provided by the national head office. The will of all to see our movement survive and thrive was strong!

I followed up with Liz Slade, Chief Officer of the UK General Assembly, about the next steps for this initiative, and commented that whilst it was a very useful discussion, sometimes it seems as though we have had rather a lot of these in recent years, such as ‘Next Steps’ or ‘Vision 2020’. She replied that she rather agreed there had been a few of them, but that the lessons from them had been absorbed into the plans for the future that the national movement is working on. She also commented: “Part of what I hope Mirka will help us uncover is ‘why* we seem to get stuck at the talking stage with renewal initiatives!” We agreed that ensuring congregations have enough resources and “fuel in the tanks” to keep going in difficult times and support those in leadership roles was vitally important. I’ll keep everyone posted about what happens next!