Yes, this one’s out of sequence. Write-up on yesterday’s workshops and the Anniversary Service will follow, I wanted to get this one out there!

A note: I do my very best to be accurate, but I’m writing this at speed, and it’s my personal account – I am not a journalist. If anyone spots an inaccuracy, please ping me a line at: louise.reeve@newcastleunitarians.org.uk and I’ll happily discuss it with you and amend these reports as needed.

Perhaps it’s as well the bar shut early last night, since quite a few of us did manage to make it out on time this morning to attend the meditation and devotional worship sessions. I joined Laura Dobson and fellow Unitarians for a devotional service mixing Taizé chants with a contemplation of Psalm 36. My voice is going after nearly two days of singing and shouting “Hello! How’s it going? Haven’t see you for a year!” over the background hubbub, so I focussed upon the beauty of the music and closed my eyes in reflection; I do hope it didn’t look like I was catching up on my sleep.

Having checked out, loaded a coffee into my Edwards reusable cup, and paid a quick visit to the bookshop (grappling as ever with the woes of card readers and poor Wi-Fi connections), I ducked into the Queens room as ministerial student Peter Flowers led an uplifting opening worship at the start of Plenary IV, focussing on the chalice flame, and telling the story of The Church Where Everything Goes Wrong, somewhere I suspect we’ve all been to at some point or other.

Next came the GA Staff updates, beginning with Gavin Howell, who shared the very encouraging news that there has been a notable increase in Unitarian congregations registering with the ThirtyOneEight charity which supports churches and fellowships with all things safeguarding, many of whom were referred by other Unitarian congregations. The Safeguarding Network, which meets and discusses by WhatsApp, is also well attended. Given the vital importance of safeguarding for healthy congregations and people’s safety and wellbeing, and the examples we see in the news nearly every week of churches who have got this horribly wrong, I’m extremely encouraged by this, well done to Gavin for his hard work.

Nick Butler-Watts, the new Innovation Fund Lead, gave tips for successful Fund applications. What is your purpose? Talk it out to explore your ideas. Think small first! What would make this possible? Join a workshop, or book a call, Nick is happy to help.

Lizzie Kingston-Harrison, the Congregational Connections lead, spoke of her work bringing Unitarians together, including the New Unitarians group, coastal connectors, districts, meditators, and administrators. (What did we do before Zoom and WhatsApp?) She also reminded us of the Decelerator rroject, able to support charities and spiritual groups support if they are considering ending part or all of their work.

Helen Mason provided an update on Unitarian College and their recent work training lay leaders, including international encounters. She encouraged us all to identify potential leaders within our congregations, and also to consider doing the ‘Rites of Passage’ course. There will be a new online course, ‘All About You’ in September, aimed at those who are new to Unitarianism and want to learn more. They’ve also been working to provide events for Unitarian children and young people, including the creation of a new brand – ‘Uni-Youth’ to bring together Unitarian young people across the UK.

We moved on to the lesser-known sequel to ‘Mr Bates and the Post Office’; ‘Mr Bates and the Charity Commission’, as John Bates, our Honorary Treasurer, introduced the motions about making the General Assembly a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation). I won’t attempt to summarise the long history of it here; the Background Papers do an excellent job of this! John Bates indicated that the point here was to make the decision collectively to move forwards – or not – with this, as it has already been quite a long process, starting about ten years ago. He commented that the process is ‘superficially quite simple, and practically, quite complicated’.

Several comments were received, including one comment saying that some had had issues finding the constitution, and one comment Against, feeling that the changes “give away too much power” and that there is no sufficient time to debate it, and whether there has been sufficient information provided about what the changes are and their implications, in accessible format. Another comment was that that it would be difficult for some districts to remain as they are if a minimum of three congregations becomes a new requirement for districts to exist, and again commented that it has been difficult to access information about what the changes are, with a ‘line by line’ comparison needed, and an “apparent downgrading” of the rights of members.

A voice in favour was that the staff had worked hard to produce the draft constitution, that it has been available to view for some time, that the EC was elected to do this, and that not having this constitution was making it harder to make decisions. Other comments were about the role of the B&FUA, and whether people should actually have made more of an effort to find and read the documents in advance of the 2025 Annual Meeting, rather than delaying the consultation and decision another year. One comment was that it was important to be united, not divided in doing this. (On the other hand, personal comment, attempting to achieve consensus with Unitarians is a challenge that would have foxed Jesus himself, unless He decided to pull a miracle out of the bag.) Can a constitution be changed by a small group with a majority, or should it require more? There was a proposal to refer the motions back for further consideration, as a procedural motion. This ended the debate; referring back means that the proposer and seconder should look at it again and bring it back to the next Annual Meeting, and this requires a two-thirds majority. This cannot be debated in itself. It is a vote of the members present (thus we are quorate).

Vote to refer back:

• 45 = against – no referral back
• 62 = for – refer back – NOT a two-thirds majority, therefore we carry on.

Back once more for comment, and again a theme running under this discussion – how many of us prioritise learning more and caring more about the workings of our national movement, rather than sustaining our local congregations? Also, the President observed that we do need to abide by our Standing Orders even when they frustrate us; we do need a set procedure to follow to make decisions. A final comment was that a lot of time and money has been spent seeking legal advice, and that ultimately we elect our EC to make decisions.

John Bates took his right of reply to comment that ‘the wisdom of the crowd’ is out there, and suggested we move immediately to a vote.

Vote

• For = 78
• Against =  27
• Abstention = 15

Motions 1-6 are now passed and the GA is going to become a CIO. Now, how do we move forward? John Bates thanked all, and invited anyone spotting errors and admissions to come forward and work with him.

Another comment on this was that “these sorts of discussions make me lose the will to live”.

Motion 7 was next up; the motion on Quoracy. Sarah Benfield commented that whilst, like mushrooms, we may have been in the dark (there are a lot of windowless rooms in this hotel), we have hopefully been fed on nutrients, or at least sustaining love. There is a need to change the current constitution so that the EC is quorate and can legally make decisions, as there is a ‘constitutional loophole’ at present. This is a two-thirds majority required vote, as it changes the constitution. A question was whether we could have elected more candidates in the recent EC elections. Sarah responded to this by saying that they had taken legal advice on the situation.

Vote

• For = 100
• Against = 3   
• Abstention = 5

Motion 7 is carried, and so are some desperately-needed cups of coffee.