Please see below for the latest news from the Unitarian Executive Committee, the elected governing body for the national UK Unitarian and Free Christian movement.

EC KEY MESSAGES
from the General Assembly’s Executive Committee

The Executive Committee have been very pleased to have their first in-person meetings since January 2020. They have been reviewing the needs of the movement as we slowly move beyond pandemic, a time that has put great strain on all our congregations and members.

We are pleased to announce some new areas of focus:

Celebrating Spaces
Developing from the great work of the Buildings Advisory Panel, Celebrating Spaces will be a forum for us to support congregations explore how to make the best use of their land and buildings, as well as how to develop and sustain sacred space, and look at our environmental impact (from chapel gardens to our ecological footprint). Thank you to all those who have already been involved in conversations about the start of this work, and please contact Simon Bland if you would like to get involved, or have a project with you would like help from the group.

Celebrating Love
We are delighted that Rev Melda Grantham will be taking on new responsibilities to support congregations who wish to develop the way they offer weddings. Before joining the GA staff, Melda worked as Superintendent Registrar for Ceredigion, and so has extensive knowledge and experience in the legal, practical, spiritual and community aspects of weddings, and is excited about being able to share what she knows with Unitarian and Free Christian congregations across our whole movement. Watch this space for more information, as we get started on this later in the year.

Beyond these, we identified priorities for the way that the GA works:

Enabling people to act: building capacity and power at the local level, and recognising the importance of inspiration, imagination, and a clear local vision.
Supporting spiritual health: developing what we offer in service of greater spiritual wellbeing.
Telling our story to the wider world: helping build awareness of the Unitarian and Free Christian movement.
Telling our stories across the movement: developing our communication and building connections between our communities.

Planning continues around these priority areas, and we look forward to sharing more in the coming months.

Further agreements from the EC:

Rev. Rory Castle Jones and Rev. Robin Hanford are warmly welcomed to the General Assembly's roll of ministers, with probationary status.
The Finance team, with Rev. Rob Whiteman (Acting Treasurer) are reviewing our financial systems and processes including plans to move to a new accounting software system. We are also reviewing our investments and funds, to ensure they are best used in service to the movement.
We are working with a small group of volunteers from across the movement to look at plans to move to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation status, and will be inviting people to join a wider consultative group shortly.
The Nightingale Centre has been open throughout the summer, and the staff and management committee have been glad to welcome back Unitarians after many months of being closed. Bookings are filling up fast for 2022!