Dear UU Humanists, Non-theists, and Religious Allies
I am Rev. Kevin W. Jagoe and I am your newly elected UUHA President.
Thank you!
If you’d like to see my video message from our recent UUHA meeting, please click here.
Along with myself—Audrey, Greg, David, Mim, Liz, Neil, Horst, Fish, James, and Leika make up our first full board in several years. We bring prior UUHA experience, connections to Ethical Culture and the American Humanist Association, deep connections as Unitarian Universalists both as clergy and members of congregations, we span the country in terms of where we live and have lived as well as several having international ties. Some of us have been connected to Unitarian Universalism and Humanism for our entire lives, others have found both more recently.
We have executive directors, clergy, educators, union organizers, communications professionals, psychologists, social justice organizers, film and television production, social workers, and fundraisers among the skillsets and professional backgrounds of this incoming board.
The UUHA has been in a quiet period both programmatically and in terms of engagement with our membership. I see our new board as the beginning of a new chapter. But it isn't just for the board to make happen. We need you! Current UUHA members, those who understandably ended their memberships, and those who are new to us.
My hope, and I believe the hope of this incoming board is to renew the UUHA and reimagine it as well. Since 1962, we have played a bridging role between Unitarian Universalism and Humanism, between congregationalism and secularism. That key feature of who we are will not change. We are here to work with Unitarian Universalists who are Humanists, connecting to our broader Unitarian Universalist movement AND we are here to connect with the Humanist, Secular, and Atheist movements beyond UU circles. We have been practicing both/and thinking for more than sixty years.
I see the primary work of the next few years being in three main areas:
Internal - looking at our organization, updating bylaws, looking at our website, our finances, and programming to be a stronger institution.
Congregational - looking within our UU communities and serving those groups better. Connecting them to one another and providing resources.
Associational - looking at our work as UU Humanists and deepening our bridge building with the UUA and with Freethought, atheist, and humanist movements too. Intentional connections with the American Humanist Association, Ethical Societies, Religious Naturalism and non-theistic groups of all sorts. We are in this together and our current moment calls for all of us to work together more.
I want to close with two things, gratitude and invitation.
Gratitude for those who have built this organization and kept it going for over sixty years through times of excitement and times of challenge. Gratitude for those who are connected to the UUHA in real time and those who remain connected beyond this meeting. Thank you!
And an invitation, as I said earlier, while we have a revitalized and excited board to do many things, we need people engaged beyond the board too. I hope you will keep in conversation in the weeks and months ahead, bring new ideas, bring critiques, and bring energy to solve problems and build for the future.
You can reach the new executive team of the board at UUHAofficers@gmail.com and we will be planning more ways to continue this meeting’s conversations in the fall.
My colleague Wayne Arnason’s words are on my mind a lot these days:
Take courage friends.
The way is often hard,
the path is never clear,
and the stakes are very high.
Take courage.
For deep down,
there is another truth:
You are not alone.
And I would add, we are in this together.
Thank you,
Rev. Kevin W. Jagoe
President, UU Humanist Association
