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REPORT TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY COUNCIL

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF UNITARIANS & UNIVERSALISTS BIENNIAL COUNCIL MEETING, 4th – 10th November 2005.

The Council Meeting was held at the Abbey of Montserrat in Catalonia, Spain. It was the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the ICUU, and the meeting took as its theme, 'Charting Our Future Together'. The Council Meeting proper was preceded by a meeting of leaders of member groups which I did not attend, although Brian Cockcroft (GA President) and Jeff Teagle (General Secretary) did. At the Council Meeting, Christine Hayhurst and I were the official GA delegates, and several other British Unitarians were present. The official total attendance was 93. The number of ICUU member groups represented was 16, with 4 absent. Several people were present from countries without an ICUU member group - notably some from Latin America and one from Burundi. As usual, visa-related problems prevented the attendance of several delegates and invited representatives.

The business
I attended all four sessions of the business meetings, which occupied the mornings. Some items from these included:

  1. The Sociedad Unitaria Universalista de Espana (SUUE) was voted into full membership after four years as a provisional member.
  2. The Jemaat Allah Global Indonesia (JAGI) was voted into provisional membership, with the recommendation that full membership follow after two years. ICUU Executive Committee member, Istvan Kovacs (Transylvania), recently visited this group for an extended period of ten days and has produced a very thorough report on what he experienced. Istvan and I argued strongly that JAGI (with whom I have been in continuous contact since 2003) become full members straight away, but our view did not prevail. Unfortunately, the JAGI representative was one of those who fell victim to visa problems. Some people were concerned that the group's name, which translates as the Indonesia Global Church of God, does not include the word 'Unitarian'. Istvan and I pointed out that JAGI, although Unitarian in theology and principle since their foundation in 1994, had adopted their name before they had contact with ICUU or had discovered the term ‘Unitarian’ in its western Christian sense. Istvan pointed out that in Indonesia the word ‘Unitarian’ has a non-religious political meaning. I mentioned that within Islam (the dominant religion in Indonesia) the term ‘Unitarian’ can have illiberal and even extremist connotations. JAGI make no bones about being Unitarian, but Istvan and I argued that it would be wrong to try and force them to insert the word into the name of their church.
  3. I raised the issue of what I call ‘phantom members’, that is to say, member groups which do not really exist as functioning organisations as defined and required by the ICUU Constitution. I estimate that at least three member groups may come in this category. Such ‘phantom members’ undermine the credibility of ICUU as a whole. I was assured that the new EC will look into this matter.
  4. The elections for the new Executive Committee were conducted by outgoing Nominating Committee – Jill McAllister (UUA), Sandor Mathe (Transylvania) and myself. We made the point that nominations were few in number and indicated the failure of member groups to give this matter sufficient thought between Council Meetings. The four officers’ posts had only one nomination each while there were only four nominations for the three member at large positions. The newly elected EC is as follows: President, Gordon Oliver (South Africa); Vice-president, John Slattery (CUC); Treasurer, Barbara Beach (UUA); Secretary, Pearl Greene Marbaniang (ICUC); Members at Large: Istvan Kovacs (Transylvania); Jaume de Marcos (SUUE); Antje Paul (Deutsche Unitarier). Unfortunately, our own nominee for member at large, Celia Midgley, was not elected. The new Nominating Committee is as follows: Iva Fiserova (RSCU), Arpad Cseste (Transylvania) and David Usher (GAUFCC).
  5. Membership dues were discussed. If I understood the outcome correctly, membership dues payable by the GA remain unchanged at a rate of US$ 0.50 per member. This is the rate, payable by member groups in richer countries.
  6. The overall recommended ICUU budget for 2006/7 totalled US$163,100. However, I am not sure whether the budget was ever actually approved! The meetings seemed to come to an end with a number of agenda items unresolved.
  7. John Clifford was duly welcomed as ICUU’s new Administrator, an important and timely appointment after a period of drift.
  8. There were demands that ICUU introduce a category of individual membership. As this would require a constitutional change it could not be dealt with at this Council Meeting. Should the idea re-surface, however, I strongly urge that the GA oppose it. Such a move would change the entire nature and purpose of ICUU and increase disproportionately the influence of the wealthy westerners who would be in a position to afford membership fees. It is already possible to become a 'Friend of ICUU' on an individual basis and this is quite sufficient to satisfy the demand for individual commitment.
  9. The ICUU Task Forces for Africa and for Latin America set up in 2003 had contrasting fortunes. That for Africa struggled to get going, although the presence of Fulgence Ndagijimana (Burundi) at the Council was encouraging. He leads a small Unitarian Christian group, and has contact with another such group in Congo. The Latin American Task Force has been more successful, as the presence at Council of individuals from Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia and Brazil indicated.
  10. Regional group meetings were held and reported to the main Council Meeting. Personally, I found the European meeting to be an almost word for word re-run of those at previous Council Meetings, with the same indeterminate result! As long as European member groups share information and welcome each other’s members at their events and activities, I doubt whether there is any real need for a distinct European Regional Group with its own organisation and budget.
  11. The new ICUU Religious Education curriculum, although not yet complete, is now available on-line at the ICUU website and our congregations are strongly recommended to take a look with a view to using it.
  12. A second ICUU Theological Symposium is to be held from 3rd-7th July 2006 in Kolozsvar (Cluj), Transylvania, Romania.

Worship
Services of worship were held every morning with the exception of Sunday (see ‘Visit to Villanueva’ below). Leaders of member groups led the first one, and then groups representing Europe, the Americas, and Asia/Africa/Australasia led the others. Contrary to previous practice at ICUU Councils and other events there was no evening worship, which greatly detracted from the spiritual quality of the Council Meeting. The reason given was that the Spanish custom of dining late left no time for worship, but this was unconvincing. There was plenty of time before dinner for worship, but this period was entirely given over to a quite unnecessarily overlong sixty-minute ‘happy hour’! Strange priorities! The effect of having so few services was to lose the variety that usually makes worship such an exciting and central component of ICUU events. The services lacked the interest and distinctiveness that comes when each is the product of just one or two individual member groups and tended to be rather bland.

Workshops
Several ‘workshops’ were held on a variety of concerns during the course of the Council. I was on the panel (with former ICUU presidents Jill McAllister and David Usher) of the one that traced the ICUU story from its beginnings with a resolution at our own 1987 Annual Meetings, through the ICUU’s founding meetings in 1995 to the present.

Visit to Villanueva
The highlight of the Council Meeting was the Sunday excursion to Villanueva, the birthplace of Michael Servetus. His ancestral home is now a museum, study centre and base of the Institutio de Estudios Sijenenses Miguel Servet. We were warmly welcomed by the Mayor of Villanueva and by the staff of the Institute. After a talk, tour of the building and lunch, we held our Sunday service in this house where Servetus was born. Richard Boeke preached and led the service, with support from Lilian Burlando (Argentina) and myself. The day ended with a candlelit procession to the Servetus statue in the grounds of the medieval parish church, during which we were joined by a number of local people.

Further remarks
My feelings were probably affected by my having a horrendous cold for the second half of the Council Meeting, but nevertheless I found it rather disappointing. One factor that I haven’t mentioned yet was consequent on the opening of the Council Meeting to anyone who wanted to come – and could afford to. This was motivated by the perfectly laudable desire to make this tenth anniversary gathering into more of a celebration. The problem, though, is that only people from wealthy western countries were able to avail themselves of this opportunity. I make no criticism of them for coming, of course, but the effect was to leave those from central & eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa in an even smaller minority than they might otherwise have been. I found this disturbing. I think it had an effect on the business meetings and it definitely made the overall atmosphere less polyglot and less diverse than usual. Of the 93 people present 52 came from North America (including ex-pats living in Europe and elsewhere), 10 from the UK and 11 others from western Europe. In contrast there were 10 from central & eastern Europe, 4 from Latin America, 3 from Asia (actually from India), 2 from Africa (South Africa and Burundi) and 1 from Australasia (actually New Zealand). I think it’s fair to say that of this second grouping of 20 people none had come as self-financing ‘visitors’. Opening the Council meeting to non-delegates could thus be seen as a manifestation of injustice, however unintentional and however worthy the motive.

Resignation
I have been one of the GA’s two delegates to ICUU for the entire ten years of its existence. I would remind Council that the position of delegate to ICUU is ongoing between the biennial Council Meetings and not just at them. I feel that ten years is enough for all concerned and hereby submit my resignation as GA delegate to ICUU with immediate effect. I recommend that Council or its successor give serious thought to my swift replacement. The person chosen should have a close interest in and knowledge of the international Unitarian / Universalist scene. He or she should also hold a senior position within the GA, should have done so recently, or should be in line to do so. It is important that whoever is chosen carries weight both within the GA and on the international scene. I have greatly enjoyed my time as GA delegate to ICUU (which also included two years as ICUU Secretary, a further eight years on the ICUU Executive Committee and two years on the ICUU Nominating Committee, in addition to my terms as GA Vice President and President) and I am grateful for the opportunity it has given me to play a part in the exciting global dimension of our faith tradition.

—(Rev.) Clifford M. Reed,
GA Delegate to ICUU.
22nd December 2005.