Excerpts from the UUA website UU News on The UUA General Assembly 

The UUA General Assembly 2025 was held June 18–22 on site in Baltimore Maryland and online. More than 3,279 Unitarian Universalists from 592 congregations in forty-eight states and four countries—Canada, France, Mexico, and the Virgin Islands—participated in GA this year. https://www.uua.org/ga

The theme of the General Assembly 2025 was Meet the Moment.

What is “Meet the Moment”? Meet the Moment is a movement-wide framework helping UUs analyze, discern, and take values-based action in response to today’s religious, cultural, generational, and political realities. https://www.uua.org/congregations/meet-the-moment

• What is the moment that we are in as UUs and in our wider world?
• What are the most urgent and important needs and opportunities of this moment?
• How do our UU values call us to respond to this moment?

Meet the Moment Workshops at GA included

• “Preventing Catastrophic Loss: Community Care & Deportation Defense,” 
• “Apartheid-Free Communities in Solidarity with Palestinians,” 
•  “Disrupt Church: Fascism Update
•  “One with the Force: Love, Justice, and Resistance.” 

Meet the Moment at UUA GA

• On June 18, the first day of GA, the Unitarian Universalist Association moved swiftly to condemn the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to curtail the rights of transgender people
• And hours after the United States announced on Saturday, June 21 that it had bombed Iran, the UUA issued a statement condemning the action, saying it “represents a moral failure and Unitarian Universalists (UUs) are compelled through our religious beliefs to speak out against it.”
• During the Sunday worship service Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk said, “Our Unitarian Universalist tradition has called us to repudiate aggressive and preventive war and to recognize that while we cannot stop the violence, we can hold space for the grief, the anger, the fear, the conflicting emotions that we carry. Our faith calls us to be peacemakers, not warmakers.”

UUA Business Meeting https://www.uua.org/ga/off-site/2025/business

• This year saw the return of Congregational Study/Action Issues, which invite UU congregations to engage in a multi-year period of study, reflection, and action around a topic voted on at GA. In the third year of the process, GA delegates can vote to approve a Statement of Conscience resulting from two years of congregational feedback on the CSAI. Delegates ultimately voted for “Abolition, Transformation, and Faith Formation”, 

after also considering “Housing: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” and “Fat Liberation: Building Justice and Inclusion for Larger Bodies”

Delegates also voted to affirm all three Actions of Immediate Witness (AIWs) under consideration. AIWs are statements about a significant action, event, or development in the world that necessitates immediate engagement and action among UU congregations and affiliated groups. 

• “Faithful Defiance of Authoritarianism, a Call to Action: Reaffirming Our Covenants for Democracy and Freedom” (98.3 percent of votes), 
• “Defending LGBTIQ Freedom Amid Funding Crisis: A Call for Global Solidarity” (98.3 percent of votes)
• “We Declare and Affirm: Immigrants Are People Who Have Inherent Worth and Inalienable Rights” (99.2 percent). 

In this year’s only contested election, Rev. Kimberly Quinn Johnson and Bill Young—who were running as a team against solo candidate Natasha Walker—were elected to a six-year term as UUA co-moderators, with 74.9 percent of the vote. Johnson and Young were installed at a ceremony on Sunday afternoon, taking the reins from outgoing co-moderators Rev. Meg Riley and Charles Du Mond, who were honored throughout the week.

News from GA

• During GA, the UUA unveiled its first-ever virtual hymnal, Sing Out Love https://www.uua.org/worship/lab/virtual-hymnal which was the result of a multi-year collaborative project between the UUA’s Virtual Hymnal Task Force and the Association for UU Music Ministries.
  • What is the Virtual Hymnal? Sing Out Love is an online collection of hymns, songs, chants, and other musical resources (for example, slides to project lyrics, audio snippets, and a tool to transpose each hymn into every key). It’s a web app that can be used on a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Because it’s an online resource, new hymns will be added continually in addition to the 50 new hymns that will be part of its formal release.
• Celebrated 25 years of OWL
• Celebrated 75 years of the Liberal Religious Educators Association
• Reported on the vibrancy of Beacon Press in this time of book banning and censorship
• UUSC announced it is  launching the Resistance Networkhttps://www.uusc.org/initiatives/join-uuscs-resistance-network/ a mobilization hub designed to take immediate action when civil liberties, democracy, and human rights are at risk. Through the Action Center, it will provide rapid response opportunities, amplify frontline stories of resistance from diverse communities, and share resources to strengthen collective action. Members of the Resistance Network will receive:
  • Timely alerts about legislation, executive actions, and human rights violations
  • Inspiring stories of resistance from frontline communities and faith leaders
  • Tools, training materials, and resources to strengthen organizing
  • Opportunities to speak out, show up, and support urgent campaigns
• Next year, GA 2026 is trying out a new format. Scheduled for June 14–21, 2026, it will comprise an all-virtual business meeting followed by professional development opportunities, caucuses, and community connection, with optional in-person gatherings, including, potentially, a UUA host site plus live streamed programming, the Ware Lecture, and Sunday worship. Allowing time between the governing aspect and meaningful programming creates a more manageable GA pace.
• GA 2027, June 23–27, 2027, will return to a multiplatform format, both online and in-person in San Jose, California.