Rev. Morales currently serves as the Senior Minister of the Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, CO, one of the largest and fastest growing congregations within the UUA. His Platform focuses on growth, social action & public witness, and “developing a strategic plan for ministry for the next generation”, among other pertinent interests — an engagement with a world that needs the voice of liberal religion.
Also running for office was the Reverend Dr. Laurel Hallman, former Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Church of Dallas, TX, another large congregation where she served for over 20 years. Her Platform focuses primarily on strengthening Unitarian Universalism from the inside out, working from within to increase the relevance of the faith in the larger world.
In a letter posted to his campaign website shortly after being elected, Morales thanks Hallman “for her deep insights and inspiring contributions to our faith”, and welcomes her supporters into unity of purpose as the campaigning is now at an end.
He ends by saying that “[Unitarian Universalists’] goals to transform our movement are ambitious. In the hard days ahead, let us remember that we have already achieved what seemed a distant dream. You have my heartfelt thanks. You hold in your hands our shared hopes for what is to come.”
Watch Peter's Campaign Video:
Comments
Hi Adrian,
It seems that President Peter Morales received a rather less than genuinely welcoming welcome in his first meeting (in his capacity as President of the UUA) with the UUA Board of Trustees this morning. There are a few reports about this on the UU World blog and I have semi-satirically blogged about what happened on The Emerson Avenger blog. It seems that the Board of Trustees, or at least some of its members, were a tad anxious and defensive and Rev. Will Saunders read a rather questionable prepared statement at the very beginning of the meeting which asserted that, "The president's vision is irrelevant unless it is also the board's vision. . ." One UUA Trustee Rev. Jeanne Pupke said that prepared statement seemed to say "sit down and shut up" to President Peter Morales. I have to concur.
UUA Moderator Gini Courter smoothed everything over (not) by saying, "We started weird. . . Just because I don't know what to do with the elephant in the room doesn't mean you don't.
Thanks, Robin, for your alert. It does seem to me that it was an unfortunate turn of phrase, but not quite so dire as you make it out to be. People are imperfect; people make mistakes. Let's move forward.
Readers can check out the uuworld blog entries for June 29, 2009 etc. at [uuworld dot org] and make up their own minds.
I am sure there will be some tension. Morales was the underdog, and was not the "choice" of the Board. UU'ism in its pure form will have insurrections; anything less is the death of the Association. I look forward to what is sure to be an interesting period.
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