Change is coming. Our association of congregations and our Unitarian Universalist movement will change in fundamental ways, regardless of which candidate we elect next June.

However, the candidate we choose will determine the nature of that change. I encourage everyone to consider both candidates in this light. When I did, I became a supporter of Laurel Hallman.

Laurel has the skills and experience to help our UUA Board of Trustees as they move toward policy governance. She has the skills and experience to help our association grow into the future. More important than that is her philosophical approach. I am convinced that Laurel will lead us towards becoming more spiritually centered and that she will lead from the heart.

John Sanders
President, Northern New England District
President, Universalist Heritage Foundation

 

I support the Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman for the Presidency of the UUA for two reasons:

First, she has the broader perspective. While her opponent has done some fine thinking about growth of the denomination, and his ideas are worth listening to, Laurel thinks in terms of the health of the whole organization, the UUA and its member congregations. We need her wisdom at the helm.

Secondly, given the current turmoil in American (and world) markets, it appears that for the forseeable future our churches will experience a priority on providing pastoral care and support to their members and to the communities they serve. In my view, Laurel offers the more pastoral perspective, and would therefore be more able to offer the support our ministers and lay leaders will be needing.

We need Laurel Hallman as our next UUA President.

Roger Comstock, UUA Trustee
Northern New England District
Yarmouth, ME

I believe Laurel will guide Unitarian Universalism into the 21st century grounded in our heritage and theology that will enable us to respond to the challenges of bringing a vital faith to a changing world. She understands the power of knowing who we are as Unitarian Universalists and being able to articulate that to the wider world as we expand our participation in an increasingly diverse multi-cultural nation and world.

Laurel will maintain the balance necessary to achieve this movement into the future best expressed by Walter Brueggman, "Every community that wants to last beyond a single generation must concern itself with education. Education has to do with the maintenance of a community through the generations. This maintenance must assure enough continuity of vision, value, and perception so that the community sustains its self-identity. At the same time, such maintenance must assure enough freedom and novelty so that the community can survive in and be pertinent to new circumstances. Thus, education must attend both to processes of continuity and discontinuity in order to avoid fossilizing into irrelevance on the one hand, and relativizing into disappearance on the other hand."

Laurel will educate us in our self-identity and can provide the leadership required to move us into the future powerfully pertinent to the new circumstances that face us.

Rev. Dr . Elizabeth M. Strong
Interim Minister
First Church Unitarian Universalist Ashby , MA
 

I am proud to endorse Laurel Hallman to be the next President of the Unitarian Universalist Association. I am deeply impressed by Laurel ’s grounded spiritual life and her commitment to the growth of our movement. I have personally witnessed both her integrity and her personal and spiritual depth. As our UUA President I believe she will be an outstanding representative of Unitarian Universalism.

Rev. Thom Belote
Shawnee Mission UU Church
Overland Park, KS

Laurel has inspired me on my spiritual journey. Rarely mincing words, she gets right to the heart of the matter. Her leadership has always been based on the foundation of her deep spiritual life. I look forward to serving in our UU movement with Laurel at the helm!

Lora Brandis
M.Div. Candidate, SMU Perkins School of Theology