Ramblingsofmymind

I’m bringing copies of my resolution (the “Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution”) to the Canadian Unitarian Council’s (CUC) Annual Conference and Meeting (ACM) in the hopes of spreading the word about it and it’s importance. As I have already stated in some of my previous posts, I am planing to get it on the agenda for next year. But what I have not mentioned is the process I most fallow to have it put on to the agenda. Well my resolution is not a General Social Responsibility Resolution and I was tolled it is not a Social Responsibility Resolution without Notice, so then what is it? Well apparently it is a Social Responsibility Resolution with Notes. So what dose that men? Well it means that in order for it to go on the agenda it must be sinned by at least 15 delegates, which represent at least 5 congregations, and this most be don by the time all the delegates are chosen. Apparently this is 3 months or so before the CUC ACM. And the sinned copes most be sent to the CUC’s offices in Toronto ones they are sinned. Well in order for it to be approved in time to go out with all the other resolutions in the pre-ACM packet which is sent to the congregations and their delegates.

Believing there is a purpose to this life is one of the things that keeps me going on. Well wen I say I believe that there is a purpose to this life I am in no way saying that I believe that all the things to which we experience or will eventually experience are predestined. But rather that the mere fact that us human beings are living this collective thing we call life must be in someway not an accident. And to me it’s only logical that if it’s not an accident that we humans are living this life then a force or creature that’s greater then us must have had a hand in this. I say force and creature not forces and creatures because I can’t imagine a set of something’s greater then us agreeing on the creation of such a being as us or even just a process which ultimately led to us. Yes it must have been a process not an end result that led to us. And the evidence which we have had to date has led must of us to believe in this thing to which we have dubbed evolution. And yes evolution is just the work of this creature or force unfolding. And this force or creature I choose to call it God because that is what we humans have daubed it for millions of millennia. And yes I would say that God has three parts. The first being God the crater, i.e. that part of god which put evolution into motion. The second being Good the corrector or redeemer, i.e. that part of God, which tries to bring its creatures, back from destructive ways as well attempting to assist them to never be destructive again. So the third and final part of God I believe it to be the spirit of God, i.e. that part of good that is within all of us. And I believe that God the spirit gets put in us by us coming into contact with the results of either God the creator or God the corrector. But I also believe that there is another force, one working against the forces of God as well as those who have been touched be it’s spirit. And this force is one, which feeds us lies and deceit in order for us to help it destroy us and this beautiful creation to which we find ourselves living in. And those who give into this force become its agents or henchmen going around putting dawn others, the other animals and even this world to which we inhabit. And I call this evil force the Devil seeing that’s what we humans have daubed it for many billions of generations. So what happens wen we cease to live this life thing? Well, our bodies they decompose becoming fertiliser for this planet of ours. And then out of us comes our souls. Yes I believe we all have a soul of our own. And I believe they are something which gives us our easiness and wen we die I believe they get judged. And if we tried to be good in our life it goes to live for eternity in God’s home, the place we humans have daubed Heaven. And if we were not good then it goes and toils forever in the Devils realm, yes the place we humans have dubbed Hell. Well who do I know this to be true? Well I don’t know if it’s really true. So then why do I believe this? Well because I just have a feeling I must.

After reviewing the Canadian adaptation I made of the Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution written by Victoria Mitchell and Kimberlee Tomczak as well as their newly edited and condensed version, I came to the conclusion my adapted Canadian version it to could be condensed as well. So here is a condensed version of the Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution Canadian adaptation. And I hope a finale version will be ready for adoption by the delegates at next years Annual Business Meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council tacking place in Thunder Bay over the May long weekend.

—————————————————-

Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution

WHEREAS the future of our organization benefits from the full participation of youth and young adults to enliven, grow and sustain our Unitarian Universalist movement, principles and ideals, including the use of the democratic process within our congregations and society at large; and

WHEREAS Youth and Young Adult empowerment is an attitudinal, structural and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people to create multigenerational equity; and

WHEREAS unique opportunities at the congregational, regional, national and continental level for youth and young adult self-direction create synergy for a larger youth and young adult identity and promote communication and connections between local youth and young adults across the nation and the continent;

BE IT RESOLVED that the delegates at the 2009 Annual Business Meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council mandate the Canadian Unitarian Council and its member congregations to:
1. Invite ministerial support to youth and young adults through inclusive worship and intentional presence; and
2. Invest financial support in youth and young adult, regional and national leadership bodies when viable; and
3. Provide and promote youth and young adult conferences, leadership and spiritual development events on the regional and national level including appropriate resources to insure they are accessible by all youth and young adults who which to attend them; and
4. Provide support for youth and young adult staff and volunteers to receive suitable training and resources; and
5. Support youth and young adult self-directed anti-racism and anti-oppression work; and
6. Provide and support Our Whole Lives for both youth and young adults; and
7. Attend to the needs of youth and young adult constituents with marginalized identities by providing resources and opportunities within the congregation and at the regional and national level; and
8. Establish and maintain a formal process of cooperation between the Canadian Unitarian Council and the Unitarian Universalists Association and its affiliated organizations (such as YRUU and C*UUYAN), with the stated goal of insuring long-lasting and healthy continental programming for both youth and young adults.

This is the announcement I posted on the Unitarian Universalist (UU) youth and young adult web site, FUUSE and a few other places, including on all the UU young adult Faceboox groups I am a member of. And it’s in regards to the new independent online newspaper written for and by Unitarian Universalist young adults in North America to which I am launching. Hopefully some time this spring if all goes well.

The Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Gazette will be a new independent online newspaper written for and by Unitarian Universalist young adults (UUYA). It will dish up a mix of intelligent journalism, artful story telling, intriguing opinion and weighty commentary. Hopefully all with great sprinklings of ridicules and whimsical humour spun throughout. It will with any luck deal with such subjects as the political and cultural underpinnings and goings one within the varying North American UUYA communities. And it will be published online twice to quarterly each year at http://uuyag.wordpress.com/. But before any of this can happen, editors, writers and journalist need to be sought. So this is where you come in. Have you ever thought, wouldn’t it be nice if I could tell the wider UUYA community about what goes on young adult wise locally ware I am. Or maybe you just want to know more about what the UUA or the CUC’s planes are wen it comes to support for UUYA community and have always wanted to track it dawn but haven’t do to a lake of an appropriate venue to share your findings in. Or maybe you have a relay funny UUYA themed fiction story or poem you just what to share with a wider UUYA audience. Well the Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Gazette is just the place to do it in. So come onboard and be an editor, writer or journalist for this crate new UUYA online newspaper, by sending a message describing your area of interest to nived_90@yahoo.ca with UUYAG in the subject line. And to stay up to date with this new endeavour plus to get an e-mail notification of the release of the first edition just go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uuyag-announce/ and join the official Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Gazette e-mail announcement list.

What fallow is a response to the Rev. Scott Wells post entitled The youth resolution and the Obama generation as well as all those who commented on it.

I just wont to say I have never met any of the whiny UU youth you all seem to be speaking about. And my best and most healthy experiences, I had them at my district’s youth cons. Whether that was at ones put on by the varying youth groups of the UU congregations throughout southern and northern New York State or at ones I was helping to put on with my youth group at my home church in Ottawa, Ontario Canada, it was marvels. Yes it dos come dawn to the adults how are working with the youth. ‘Cause if the adults go around acting like they always know what is best for the youth only handing out the vary rare opportunity for the youth to manage their own destines then yes, I suppose you would have whiny youth. And I would say they would have good reason to be upset. But, if on the other hand, the adults involved with the teens share their many years of wisdom. Not to mention help the youth to billed up safe spaces like cons and Sunday morning youth groups all filled with opportunities to learn and practise how to be leaders able to billed, run and maintain community with the help of their fellow youth of cores. Then and only then do you have healthy youth programming. But if after the youth graduate from their wonderful UU youth programs, and I hope they are wonderful, you just tell all the youth to now wash their hands of all the good stuff they learned and discovered as youth. I mean to be come proper upstanding adults “gag” able to now do things in the adult way of doing things. And in the UU world that would be the way of the UU immigrants. Then yes you will have whiny young adult. And yes they would have good reason to be upset. And yes I am a young adult, and I have felt the push to become more like the other more, older UU adults who unlike me were not razed UU. And this push it’s always subtle, some of the people who do it are I’m sure not even aware they are doing it and would change if they knew what they should be doing instead. So this whole push for youth and young adult empowerment can be summed up in this definition from the vary resolution you all seem to choose to knock so heartily. And it’s as fallow: “WHEREAS Youth and Young Adult empowerment is an attitudinal, structural and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people to create intergenerational equity”. And yes this is all about equity and equality and just like the women of the women’s movement we, the UU young adults and youth feel it’s hi time we got ours.

This is an adaptation I have made of the great Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution Written by Victoria Mitchell and Kimberlee Tomczak. It’s intended to be a version that the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) can have passed at its Annual Business Meeting. Either at this years CUC Annual Conference and Meeting in Ottawa in May, or more likely at next years in Thunder Bay. And it is pretty much the exact resolution that they wrote with only I think one vary un-Canadian section removed and the language changed to be more CUC friendly, plus I think I added a section about the CUC’s duties and responsibilities in regards to continental activities, events and programming. And the reason for this document is the CUC needs to have the values of youth and young adult empowerment be part of its work with youth and young adults also and ‘cause it also needs to play its role in the future of continental youth and young adult programming. And I do believe the CUC has a roll to play wen it comes to continental youth and young adult programming. Thoughts? And to read the original resolution that was the inspiration for this just go here.

——————————————————-

Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution

WHEREAS youth and young adults in the past have been visionaries for our movement, youth and young adult leaders were a key component of bringing Unitarians and Universalists together in the merger of 1961 and the subsequent creation of the Unitarian Universalist Association; and

WHEREAS the future of our movement benefits from the full participation of youth and young adults to enliven, grow and sustain our Unitarian Universalist movement, principles and ideals, including the use of the democratic process within our congregations and society at large; and

WHEREAS the Canadian Unitarian Council supports the full participation of persons in all of its and their activities and in the full range of human endeavour without regard to . . . age”; and

WHEREAS Youth and Young Adult empowerment is an attitudinal, structural and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people to create multigenerational equity; and

WHEREAS if youth and young adult empowerment is to be a reachable goal in our movement, it is necessary for there to be support in providing unique opportunities at the congregational, regional, national and continental level for youth and young adult self-direction and for youth and young adults to be active, full members of our movement and its, bodes groups organizations and congregations; and

WHEREAS youth and young adult involvement at the regional, national and continental levels create synergy for a larger youth and young adult identity and promote communication and connections between local youth and young adults across the continent; and

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT Canadian Unitarian Universalists call for a commitment to support youth and young adult empowerment within the Canadian Unitarian Council, including in its regional and national structures, events and bodes, as well as amongst the activities, groups and bodes of its member organizations and congregations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Canadian Unitarian Universalists call for ongoing cooperation with the Unitarian Universalists Association and its affiliated organizations (such as YRUU and C*UUYAN) by the Canadian Unitarian Council and its regional and national, events and bodes, as well as amongst the activities, groups and bodes of its member organizations and congregations to insure long lasting continental programming for youth and young adults, which is in accordance with the values of youth and young adult empowerment; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the delegates at the 2008 Annual Business Meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council urge all the Canadian Unitarian Universalist congregations to:
1. Annually assess how youth and young adults are or are not supported in worship and congregational settings; and
2. Provide ministerial support to youth and young adults through intentional guidance, presence, devotion and time wen appropriate and needed; and
3. Invest financial support in youth and young adult initiatives when viable; and
4. Provide support for youth and young adult staff and volunteers to receive suitable training and resources; and
5. Attend to the needs of youth and young adult constituents with marginalized identities by providing resources and opportunities within the congregation and at the regional, national and continental levels; and
6. Support youth and young adult self-directed anti-racism and anti-oppression work; and
7. The facilitation of and support for Our Whole Lives for both youth and young adults; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the delegates at the 2008 Annual Business Meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council urges the Canadian Unitarian Council and its regional and national, events and bodes to:
1. Allot specific staff support for youth and young adult constituents, groups, bodes and their congregations; and
2. Allow for an authentic youth and young adult voice by having youth and young adult regional and national leadership bodies were feasible; and
3. Invest financial support in youth and young adult regional and national leadership bodies; and
4. Provide and promote youth and young adult conferences and leadership development events on the regional national and continental level; and
5. Attend to the needs of youth and young adult constituents with marginalized identities and their groups and congregations by providing resources and opportunities within regional, national and continental levels; and
6. Support youth and young adult self-directed anti-racism and anti-oppression work; and
7. The facilitation of and support for Our Whole Lives for both youth and young adults; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the delegates at the 2008 Annual Business Meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council urge all the continental Unitarian Universalist institutions be that within the Canadian Unitarian Council, or within the Unitarian Universalist Association or jointly within both to:
1. Invest financial support in youth and young adult programs, initiatives and staff; and
2. Provide accessible resources for youth and young adult constituents at the regional/district, national and congregational level ware appropriate; and
3. Provide accessible resources for youth and young adult constituents, especially those with marginalized identities, who are currently not supported at the regional/district, national and congregational levels; and
4. Provide and promote youth and young adult conferences and leadership development events on the continental level; and
5. Allow for an authentic youth and young adult voice by having youth and young adult continental leadership bodies; and
6. Support youth and young adult self-directed anti-racism and anti-oppression work; and
7. The facilitation of and support for Our Whole Lives for both youth and young adults.

This Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution is a Canadian adaptation by Devin Murphy of the UUA targeted Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution Written by Victoria Mitchell and Kimberlee Tomczak

What follows I also originally posted to one of the threads in the same Faceboox group as, not my last post but the two before it.

This is what I concluded from reading the “Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth Summary Report”, the UUA is trying to move the focus of youth programming from an “adult facilitated but youth led and organized program” to an “adult administrated ministry for youth”. It should be noted that I am getting the impression that the UUA’s goal is to do more things for youth. Instead of what has been the practise amongst Canadian and US UU communities for years, which was manly to help youth billed and maintain healthy communities of their own which would serve their needs. I don’t like this change but maybe it is just because the old way of doing things really served my needs rather vary well for the most part.

Also I fund these passages from the report rather interesting.

Some groups, such as the UUA Board, asserted that lack of ministerial involvement with youth in their congregation, which is sometimes explained by the philosophy of youth empowerment, is actually abandonment. The Board was also concerned that many adults and congregations lack a deep understanding of how to nurture, protect, and empower youth in healthy ways. Ministry & Professional Leadership staff at the UUA noted a lack of pastoral care and attention to youth’s pain. Similarly, others mentioned the need for UUs to be more sensitive and to listen to the lived experiences and emotional and spiritual suffering of marginalized people, including youth.

Some youth seek pastoral care in community with one another; for example, 72 percent of survey respondents of high school age indicated that their youth group helps them explore options and offers suggestions on how to deal with life situations. Congregations discussed the strong bonds formed among youth and the way they form a peer ministry.

And…

Unitarian Universalist youth are like all Unitarian Universalists – they embrace a wide variety of spiritualities and worship styles. Participants at the Central Midwest District gathering reminded us that “youth are members of a community and communities work with the different needs of its members.” Other groups pointed out to us that UU youth communities do not always welcome this diversity; for example, youth at the Metro New York District and Joseph Priestley District gatherings talked about the strong reactions they receive when they talk about God or Christian beliefs. YRUU leaders envisioned a community where youth feel comfortable naming their higher power. Many groups (youth and adults) identified a gap between lifelong, raised-Unitarian Universalists and those who have found Unitarian Universalism. These groups also discussed the perception in congregations that becoming UU is an adult process, rather than something we should raise our children to be.

Then this…

Some youth communities (particularly at the district and continental level) experience tension with the Continental Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Network (C*UUYAN) or young adult community. According to C*UUYAN leaders, this is due in part to inappropriate boundaries of some young adults, generalizations based on age, and no intentional welcoming relationship between the two. The UUA Board called youths’ departure from youth programs a “bridge to nowhere” and called for more welcoming of youth into young adult and camps ministry.

P.S.
So if you are a Unitarian Universalist (UU) and care about UU youth and or the future of UUism in North America I do urge you to go and read the “Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth Summary Report”. And then do give me your thoughts on what you think of it as well as your thoughts on my impressions of it.

These are my results from two tests, which claim to tell which religion my beliefs are most in line with. The first is my results from the famous Belief-O-Matic quiz from the good people over at Beliefnet. And if you feel so inclined to take this quiz yourself you can by going to http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html. And the second one is the lesser-known BELIEF SYSTEM SELECTOR test curtsy of the staff at SelectSmart.com and it can be found at http://www.selectsmart.com/religion/. And so do have a try at them both. And what do my results say about me well, I find it really interesting having grown up in a humanist/personal spiritualist dominant Unitarian Universalist church to have Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants to be at the top of both of the quiz results.

My Belief-O-Match quiz results:

1. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
2. Orthodox Quaker (98%)
3. Liberal Quakers (86%)
4. Eastern Orthodox (82%)
5. Roman Catholic (82%)
6. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (80%)
7. Seventh Day Adventist (79%)
8. Unitarian Universalism (78%)
9. Neo-Pagan (69%)
10. Reform Judaism (68%)
11. New Age (64%)
12. Bahá’í Faith (64%)
13. Orthodox Judaism (63%)
14. Islam (61%)
15. Sikhism (56%)
16. Hinduism (52%)
17. Mahayana Buddhism (52%)
18. Theravada Buddhism (50%)
19. Jainism (46%)
20. Secular Humanism (43%)
21. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (39%)
22. Scientology (38%)
23. Taoism (35%)
24. Jehovah’s Witness (35%)
25. New Thought (34%)
26. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (27%)
27. Nontheist (24%)

My results from the BELIEF SYSTEM SELECTOR test:

1. Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
2. Orthodox Quaker (98%)
3. Mainline - Conservative Christian Protestant (83%)
4. Eastern Orthodox (80%)
5. Roman Catholic (80%)
6. Seventh Day Adventist (80%)
7. Liberal Quakers (78%)
8. Unitarian Universalism (71%)
9. Orthodox Judaism (62%)
10. Reform Judaism (61%)
11. Islam (60%)
12. Neo-Pagan (55%)
13. New Age (54%)
14. Bahai (53%)
15. Hinduism (48%)
16. Sikhism (48%)
17. Mahayana Buddhism (46%)
18. Theravada Buddhism (45%)
19. Secular Humanism (41%)
20. Jainism (40%)
21. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (38%)
22. Jehovah’s Witness (36%)
23. Taoism (35%)
24. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (35%)
25. New Thought (30%)
26. Non-theist (28%)
27. Scientology (25%

This is some more thoughts of mine one the same subject as my last post. And I also posted it to one of the thread in the same Faceboox group.

Coming of Age (COA) is not a Youth Empowerment program. As a COA teacher in my congregation in Ottawa, ON, Canada I should know it’s a Youth Preparatory course. And it is for junior youth (i.e.12 or 13-year-olds) not youth (i.e. 14 to 19-year-olds). It helps the junior youth to begin to look at all the different beliefs to which we as humans have with regards to religious/spiritual things like hell, heaven, the belief or not in God and so on. And it helps the junior youth to start to articulate which of these feels right for them. Also it is a course which helps the young people to be ready to move on to youthhood. It’s kind of like the UU version of the Christian confirmation or the UU version of the Jewish Bar and Bat mitsfa. So I would say this it’s good to have these kinds of things for UU’s, but in my opinion it is better don wen they are still kids and not yet youth. And that is because I feel youthhood should be a time for trying out and testing all the things learnt as a kid in a healthy and safe environment of course, with the express propose of preparing the youth to become leaders and active members in their society. In this case the UU world. But what I have noticed is we as UU’s let are young people go throw this as youth or at least we did. Then wen they become adults we tell them with our body language, ton of voice and so one to forget about trying to incorporate the conclusions or weighs of doing thing which mite work for you in to the wider adult UU world. In essence, we say, we encourage you to continuo to explore what you believe and think but now you most only do it in the more proper and refined adult way. And I would strongly oppose something like COA being the mane focus of UU youth programming mostly because it is adult lead not youth led with mentor like help from sportive adults.

This was part of a post I added to one of the threads in the Facebook group called Unitarian Universalist Youth and Young Adult Empowerment to which I am a member of.

While growing up I attended Religious Exploration (i.e. Sunday school) classes and did the precursor to the Grad 8 OWL called AYS. Not to mention as well went throw YRUU, which was for me, a place ware I could finally test and try out what it was to really live in UU community with all the rights and responsibilities that go with it. But when I finally aged out of YRUU at the age of 20 I came to the realization that the way I was taught to express and explore my faith was not the way the adults do things. Ok I did know that UU adults did thinks a bit different then the way UU kids and youth are taught, but I did not think it was that dramatically different. You see I had up in till then musty done worship in more of a circle still, vary audience participatory rather then a speaker listener stile. That is only one of the differences between the way we as UU kids and youth did things differently. And unlike the adults, wen we as youth and kids wear exploring our religious/spiritual beliefs we did not compare everything against ware we came from (i.e. Catholic, Anglican or what ever) but rather only throw UU eyes because that is all we new. And I think this shook I had is probably felt be many raised UUs and I think that it might be one of the reasons a lot of them never integrate into the wider adult UU world.