Amended C*UUYAN Business Resolution 2000-E
Young Adult Prophets Project
(Draft submitted by consensus of Meg Muchenhoupt, Neil MacLean., Alan Smith, Quinn s directed by Miniplenary.)

The Young Adult Prophets Project is an effort to reclaim Unitarian, Universalist and Unitarian Universalist history and to help young adults better develop visions for social justice. The Young Adult Prophets Project’s goal is to create accurate historical resources relevant to current advocacy in the young adult movement, and to strengthen the religious legacy inherited by Young Adults. It will supplement the UU Historical Society’s institutional history by focusing on groups and individual Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists, often dissidents, who have worked within and outside our institutions, and the beliefs that inspired their involvement. It will also examine the spiritual consciousness of North American culture, and its consequences for public institutions.

As the project progresses we hope to develop worship resources, outreach brochures, presentations and web pages. These resources will both celebrate and educate young adults about UU history, and encourage people to take action on present issues in light of that history. We also hope to publish essays and articles in publications such as World and "Ferment" to raise awareness about the project.

Throughout the course of the project we hope to stimulate the interest of young adults in Unitarian Universalist history. Unitarian Universalists have a great untold history of activism influenced by their faith. If Unitarian Universalists were conscious of this history, they would be more willing, and better able, to take strong stands on social issues. By increasing awareness of Unitarian Universalism’s proud legacy, we can make our movement more attractive to youth and young adults and increase their involvement.

The project is still in its beginning stages. Within the next month we hope to start an e-mail list and to create a website. These tools will enable us to hold an electronic seminar in which we will encourage young adults to pursue research topics that interest them. Two such topics have already been proposed: "Humanism; the Legacy of the Religion of Democracy and the Challenge to Corporate Power in the Movement against Global Capital," and "The Prison Industrial Complex and Calvinism’s Theology of Punishment."

This winter we are planning a four- or five-day conference in Nevada City, California at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Mountains to share our research. The conference will consist of presentations of research topics, multi-day track workshops and worship. Unitarian Universalist storyteller, social activist and historian Utah Phillips has agreed to host and participate in the conference. We are asking Rev. Jeremy Taylor to lead one of the tracks during the conference.

Over the past year and a half we have presented the project at the PCD*UUYAN conference "UUYAN Now!: Claiming Our Full Adulthood," at Opus 1999, and in "Ferment." Later this year, we will present the project at SWUUSI, ConCentric and Opus 2000. The project is currently sponsored by the UUJEC and involves young adults across the continent. Neil MacLean serves as project coordinator, Meg Muckenhoupt and Colin Bossen as East and West Coast coordinators, Rev. David Pettee as historical advisor, and Joey Lyons as project organizer.

PROPOSAL:

C*UUYAN agrees to sponsor the project and to encourage local UUYAN chapters to take interest in the project. C*UUYAN agrees to lend its name to the project sponsor’s fundraising efforts.