A Conference to Remember

I attended the every-other-year conference of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) at the beginning of November, in Oberwesel, Germany, not far from Frankfurt. The organizers had assured us that it was a very lovely site, and indeed it is. We stayed in a youth hostel on top of one of the steep hills beside the Rhine River, right next door to a real medieval castle. We strolled through a village with medieval ramparts that once protected it from marauders. And we sampled wine made from grapes that grow on nearby hills.


But we didn't do much tourist stuff. We were there to confer, to meet other Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists, and to help our tiny worldwide movement grow. We are transforming from a primarily anglophone movement into one that operates in multiple languages. Still, the conference is held in English, and everyone who attends really needs to speak and understand English.


There was solid representation from our English-speaking communities in England, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Plus, there is an organization of fellowships started by Unitarian Universalist expatriates with congregations around Europe. The biggest groups that don't speak English as their first language are from Transylvania (in Romania) and from Northeastern India, in the Khasi Hills. There are smaller and emerging groups in many places -- Italy, Spain, Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Kenya, Burundi, Nigeria -- and individual people working to gather congregations in Bolivia, Argentina, and other places.

The practices of Unitarians (mostly they call themselves Unitarians) and Unitarian Universalists around the world vary considerably, as do their circumstances. It is good to be such a diverse group, energizing to be ourselves in conversation with one another.