Announcing the 2024 GA Cohort Groups! 

GA Cohorts are a new groundbreaking initiative aimed at deepening engagement and fostering collaboration. These intimate gatherings will unite individuals around shared goals, interests, and experiences, offering a unique space for guided conversations, community building, and skill-building. Cohort meetings are scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday during GA. Facilitators will lead two gatherings per day each day, accommodating different time zones and scheduling preferences. Feel free to create your own Cohort Group when the GA app becomes available in June. We're excited to announce the following Cohort Groups led by UUA Staff and UU Affiliate Organizations. 

Building Bridges, Dismantling Barriers: Journeying Towards Disability Justice 

EqUUal Access 

We'll delve into the multifaceted concept of disability justice, fostering a space for collective learning and action. Whether you're a seasoned disability advocate or just starting your journey, we welcome you (allies included!). Together, we can build a future where disability is celebrated, not ostracized, and where everyone thrives together. 

Religious Educators: Lived Stories of the Profession 

Liberal Religious Educators Association and UUA Office of Professional Development and Credentialing 

Religious Education professionals (including directors, coordinators, ministers of RE, assistants, etc., working with children, youth or adults) are invited to connect and reflect on the profession of religious education. There will be opportunities for identity-based breakout groups and some time for breakouts by professional context (e.g. program size, region, length of time in the profession, etc.). 

Stewardship Boosters 

Stewardship for Us 

Join together to talk about the challenges and blessings possible in our collective work in stewardship. Let's discuss innovations, spirit, and possibility in how we steward our congregations. We'll connect and share tips, samples and successes. 

Meaningful Class Conversations 

UU Class Conversations and ClassAware 

Members will explore their own class background and explore the feelings that social class evokes. They will explore the lessons they were taught about class growing up and the actual strengths/limitations of each class background. They will discuss classism in their lives and UU circles and how to end it. 

UU Climate Justice 

UU Climate Justice Coalition 

The UU Climate Justice Coalition organizes UUs around climate justice at all levels. This Cohort will engage UUs around a strategic question: What will sustain UUs to engage in long-term actions and cultural shifts towards climate justice? 

Tools for Spiritual Deepening 

UU Wellspring and UU Spiritual Directors Network 

UU Wellspring inc and UU Spiritual Directors Network are collaborating to provide you with an overview of UU Wellspring's new program: Love at the Center: UU Values and Covenants with a focus on Spiritual Practices and Spiritual Direction. Each day will engage you in a spiritual deepening experience. 

Circles of Solidarity 

UU Women's Federation 

Circles of Solidarity is UUWF’s 2024 campaign, bridging the intersectional and interconnected understandings of our four priority issues. Our cohort series will uplift the importance of relationship-building through stories, workshops, and facilitated conversations, as well as give folks looking to level up on their justice work a space to grow. We will be equipping our community to be true allies and accomplices for gender justice and collective liberation. 

Lay Leadership Network 

UUA Congregational Life 

What are the pathways to leadership in Unitarian Universalism? Why is it a journey and not a destination? What does covenant have to do with it? Join us for an explanation and exploration of collaborative ministry/shared ministry and the Leadership Ministry Network. 

Small UU Congregations 

UUA Congregational Life 

As small congregations continue to face a growing number of challenges, this cohort offers an opportunity for of the lay leaders, religious professionals, members, and friends of small UU congregations to gather, connect, and learn from one another. Facilitated by UU staff who specialize in working with small congregations. 

Becoming a Post-Imperial People of Faith 

UUA International Office 

This cohort will gather in an authentic spirit of learning with those committed to decolonizing their ways of being and their communities. This will be especially engaging for those with global U/U partners and connections. 

The Mosaic: Living Our Antiracist, Multicultural Commitments 

UUA Mosaic Team 

This cohort welcomes members of congregations who are engaged in antiracist multicultural transformation, whether you’re just starting or you’ve been at it for decades. We’ll explore the growing hub of resources and opportunities that is The Mosaic, and create spaces for networking, engagement, and inspiration.  

Sustainable Staffing Strategizers 

UUA Office of Church Staff Finances 

Are you eager to pursue creative, values-based ways of aligning your missional priorities and staffing with your financial resources? In this highly participatory, wide-ranging experience, we’ll discuss staffing trends, models, and challenges; shared leadership; small-bet experiments; and emerging approaches. Includes presentations, case studies, polls, and lots of meaningful conversation! 

Side With Love 

UUA Organizing Strategy Team 

This cohort is group of leaders, activists, and partners who are engaged in Side With Love programs (UU the Vote, Climate Justice/Green Sanctuary, Decriminalization, UPLIFT/Gender Justice). We're convening these groups collectively to grow relationships across issues, demonstrate intersectionality among the issues, and tell the larger story of Side With Love. 

Organizing for Trans Liberation 

UUSC and UUA 

Our trans and gender expansive beloveds are under attack and being criminalized in many US states right now. The UUA and UUSC are partnering with trans-led organizers, mutual aid groups and other people of faith to resist fascism and support trans liberation. Join us to learn how you can too. 

Register for 2024 Virtual General Assembly

Register for 2024 Virtual General Assembly now, and lock in the lowest rates available through February 29th. For just a $50 down payment with the Early Bird Payment Plan, secure your spot for an enriching experience packed with featured speakers, dynamic worship, and exclusive access to our event app's on-demand content. Whether you're a past attendee or a first-timer, this is your chance to be part of an incredible gathering. Reserve your virtual spot today, and join us at General Assembly 2024.

Announcing 2024 GA Ware Lecturer

Each year, the Unitarian Universalist Association invites a distinguished guest to address the General Assembly as the Ware Lecturer. With gratitude, we proudly introduce Julia Watts Belser as this year's General Assembly Ware Lecturer. This much anticipated program will be live-streamed on the GA App Saturday, June 22 at 7pm ET/ 6pm CT / 5pm MT / 4pm PT. GA registration is required to access the live-stream.

Julia Watts Belser (she/her) is a rabbi, scholar, spiritual teacher and a longtime activist for disability and gender justice. She is Professor of Jewish Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University, as well as core faculty in Georgetown’s Disability Studies Program and a Senior Research Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Her work brings ancient Jewish texts into dialogue with disability studies, feminist thought, queer theory, and environmental justice ethics. She is a cultural historian of rabbinic Jewish literature and a contemporary Jewish feminist theologian who draws disability arts and culture into provocative conversation with Jewish tradition to challenge structural violence, deepen our capacity for social justice, and honor the sacredness of disabled people’s lives.