31 December 2005

Hello fellow military UU’s,

And Happy New Year!

At the General Assembly in Ft. Worth, Texas this year, there was a program for UU’s in the Military. Those who organized the program did not have any idea how many would attend, but hoped for at least thirty. Around 200 people attended.

During the program, story after story was told by Military UU’s about their experiences, both as people of liberal faith in the military, and as military members, veterans, and families in a liberal faith.

One thing was clear from the meeting… the UUA is in need of an affiliate organization to help support UU Military members, veterans, families, and defense employees. We also need an organization to be a voice for our liberal faith within the military, to support our UU military chaplains, to aid in the formation of new UU military chaplains, and to work towards social action programs that will benefit our military.

Since General Assembly, a small working group has come together to work for the formation of such an independent affiliate organization, but we need your help. We are in need of dedicated individuals who share this vision to help form a “Charter Board” to draft the “By-laws” and other basic infrastructure to make this organization a reality.

Please visit http://uumilitary.dynamicdeism.org/ and join the discussion forum if you wish to serve on the Board, or even if you just wish to provide your support and brainstorm with us.

Also, we invite you to check out the draft of our plan to found this UU Military Independent Affiliate organization. http://uumilitary.dynamicdeism.org/FoundingUUMPlan.doc

The official public face of our efforts is the UU's in the Military Blog at http://uumilitaryblog.blogspot.com/ (That's here, this was also posted in a few other places)

Our denomination is in need of an organization to outreach to the military, support military UU’s, and to help our congregations better understand and support Military members, families, veterans, and defense employees. Please come join us!

Yours in faith,

David Pyle
Former SGT, U.S. Army
On Behalf of the UU Military Affiliate Organization Working Group