The Commission on Appraisal

Reports Issued by the Commission

Some of the previous reports of the Commission are available for download below. Others are available in print in the UUA archives.

The latest report, Engaging Our Theological Diversity, is now available as a PDF file (Adobe Acrobat reader is required to open this file). Printed copies are available through the UUA Bookstore.

Prior reports

Belonging: The Meaning of Membership (all of the below links are in PDF format):

• Printed copies of this report are available from the UUA Bookstore
• Text of GA Skit about the Belonging report
• Report to the 2001 General Assembly

• Download individual chapters:
  • Contents, Preface, Introduction, (16 pgs)
  • Chapter 1: The Process of Commitment, (14 pgs)
  • Chapter 2: Theologies of Membership, (24 pgs)
  • Chapter 3: Measures of Membership, (10 pgs)
  • Chapter 4: Creating Thriving Congregations, (14 pgs)
  • Chapter 5: The Challenge of Incarnation, (14 pgs)
  • Chapter 6: Pathways to Growth, (16 pgs)
  • Chapter 7: Investing in Youth and Young Adults, (12 pgs)
  • Conclusion, (6 pgs)
  • The Epiphany Covenant, UUA Corporate Counsel Opinion on Membership, and Resources, (12 pgs)
• Download a ZIPped archive of the entire report
• Adult Study and Process Guide, (31 pgs)

Interdependence: Renewing Congregational Polity, 1997, 173 pg.

Our Professional Ministry: Structure, Support and Renewal, 1992, 108 pg.

The Quality of Religious Life in Unitarian Universalist Congregations, 1989, 62 pg. A survey of Unitarian Universalists published in 1989.

Empowerment: One Denomination's Quest for Racial Justice 1967-1982, 1983, 199 pg.

A Brief Look at the History of Extension: Overview of Extension Practices in the American Unitarian Association, the Universalist Church of America, and the Unitarian Universalist Association, by Dorothy Spoerl, 29 pg, and The Historian's History: A Pathway to Freedom, by Sidney Mead, 11 pg. This was a report to the Trustees from the COA. It was not an official report, but was a couple of working papers that the Commission decided needed wider distribution. Dorothy's paper looks at extension practices in the AUA, the UCA and the UUA, and is dated 1978. Mead's paper was the main address at the 57^th annual meeting of the Unitarian Historical Society in 1957. The two combined are about 40 pages.

Successful Societies, 1982.

Lay Leadership and the Unitarian Universalist Association,1981 11pg.

Denomination Fund Raising in the UUA, 1977, 24 pg.

The Commission on Appraisal Report to the Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Association on The Representative Nature of the General Assembly, 1977, 33pg. Recommended that any society of fewer than 150 members have one delegate fee waived; a pilot study of a pooling of delegates from two to four societies who would share a delegate; a travel equalization fund.

The Unitarian Universalist Merger 1961-1975, 1975, 47 pg.

Processes, Procedures, Programming, 1970, 20 pg. A study of the General Assembly.

Study of District Organization Plan, 1968, 31 pg.

Unitarians Face a New Age, 1936, American Unitarian Association Commission of Appraisal, 348 pages.