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Happy birthday to this magazine! Fifty years ago, in March 1970, the Unitarian Universalist Association introduced a newspaper, Unitarian Universalist World, for all members of UU congregations.
UU World inherited the legacy of earlier denominational periodicals, all the way back to Universalist Magazine, founded in 1819, and the Unitarian newspaper the Christian Register, founded in 1821. But it was different in one crucial and enduring respect: It went to every member of a UU congregation and not just to “subscribers.” Tom Stites, who led this magazine from 1997 to 2006, recounts the story of UU World’s first fifty years.
Your congregation’s support for the UUA’s Annual Program Fund makes vital work possible that you may not always readily notice. For example, it funds resources that help congregational leaders do their work more effectively and in times of crisis; it supports the creation of worship materials, curricula, pamphlets, books, and new media; it enables the UUA to mobilize around the urgent justice issues of our time. It also brings you this magazine, four times a year, as a reminder of your connections to other Unitarian Universalists and their communities and to the living tradition they share.
It is an honor for my team to make a magazine for you four times a year. We hope it inspires, provokes, encourages, and informs you. We send it to you in gratitude for everything you and your congregation are making possible.