International Office at the UUA Now Goes By Global Connections and Emerging Communities

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct the name of the International Association for Religious Freedom.

To more faithfully reflect its mission, the International Office at the Unitarian Universalist Association has changed its name to the office of Global Connections and Emerging Communities (GCEC).

The new name reflects current goals and priorities, according to Rev. Alicia R. Forde, who served as GCEC’s director until October 2024: to nurture U/U spiritual and faith formation; to promote justice, activism, and advocacy in relationship with global U/U and interfaith partners and with grassroots organizations; and to maintain and cultivate strategic diplomatic relationships to advance justice and liberation globally.

(The term U/U is used as shorthand to represent the diversity of traditions in the global Unitarian, Universalist, Unitarian Universalist, and Free Christian community.) 
 
The word “international” in the former name did not fully capture the mission of the office, says Rev. Morgan McLean, acting director for Global Connections. That word “is about nations, states, and borders, where our work is really about people. It’s beyond borders and more about relationships and communities.”

Many of GCEC’s global partners “are living with borders they do not recognize,” she adds. “For example, Transylvanian Unitarians are ethnically Hungarian but are within Romanian borders, so we wanted to start to focus more on relationship.” 
 
To live into its mission, GCEC will tell the story of its global faith as a means to expand global U/U horizons; cultivate new relationships as well as maintain historic ones, which includes direct resourcing; lead U/Us into the emerging religious landscape; and provide globally oriented faith formation with UUA members. 
 
The name change took place in June 2024. Among other things, “Our new name perfectly encapsulates our historical relationship with the Holdeen India Program, the emerging Cultivators Collaborative, and our commitment to supporting emerging U/U communities domestically and internationally,” says Forde. 
 
Established in 1984, the UU Holdeen India Program provides aid for humanitarian initiatives and social enterprises that advance the prosperity of all of India’s people. Hundreds of education, livelihood development, and humanitarian relief projects have received its support. 
 
GCEC will continue to maintain its historical relationships with a number of other bodies, including the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF), at the U.S. Department of State, and Rissho Kosei-kai International in Japan, Forde notes. 
 
At the same time, it is creating new initiatives, including a new organization, the U/U Global Network, which aims to foster collaboration and mutual support, and build and maintain new relationships among diverse U/U groups, emerging communities, and initiatives across the world. 
 
And within the GCEC, the UUA has launched the UU Cultivators Collaborative program to provide customized support and encouragement for spiritual innovators from historically underserved communities, including BIPOC people, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, multilingual and immigrant communities, and more. 
 
GCEC is “co-creating opportunities of exchange for mutual learning and transformation,” says McLean, who emphasizes that, “as much as possible, we endeavor to have our work reflect post-imperial commitments.” It is also working to ensure that UUs and UU congregations in the United States know about their global cousins in faith, Forde says. 
 
“We are not promoting an American vision of Unitarian Universalism but our global faith,” says McLean, “and we are the bridge to the UUA from our global partners.”

The overall goal, says Forde, “is advancing our UU principles of love and justice in the world.”