A congregational survey about the proposed 8th Principle was developed and approved by the Board and sent by email to all UCV members with email addresses on file.

There was broad support for the intention of the proposed 8th Principle that racism and other oppressions require action. This was true for nearly every respondent, whether they responded “Yes”, “No” or “Undecided” to Question 1 (Do you support the proposed 8th Principle?) Despite real differences about whether or not respondents supported the 8th Principle as proposed, there is a strong consensus on the need to take action against racism
and other oppressions. At the same time, about half of respondents expressed one or more concerns about, or objections to, 1) the wording of the proposal not being consistent in tone with existing principles, 2) that the proposed principle was inconsistent with or redundant with the existing seven principles, 3) that the process was problematic and potentially divisive, and 4) that the fallout from the decision poses risks to our faith community going forward.

The full summary report, including an explanation of the survey timeline and review, can be read here. We have also provided an anonymized Excel sheet with all comments so that congregants can read them and form their own conclusions.