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The American Unitarian Association was incorporated on September 28, 2000, dedicated to promoting the American Unitarian tradition.  The AUA has changed its name to the American Unitarian Conference (AUC) in September of 2001 as part of a legal settlement resulting from a lawsuit filed by the Unitarian Universalist Association.   Click here to read the joint press release issued by the AUC and UUA.

Announcement from President David Burton to the AUA membership regarding settlement of the lawsuit between the AUA and the UUA, September 25, 2001

To view the other associated documents in the lawsuit, click here.

I am writing in connection with the lawsuit filed against the American Unitarian Association, Dean Fisher, and myself by the UUA over the use of the name American Unitarian Association. As you know, in our initial response to the threat of the lawsuit we offered to discuss the issue with the UUA leadership. Our suggestion was ignored and the UUA filed the lawsuit. The new leadership at the UUA has been much more open to discussion. Dean and I met with them a few weeks ago and, as a result of those discussions, we have agreed with the new leadership at the UUA to settle the lawsuit. Going into this discussion we had four requirements: dropping the lawsuit, retention of American Unitarian in our name, an acknowledgment that the outcome of the lawsuit was uncertain, and a statement that the two associations can and should have an amicable relationship. The UUA agreed to all our requirements, and we agreed to change our name.

Defending the lawsuit was consuming a great deal of our time and some of our financial resources. The lawsuit had reached the stage where it was about to consume many hundreds of hours and significant financial resources. The lawsuit had very substantially reduced our ability to do the work of the association, namely to give rebirth to the American Unitarian tradition and the development of an independent Unitarian voice in North America. Dean and I reached the conclusion that our time and limited financial resources would be better spent doing the constructive religious work of the American Unitarian movement rather than continuing the legal struggle to keep the AUA name.

Accordingly, we have agreed to change the name of the American Unitarian Association to the American Unitarian Conference. We thus retain the term American Unitarian and will continue to refer to ourselves as American Unitarians. The term conference is broad enough to encompass the fact that we may have both individual and congregational members. Under the agreement, we have the right to adopt any name our membership may chose so long as it does not include "American Unitarian Association." We will retain our web site www.americanunitarian.org. The legal steps necessary to effect this change will be completed within the next two weeks.

Shortly, the American Unitarian Conference and the UUA will release a joint statement.

We have accomplished a great deal within a short time. We have achieved national recognition, including prominent coverage in many national newspapers. We have created a new community of people who share our faith in God and who value and are willing to work to maintain the Unitarian tradition. We have begun the work of creating religious education materials true to the Unitarian tradition. We are developing liturgical materials and a hymnal. We will now have more time and resources to achieve these goals.

We have made a difference. We offer hope to many who value our tradition. The heartfelt support that so many have expressed for our undertaking gives us strength. We can now move forward with a renewed vigor to achieve our aims. Dean and I appreciate the support you have given us and we look forward to working with you in the future to promote the American Unitarian tradition and to breath live into our faith.

Faith, reason, freedom.

Cordially,

David R. Burton
President
American Unitarian Association