Canada’s Unitarians declare independence

TORONTO — Canadian Unitarians have broken away from their American-based movement in what they say is an amicable split.

Delegates at the annual general meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC), held May 17–20 in Kelowna, British Columbia, voted unanimously to separate from the Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Association, citing growing cultural, financial and administrative differences.

The split is “a friendly separation,” says the CUC, one that began three years ago with a view toward shedding U.S. domination and putting a uniquely Canadian stamp on the religion and its organizational structure.

The Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed, national president of the CUC, said the move to break away from the U.S. parent church will mean “greater autonomy in 90 percent of the things we do. It will give us the right to take programs (devised in the United States) and ‘Canadianize’ them.”