General Assembly’s Ware Lecture: Bryan Stevenson will speak on Saturday, June 24 9:20pm-10:30pm (EDT)
Bryan A. Stevenson is an American lawyer, social justice activist, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, clinical professor at New York University School of Law and author of the acclaimed book Just Mercy. He is the guest speaker at the UU General Assembly and it will be televised LIVE, on Saturday, June 24 at UUCWC. This will NOT be re-broadcast or recorded, so here’s your chance. Yes, it’s late, but worth it. If you’re interested in sharing this experience as a group at church, please RSVP no later than June 21 to DA@uucwc.org.
History of the Ware Lecture
The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) President, in consultation with the General Assembly Planning Committee, invites a distinguished guest each year to address the General Assembly as the Ware Lecturer.
In 1920, Harriet E. Ware of Milton, MA, bequeathed $5,000 to the American Unitarian Association (AUA) for its unrestricted use. Two years later, on the evening of May 24, 1922, the first Ware lecture was given by the Rev. Frederick W. Norwood, pastor of the City Temple in London, England. The Lecture had been “established in honor of the distinguished services of three generations of the Ware family to the cause of Pure Christianity.”
The lecture has been given every year at the former May Meetings of the AUA and since 1961 at the General Assembly. No lecture was scheduled for 1945 due to World War II, although Morris S. Lazaron delivered an address on May 23, 1945, in All Souls Church in Washington, DC, which is referred to as a Ware lecture. There was no lecture in 1950 when the Unitarians celebrated their 125th anniversary.