|
New UUA President and Moderator Speak to Press and Delegates | ||||||
|
New UUA President and Moderator Speak to Press and Delegates | ||||||
Remarks of William Sinkford following his election as UUA President (prepared text)
After a worship service closing the 2001 campaign, the prevailing candidates for president and moderator spoke in the Ambassador Room of the Renaissance Hotel.
Kay Montgomery, executive vice president of the UUA, presided. She first introduced Diane Olson, saying, "she works from her heart and is willing to do the deep work of being a religious person."
Diane spoke of her happiness at a "most extraordinary and humbling experience." She thanked the many people who had supported her and promised to work as hard as she can. She gave special thanks to several people including Denny Davidoff, outgoing moderator, and Patsy Sherrill Madden, the other candidate for moderator. She recalled the long promise between herself and Patsy Madden that whomever won the election would make sure that the other would have "an incredible part of this administration." She closed with a commitment to social justice and to a truly diverse movement.
Montgomery then introduced the Rev. William Sinkford, incoming president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, with words she had also spoken at Sinkford's 1995 ordination.
She spoke of honoring his ministry, and especially his willingness to tell the truth, his service as a "shuttle diplomat for congregations all over the continent," his fidelity and his insistence on justice.
Sinkford came to the microphone to applause and cheers. He thanked those 200-300 gathered for coming out to be together "in the faith community we hope to become and know that we can be."
He continued with a reminder of the pain of the UUA General Assembly in Cleveland, 33 years ago, when delegates split over the black empowerment controversy , and the progress and travail over racial issues in the years since. "At this historic moment and in these echoing halls," he told the crowd, "it is a tremendous honor to have been chosen to be the next president of the Unitarian Universalist Association."
Then he called on those present to take off all campaign buttons: "The campaign is over."
He expressed his delight in accepting the support of Diane Miller, especially in light of her long service and her full intention to continue in that service in years to come.
He pointed to the forty years of growth in the UUA, in both numbers and spiritual depth, as well as the role of Unitarians and Universalists in shaping so many civic institutions. "This is a time to honor our history and a time to look ahead," he said, as well as a time to proclaim "that Unitarian Universalism has good news - news which has been palpable in our own lives, and which will be a blessing to the world outside our sanctuary walls."
He also called for paying close attention to the energy in the youth and young adult movements, and the need to practice radical followership, listening to what they need to remain UUs.
The job of the president, he said, to make this healing voice heard in our hurting world."Our Unitarian Universalist values are an antidote to the shrill and divisive voices that claim to speak for religion in our land," Sinkford continued. We need, he said, "a new concept of family values that honors the transformative value of love wherever it can be found."
"The fact that I am standing here as your new president, the first African American president of an historically white denomination, is itself witness that we can move toward reconciliation." He called for racial justice, gender justice, justice for bisexual, gay, lesbian and transexual people, responsible stewardship of the environment, an end to the economic injustices that plague our society, and for pluralism: "We know, because we live it week after week, that difference need not divide."
After a call to move from a mode of campaigning to living out our faith in the world, he led a moment of silence to reflect on the campaign and the work ahead.
He closed in the name of "those on whose shoulders we stand" and called for standing together, finding "our mission and ministry in this world."
Remarks of William Sinkford following his election as UUA President (prepared text)
Reported for the Web by Jone Johnson Lewis
General Assembly 2001 · Program Grid
 |
Information Feedback |
