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UUA
President William G. Sinkford |
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2003 Plenary III - President's Report
What a year this has been. War in Iraq, and now its aftermath;
our economy struggling, threats to our safety and our civil
liberties, the progressive social agenda under attack—what
a year this has been.
It is in times such as these, times of fear and uncertainty,
that people most need the church.
And our congregations have risen to meet this need. In fact
this has been a time of genuine congregational vitality and
effective ministry. I have visited more than 40 congregations
this past year, and seen sanctuaries full, energy levels high;
small-group ministry deepening our spiritual life, congregations
more public and visible in their communities.
Our Association, today, is truly strong and vital.
I have also been a world traveler this year: to Hungary,
Transylvania (visual of B preaching at Deva), the Czech Republic,
the UK—twice.
Just last month I traveled to Amman, Jordan as part of a
forty-member interfaith delegation that met with Iraqi religious
leaders, at a meeting convened by the World Conference on
Religion and Peace. This was the first time representatives
of the major Iraqi faith communities had met since Saddam
Hussein took power.
Diane Olson and I also went on a fabulous trip to Japan,
where I had the opportunity to address the anniversary gathering
of our partners, the Rissho Kosei-kai. (Bill in front of huge
Buddha in Great Hall). I would like to introduce to you Rev.
Katsunori Yamanoi, Chairman , of the Rissho Kosei-kai, who
will bring greetings from our partners in Japan.
(Chairman Yamanoi speaks)
Thank you, Yamanoi-sensei. The partnership between the UUA
and the RKK has been important to us in the past and will
be an important part of our future. I am so glad that you
could be with us here in Boston.
Of course, not all of my international travel requires formal
dress. At the Tsubaki Grand Shrine in Japan I experienced
the Shinto cleansing ritual called Misogi. It involves standing
under a mountain waterfall wearing only a loincloth and a
headband and praying. This was early March. My first prayer
was to survive the cold.
It is both my responsibility and my privilege to report to
the General Assembly about the state of our Association. There
are many things I could focus on. But let me start where we
are. Here at General Assembly.
General Assembly
This Boston General Assembly is truly extraordinary. The last
time we gathered in Boston for General Assembly, in 1978,
there were 1211 delegates from 421 congregations; this year,
more than 7000 in attendance representing almost 800 congregations.
The largest GA in history.
But, what is General Assembly?
Is General Assembly a convention? A leadership training opportunity?
A tribal gathering? A public witness event?
The reality is that General Assembly is all of these things,
but that is not what is at the heart of this gathering.
General Assembly is the coming together of representatives
from the congregations, the congregations which are the Association.
Our bylaws state that “General Assemblies shall make
overall policy for carrying out the purposes of the Association
and shall direct and control its affairs.”
The Association is the coming together of the congregations.
And General Assembly is the place where we come together to
do the business of our Association.
I would like to invite the presidents of congregations, and
members of congregational boards who are present to stand,
and remain standing.
Now I would like to invite those who serve on congregational
committees, to stand. And those who serve on District Boards
and Continental Committees.
And, finally, I invite our religious professionals who minister
and serve to stand.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to yourselves,
the leaders of the Association of congregations. Gathered
here, in Boston, we are the Association made real.
Public Witness
Our public voice has, I believe, never been more clearly heard,
nor more effective. More reporters now have us in their Rolodex;
more of them check our website for our views. We are indeed
becoming a credible liberal religious voice in the public
square.
Let me be clear. We have much more work to do, but we have
raised the bar in terms of what we expect to be able to accomplish
in public witness. We now expect—and get—above-the-fold
coverage in the religion section of local papers when I visit.
But we are also getting coverage in major national newspapers.
Just this past month, The New York Times did a story
on the animated conversation going on among us about our use
of religious language. Picked up by the Religion News Service,
that story appeared, as a spread, in the LA Times
and was also in the Washington Post. We held no press
conference; sent out no press releases: this was national
news coverage of what is essentially an internal discussion,
Unitarian Universalists talking amongst ourselves about the
kind of language that we use in describing our faith. It is
a sign that we have really moved in from the margins.
Two weeks later, we did hold a press conference, at 25 Beacon
St. We convened a group of non-Catholic religious leaders
to offer an alternative religious voice on the subject of
gay marriage. A week earlier, the Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts
had asked Catholics to lobby for an amendment that would define
marriage as solely between a man and a woman. We were able
to reach out to leaders of other faiths and bring them together
in support of the right of all persons to marry, whatever
their sexual orientation.
The press conference was covered in the two major Boston
papers, the Globe and the Herald; as well
as the gay press and NPR. And it was picked up on the AP wire
and by the Religion News Service. But we were disappointed,
because the event didn’t get live coverage on the evening
news. This is a new level for us. We’re actually in
a position now, on matters where we have an authentic voice,
to get our message out. And that needs to be celebrated.
Congregational public witness
Many of our congregations have also been actively engaged
in public witness in their communities. Congregations have
mobilized to protect our civil liberties. Many showed up to
do public witness on the impending war with Iraq. First Unitarian
Church of Oakland, CA sponsored educational events, collected
signatures for petitions, and demonstrated against unilateral
U.S. action. Their ministers, Kathy Huff and Cinnamon Daniels,
joined 400 area clergy to form a clergy bridge for peace across
the Golden Gate. After outreach to all members of the congregation—especially
to folks concerned that security issues might justify war—the
church unanimously approved a statement opposing a unilateral
preemptive strike by the U.S.
In January, the First Unitarian Church of Richmond, VA organized
an advocacy training day for UUs from around Virginia, followed
by a day of lobbying the Virginia State Legislature, in collaboration
with other progressive people of faith throughout the state.
We will continue our public witness work in the coming year,
focusing in a more proactive way on those issues where our
voice is most grounded in our history, theology and congregational
life—where we are likely to be able to make the greatest
difference. We will work to take back the definition of the
family from the hands of the religious right, we will work
to claim a voice for liberal religion on civil liberties and
separation of church and state, and we will work to find a
voice for racial justice in a world which has become so pluralistic
and complex that simple-minded solutions will not serve.
Growth
I want to say a few words about the growth of our faith. We
talk a lot about it, but why is growth important?
For me there are two reasons.
One is that there are all those folks out there who need
what we have found. We need to let our light shine down into
the valley, as Barbara Pescan reminded us last year in her
sermon at the Service of the Living Tradition, “where
someone, surely, is trying to get home, trying to get over,
trying to get out of trouble, trying to get on to the morning.”
There are so many who would respond hungrily to our message,
if only we would reach out to them.
And the other is that we need to grow in order to be more
effective at helping the universe bend towards justice. Our
voice needs to be clearer, and more robust. We simply cannot
allow the religious right to have the only effective religious
voice in the public square.
Our greater visibility and more prominent public voice will
help encourage more folks to visit our congregations. But
all of our congregations need to help, first and foremost
by becoming more welcoming places. I’m probably the
most recognizable UU. But I’ve walked into congregations
to preach, with my robe on my arm, and not been greeted until
I reached the minister’s office.
Some of you have heard the story of Stefan Jonasson, now
our Coordinator of Large Church Services, who met with the
head of missionary work for the Mormons when we were in Salt
Lake City for General Assembly in 1999. The Mormons had done
their homework, and knew a lot about us. And this man said
to Stefan, “you know, Unitarian Universalists have a
remarkable ability to attract visitors—proportionately
many more than the Mormons do. But you’re lousy at holding
onto them.” He concluded that if our churches were half
as successful at integrating and retaining members as the
Mormons are, Unitarian Universalism would be “the most
dangerous church in America.”
I think we can all agree that we aspire to be that dangerous.
Reaching out more effectively to our visitors is a crucial
first step. They are guests in our religious home.
But we’re also experimenting with some new approaches.
We’re organizing our first new start congregation with
explicit goal is to become a large church. That’s in
Dallas/Ft. Worth. Texas. They think big there. Three hundred
at the first public worship in a year. This experiment is
part of what we call a “metropolitan growth strategy.”
The plan includes assistance for small and medium-sized congregations,
as well as support for the one large congregation in the DFW
metroplex. This is not a plan developed by Boston. Its their
plan. We simply convened the conversation.
And we launched our first test of a media campaign to increase
awareness of UUism, and stimulate congregational growth. In
Kansas City, since January, there have been billboards up
proclaiming UUism as the “Uncommon Denomination”.
There were radio spots and some TV ads. We are trying to determine
if advertising can lead to church growth…first in attendance,
then in membership. Here…watch this!
[TV spot runs]
We haven’t completely analyzed the results yet, but
the early returns are promising. We’ve had almost 9000
hits on the Kansas City welcome page of our website—and
only 100 of those were me. Shawnee Mission, which at 185 members
is the second largest congregation in the area, took in 23
new members in April. And the number of new visitors has exceeded
our hopes for a 25% increase.
Numbers will be important in our analysis. But souls are
saved one at a time. One man saw one of our billboards on
his way to work—the one that reads: “A different
Trinity: respect, freedom, justice.” This man—who
hadn’t been inside any church for more than a decade—got
to work, called his wife, and said, “you’re going
to think I’m crazy, but I’ve seen a billboard
and I think I’ve found a church.” They visited
our website, showed up for worship the following Sunday with
their three-year-old son—and joined in the middle of
March.
I want you to hear about this campaign from someone who experienced
it at the congregational level. Let me call up Sharon Blevins,
a member of the All Souls Kansas City congregation to say
a few words about the experience.
[Sharon Blevins’ remarks]
Being the site of the media campaign pilot project has been
a gift, a challenge and a responsibility. It’s been
wonderful to see and hear UU messages in the community. I’ve
loved talking with visitors and new members who say they learned
about us from a billboard or a radio ad. We’ve had twice
as many visitors as we did a year ago.
It’s been exciting and fun—and challenging. This
was a pilot project, and things didn’t always happen
the way we expected. Being UU sometimes means we challenge
one another. One of my jobs as congregational coordinator
was to explain that yes, our opinions would be listened to
and appreciated, but no, we didn’t get to select the
messages and decide where the ads would go—the UUA and
professionals outside our congregation would do that.
The media campaign spotlighted our responsibility as a congregation
to live up to our aspirations. I believe we are also responsible
for working with the UUA to share with you what we learned
from this campaign.
- First, advertising works. Sure, we all
know that, but we learned it even works for Unitarian Universalists—and
furthermore, that billboards work. A couple of weeks ago
our board president said, “Before the campaign, we
knew that billboards are counter-intuitive to what we’re
about. We learned our intuition was wrong.” Our vice-president
said she thought billboards were stupid and ugly—she
hated them. When she saw the UU billboards, she loved them.
These elegant billboards generated more comments than any
of the other types of advertising—especially the one
that said: “A different trinity: Respect. Freedom.
Justice.” We liked being a little edgy with our UU
message, and we learned that advertising really isn’t
sinful when it’s used to let people know that liberal
religion is a choice they have.
- Second, we learned welcoming requires attention.
Before the campaign, we were asked about our welcoming and
new member integration processes. We confidently said “yes”
to everything on the checklist—we had greeters at
the doors, a welcome table for visitors, nametags, packets
we mailed to people and lots of activities for adults and
children. Extroverts can pretty easily find their way into
our community. But when we heard from two different visitors
that no one talked to them when they came, we realized we
weren’t as friendly as we thought. It’s no comfort
to know, from visiting other UU churches, that we’re
not alone in finding this a challenge. We’ve learned
that welcoming takes intentionality and practice.
- Third, we were reminded that we have to act now.
We can’t wait for our ship to come in—or
for the UUA to come advertise Unitarian Universalism for
us—to do what needs to be done. Kansas City was lucky
to be selected for the media campaign pilot project, and
we had done the groundwork that made us ready (or almost
ready) to act on this opportunity. We had several active,
growing congregations in a metropolitan area, we had excellent
staff and board support from our Prairie Star District,
we paid our fair share dues—and, probably the clincher
for the deal, we had a reasonably priced media market. The
UUA doesn’t have the resources to offer a professional
advertising campaign in all our communities, but our next
steps will be doing what all of us can do—sending
news releases and making phone calls to the media, hanging
posters on community bulletin boards, sending out public
service announcements. We can continue the most effective
of all public relations efforts, which is personal invitations
to come to our church.
We thank the UUA—and you—for the gift of shining
the UU light brightly in Kansas City. We’ve come to
understand more deeply that living our UU faith includes a
responsibility to let others know about our movement, to find
allies in our work and partners in our celebration—and
to welcome strangers into our midst.
There will be more to say about these experiments in growth
as we gather experience. We need to do cost/benefit analyses,
determine what help will be needed to support local fundraising
and what consultation is needed to help our congregations
prepare for a significant increase in visitors. But one thing
has become clear: we can grow, if we choose to. The choice
is ours.
And for those of you who want to go public in a modest way,
we have bumper stickers available. (Hold up bumper sticker)
We’re asking for a contribution of at least $2, and
more is always welcome, to help provide money for our growth
work. They are available at the Bookstore.
Reshaping our antiracism work
The Association’s commitment to anti-racism work, or
rather our recommitment after a long hiatus, began in 1992.
It has been a complicated journey toward wholeness. Much has
been accomplished. At one level, the transformation has been
miraculous.
We have engaged in an extensive and successful process to
transform the consciousness of our Association leadership,
to ensure that our staff and Board understand the issues of
power and privilege that block genuine movement toward antiracism.
Some congregations and districts, and especially our youth
and young adult communities, have engaged the issue.
But the approach, the only approach which the Association
supported, was controversial. “Not our theology.”
“Its not just a black and white world.” “Doesn’t
work for youth” “I’m not a racist.”
“What can we do in our all white suburb?”
And many of our ministers and lay leaders simply shut down
around this issue. It seemed that too much of our movement
was stuck.
A new approach, a more open-hearted vision, was overdue.
Because racism still is a reality, because our adult congregations
are still overwhelmingly white, because our church schools
are increasingly multi-cultural, because we are called to
live out our values…for all these reasons, we needed
a new approach.
We have imagined a new anti-oppression consultancy in response.
The effective Jubilee I and II trainings will continue to
be offered. But there will be more tools in our toolkit. And
the consultancy approach will begin by honoring the work congregations
are already doing. It will honor the reality that there are
many approaches that can help us move toward the Beloved Community,
and will be flexible and responsive to the needs of individual
congregations.
Many people have already been consulted about this new direction.
More will be. We plan to pilot the new approach in the fall
and be ready to roll it out in the next church year.
New times require new thinking, and work on oppression is
a constant learning process. The world in which we live, the
reality of multi-culturalism, the complexity of identities
where love has blurred the once rigid boundaries of “red
and yellow, black and white” requires both a commitment
to deconstructing racist structures and a loving openness
to the possibilities which pluralism presents. Please open
your hearts and your congregational doors to relationship
with the Association as, together, we attempt to address this
most complicated and most American of issues.
Religious Language
And then there’s the question of our religious language.
God, am I having fun.
The debate among Unitarian Universalists about religious
language that got us into The New York Times last
month has been the hot-button topic this year, generating
more mail, and email than any other subject—ever—in
the history of the Association. I won’t repeat the story
here—you can read all about it on our website. But I
will tell you that despite the controversy, I am glad that
we have begun a rich discussion of who we are and how we describe
ourselves.
At this GA, both theists and humanists are working on their
“elevator speeches.” And in numerous congregations,
the conversation about religious language has already begun.
Now, by “religious language” I do not mean “God
talk.” That is problematic for many of us. But I do
believe that we need some language that will allow us to capture
the possibility of reverence, to name what calls us, and to
talk about our ability to shape our world, guided by what
we find ourselves called to do.
My energy here is not primarily for a revision of our Purposes
and Principles, though that may well emerge.
My priority is for us to engage with one another about this
faith, what it means to us and how we live it out. It is out
of that conversation, that engagement, that any formal language
should come.
I believe we are ready for that discussion, that it can deepen
our religious lives, and that it will make us better able
to share our good news with a world that needs it so badly.
Stewardship
Our movement is so strong, and so vibrant, and there is so
much good ministry going on. Yet, as you all know, we are
operating in an ailing economy, and our Association’s
finances have not been immune.
I know that many congregations have struggled this year with
their own budgets. Anxiety about the stock market, about the
war, about the threat of terrorism has made pledge payments
slow; and in some cases the reality of layoffs has reduced
congregational income. Yet despite all this, most congregations
have made their budgets this year and Annual Program Fund
giving to the Association continues strong, growing in the
face of the slumping economy. It is a sign, I believe, that
the relationship between our congregations and the Association
has never been healthier.
But we rely on our endowment for 40% of our income, and because
of the stock market, that income is down almost $1 million
compared to 2 years ago. That’s obviously a big hit,
and it has challenged our ability to increase our support
for the work that you do. I thank all of you who as individuals
and as members of congregations have done your part to support
the work of this liberal religious faith. Clearly, we need
you now more than ever.
Conclusion
Yes, it’s been a tough year. As I have traveled it has
often felt that I have been on a search for hope. Perhaps
some of you have been on the same search.
While I was in Japan, I took a day to visit the Hiroshima
Peace Park, the memorial to the 250,000 Japanese who were
killed when we dropped a weapon of mass destruction on that
city.
And at a wonderful dinner at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine after
our ritual Misogi cleansing, I finally found the question
I needed to ask our Japanese hosts.
“How could you possibly have forgiven us for our use
of the atomic bomb?”
A member of the Grand Shrine Board, a retired nuclear physicist
named Mr. Feruda, responded.
“First, thank you for asking the question. No one has
ever asked us that before.”
After thinking for a moment, he said: “Despite the
horrific death toll and the devastation, we actually have
come to see our loss as a blessing.
“You see, if we had not lost that war, the military
government would probably still be in power and we would still
be out colonizing and appropriating resources to fuel our
industrial machine.
“If we had not lost, the attitude of arrogance that
was a part of Japanese life during those times would still
be with us, the belief that because we had the might, we had
the right to do as we willed.
“You see, if we had not lost… we would have become
you. We would have become you and it would have crippled the
soul of our nation.”
There is a war for the soul of OUR nation being fought now.
Not in the mountains of Afghanistan or the deserts of Iraq,
but on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures, in local school
boards and zoning hearings.
The issues are a woman’s right to choose, the very
definition of the family, affirmative action, not whether
but only how large the tax cuts for the most affluent Americans
should be, the doctrine of pre-emptive war.
The war is being fought, quite simply, to determine whose
America it is. Is it for only the few, or is the American
promise for all of us?
Unitarian Universalism has an answer. An answer grounded
in the principles we affirm. The inherent worth and dignity
of all persons; justice, equity and compassion in human relations.
And so, not only for the sake of our own souls, but for the
soul of our society, we need to raise our voice. A voice that
speaks out of our lived experience that differences need not
divide and that holds fast to our vision of the Beloved Community.
Unitarian Universalism has always been a faith with a spiritual
center and a civic circumference. And there is a ground of
hope for us. It is there in the increasing public presence
of our congregations, in the deepening engagement of Unitarian
Universalists with their faith and in our willingness for
our faith to engage with our world.
As Vaclav Havel wrote,
“Hope is … an…orientation of the heart;
it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and
is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope, in this deep
and powerful sense, is … an ability to work for something
because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to
succeed….”
There is that ground of hope for us, hope anchored in that
deeper place, hope that grows out of our theology and our
values. We nurture it when we remember that there are no hands
on earth but ours: that we are the only ones who can create
the world of which we dream.
Ours is a strong and vital movement. May you find in it the
strength to turn your hands to the tasks that await our doing.
Thank you for the privilege of serving as your president.
I am filled with hope, because the possibilities are so real
and the energy so promising. I am so grateful for the opportunity
to serve this faith that I love.
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