Pastoral Letter from the Rev. William G. Sinkford
President, Unitarian Universalist Association

“Let Us Begin Again in Love”

The Rev. William G. Sinkford

Dear Friends,

I write to you as we approach Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement for the Jewish people, a time to seek forgiveness for past mistakes and commit themselves to living moral lives, working once again to have their names written in the Book of Life.

Despite meaningful Yom Kippur services in some of our congregations and the Jewish identity of a significant number of our members, we Unitarian Universalists do not celebrate an annual day of atonement as a whole faith community. I have often wished that we did. I am thinking about atonement particularly during this 200th anniversary year of Hosea Ballou's  A Treatise on Atonement. This theological statement, asserting that all people are worthy of salvation and may find it if they act in accordance with what they know to be good and moral, has called generations to align themselves so that they stand on the side of love.

It is a difficult time, as our hearts and minds and media waves are filled with images of suffering, war, human misery. And yet I believe it is at exactly such moments that we must commit ourselves, through acts of faith, to stand on the side of love.

Our nation remains at war. 140,000 US women and men occupy Iraq, with thousands more still mired in Afghanistan. American, Iraqi and Afghani citizens are dying daily, leaving loved ones bereft and wailing. Before this war began, I spoke out with many religious leaders to question its wisdom. After we became mired in war, however, it was less clear to me what it meant to stand on the side of love, both domestically and internationally.

It is now clear to me that the time has come for a phased and scheduled withdrawal from Iraq . I have conveyed my beliefs to the White House and Congress, and our advocacy staff remain active  in the Win Without War coalition . I am also aware that hundreds of you visited the nation's capitol last month to stand up for your own beliefs about this war, and that one of our clergy is fasting for an end to this war.

As genocide and war rage in the Sudan, I have felt compelled to speak out and to act in order to focus more U.S. attention on the atrocities occurring there. The UUA is active in the Save Darfur Coalition , and I will soon be taking a trip around the globe to Africa with Dr. Charlie Clements, President of the UU Service Committee . My forbears and my faith call me there, to what I know will be a profound and disturbing journey.

The shame that I feel as I witness our government's involvement with torture in our detention centers and all around the globe also calls me to atonement. Many of us gathered in the nation's capital last month to hear torture victims and their surviving family members speak the unspeakable, as part of the UUSC's Stop Torture campaign . It was my privilege to lead an interfaith delegation, walking with these who have been broken in body but not in spirit, to Capitol Hill so that elected officials could hear their stories. Once more, I was proud that Unitarian Universalists and our interfaith friends chose to stand on the side of love.

But we don't need to travel around the globe or meet with international visitors to see human devastation writ large in the faces of others. Hurricane Katrina, and the failure of our government to care for the most vulnerable in their time of deepest need, has caused pain that will endure for decades. I am pleased and proud to say that you have now contributed almost two million dollars to the UUA-UUSC Gulf Coast Relief Fund. This generosity will allow us not only to rebuild our UU congregations in the area, but will allow us to reach out to the communities of all faiths who are most in need in the wake of this tragedy, with both immediate and longterm support.

We may feel that our small actions are insignificant, that we do not have the skills or the time or the opportunity to choose life, to stand on the side of love. And yet even small acts may have results we cannot imagine. Your own acts for love and justice inspire me, and others, in ways you may never know. And please be gentle with yourself, allowing yourself to risk even when you may fail. As the Rev. Robert Eller-Isaacs, cominister of Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul, Minnesota, wrote in his Kol Nidre:

For remaining silent when a single voice would have made a difference,
We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love...
For each time that our greed has blinded us to the need of others,
We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love...
For losing sight of our unity,
We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love...

In this time of difficulty and peril, let us, over and over, begin again in love.

In faith,

The Rev. William G. Sinkford
President, Unitarian Universalist Association

For Additional Information:
UUA Statements: The War Against Iraq

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