On January 15, Bruce Knotts, the Executive Director of the UU-United Nations Office will be in our pulpit. After a distinguished career, serving abroad with the US State Department, Bruce assumed leadership of this small office in 2008. Bruce has, among other achievements, helped place BGLT rights on the UN’s agenda. His work and the work of the UN Office is a testament to the role our faith can play in the world. I hope you will welcome Bruce and I am sure you will want to hear his message.

The UN Office works internationally in a variety of ways. Late in 2008, just after Bruce had become Executive Director, he and I visited one of the UU-UNO partner programs in eastern Ghana where we help support several schools, primarily for children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. It was there I met the Queen Mothers.

The Manya Krobo district of Ghana is administered by a Chief, a charming man who also teaches at Emory University in Atlanta. But the district is really run by about 50 “Queen Mothers,” leaders of the local communities that make up the district who select and can depose the chief.

When the AIDS epidemic began impacting Ghana, the Queen Mothers decided that they had to respond. They assembled financial resources and used their very considerable influence in the local villages and towns to mount a major educational campaign. They promoted the “ABC” approach (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condomize). The billboards were still prominent when we arrived.  Were they successful? The incidence of new AIDS infections was reduced by 75%.

Bruce and I visited the schools we support and we were feted by the Queen Mothers and the children. None of the children are ever identified as AIDS-orphans. The Queen Mothers refuse to stigmatize any child. Some of you have seen the bracelet of pink beads I often wear. It was a gift to me from the Queen Mothers and I will always cherish it.

If, in this New Year, you are questioning whether you and I can make a difference, I encourage you to be in church on the 15th. The stories from the UN Office will not only warm your heart but remind you of the kind of world that we can help create.

Happy New Year!
Bill

Bruce Knotts Biography

Bruce Knotts was born and raised in California. He got his Bachelor’s Degree in History from Pepperdine University and his Master’s Degree in International Education from the Monterey Institute of International Studies; both in California. Bruce was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia. He worked for Raytheon in Saudi Arabia and on a World Bank contract in Somalia, before he joined the Department of State as a U.S. diplomat in 1984. Bruce had diplomatic assignments in Greece, Zambia, India, Pakistan, Kenya, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire and The Gambia, where he was Deputy Chief of Mission. While in Cote d’Ivoire, Bruce served as the Regional Refugee Coordinator for West Africa covering all 16 nations of West Africa from Mauritania to Nigeria, but focusing on the refugees from the conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia and later in Cote d’Ivoire itself. In 2004, Bruce was elected to the Board of GLIFAA (Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies). Bruce retired from the Foreign Service in 2007 and joined the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office as its Executive Director at the beginning of 2008.