During July, while Rev. Sinkford takes a summer break, look to this weekly update for ways that our congregation is responding and how you can engage in our justice work. Last week with over 300 signatures, including ministers and congregants, First Unitarian submitted this letter to Mayor Wheeler. We demanded he use his power as Police Commissioner to end the egregious human and civil rights violations during the uprising of protest. We have not received a response from the mayor. To lift up our growing concern, congregants have written letters to the editor of the Oregonian. Lena Lee was able to get…

Over the summer, Speaking of Justice: Weekly Update will bring updates on First Unitarian’s social justice work, including the call for police accountability, our response during the Covid19 crisis and other issues facing our city and our world. During July, while Rev. Sinkford takes a summer break, look to this weekly update for ways that our congregation is responding and how you can engage in our justice work. Here is the link to this week's Speaking of Justice: Weekly Update.

Hello all, For the month of July "Bill's Blog" will be in the form of "Speaking of Justice". This is a weekly update Social Justice does every week through a DIFFERENT Google Doc link. Over the summer, Speaking of Justice: Weekly Update will bring updates on First Unitarian’s social justice work, including the call for police accountability, our response during the Covid19 crisis and other issues facing our city and our world. During July, while Rev. Sinkford takes a summer break, look to this weekly update for ways that our congregation is responding and how you can engage in our justice work.…

In a normal year, I would be at the UUA General Assembly now. I suppose in some sense I am “there,” though what that means is that I fit in attendance by zoom at selected events between zoom meetings “here” at First Unitarian. In a normal year, we would have ended holding two services in the sanctuary two weeks ago and our attendance would have dropped by 40-50%. This year we have been offering one on-line service since March and our “attendance,” with 600-800 devices tuned in, means many more folks are sharing worship than we would have seen in…

The Rainbow symbol and images of butterflies bracketed the phrase, “All Black Lives Matter,” on the long banner held across the plaza in front of the Supreme Court this morning. For the second time in a week, our highest court delivered an affirmation of the rule of law and sustained our hope for justice. After two very conservative appointments, who could have predicted that the court would extend employment protection to GLBTQ folks, with one of those new appointments joining the majority to make the decision 6-3? Who could have predicted, on the President’s favorite wellspring for hate, immigration, that…

We have a chance, here in Portland and in this nation, to begin a process of real change. The unavoidable awareness of police murders of Black citizens and the brutality of the militarized response to peaceful protest have finally pried open a possibility for change. Black Lives Matter might finally start to become more of a reality and less of a slogan. After my sermon on May 31 (Markers and Meanings) and as the protests gathered and sustained momentum, several of you wanted to know what specific policies and practices needed to be changed. I spoke of “re-purposing” the resources…

As protests continue here in Portland and across the nation, there is much that needs to be said. I want to begin with the basics. Justice has always been a matter of life and death for Black, Indigenous and People of Color in the United States. Justice, fairness, dismantling systems of oppression therefore has always had an urgency for People of Color which has only rarely been shared by majorities of those who identify as White. I do not believe that urgency is even glimpsed by many who identify as White. The structures that keep Black Lives in jeopardy must…

Imagine: A Black police officer forces his knee onto the neck of a white man, in handcuffs, lying face down on the pavement. His knee keeps pressing down harder and harder for 8 minutes while the white man gasps and pleads that he cannot breathe, begs for air, calls his children’s names. Cell phone video of the violence goes viral. Can you imagine that that Black man would not be in jail? Can you imagine that he would not even have been charged? The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis has broken through even the numbing truth of 100,000 deaths…

As energy builds to “re-open” the nation, the question for First Unitarian is when we might imagine “re-opening” the church. When can we return to worshipping in the sanctuary? When can we open our campus for programming and rentals, for rites of passage and community events? When can we get back to “normal?” Several weeks ago, we announced that Sunday worship would continue only on-line through the summer. We have just made the difficult decision that we should not plan to return to the sanctuary for worship in the fall. First Unitarian will plan for on-line only worship through the…

The Lord of the Flies offers a grim and pessimistic portrayal of human nature. The “darkness [of the human] heart,” to use the author’s phrase, is revealed when a group of boys from a British boarding school, shipwrecked without adults on a deserted island, descend into violence. Their “civilized” veneers are quickly peeled away and their violent human natures emerge. Three of them die before they are rescued. The book was published in 1951 and helped shape a generation (or more) that was struggling to sustain a positive, liberal view of progress and human nature despite the reality of Auschwitz,…