History, so the saying goes, is written by the victors. People of color in this country know that the North won the Civil War on the battlefield, but we also know that white nationalism won the peace. From the failure to distribute land to the formerly enslaved people as promised (“40 acres and a mule”), to the imposition of poll taxes and literacy tests to prevent real citizenship, to the state-sponsored terrorism of the KKK, to the “Southern Strategy,” white nationalism won. President Trump tweeted this morning: “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped…

Aretha Franklin got it so right. “All I want is a little respect.” And then, just in case we didn’t get the point, she sang out that yearning and that demand over and over…”give it to me, give it to me, give it to me…a little respect, just a little bit.” Amen. I was called to Boston, last spring, to help provide leadership through a crisis prompted by charges of racism within our faith community. Could it be that this progressive religious community operates out of and as part of a culture of white supremacy?  Some of us, including most…

I am glad to be back in Portland and glad to be turning my attention to the coming church year at First Unitarian. My brief return to the UUA as one of the three Interim Co-Presidents was very challenging and much appreciated. That service ended in New Orleans on June 25 with the election of Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray as the UUA’s next President. My co-President colleagues and I managed, in 11 weeks, to settle the denominational system, set some new expectations and point to some new directions. I look forward to sharing reflections about my service and about our denomination…

I am glad to be back in Portland and glad to be turning my attention to the coming church year at First Unitarian. My brief return to the UUA as one of the three Interim Co-Presidents was very challenging and much appreciated. That service ended in New Orleans on June 25 with the election of Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray as the UUA’s next President. My co-President colleagues and I managed, in 11 weeks, to settle the denominational system, set some new expectations and point to some new directions. I look forward to sharing reflections about my service and about our denomination…

On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend over 100 First Unitarian congregants met to continue the discussion of white supremacy culture in our church and our denomination. I co-led the gathering with Rev. Bill Sinkford and was invited to report back on the discussion as a guest blogger. Our gathering was two days after the tragic racial incident on the Portland MAX train, when an avowed white supremacist killed two men and badly injured a third. The three men had intervened to protect two young women of color as the attacker assaulted them with bigoted, racist, Islamophobic threats. None of us…

It is already June 1, and that means that the end of the church program year is almost here. This has been a full and challenging year in all kinds of ways on the local and the global level. Most of you know that Rev. Bill Sinkford has been serving since early April as one of the interim co-presidents of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston. That above-and-beyond service will end June 30 when a new president of the UUA is elected. Even with Bill’s attention focused on the UUA, the life and ministry of First Unitarian continues. As we…

  It would be hard to miss the questions and conversations that are coming out of the movement-wide teach-in on white supremacy that the Unitarian Universalist Association invited its member communities to experience over the past two Sundays. Of course, as part of this community, I have felt the impact of the worship experiences of both of these past Sundays, I have heard the dialogs going on around the church, and I’ve seen some of the e-mail discussions taking place. Responses to our own teach-in experience have ranged from feelings of excitement for the deep work people feel called to…

Rev. Sinkford's Blog ... David Foster Wallace began a commencement address at Kenyon College several years ago with this story: “There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys, how’s the water?’ The two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, ‘What the [heck] is water?’” Last Sunday and this coming Sunday, over 650 Unitarian Universalist congregations will engage in some form of a “White Supremacy” Teach-In. So…

The mission of First Unitarian Church calls us to promote “lifelong spiritual growth.” That happens in a lot of ways in what we do, I hope. But one way in particular is through the Wellspring program, which we’ve been offering for about five years. Wellspring comes out of the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Rochester, NY, and is now offered in many of our congregations. It is a curriculum designed to offer an opportunity to “go deeper” in a person’s understanding of Unitarian Universalism and spiritual practice. So what does that look like? In Wellspring you join a small group of…

I expect most of you have heard the news that Rev. Bill Sinkford has answered the call to be the interim president of the Unitarian Universalist Association from now until the end of June. A new president will be elected when the General Assembly meets then. In the meantime Bill, along with two co presidents, has been asked to step in and lead our association. The request for this above-and-beyond service was made to Bill and to the board of our church and both said yes. For more on the announcement, see the notes from Bill and from Randy Russell,…