Disruption

This magazine was months in the making—and then events overtook us. Unitarian Universalist Association President Peter Morales, whose eight-year term was to conclude June 24 when the General Assembly elects a new president, resigned on April 1.

If this news takes you by surprise, please read our summaryof the dozen news stories that Elaine McArdle and I reported this spring. That article describes the sequence of events that led to Morales’s resignation, to the appointment of a three-member team of interim co-presidents, and to a renewed push by UU people of color and the UUA’s Board of Trustees to confront ingrained structures that advantage white UUs—especially white, male, ordained UUs—over others.

Our interim co-presidents—the Rev. Sofía Betancourt, the Rev. William G. Sinkford (who was Morales’s predecessor as UUA president, from 2001 to 2009), and Leon Spencer—reflect on this time of transition and opportunity for Unitarian Universalism on page 4.

You can find all our related news coverage at uuworld.org/transition.

This magazine comes to you in a time of disruption not just in our denominational life but in our national and global life as well. A disruption sometimes feels like a breakthrough, an innovation, a new way. (Morales made innovation a theme of his presidency.) Other times, it feels like an intrusion, a break, a betrayal. And people experience the same disruption in remarkably different ways. Some of my colleagues talk about creating brave space—not safe space—in challenging times. I like that. Religious people aren’t safe; they’re faithful. Let’s be brave enough to hear each other, and to find new paths when old structures fall.