Grammy winners serenade Sinkford at reception

A donor reception honoring outgoing UUA President William G. Sinkford Thursday night featured speeches by several notable UU leaders and culminated in a surprise performance by Sinkford's favorite band, Grammy-winning a capella group The Persuasions.

In one particularly moving speech, Denny Davidoff, former UUA moderator, described her relationship with Sinkford. "More than anything else, Bill Sinkford is a pastoral presence in my life," she said. "In emails and on the phone and snatched in face-to-face meetings, he comforts me when I am scared. He listens—oh, how he listens—when I have made plans and God is laughing. He loves me when I am anxious and try to project that anxiety on him with criticism or complaint. [His family knows] the steadfastness of his love, and so do I. UUA presidents come and go, but love lives forever, and I am standing on the side of love."

During her own comments, Gini Courter, current UUA moderator, wondered what might have happened had Sinkford begun his term now with the current U.S. administration and national sensibility, instead of eight years ago, but quoted James Michener, who said, "An age is called dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it." Courter continued, "I know we are where we are—in the standing that we have, in the increased public voice, in the increased visibility—that we were ready because Bill Sinkford refused to let us keep our light under a bushel."

Other speakers included the Rev. Terry Sweetser, the UUA's vice president of stewardship and development; the Rev. Wayne Arnason, chair of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee and co-minister of West Shore UU Church in Rocky River, Ohio; and the Rev. Abhi Janamanchi, minister of Unitarian Universalists of Clearwater, Fla., and a member of the UUA President's International Advisory Council.

The Persuasions finished the evening off with 85 minutes of hits such as "Lean on Me" and "Chain Gang" that got the audience clapping and moving, and, at one point, participating in a conga line "train" around the room.

Expressing his surprise at their appearance, Sinkford called the performance a "thrill" and exclaimed, "I have loved these gentlemen for 40 years!"

Donors made special contributions to bring The Persuasions to the event as a personal thank you to Sinkford for his many years of service to Unitarian Universalism.