President Sinkford delivers final report

In his final presidential report to the General Assembly, UUA President William G. Sinkford reviewed the key initiatives of his eight-year administration, urged Unitarian Universalists to commit themselves to becoming a multicultural and multiracial faith tradition, and announced a new public witness and social justice campaign called "Standing on the Side of Love."

Sinkford highlighted his work to make Unitarian Universalism better known to the general public, from press coverage of his election as the first black leader of the UUA in 2001 to the UUA's marketing and growth campaigns. He said that Unitarian Universalists had matured spiritually during the eight years of his presidency, engaging his invitation to reclaim a "language of reverence" even as they sometimes criticized his own vocabulary.

And he celebrated widespread UU support for same-sex marriage rights: "No issue has defined our life together in the last eight years than marriage equality," he said. "Unitarian Universalists have been in the forefront of the most important civil rights journey of our generation . . . And we are committed to standing on the side of love until marriage equality is legal in California and every state in this great nation."

Sinkford announced the successful completion of the $50 million "Now Is the Time" capital campaign. More than 24,000 individual UUs contributed to the campaign, which raised $21,084,956 in cash gifts and $30,410,309 in planned gifts over the course of the six-year campaign.

And he introduced a new UUA public witness campaign, "Standing on the Side of Love," which will offer a variety of ways for UUs and others to support hate crimes legislation and to spread the word that the mission of Unitarian Universalism is to "stand on the side of love." "We want our message to go viral," he said, describing ways that the campaign will engage everything from postcards to social networking media on the Web. He directed people to the Standing on the Side of Love website to join the campaign.

Volunteers passed out Standing on the Side of Love buttons and postcards, and banners with the campaign logo were hung throughout the convention center.

Sinkford also made his first statement about the turmoil in Iran, where hundreds of thousands of people have marched in the streets challenging the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which has responded with violence and repression: "Let me ask you to hold the people of Iran in your hearts," he said. "May the violence in that land come to an end, and may the will of the people there finally be heard."

He concluded his report by thanking Moderator Gini Courter for her shared leadership of the Association, his wife and children for their support, Executive Vice President Kay Montgomery and the UUA staff for their work, and finally the thousands of Unitarian Universalists who have responded to his calls to action. The General Assembly responded with a long standing ovation.