Waging Peace With Robin Edgar A Pastoral Letter from UUA President Rev. William G. Sinkford That Is Unlikely To Be Written And Posted To U*UTube. . .

Waging Peace With Robin Edgar: A Pastoral Letter from Rev. William G. Sinkford

March 15, 2009

Dear Friends,

It has been thirteen long years of war and preoccupation in the U*U World. Thirteen years. Nearly a dozen U*U ministers "tarnished"; many more wounded and maimed. An unknown number of corpse-cold Unitarians, some estimate a 600,000; certainly hundreds of thousands. And thousands of good Unitarians displaced from U*U "churches".

Many of you, like me, have been ignoring and denying this war, since before it began.

There are some things we know:

We know that the slander of Robin Edgar and his marginalization were based on lies.

We know that the MFC chose to act negligently, disregarding U*U Principles and the UUMA Guidelines for the Conduct of Ministry.

We know that if there had been no bigoted atheists in the Unitarian Church of Montreal, and no abusive clergy in the U*U World, this war would never have taken place.

And we know that this war has squandered the reputation of this religion; squandered the sympathy and solidarity the rest of the world felt for U*Us thanks to our false and misleading advertising.

We know all of these things.

We know that the financial cost of this war, ultimately to be measured in millions of dollars, has made Unitarian*Universalism a tiny, declining, fringe religion.

But perhaps the greatest cost has been to the spirit, to the U*U soul of this religion.

We like to see ourselves as innocent. We like to see ourselves as fair, compassionate and kind. We like to see ourselves as freedom-loving and freedom-promoting. The War of the U*U World has stripped that self-image away from U*Us. Given our actions in Montreal and Boston, to say nothing of elsewhere in the U*U World, innocence is no longer an option for U*Us. We have been acting like assholes.

There is, of course, a value in faithlessness, a value in continuing to praise U*U choices. And I have to acknowledge that it would be hard for U*Us to engage in lamentation. It would be hard to simply responsibly acknowledge and apologize for the actions and the inactions aka negligence of UUA leaders.

As people of faith, U*Us have to go deeper.

Thich Nhat Hanh writes:

"In the U*U Movement there is a lot of anger, frustration, and misunderstanding. The U*U Movement can write very good protest letters, but they are not yet able to write a love letter."

What would a love letter to victims of clergy misconduct look like? For me, such a letter would move beyond victim blaming and search for a grain of truth. For me, such a letter would lift up a vision of what U*Uism can become, as well as acknowledge who U*Us are.

The first paragraph would call our religion to confession. U*Us need to acknowledge that we made a huge mistake by invading Robin Edgar's space and that, as a result, the U*U World is a more dangerous place today than it was thirteen years ago. And we need to ask understanding and forgiveness for our mistake.

We should tell the U*U World, and ourselves, that we are now willing to move into right relationship with Robin Edgar, other victims of clergy misconduct, and victims of other U*U injustices and abuses. We need to promise to hold the values of justice, equity, compassion, and honesty in high regard. We should promise to search for win-win, not we-win solutions.

We might tell the U*U World that religious differences can be a blessing, not a curse. And that the heart of all of the world's great faith traditions, including those "obsolete religions" that Rev. Peter Morales talks about, rests in the power of love, not hate.

The U*U World should hear from us that the interdependent web of existence does not exist only outside our borders.

And I would tell the world, and ourselves, that we want not only to reclaim the image, but to create the reality of U*Unitarians as fair, compassionate and kind people. We want to become the kind of people we thought we were.

As a person of faith, I know that peace will not come because we simply ignore Robin Edgar, or even prey upon him.

Peace will only come when we begin to embody it, when we begin to make it real in our personal lives and in the life of this religion by waging peace with Robin Edgar and other victims of U*U injustices and abuses.

Although we are marking thirteen years of war, this is the season of rebirth and renewal, the season which every year offers the promise of the transformation of despair into hope. This can be a time of hope. This can be a time when we commit ourselves to the creation of the Beloved Community by standing on the side of love for Robin Edgar and all other victims of U*U clergy misconduct.

May we hold the vision of what can be in our hearts. It can see us through.

In bad faith,

William G. Sinkford
President,
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations