Title Reverend Spouse Maria Sinkford (m. 2005) Religion Unitarian Universalism Education Harvard University | Children 2 Successor Peter Morales Name William Sinkford Predecessor John A. Buehrens | |
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Born 1946/1947 (age 68–69) San Francisco, California, U.S. Occupation Senior minister (2010–present)
President, Unitarian Universalist Association (2001–2009) Employer First Unitarian Church of Portland Board member of Chicago's Meadville Lombard Theological School Residence Portland, Oregon, United States | ||
The Rev. William G. Sinkford (1946–) serves as the senior minister for the First Unitarian Church in Portland, Oregon. He is more widely known for being the seventh president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA), a position he held from 2001 to 2009. His installation as UUA president made him the first African American to lead that organization.
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In April 2017, Sinkford was appointed interim co-president of the UUA (along with Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt and Dr. Leon Spencer) following the resignation of his successor, Rev. Peter Morales. Sinkford served until the election of a new president, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, in June 2017.
Career
Between 1970 and 1980 Sinkford held management positions in marketing with Gillette, Avon Products, Johnson Products, and Revlon; he later founded his own business, Sinkford Restorations. Sinkford "turned to ministry" in 1993.
In 2001 he became the seventh president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. In 2003, Sinkford said the "main goal of his presidency of the Unitarian Universalist Association was to reclaim a "vocabulary of reverence" within the association; he had been struck by the fact that the association's Purposes and Principles "contain not one piece of traditional religious language, not one word"; it includes generalizations about human dignity, justice and "the interdependent web of all existence," but does not do much "to capture our individual searches for truth and meaning." Sinkford has previously considered himself a "card-carrying atheist" who in 1997, after his comatose son had recovered, began to develop a "prayer life centered on thankfulness and gratefulness to God." William F. Schulz who had served as UUA president from 1985 to 1993, supported Sinkford's efforts to use a "wide lexicon" of religious language, and had "long been critical of the position of some humanists that would sanctify secular language and lock us into a calcified rationalism."
Sinkford was succeeded in 2009 by the Rev. Peter Morales.
Education
Sinkford was born in San Francisco and attended Harvard University, where he was among those vocal in their opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War; upon commencement in 1968 he joined a group of students calling it "unjust and immoral" and pledging publicly not to serve in the armed forces, even if drafted. He graduated cum laude in 1968, then spent a year in Greece as a Michael Clark Rockefeller Fellow.
In 1995, Sinkford received his M.Div. from Starr King School for the Ministry. In 2002, Tufts University awarded Sinkford the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa.