A Holiday Message from the Rev. William G. Sinkford (virtual, choice)

[Green Gaia]

A Holiday Message from the Rev. William G. Sinkford

December 2005

Dear Friends,

In this holiday season, as we approach the New Year, we pause to look back over the year past. For so many it has been so hard.

I traveled to New Orleans just a few days ago and saw the physical devastation left by the hurricane. Mounds of debris on virtually every street. Many thousands of houses destroyed or standing empty, too severely damaged to ever be homes again. I heard stories of the trauma of these last months.

The people of New Orleans, hundreds of thousands of them, had to flee, becoming travelers often with destinations out of their control. A modern day diaspora. They had no choice but to rely on the hospitality of strangers.

But I also saw our congregations in the city coming together for worship and support in a Presbyterian church which opened its doors to us. Planning has begun for a vital Unitarian Univeralist presence in a rebuilt New Orleans. I am profoundly grateful for the outpouring of support from Unitarian Universalists for our New Orleans churches and for the citizens throughout the Gulf Coast. We will use some of those funds to encourage long term change in that region.

In November I went to Chad in north-central Africa with Charlie Clements, President of the UUSC. Charlie and I visited the refugee camps for those who had fled the genocidal war in the Darfur region of western Sudan. The refugees fled most often with only the clothes on their backs, and it was three months before United Nations aid arrived. But the people of the terribly poor villages of eastern Chad found it in their hearts to welcome these travelers. They opened their granaries and shared with the refugees all that they had.

In the Christian story of Christmas, a pregnant woman and her husband are forced to leave their home, becoming travelers in this season, relying upon the generosity of others. There is no room at the inn; the only hospitality offered was a place in a stable.

As we look back on this last year, we must hold its tragedies in our hearts. But we can also hold the reality that our response to those tragedies has been open-hearted and generous.

As we end 2005, Unitarian Univeralists will celebrate Hanukah and Christmas, Kwanzaa and the Solstice. These are celebrations of hope and light in the days of long darkness. May we remember that hope can be found not only in the faith that the days will once again lengthen into light, but also in our response to these recent dark days. It is the work of Christmas.

The Work of Christmas
by Howard Thurman

When the song of angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the brothers,
to make music in the heart.

Blessings of the season.

In faith,

William G. Sinkford
President
Unitarian Universalist Association