Letter from
the President
Beloveds,
This has been an historic year for Unitarian Universalism, and we have celebrated anniversaries of the founding of the American Unitarian Association along with our fellow Unitarians in the United Kingdom. I had the privilege of helping to celebrate the bicentennial of the New York State Convention of Universalists, and the Our Whole Lives sexuality education curriculum marked twenty-five years of programming shared with the United Church of Christ. These events serve to root us in our history, offering hope and inspiration as we continue to build on all that has come before.
I am humbled to work alongside many remarkable leaders to carry forward the mission of your UUA. They do this through creating congregational leadership resources like those in LeaderLab and UU Institute, which celebrated its tenth year and has had over 10,000 participants; supporting transformative congregational events like Building Beloved Community Beyond the Binary; and hosting retreats for BIPOC leaders like the Mosaic Makers conference. UUA staff are also doing groundbreaking work supporting Unitarian Universalists in taking values-based action in response to today’s religious, cultural, and political realities through our Meet the Moment framework.
With regular online gatherings this year, Side With Love continues to help UUs engage with urgent calls for climate justice, reproductive justice, immigration justice, voting rights, LGBTQ justice, and more. We are very proud to be part of a multifaith coalition in a lawsuit challenging ICE’s “sensitive locations policy,” and we continue our vocal public support of our transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse siblings in concert with a diverse array of faith groups.
Together, with deep care and courage, we are finding new ways to meet this moment within our Association and in the wider world. As we continue to live out our shared values, we are growing in our clarity and certainty of what’s required to answer our faith’s call to center love—which is nothing less than a heartfelt, embodied commitment to work for the thriving of all people.
Thank you for all the ways you support the missional work of your UUA.
Faithfully,
Sofía
© EyeImagery
Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt
President
Profile of the UUA President
The Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt is the tenth president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. She was elected in June 2023. As president of the Association, she is responsible for administering staff and programs that serve its more than 1,000 member congregations. She also acts as principal spokesperson and minister-at-large for the UUA.
Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt’s twenty-year ministry has included serving as a parish minister, seminary professor, scholar and environmental ethicist, and public theologian. Rooted in her lived identities as a queer, multiracial, AfroLatine first-generation daughter of immigrants from Chile and Panamá, Rev. Dr. Betancourt has already helped Unitarian Universalism live further into its commitments to be a radically welcoming, counter-oppressive, pluralistic faith movement. In addition to her many years of service as Director of the UUA’s Office of Racial and Ethnic Concerns and on many denominational leadership bodies, she also has previous experience with the role of president—in early 2017 she was appointed interim co-president to finish a vacated term, making her the first woman to lead the Unitarian Universalist Association. She most recently served as Resident Scholar and Special Advisor on Justice and Equity at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.
Rev. Dr. Betancourt has contributed to the education of future faith leaders at Yale Divinity School, Starr King School for the Ministry, and Drew University Theological School, teaching courses on topics such as ministerial leadership, theologies, womanism and Earth justice, and combatting oppression. Her own scholarship focuses on environmental ethics of liberation in a womanist and Latina feminist frame. She holds Ph.D., M.A., and M.Phil. degrees in Religious Ethics and African American Studies from Yale University, an M.Div. from Starr King School for the Ministry, and a B.S. from Cornell University with a concentration in ethnobotany. Rev. Dr. Betancourt is the author of Ecowomanism at the Panamá Canal: Black Women, Labor, and Environmental Ethics (2022). She lives in the Washington, D.C., area.