Please come to church on Sunday, January 10th, 2016 for an Introduction to Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office. Our guest preacher that morning is Bruce Knotts. Bruce is committed to our Faithful Dialogue program from 9.30 a.m. – 10.15 a.m. and will preach at our Sunday service at 10:30 a.m. Rev. Roberta Finkelstein invited Bruce Knotts to help us understand better the role UU-UNO plays within our Religious Community. 

Bruce Knotts was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia, worked for Raytheon in Saudi Arabia (1976-80) and on a World Bank contract in Somalia (1982-4), before he joined the Department of State as a U.S. diplomat in 1984.  Bruce had diplomatic assignments in Greece, Zambia, India, Pakistan, Kenya, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire and The Gambia, where he was Deputy Chief of Mission.  While in Cote d’Ivoire, Bruce served as the Regional Refugee Coordinator for West Africa covering 16 African nations from Mauritania to Nigeria, but focusing on the refugees from the conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia and later in Cote d’Ivoire itself.  Bruce worked closely with several UN Special Representatives and observed UN peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone from 2000-2003.  In 2004, Bruce was elected to the Board of GLIFAA (Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies).  Bruce retired from the Foreign Service in 2007 and joined the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-UNO) as its Executive Director at the beginning of 2008.  Bruce founded faith-based advocacy for sexual orientation/gender identity human rights at the United Nations and he continues to advocate for the rights of women, indigenous peoples and for sustainable development in moral terms of faith and values.  Bruce is co-chair of the UN NGO Committee on Human Rights, the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security, member of the NGO UN Security Council Working Group, on the Board of the NGO UN Committee on Sustainable Development and chair of the NGO/DPI Executive Committee.  Bruce married Isaac Humphrie in 2006.

For more information on UU-UNO, please click here.