Peter Morales

Peter Morales is an American former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association (2009 to 2017). Morales was the UUA's first Latino president. In the early 2000s, he was the senior minister of the Jefferson Unitarian Church in Jefferson County, Colorado, a rapidly growing Unitarian Universalist congregation in the northwestern Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area. He also worked for the UUA from 2002 to 2004. In 2008, he announced his candidacy for president, and in 2009 he was elected. As the result of a controversy regarding the UUA's hiring practices and charges of institutional racism, When Morales was ten, his family later moved to a larger, English speaking congregation.

Presidency of the Unitarian Universalist Association On June 27, 2009, Morales was elected president of the Unitarian Universalist Association at the General Assembly of the Association in Salt Lake City, Utah. Morales received 2,061 votes from delegates to 1,481 for his opponent, Dr. Laurel Hallman. These were the driving forces behind the accomplishments of his administration. Within the UUA, Morales restructured staff groups for more efficiency, effectiveness, and outreach. Beyond the UUA, Morales formed deeper partnerships with other Unitarian Universalist organizations, such as the UU Service Committee, to form the UU College of Social Justice. He also partnered with the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association to create an entrepreneurial ministry program following the creation of an interfaith pilot program with leading business schools. Morales sought to position the UUA as a convener for multifaith collaboration, most notably with the United Church of Christ, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the NAACP. Morales was unrelenting in his efforts to increase Unitarian Universalist presence and involvement on issues such as marriage equality, racial justice, immigration, and climate change. He was arrested twice for his convictions. Seeing moral issues as global issues, Morales engaged in, and promoted, international relationships and efforts for equality in many parts of the world including: Japan, India, Guatemala, Mexico, and Africa.

In March 2017, a controversy broke out regarding the UUA's hiring practices as they pertained to institutional racism. Charges spread on social media that the leaders had chosen a white man over a qualified woman of color. His term had only three months left.