From Your Minister

Dear Ones,

As many of you know, the definition of hope that is most compelling for me is one that I learned from Vaclav Havel while reading Disturbing the Peace in college: Hope is not the same as optimism. Optimism is believing that something will turn out well. Hope is believing that something is worth doing, is worth committing oneself or one’s community to, regardless of how things turn out.

This definition of hope, combined with the idea drawn from my Jewish heritage that it is our responsibility to add drops to the bucket of justice until it one day overflows, and the idea drawn from my Christian heritage that God is Love and it is our responsibility to live that out as compassion/care and justice, has defined so much of my life and work in the world. It has guided me in times of personal and family loss, health crises, my environmental career, leading a crisis support line, and now my ministry. It is certainly guiding me in navigating these times of growing authoritarianism, repression, and injustice.

Recently, reflecting on how I and we choose hope has been helping me navigate a big change. We recently announced that Johnson County Interfaith Coalition (JCIC), a group dedicated to advancing racial justice, will be closing at the end of 2025. JCIC did crucial work in this community and I have had the privilege as serving as co-president of the organization for the past 3 ½ years. What began as an idea of creating a movement of compassion, justice, and interfaith collaboration blossomed into a vibrant organization that brought people together across lines of faith, tradition, and background to work for the common good.

But as times have changed and people’s commitments have changed, thoughtful conversations, careful planning, and prayerful discernment led JCIC’s board to decide that it was time to end JCIC and allow something else to emerge. It’s quite difficult to have an organization like JCIC end, particularly in these times. And, for me, choosing hope means helping the organization end well, maintaining and building on the relationships we created through JCIC, and then helping something new emerge to meet our current times.

This month, our Soul Matters theme is Choosing Hope. This will give us an opportunity to explore how we each understand hope, how it guides us, and how choosing hope affects our lives and our communities. As we explore the idea of choosing hope, we’ll get to celebrate the holidays of Hannukah, Solstice, Christmas, Kwanza, and the New Year. We’ll gather for learning and crafting opportunities, celebrations, mourning, reflection, and community. And I will be rereading some books about countering authoritarianism that will be appearing on the minister’s bookshelf in the UUS library and in bibliographies for our worship services.

I’m looking forward to engaging with you about what choosing hope means to you individually and to us as a congregation in these times. Because freedom and responsibility of the pew means that each member of a congregation gets to discern what an idea means to them given their life’s journey and what it means to act faithfully to help our congregation continue our collective spiritual journey.

Love and Blessings,

Rev. Diana