DLFF Newsletter – December 2025
DLFF Newsletter – December 2025
Gratitude and Hope
As we end this month and our Soul Matter’s theme of Nurturing Gratitude, I am reflecting on the many things and people I am grateful for this year. My family and friends are the first that come to mind – both those alive and those who have died. They have helped make me who I am today with many lessons learned along the way. I also find myself grateful for little things each day, such as a tree with its crimson leaves still clinging to the branches, or a hot cup of chai on a chilly morning.
At UCE, there are so many people I’m grateful for! The staff, or course, is the best. They’re not only good at their jobs, they’re passionate, respectful, and joyful as they work with each other and the congregation. And in my little corner of it all, I have some dedicated people who care about our young people and make them feel welcomed and a part of UCE life.
As we celebrate friends and family and all we’re grateful for, I invite you to add to our gratitude tree in the lobby if you haven’t yet done so. You can find a basket of paper leaves to write your gratitude on and then hang them on the tree in the corner of the reading nook.
As we look to a new month starting next week, our Soul Matters theme is Choosing Hope. With all that is going on in our area, the country, and the world, it is hard to feel any hope at all. The cold and dreary days certainly don’t help either. UCE, on the other hand, helps so much! I have heard many stories in the past couple of weeks when someone shared how meaningful our community is and how it gives them hope.
Christmas is certainly a time of hope for many with the promise of the shining star and the baby in the manger to bring peace and joy to all. As you can see in this newsletter, there is much happening at UCE to be grateful and hopeful for; Cocoa, Carols, and Community, Ornament Sunday, the Christmas Pageant, Christmas Eve worship, and many ways to make a difference in the world through our committees and community partnerships.
In closing, I wish to share this poem from our Soul Matters Sharing Circle by Julián Jamaica Soto:
In this community, we hold hope close. We don’t
always know what comes next, but that cannot dissuade us.
We don’t always know just what to do, but that will not mean
that we are lost in the wilderness. We rely on the certainty
beneath, the foundation of our values and ethics. We
are the people who return to love like a North Star and to
the truth that we are greater together than we are alone.
Our hope does not live in some glimmer of an indistinct future.
Rather, we know the way to the world of which we dream,
and by covenant and the movement forward of one right action
and the next, we know that one day we will arrive at home.
With Gratitude,
Kathy