What a week to be writing my first column for this newsletter, a week fraught with fear, pain, anger, and grief, in the wake of the terrorist attack last Tuesday. These times are difficult for people of faith, for how do we hold onto our faith in humanity, or in any sort of Divine presence, in the face of such an egregious human act of hatred and destruction?

One way that I hold onto hope, that I retain faith, is by observing just how few people planned and executed this attack, and just how many people have worked to rescue the victims. I count how few people caused death and how many people have lined up to donate blood, to lend life. I listen to the radio and hear how people in New York City been reaching out to each other, bringing food to people in hospitals, supporting total strangers.

On the day of the attack, I sat in a group comprised of Christians, Jews, and Muslims, called by the senior minister of this church. Hope grew in my heart as we planned a service together, one in which we honor each other's faith traditions. When clergy and laity of different faiths come together in peace, to share messages of peace from their own traditions, it is an occasion of hope.

We need a word for events of this kind, a word that is the opposite of terrorism, something like healing-ism, peace-ism, helping-ism, hopeful-ism. In the coming weeks, let us participate in acts of hopeful-ism, small and large, and in abundance.

Therese Baumberger

Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church
55 Eckley Lane
Walnut Creek, Ca 94596
925-934-3135