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May/June response: Responsively Yours
Practice Hope Together for a Bright Future
by Sally Vonner
Greetings in faith, hope, and love. Summer is almost upon us, even though I am still enjoying the beauty of spring and new beginnings all around. It has been a challenging last four months for many with a deluge of never-ending chaos, confusion, and challenges enough to dim our hope for a bright future.
General Secretary and CEO
United Women in Faith
Photo: Janet Joyner
The 2025 Mission u theme, once again, is very timely: Practicing Hope Together. The adult, children, and youth studies remind us that we can get through the dim times and day-to-day challenges when we have hope. If we practice hope together, we are bound by Jesus’ resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Like the early Christian faith communities who endured persecution, divisions, and more, we must hope and work for a bright future even when we do not see nor can grasp how Jesus will bring us through.
I hope you will commit to attending a Mission u in your conference or virtually wherever offered. Let us grow in our hope together. Hope is foundational to our faith. We can hope for a bright future because Jesus is the sure and steadfast anchor of our souls (Hebrews 6) and has promised abundant life for all who believe.
Hebrews 11:1-3 says that faith is the evidence of things hoped for and not seen. Times of struggle like what we have recently faced in the erasure of jobs and history of the marginalized, criminalization of communities of color, undermining climate justice, and the overtone of meritocracy can be overwhelming and isolating.
United Women in Faith will continue to deepen our faith and advocate for justice, putting our hope and love in action aligning with God’s call to be light for the vulnerable. This is why, for 124 years United Women in Faith and our predecessors have created transformative studies grounded in theology, faith, hope, and love to share throughout The United Methodist Church and beyond. Read more about Mission u 2025 in this issue.
The month of May invites us to celebrate Mother’s Day, remembering our mothers and women who have been mother figures in our lives. I appreciate the image of God as a mother—like a hen gathering her brood under her wings (Matthew 23). May we find solace in the arms of our mothers and mother figures living and in the memory of those in life eternal.
June invites us to celebrate Father’s Day, likewise remembering our fathers and men who have been father figures offering nurture, care, and support for our well-being.
Lastly, May and June offer time to practice hope together when we attend our annual conference meetings. This is a time for fellowship, worship, learning, celebrating ministry of clergy and laity, remembering the saints who joined the great cloud of witnesses, and taking care of business. The business this year includes voting on the ratification of four constitutional amendments. United Women in Faith supports the adoption of each amendment and has been mobilizing members to vote yes. We believe this is one path to a bright future for The United Methodist Church and for us, moving forward in hope.
SALLY VONNER
General Secretary and CEO
United Women in Faith
