The Hope Circle Spring 2026

Dear FUCH Community,

We are so grateful for our time together this Sunday! If you missed our service on “Dignifying Our Pasts,” click here and catch the spirit of this community – we are here for dignity and healing.

As we shared in the service, we are excited to invite people into the next phase of our Hope for Us work in Spring of 2026. 

This next phase of work is for a circle of 20-25 people to work together to engage in a loving and honest look at FUCH’s history and its impact on our present in a facilitated and sacred space.

Participants are being asked to come with the intent to support the whole, holding the larger goal of soulful integration of the congregation’s lived experience and story as a nearly 75-year-old being.

We are asking that participants in this circle come to the process with…

• Willingness to be surprised, changed, and look at history differently (including their own role in history)
• Willing to share their own experiences with vulnerability, honesty, curiosity, and self-responsibility
• Intention, tools, and practices that allow them to listen to others with whom they have disagreed, been in conflict, or judge – to choose to enter this space with the goal to loosen judgment and nurture pathways towards new relationships that have felt stuck in time or in conflict
• To be someone who has impacted the congregation and been impacted by the congregation – seeing each of us as someone who has been capable of causing harm, being harmed, creating healing, and being healed in this community.
• Willingness to be a co-creator in the experiment: FUCH is currently a partner with Hope for Us in piloting pathways to healing through congregational conflict and change informed by restorative justice practices. This will be an experiment that we learn from and through together. A perfect and polished process is not our goal (nor possible). Our goal is to be relational, responsive, sincere, and real.

Come to join us in the imperfect and worthwhile!

Committing to participating in this process involves two in-person weekends (March 20-22 and May 1-3) as well as a small group gathering (on Zoom) in between. We ask that folks who participate commit to the whole process, not just part of it.

If this process is something you support but can’t sign up for at this time, we invite you to be part of our Circle of Supporters!

Please fill out this form to confirm your interest to participate in this work in one of two ways:

• Fill out this form to participate in the Hope Circle process. 
• Or, fill out this form to be a part of the Circle of Supporters cheering them on.

After receiving your confirmation through this form, Rev. Sam or a member of Team Hope will set up time with you to check in and hear more about anything that feels important to know about your participation – this 1-1 time with them will take place in February or March.

We ask that folks consider this invitation and sign up before March 1. 

With care,
Rev. Dr. Samantha Wilson

On behalf of Team Hope:
Peg Neva, Jim Wood, Mary MacKay, Martina Queenth, Rev. Deborah Bond-Upson, Rev. Samantha Wilson