Keynote: “To Love as If It Matters: Meeting the Moment in Difficult Times”

In times of authoritarianism, targeted hatred, and war, how we sustain ourselves in our everyday faithful living has everything to do with how we show up to Meet the Moment together in community. This keynote will explore UU stories and theologies of community, discipleship, and faith to engage what it means for our congregations and communities to meet this moment with radical love as our guide. 

The Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt is the tenth president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, elected in June 2023. As president of the Association, she is responsible for administering staff and programs that serve its more than 1,000 member congregations. She also acts as principal spokesperson and minister-at-large for the UUA. Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt’s twenty-year ministry has included serving as a parish minister, seminary professor, scholar and environmental ethicist, and public theologian. She has contributed to the education of future faith leaders at Yale Divinity School, Starr King School for the Ministry, and Drew University Theological School, teaching courses on topics such as ministerial leadership, theologies, womanism and Earth justice, and combatting oppression. She is the author of Ecowomanism at the Panamá Canal: Black Women, Labor, and Environmental Ethics (2022).