The retirement of Rev. Diane Rollert of the Unitarian Church of Montreal marks the culmination — so far — of a complex journey.
The recent retirement of Rev. Diane Rollert as minister of the Unitarian Church of Montreal was a milestone in the religious history of Montreal and Canada that has been too little noticed.
Her 18 years as minister of this congregation, established in 1842 and today one of about 40 congregations across Canada of the liberal Unitarian Universalist denomination, was the culmination — so far — of a complex journey.
It began with her childhood in an irreligious Jewish household in Cleveland, Ohio, and eventually led to a master’s degree from the Harvard Divinity School in 2005 and her becoming the 11th minister of the Unitarian congregation, founded in 1842, and the first woman in that post.
She also wrestled with contentious issues of faith and of sex and gender within the congregation.
“I have always seen myself as a religious person, a person of faith,” she recalled in her final sermon June 9. “It broke my heart when newcomers dared to use the word ‘God’ and were told by some members, rather coldly and dismissively, ‘We don’t say that here!’
“Be mindful of intolerance that leads to miscommunication,” she warned her flock in that sermon. “Be mindful of jargon that creates a tribal culture and excludes those who are newcomers and have yet to learn the new language. Be curious instead of judgmental.”
Rollert’s congregation was not totally exempt from the declining trend in attending services in churches of various persuasions — or from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of it, services were suspended from March 2020, for a couple of years, until the church began to offer worshippers a choice of attendance in person or online.
On June 9, the Sunday of her final sermon, 105 worshippers were in the auditorium and 21 online; close to 115 had been present on the second Sunday of March 2020, just before services were halted by the pandemic. This was up a few from the second Sunday in March in her first year, 2006, although there was an overall decline of about 12 per cent between 2006 and 2019. The traditionally well-attended Christmas Eve service drew 196 in 2006, 275 in 2019 and 188 in person and 14 online last year.
She is committed to dialogue, especially among Christians, Jews and Muslims. Her public reactions to the Israel-Hamas conflict, while restrained, showed her grief for victims on both sides. As part of a “meditation” at the Easter Sunday service on March 31, she asked: “Can we pray for a ceasefire? Can we imagine that leaders entrenched in their own self-preservation can see reason and find meaningful compromise for prisoners and hostages to be freed, for the bombings to end?”
Rollert told her congregation Quebec remains home to her and her family. I hope we have not heard the last of her.
Harvey Shepherd is a former religion writer at The Gazette. He has been involved with the Unitarian Church of Montreal in various ways for some time, inactive in recent years but still a member.