In 2006, Reverend Diane Rollert became the 11th settled and first female minister of the Unitarian Church of Montreal since its founding in 1842. She completed her studies in parish ministry and Masters of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School in 2005, after careers in the online information industry (before there was an Internet!) and in education as a Montessori teacher and then as a beloved UU religious educator at the First Parish of Concord, Massachusetts.
Raised in a non-practicing Jewish family, she discovered Unitarian Universalism as a young adult. She says, “I truly found a home where I could interweave my Jewish roots with my growing spiritual curiosity.”
Rev. Diane is passionate about celebrating spiritual diversity within the congregation and beyond its walls. She is recognized as a bridge builder between religious and non-religious communities in Montreal. She has served for many years as an associate chaplain for Concordia’s Multi-faith & Spirituality Centre, and was the first female president of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Montreal from 2015 to 2019.
During the 2014 debate on Quebec’s proposed Charter of Secularism (Bill 60), she testified before the Parliamentary Commission on Secularism of the Quebec National Assembly. In response to the bill, she created the group “Women Who Believe in Women/Femmes qui croient en la femme,” advocating for the rights of all women to choose how they present themselves in public, including the right to wear religious symbols. She also worked closely with the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Montreal to produce a series of videos celebrating Quebec's diversity.
In 2019, she helped to found Coalition Inclusion Québec, an organization formed to oppose Bill 21, now Law 21, which bans the wearing of religious symbols by teachers, lawyers and others. On behalf of Coalition Inclusion Québec, she organized people’s hearings and testified once again at the Parliamentary Commission of the Quebec National Assembly, this time regarding Bill 21. She currently serves as president of Coalition Inclusion Québec.
Rev. Diane serves as UUA ambassador to the Unitarian Universalists in Western Europe. She was the Canadian Unitarian Council's 2011 Confluence Lecturer, focusing on post-secularism, and served as minister to the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Philippines while on sabbatical in 2012.
Originally from the United States, Rev. Diane studied in Mexico and Spain, lived in Luxembourg and, over the years, spent much time with her husband's family in northern Italy. Passionate about languages and communication, she learned French after her arrival in Montreal. She also speaks Italian and still remembers much of her Spanish from her studies. She has a special affection for the UU communities in the Philippines as well as for the Gaspé Peninsula, where she travels frequently.
