Skip to main content

What difference does First Unitarian make in your life?

By

We are loved and accepted for who we are. Our struggles and our passions are recognized and shared.   We do good things together.  We are drawn together by love and hope.  Scott Hayman


Long before I attended a First Unitarian Church service, or even set foot in the church, I was drawn, without knowing, to its community and its tradition, its people and its abundance.  This was around 1990.  I was working in the trenches running a program called the Donations Clearinghouse, a program created by the Worcester Committee on Homelessness and Housing, which is now known as the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance. The Donations Clearinghouse still operates with the simple mission of collecting donations of furniture and household goods and redistributing them to homeless families making a fresh start in their own apartment.  So around 1990, Will Sherwood, our Music Director, whose day job was at Digital Equipment Corporation, called me up and said, “We’d like to raise funds for your program. We’ll have a holiday concert and do a direct-mail appeal as well”.  This was the day of dot- matrix printers and computers that stared at you with blinking underscores.  This was the day when corporations were more or less locally owned and controlled and they provided “matching corporate gifts” if their workers wanted to give their time, energy and money to something they cared about.  Will Sherwood was this quirky guy who, with his architect partner Blaine, wanted to give back!  Will was the ultimate re-user and re-director of goods and he couldn’t sit still for a minute.  I had no idea what I was getting into, but of course I said, “ let’s do this,” given that we were always in need of new tires for our box truck. This relationship ended up raising well over $10,000 annually for the Donations Clearinghouse’s operations.  It was a sustaining amount!

It turns out that the majority of sustaining givers to the Donations Clearinghouse concerts and mail appeal were members or friends of the First Unitarian Church of Worcester.  It turns out that I got married, and we had children and my children have grown up at the First Unitarian Church of Worcester.     
Last week, my daughter tweeted to her “followers” that she loves her Church. This is a bold move for a teenage girl in Worcester! This is a bold move for a person anywhere. On the recent Music Sunday I was sitting in the pew with a good friend of our family.  The music was beautiful and moving and the outside light poured in the windows.  She turned to me with a teardrop in the corner of her eye and said “this place is amazing”.
This is why I am member of this church and why I give back.  We are loved and accepted for who we are. Our struggles and our passions are recognized and shared.   We do good things together.  We are drawn together by love and hope.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Member Stories: A Conversation with Linda Tartaglia

By
A conversation with Linda Tartaglia about joining First Unitarian and getting involved in the church community. Brian Shea: How long have you and your family been members of the church? Linda Tartaglia: About 2 years now. My husband Jim attended first, and then I started in the spring about a year later and by the end of the summer/early fall, that’s when we became members. Brian: A few months ago I was ushering and Jim was the welcome person in the front of the church. So we were just kind of chatting and it was funny because I think our family joined around the same time your family did, but I just assumed you had been members for a long time. You know when you go into a new place you assume that everyone has been there for a long time? So he was like, “oh yeah, we just joined relatively soon”. And he had mentioned, that he was brought up in the Catholic Church. Linda: Yeah. Me too. Brian: My wife and I as well, so we were kind of chatting abo
Post a Comment
Read more

New Member Stories: Emily Miller and Jim Burakiewicz

By
"We wanted to be part of what made the Church a place we were drawn to." This week's post is an interview with Emily Miller and Jim Burakiewicz about their experiences as new members of the First Unitarian community. Before you began attending First Unitarian, had you been attending another church or other faith community? No, not since childhood. Emily had explored Unitarianism before, but had not found a place that fit. Jim had been brought up Catholic and had not attended church for years. How did you hear about First Unitarian and what made you decide to visit? Emily had initially found First Unitarian and was interested in its history. We were both looking for a deeper community here in Worcester and decided that First Unitarian was a place to look for it. Why did you decide to become active participants in the church community? We found that everyone was so welcoming and friendly that we wanted to become contributing members of the church. As a path of
Post a Comment
Read more

An Outstanding Day One for the Annual Pledge Drive

By
" It is rare indeed that people give.  Most people guard and keep. "  If this observation from James Baldwin, one of our contry's most respected philosophers and novelists, is true, then the opening Sunday of our Annual Stewardship Pledge Drive was a rare one indeed.  Consider these day one  statistics : Total amound pledged: $96,628 (32% of our $300,000 goal !) Number of pledges: 62 (6 of these were first time pledges !) A whopping 56% increased their pledge over last year ! Let us keep the momentum going!  If you have not yet sent in your pledge, do so today.   This is truly a wonderful beginning, and it was made even more special by our interim minister's homily.  If you missed Tracey's message, what follows are a few of her memorable and moving insights.  We come through these doors in search, in need, in hope, in prayer. We come looking for something to make our lives better; to make the lives of our family, our friends, our neigh
2 comments
Read more