First Unitarian Stewardship

If we meet our pledge goal this year of $310,000 (and we are getting close), the Prudential Committee has set as one of the four goals for next year to move closer to paying our full 'fair-share' dues to the UUA.  Many members of our congregation ask why should we do that, wondering what we get in return?  We feel a great answer to that question can be found here.

First Unitarian Church’s Stewardship campaign for 2017 is well past the halfway point.  We have raised over $200,000, and we have just over $100,000 to go.  The Stewardship team has been energized by the tremendous generosity of our fellow church members and friends.  The commitment and dedication to our spiritual community reflected in this year’s giving are truly inspirational.    As you might have guessed, it’s time to pledge !  Our visiting stewards are still busy contacting church members and friends for visits.  But with the holiday season upon us, we would like everyone to make their pledge as soon as possible.  Please consider increasing your pledge by 20% to help us reach our goal of $310,000. Pledging is easy: Pledge online:  http://www.firstunitarian.com/pledgeform.cfm Pledge by phone: call Jennifer in the church office: 508-757-2708 Pledge by e-mail: send a message with your 2017 pledge to Jennifer Bowes ( jbowes@firstunitarian.com ) Financial giving through

Aaron and I both really appreciated the Stewardship Visit from Lee Reid and Steve Knox. It was nice to talk quietly and make personal connections, and it was good to see what the financial goals of the church were. We had talked through some thoughts about how Aaron and I could contribute to the church community. Lee and Steve seem very connected to the different people in the church, and I know that I appreciated the recommendations for personal introductions. -- Jennifer deWinter Aaron McGaffey and Jennifer deWinter Aaron and I both really appreciated the Stewardship Visit from Lee Reid and Steve Knox. We joined the church hoping to form communal bonds (among other reasons), and we came to realize that people were driving in from all over, so connections outside of church times were harder to form casually. It was nice to talk quietly and make personal connections, and it was good to see what the financial goals of the church were. Lee and Steve seem very connected to the

We’ve benefited from the UUA’s services directly: during the transition after Tom Shade’s retirement, in the search for our Director of Faith Development, and from a number of materials including our Hymnals and publications from Beacon Press.  Many of our church leaders and members participate in UUA programs that are vital to our church community. --Jesse Anderson One of our goals in this year’s pledge campaign is to reach a point where we can pay our UUA and New England Region dues, currently $60 and $19 per registered member respectively.  At First Unitarian Church we are used to thinking of “pledging units” or households, but UUA dues are on a per-member basis, so dues for one of our typical pledging units is $158 in 2017. I’m often asked, “Aside from a copy of the UU World , what do we get for our money?  We have so many things we should be spending it on in our own community!”    To answer, I need to talk a little about American Unitarianism in general, as well as our

Our church on Court Hill is where we  practice our beliefs and actions – crazy as they seem to others. It is where we take risks. It is where we can leave our comfort zones.   It is a place to humbly try to live outside of one's self.     That is why I'm here. That is why I support First Unitarian. Please join me in this important work.  -- Jay Lavelle At the Prudential Committee retreat in June, we came up with a set of goals for the year 2020. The first was “ Create a diversity of modes of spiritual experience for members, friends, children and youth." My own path is relatively diverse: austere New England T rinitarian P rotestantism based on service, charity, and being of good will, a dash of C harismaticism, and a heaping spoonful of Tibetan Buddhism. And that is not that uncommon. I know Catholics, Jews, Buddhists of all denominations, and Sufis in my ken, all of whom find a home at First Unitarian. There are agnostics and atheists living by the light of re

"My role is all about developing relationships, which strengthens everything we do.  In addition, I am able to maintain systems   which  consistently  support programs that provide space for relationships to deepen. It is such a vital role." -- Tina Lewis Tina Lewis, Unity Temple, Oak Park, IL Our new mission statement declares that “connecting with each other” is one  of our core aspirations. The Prudential Committee has turned this aspiration  into a goal for the coming years: ensure that newcomers, new members and  established members report higher levels of welcome and connection. A Connections Coordinator is a membership professional. Currently, more than 80 UUA congregations have a membership professional on staff.   They are known by a number of names:  Conne ctions Coordinator,  Con gregational Life Director, Coordinator of Member Programs, etc. What all membership professionals share in common is the goal to g row the congregation in terms of numbers, dept

Stewardship is about taking care of something that you love. And we offer that care so that our church community will be here long after we are gone.  -- Ellen Foley What is Stewardship?   Someone asked me this at the yard sale last Saturday, and my off the cuff answer was, “money!”. But Stewardship isn’t really about money. Stewardship is about taking care of something that you love. And we offer that care so that the thing we cherish, in this case our church community, will be here long after we are gone. What will Stewardship look like this year? Those of you who saw the Stewardship skit during the in-gathering lunch on Sept. 11 th learned that we will be organizing stewardship visits with all church members this fall. For everyone else, here’s a brief overview: What are Stewardship visits? They are a chance for visiting stewards (i.e. other church members) to visit you and talk to you about your connection to the church. We want to visit everyone, and most of what we w

It doesn't matter what brought you here.  What matters is that you are here now.  That you live the covenant. That you pray, that you sing, that you are of service.  -- Jay Lavelle I am a Unitarian.  I am not a Unitarian-Universalist, or  —  God forbid —  a "UU".  I was in the church before the merger and was thankfully grandfathered in so I wouldn't have to deal with the music requirement.   I would like to able to say that my church childhood was idyllic, walking down the tree-lined streets to the white wood church facing the town common. However, most of my childhood memories are blurred, blended, or blocked.  Or just wrong.  What I do know is that an interest in spirituality attempted to surface in my adulthood.  It was not a review of my past and current lives that brought me back to the fold of Unitarianism, but something far more subtle than that.   On a cold New Year's Eve I was at Worcester's First Night celebrations, and seeking some rel

I feel my giving has little to do with ‘business’ and all to do with the sacred work of transforming our world to become more just and fair. I give joyfully and look forward to working with others to do the same.  -- Laurie Ross My daughter Zoe always loved to read. When she was six or seven, we were both looking for something a little more challenging than typical first-grade fare. A friend suggested Harry Potter—and we were hooked! All of the Harry Potter books were out by that time and we devoured all seven over the next few years.  When she was in third grade, we went to a StArt on the Street festival. Paul Ropp was there with flyers for the First Unitarian Church of Worcester’s own Hogwart’s [1] style summer program. We were very interested, but the dates didn’t work for us that summer. I kept my eye out for more Harry Potter themed activities. The following spring, the church held a Hogwarts event. I signed my kids up. When I picked them up, I asked them how it went

Stewardship—protecting, tending, caring—is at the core of what it means to live out my faith, of building and nourishing the beloved community. It is  a call to bring my best self to the mission and life of the church. --Ellen Foley What calls me to First Unitarian Church?  In many ways I can’t take credit for my Unitarian faith.  I grew up in the Unitarian church of Flint, Michigan; my grandparents were all Unitarian.  Religion did not occupy my conscious thoughts during my childhood and early adulthood. And yet I have always had a strong moral compass and a certainty about my own spiritual values: justice, interdependence, the inherent worth and dignity of all human beings.  In my adulthood I have found, unsurprisingly, that Unitarian churches are the places where I find those who share this moral compass.  I find people I want to know.  People I admire.  People who I hope will shape my son’s sense of his place in the world and his responsibilities to it. But how does t

The message of inclusiveness [is] central in this spiritual community of diverse thinkers and believers.   [Yet] I can partake only as much as I am willing to give of myself – of my love, of my time, of my skills, of my resources. -- Carol Gregory How wonderfully unexpected! My experience here at First Unitarian during the last four years has been just that – wonderful and unexpected. Sitting in the pew with Wendy during the first service I attended, I had to keep reminding myself I wasn’t attending a great concert listening to gifted musicians and vocalists in a magnificent venue. Enchanting as that experience was, I didn’t expect the music to draw me in so powerfully and so often. I began attending our church during a transition. When The Reverend Tom Shade moved on, both The Reverend Tracey Robinson-Harris and The Reverend Gary Kowalski helped us rise to the challenging work of refocusing ourselves to call M12, The Reverend Sarah Stewart, to be our minister. What a wond

Every year Lee and I have given generously of ourselves and our money, and in return we have experienced church life as focal to our family life. We have developed relationships that are worth far more than we can fully express. --Steve Knox Lee and I feel so very fortunate to belong to the same church community as our daughters.  It was at First Unitarian where they received their religious education, then participated in the youth groups, and now also belong as members.  And we are filled with delight to see our grandson starting in the same programs our children started in. What a gift First Unitarian continues to be for our family.  From the start we have never been shy about getting involved.  A sense of belonging is a basic human need and getting involved is how we fulfill it.  Lee and I signed the book right after our second Sunday service.  Not too long after that, we were participating as volunteers in the Sunday School, and also in a pre-service adult faith develop