Your Stewardship Team

We sincerely believe you will come to see Stewardship as a vital ministry of our church, and that your experience of that ministry will be rewarding, joyful and spiritually fulfilling.

--First Unitarian Stewardship Team

Your Stewardship team welcomes you back to an exciting year ahead at First Unitarian. Changes are in store for us. In addition to a new Interim Minister (Tracey Robinson-Harris) and multiple listening sessions to support the search for a settled minister, this year the pledge campaign will be managed by a Stewardship team (see photo).

What happened to the elected Assessors, you might ask? We are still here: Wendy Innis, Kate O'Dell and Rick Silva, but we have also been joined by volunteers Steve Knox and Jim Dolan. Together we have decided to focus less on the historical role of Assessors, and to introduce to the congregation the concepts of Stewardship.

What are the differences between Assessors and Stewardship? We are so glad you asked!

Assessors levy pew taxes and solicit your money during the pledge campaign, while Stewardship promotes the joy of service and solicits all your gifts (time, talents and treasure) throughout the church year.

Assessors see your pledge as a duty, while Stewardship views your full support of our faith community as a spiritual calling.

While the congregation elects Assessors, each of us as members of First Unitarian are called to be Stewards, to share our aptitudes, our abilities and our money toward the fulfillment of our spiritual mission.

We have some new plans unfolding and new events ahead as we move into the church year. We sincerely believe you will come to see Stewardship as a vital ministry of our church, and that your experience of that ministry will be rewarding, joyful and spiritually fulfilling.

Rick Silva, Kate O'Dell, Steve Knox, Jim Dolan, Wendy Innis

Your Stewardship Team

Comments

An Outstanding Day One for the Annual Pledge Drive

" 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 fr...

This Community Surrounds My Life

I am always inspired and touched by the efforts to build a better world. Seth Popinchalk, Vice-Moderator Last week Scott Hayman told me about a 5K road race to benefit Abby’s house. Abby’s House is a family shelter for women and children and provides them with “a safe place to stay, regroup, and rebuild.” I am in fair shape, so when I woke up Saturday morning I laced up my shoes and drove out to West Boylston to find the starting line. I found Scott and Maddie at the registration area. I also ran into a handful of other familiar First U members wearing race bibs and supporting the event. There was no plan among members to connect with our First Unitarian community this Saturday morning, but we found each other among the crowd of about 300. I was reminded that I am surrounded by our special community. What brings us together? We are a community because we choose to be one. We find a connection with something the church offers: the Sunday services, the sermons, the holi...

What difference does First Unitarian make in your life?

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 sa...

First Unitarian Stewardship

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