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What difference does First Unitarian make in your life?

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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.

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