Skip to main content

Pledge Day: So, what is this all about?

The spirit of generosity is foundational to our vision of community where love is abundant and joy is in the heart.


You are accepted for who you are.  Not for being your best self, nor your less than perfect self, but simply for being yourself.  It is you who makes community happen, through the connections you create with others like you and still more who are not like you at all.  These are relationships deep in spirit and true in the love of neighbor.

Your Pledge Day Committee.
From the left: Diane Mandile, Lee Reid, Lee Bona,
Seth Popinchalk, Steve Knox, Ellen Foley,
Ken Mandile, Rick Silva and Rev. Sarah Stewart.
You are generous in your acceptance of the many who are different than you, because you are bound together in the same aspirations:  caring for those within the church community and for the many within the greater community in which our church resides;  seeking justice for those denied equal opportunity;  providing shelter for families who are homeless, and refuge for the marginalized;  teaching strategies of non-violent conflict resolution to our youth;  giving your talents to organizations dedicated to making a better world.  It is your generosity that makes these aspirations realized.

The spirit of generosity is foundational to the experience of First Unitarian, to our vision of community where love is abundant and joy is in the heart.  It is out of that vision that your Stewardship Committee worked through the summer to plan for our first ever Pledge Day, filled with generous contributions from every quarter, a day filled with fun, fellowship and the joy of giving freely to each other.

Come for breakfast, brunch or dinner.  Drop by to recycle your obsolete electronics, pack a Hygiene Kit for a third world child, or give a First U dignitary a bath in the Dunking Booth.  Our children will play Quidditch, and our older youth will present a multi-generational (non) Talent Show.   Relax with a chair message and then have your photo taken dressed in a wild costume.

And make your 2016 pledge at your entrance to this Pledge Day celebration.  Be generous in your giving, for it enables the many ministries of our church to do the work of bringing our vision of abundant love and caring community to the many who long for that experience.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hearing the Call: Rudy Cepko, YRU2 Mentor and Advisor

“I believed that my day job as an RN in the Pediatric ICU at UMass would make it easy for me to handle a bunch of teenagers.  However, I was surprised to encounter teens willing to gain more knowledge in their spiritual quest and to learn how to use this in their everyday lives.”   Rudy Cepko   For many years I had not stepped into a church except for weddings and funerals.  In the mid-1990s, my wife, Alesia, started attending church to sing with UU choir.  She was impressed by the message that she heard from Barbara Merritt and suggested that I try the church.  I felt I was in a place that spoke to me, and our son Stefan was enrolled in the Sunday school programs. I had some involvement with church stewardship as a volunteer in the Garden committee.  Mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, planting and laying yards of mulch were part of my contribution to the church. Then when my son, Stefan, was in YRU2, he asked if I would be interested in be...

A Message from Lee Reid of the UU Sisterhood

We see ourselves in the faces of our sisters; we hear our stories accepted , we hold each other in our hearts. We have found the meaning of community. What does it mean to enter a room where you are immediately welcomed and appreciated? What does it mean when others are genuinely interested in your well-being? It means you are valued. It means you are a part of a wholesome community. It means you are a part of something larger than yourself that feeds your spirit in a most fundamental way. These are the enriching threads that weave the UUSisterhood together. We see ourselves in the faces of our sisters; we hear our stories accepted , we hold each other in our hearts. We have found the meaning of community in this church. In my earlier years, I found meaning teaching Sunday school, working with the youth and working on numerous committees. It was work that helped support the values we share as a faith community. It enriched my life and kept me returning to fin...

Welcoming the Newcomer: Part 2

Connecting with others is a rich, rich part of being in the First Unitarian Community.  Anyone who loiters after the service is probably someone you would like to get to know.  It may be just the warmth they need. --Vivian Shortreed, former Moderator and current Caring Circles co-Chair I  remember well the first time I attended a worship service at First Unitarian.  We had lived in Worcester nearly 5 years, but I was still working in Connecticut.  Uprooted from my Connecticut community, and not having had the time or the place to make new friends, I felt as if I didn’t belong anywhere.  I was advised to come to the First Unitarian Church “for the music.” I was immediately awed by the simple grandeur of the sanctuary.  And I connected with every bit of the service, starting with the quote at the head of the Order of Service.   It was a quote from Friedrich Nietsche, something about the only god worth worshiping being a dancing god. ...