UUC’s annual stewardship campaign starts Friday of next week. The Stewardship Team has chosen the theme of RECONNECTING! After the challenges of the last year, our physical distancing, the anxiety and grief of the pandemic, we really do NEED to RECONNECT. We’ve done an amazing job of adapting and muddling through. We’ve discovered new ways to worship together, found new ways to socialize safely, even recreated dinners and auctions while safely in our own homes. We should be quite proud of one another for what we’ve managed to do and for managing to do it safely and with good cheer and abundant love. But, the time to come back together is coming. We can see a light at the end of the tunnel; we can feel hope blossoming and bolstering our spirits. And so, let’s celebrate our stewardship. Let’s celebrate how we have cared for one another and our religious home. Let’s celebrate our RECONNECTING and our RETURNING.
Upcoming Stewardship Events
Sunday 3/21 10:00 a.m. UUA Stewardship Service “Loved Into Being”
Friday 3/26 7:00 p.m. UUC Stewardship Gala (dinner gathering at 6:00 p.m.)
Sunday 3/28 10:00 a.m. UUC Stewardship Service “Reconnecting!”
Stewardship? Reconnect!
One of the major challenges of this past year has been maintaining communication and connection. Zoom has been quite helpful for safely holding meeting and worship services. Some folks have been able to participate who have not been able to in the past. But Zoom is not the same as being in person, as gathering together. For some of our community, Zoom is not only challenging, it is completely inadequate or inaccessible. Some of us, understandably, are just plumb Zoomed out. Which leaves us with a bit of a conundrum and challenge. We aren’t ready to be back together again for worship or social events yet. But we want to start planning for when we can gather safely. We want to celebrate our Reconnecting, celebrate our stewardship, and conduct a successful pledge campaign for the coming year. And the only way we can do those worship services and the gala celebration is via Zoom. And the people we most need to attend those events, the folks we most need to see and reconnect with, aren’t reading our e-blasts and aren’t coming to our Zoom gatherings.
Which is where you all come in. You can practice putting our stewardship theme of RECONNECTING right now in the UUC community. We NEED to RECONNECT. The most effective way of communicating and reconnecting, the most effective way of inviting folks to attend the stewardship services and the gala, is by personal invitation. And the safest way to do that is by phone. If everyone who was planning to attend the gala would think of one person in the UUC community they haven’t seen at a Zoom gathering and call them up to invite them to the event– maybe share dinner with them before the celebration– that would go a long way towards reconnecting our community. That would show the stewardship, the caring for one another we all value and hold dear here at UUC. What say you? Ready to reconnect? Willing to reach out?
See you at the gala and the worship services.
Cooperatively,
Rev. Craig