Dear Members and Friends,

As many of you know, I made a financial pledge to this fellowship when I began serving last August. I actually pledged for the whole fiscal year, paying back to May 1.

Why? Because I am your minister, and I am invested in the life of our fellowship! I don’t ask any of you to do anything I am not happy to do myself. I ask you to support the ministries of this church because I value them! I believe so much in the work of this fellowship and in its potential to make a difference that I am happy to give my own financial resources to support it.

Stewardship is a part of the covenant relationship we all share. To see stewardship as merely a necessary burden or as a bill to pay is to discount the covenantal nature of our faith community. When we join the congregation, we make a promise to one another to support the ministry we do together with every resource at our disposal.

We don’t pledge to the board of trustees or the minister or the UUA!

We pledge to each other!

Certainly, we are not all able to give the same amount, but we can all give generously from what we have. We entrust our resources to one another to make our mission happen here and now!

This fellowship is NOT a charity. It’s our community, our tribe, our family of choice. Make it your giving priority and give the lion’s share of your donations to your fellowship! Will the Audubon Society visit you in the hospital? Will Save the Children bring you a casserole when you’re sick? Will the Humane Society provide pastoral services when you are in crisis, marry and bury your loved ones? Only your community of faith does those things!

Please join me in pledging for the 2022-23 fiscal year as a powerful act of commitment to our mission and hope in our future!

Blessings, Friends!

Rev Ruth