Aside from the Pride: Ohio-Meadville Congregations Speak Out About the Annual Program Fund, District Fair Share and Our Larger UU Vision

Last Spring 2009, the Ohio-Meadville District (OMD) sent out a survey to congregational leaders, asking for feedback regarding the district, services, and other needs.  One of the responders to that survey asked for more information and dialogue about what the OMD does and what the UUA does to support our congregations.  This edition of “OMD Up-Close!” is a direct response to that request. 

The essays in this edition were submitted by large, mid-sized and small congregations in the OMD.  Some of these congregations have always been Fair Share.  Others have had struggled with this.  Some have experienced frustrations with past and current relationships with the UUA and District.  Others are concerned about future services they hope will be available to them.  All of them take their covenantal commitments to be part of our UUA very seriously.

We hope that these stories give you a better picture of how the District and the UUA directly affects the lives of our congregations, and how our congregations generously contribute their time, talent and treasure to strengthen Unitarian Universalism in the OMD.

Aside from the Pride: The Southwest Unitarian Universalist Church Story
by Rev. Christina M. Neilson

At one annual meeting when we were making the difficult decision between paying our full share of the UUA dues or of funding our own programs, a voice chimed up, “Aside from the pride, what do we get from the UUA?”

For twenty plus years now Southwest Unitarian Universalist church has taken great pride in the fact that we have always been among the churches that have paid their full fair share of UUA and OMD dues.  Last year we were challenged on this.  We were not able to budget the full amount for dues.  We were, however, able to pay them off by year’s end.  Why should we struggle to fund our own programs rather than pay dues?  Isn’t it more practical to fund programs that can directly benefit the community?

Let’s be honest and admit that the UUA has its frustrations.  In our twenty plus years as a congregation we have had plenty of reasons to withhold support.  First the obvious- we barely have enough money to meet the day to day operating needs.

It’s deeper than that.  We’ve been angry with the UUA.  They weren’t real helpful while applying for an extension ministry.  It felt like a lot of red tape for not a lot of benefit.  In the end, we did receive an extension minister.  We moved through our hard feelings and continued to pay our fair share to the district and UUA. 

If ever there was a time that I questioned our support of the UUA it is now.  We asked for help finding a consultant for our first capital campaign for our first building, an incredibly exciting time for us, and the UUA was unable to send a consultant.  I asked the UUA president, a colleague from seminary, to come and preach at our building dedication and received no response.  Disappointment fails to describe how we feel.  It feels like small churches are not on the UUA’s radar.  It feels as though resources are only bartered to the larger churches.  At a time of intense growth and change in our congregation, it feels very scary to be ignored.

On the other hand, our District exec found us a consultant in just a few days, enrolled us in a growth program to expand our vision and learn from other churches in our area, gave us hope for a chalice lighters grant, and have involved our members in many exciting district and cluster programs.  We still get the critical benefits that we need. 

Church’s of any size can get lost in their own particular needs and situations.  We have a very active social justice committee, and are committed to being evangelical about our faith, but even still, most days our church is very inward focused.  We attend worship services, meet for classes, activities, and committee meetings. 

It’s precisely when you feel small, alone and isolated, (Dare I say insular?) that sustaining your commitment to the UUA becomes so vital.  Because I know that the UUA will keep that broader focus for us until we can come up for air again. 

We are so much richer as an association.  We are over 1,000 churches across the country. The UUA connects our congregations through annual General Assemblies, our district events and a whole range of workshops, webinars, UU World magazine, email list serves, staff and consultants.  The UUA offers many resources to lay members and ministers.

We need the UUA to help us to witness our faith in the world.  The Washington Office for Advocacy keeps our liberal voice present among our elected officials, so that the conservative religious voice is not the only one being heard.  Statements on everything from Healthcare reform, gender discrimination, voting rights for communities of color, United states occupation in Iraq, Comprehensive Sexuality Education, support for immigrant families and repealing, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, are just some of the issues we keep alive in the public arena.

We need the UUA to lead our efforts at social justice.  We have groups like the UUSC, which works nationally and internationally to fund projects that focus on root causes of the problem.  We have the UU ministry for the Earth, which offer resources, speakers and consultants for earth friendly “Green Sanctuary” problems. We have a wide variety of anti-racisim, anti- oppression, multi-cultural resources.

We need the UUA to help us become more visible to the world. Advertising can be done on a national level- letting people know who we are, so that they then know to search for us on the internet.  Our church can’t afford to do advertising on our own. And maybe if people have heard of us they will come.  I was invited to talk to High school students last year.  In a group of fifty students, none of them had ever heard of Unitarian Universalism.  I find that really sad.

We need the UUA to be stewards of our national assets and offer financial services to congregations.  Various grant programs are available.  “New Home” loans are guaranteed for first time church builders.  Consultants are available to help us with asset building, capital campaigns, and pledge drive renewals.  Guidelines are created for fair compensation to all staff.

The UUA has many resources for professional leadership, which helps congregations and ministers.  The Ministerial Fellowship Committee serves as the credentialing body for the UUA. They screen applicants for suitability to a ministerial role, and they remove ministers from fellowship when they have violated the code of ethics. They offer search and settlement services for congregations and ministers who are looking for each other.

We need the UUA to help us with Religious Education.  They create new curriculum like Our Whole Lives and Tapestry of Faith, and have developed a credentialing program for Religious Educators. 

The UUA puts all these systems in place to help us develop our programs:  Professional leadership, RE leadership, lay leaders, financial support and public witness.  While we can still do our own thing, we don’t have to start each step from scratch.  In addition to all this, they have a fabulous web site full of our history, worship resources, leadership resources and just about anything you may want.  And of course having our own liberal press like Beacon Books and Skinner books assures us that the liberal message is printed when other publishers won’t take the risk. 

The visibility we get worldwide is something we simply can’t do at our church level.  UUA Presidents travel to India, Japan, Canada and Transylvania among other countries where UU connections are being made.  Without the UUA, Unitarian Universalism could be extinct.  We would be scattered tiny fellowships gathering for coffee and discussion without any mark on the world.

I don’t need to join a church to drink coffee, even though it’s our unofficial “Sacrament”.  I need a church with vision and promise for our future.  We must not be afraid to be religious.

We are proud to have paid our dues for our entire history.  Twenty plus years of paying our fair share is honorable. Aside from the pride, we should acknowledge the hard and necessary work our association does and its importance to our larger movement. I challenge each of us to expand our focus beyond our own sanctuary. Let us rise to be the people we are called to be.  The times demand it.

A Large Church Story: First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh
by Rev. David Herndon

The First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh has been a Fair Share contributor to both the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Ohio-Meadville District (OMD) for at least ten years.  Moreover, we are among the top fifty Unitarian Universalist congregations throughout the entire country with regard to denominational giving.

One reason for this commitment is that the UUA has been generous with us.  Several years ago, we received a Historic Urban Church Grant from the UUA.  This grant provided capital funds which helped with our ongoing efforts to renovate our Sanctuary, which was built in 1904.  We also received a UUA grant to help with the creation of our campus ministry program, which now includes a paid twelve-hour-per-week campus ministry coordinator. 

More recently, we called an associate minister through the Diversity of Ministry Initiative.  This UUA program provided financial assistance for this major step as well as consultation throughout the settlement process, and the UUA will continue to provide consulting services through the first years of this new ministry.

Another reason for our Fair Share commitment is to ensure that we will have no reason to feel sheepish or awkward about asking for services from the UUA or the OMD!

It hasn’t always been this way.  In the 1990s, for example, sometimes we were unable to meet the challenge of being a Fair Share congregation and also providing for our own internal needs. 

But we have found that when we are generous enough to provide ourselves with adequate financial resources, our mood as a congregation is much better, and we are able to be much more effective in fulfilling our mission.  Presumably the UUA and the OMD are also able to be much more effective when they have adequate financial resources, and thus perhaps our commitment to being a Fair Share congregation is based on our own experience of the importance of having adequate resources.

More generally, one can feel better about being a Unitarian Universalist – one can take more pride in being a Unitarian Universalist – when one observes how much better we function when we have adequate resources.  When our theological schools can retain talented and diverse faculties, when our districts have enough staff members to serve congregations effectively, when the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee has the financial resources to be effective in promoting justice and human rights in many places around the world, when our congregations have well-maintained and attractive buildings that are large enough for all of their activities, when Boards of Trustees do not have to make painful decisions about what necessities to cut out of their budgets, when we can support campus ministry programs and partner church relationships and retreat centers and local social responsibility efforts, when staff members believe that they can be paid well enough to invest themselves in serving Unitarian Universalism as a stable and rewarding career, when church members and friends are generous enough that their congregations do not need to spend huge amounts of attention on annual fund raising activities and can devote that attention to congregational life instead – when all these things happen, as they do when we have adequate resources, then all of us can feel reassured that our efforts and our financial contributions are going to support a religious movement that truly deserves our support.  Generosity works!

A Mid-Sized Church Story: The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Charleston
by Revs. Rose Edington and Mel Hoover

UUs in Charleston WV pay our fair share because we believe it is a fair expectation, one to which all congregations who are voluntary members of the UUA and OMD are equally expected to contribute, based on congregational membership.   It is part and parcel of our responsibility as UUs; and an expectation we take pride in living up to.  Yet, even in good times, paying our fair share has sometimes been a challenge. 

In these more challenging times we have had discussions about reducing our fair share contribution.  However, the short term “solution” of paying less in order to balance the UUC budget is so far not one our members accept as being good for Unitarian Universalism.  As ministers, we are proud that even when times are tough, our congregation finds a way to meet its fair share commitment.

Whenever we and/or members of the congregation go to a District Assembly or a GA, we gladly put the Fair Share ribbons on our name tags; and we bring the name tags back with us.  We display them during worship services (during Joys and Concerns immediately after DA and GA, and again later at a service more devoted to what went on at DA and GA), and we thank the congregation for letting us be among the delegates who are awarded the ribbons.
 
We support the larger association (both OMD and UUA) with our dues because it makes us aware of the UU movement beyond our local congregation and helps us feel more part of our wonderful faith.   UUC members appreciate receiving the UU World magazine, which gives them a direct, tangible benefit and connection.  We like knowing that our local, congregational fair share dollars help spread UU values in the public sphere through the UU Washington office and social justice initiatives; as well as supporting the creation of life-enhancing resources, such as religious education curricula for all ages. 

Through OMD we benefit from the energy, support, experience and skills of the staff for helping build UUism in West Virginia, for Renaissance modules and consultation for our Religious Education program, for Youth and Young Adult Cons and for the connections that come from Summer Institute. OMD’s leadership in using electronic communications has been such a good model that we have touted it in moving our congregation to electronic communication. We are inspired to use electronics to reach out to and better draw together individuals and current and emerging UU groups in WV.    

We are delighted to know that contributing our fair share gives us eligibility for programs and consultation to better meet UUC member’s needs and enhance and strengthen other local congregations like ours. Fair share dollars are also an investment in the future; for they provide help for long-range “building of the faith,” through, for example, building loans.  Since we’re outgrowing our current space, we hope to be able to take advantage of this opportunity in the near future.  

A Small Church Story: The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Canton
by Renee Zimelis Ruchotzke

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Canton is a small congregation with a big heart and an even bigger vision.  They started as a small fellowship in the 1960’s, disbanded in the mid-1970’s and restarted in the early 1990’s with funds that the UU Church of Akron had been holding in trust from the original Canton Congregation.  Since then, the UUCGC has had a vision of becoming a strong liberal presence in a conservative community, and has made significant progress in their commitment toward growth.

The leaders of the UUCGC have understood that, in order to grow, they needed to be in relationship with others, especially UUs, and they have been intentional about creating such connections.  They have a generous budget for guest speakers, and use it to invite (and pay UUMA recommended rates to) UU ministers, UU Commissioned Lay Leaders, other protestant ministers, rabbis, Buddhist priests, other religious leaders and local college professors into their pulpit. 

They have been consistent in paying their fair-share dues to both the OMD and the APF.  They have members who serve on the District Board and on District Committees.  They have hosted district conferences and trainings, and have a budget line item to send members to such trainings.  They have also hosted community conversations on race relations in Stark County.

In turn, the UUCGC has received an abundance of support that has enabled them to grow.  Until about three years ago, the UUCGC was renting space and was operating as a “Church in a Box” where members had to set up and take down their belongings every Sunday morning.  They also had to move from space to space as they lost leases due to situations beyond their control.  With the help of a bequest, a generous anonymous donation and a “First Home” grant from the UUA, they were able to buy their own building in 2007 (a storefront that had previously served as a quick-mart, a motorcycle dealership and a real estate office) and remodel it into a beautiful worship space and several RE classrooms. 

A Chalice Lighter grant from the district enabled them to furnish the sanctuary with comfortable chairs.  They were also able to install a lighted outdoor sign that has served to bring in visitors who regularly drive past the building.

Along with their new building, the UUCGC has also worked with others in the district to develop a practice of radical hospitality for newcomers.  Membership committee leaders participated in a district membership conference and in a cluster “Secret Seekers” program where leaders from congregations in north east Ohio visited each other’s churches and gave honest feedback about what it was like being a visitor.

The UUCGC Religious Education program, though run by volunteers, has stretched its small budget by using the free, UUA-developed “Tapestry of Faith” curricula for children, youth and adults.  They regularly borrow books and curricula from the district lending library.  They are also currently using the recently-published “Coming of Age” program offered by Skinner House.

The Canton congregation also has been intentional about seeking professional ministerial support.  Along with inviting other UU ministers into their pulpit, they have hired part time ministers, and even ordained their student ministerial intern, the Rev. Danielle Di Bona, back in the 1990’s.  They have called upon the ministers of neighboring churches for consulting assistance when needed, and have used the district services to develop a right relations covenant.  With the assistance of another anonymous gift, the UUCGC hired a half-time consulting student minister, who is in turn supported by ministerial colleagues and district staff. 

The UUCGC’s commitment to their vision has led to 15% growth over the past year.  With their own building, professional leadership and mutually-supportive relationships the wider UU community, they are well on their way to making their vision a reality.

Your Congregation's Contributions to the UUA Annual Program Fund and Ohio-Meadville District Make a Real Difference!

By Laurel Amabile, Director of the Annual Program Fund and adapted by Rev. Joan Van Becelaere, OMD District Executive for the Spring 2009 Fair Share congregational pledge request.

Your congregation is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) joining in partnership with 1,047 congregations that have covenanted to support one another.  Together we can do what no congregation can do alone.  The needs of all our 1,047 congregations--whether historic or newly chartered, urban or rural, small, midsize, or large in size--are widely varied and changing.  However, each benefits from the collective strength and support of the whole community of Unitarian Universalists.  In association, none of our congregations are alone; we build our Unitarian Universalist community together.  Here are some of the resources available to help meet the needs of congregations:

The priorities and the allocation of budget to these programs are approved by the Association’s volunteer Board of Trustees, elected by our districts and congregations.  Every member congregation is asked to pledge and contribute each year to the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Annual Program Fund (APF) and to its District Fair Share.  The amount of each congregation’s “Fair Share” is determined by the UUA Board of Trustees and District Board, as noted on the enclosed joint pledge form.   The currently requested contribution to the UUA’s Annual Program Fund (APF) is $56 per member. The OMD requested contribution is $21 per member.  Your APF and District Fair Share contributions make it possible to provide essential resources and services to all of our congregations.   Thank you all!