Canvass
Testimonial
Bill
Spurgin
Good
morning! The
motto of the 2008-2009 canvass – “For all that is our life.” “For
all that is our life.” What a great expression! It’s made me
reflect on how much TJMC is part
of my life. I
joined the church in 1960 – almost forty-eight years ago – at
the age of thirty. So I’ve known seven settled ministers and a bunch
of interim ministers and several intern ministers. Every one of them – even
the one I voted to fire – has influenced my beliefs and contributed
to who I am. I’m a religious humanist, and so the fit of my beliefs
to Unitarian-Universalism is quite comfortable. But my relationship to TJMC
is much
more than the Sunday morning experience – and that’s what I’ve
been thinking about.
Over
the years, I’ve been – as well as President for two terms – a
member of lots of church committees – Membership, Finance, Building
and Grounds, the Search Committee that brought Terry Sweetser, Special Programs,
Intern, Sabbatical and, most recently, the Committee on Ministry. Every one
of these committees brought me together with people who have inspired and
instructed me. And most of the people I look up to are within this congregation.
People like Ed Jones, Margaret Jones, Dick Dershimer, Gordon McKeeman, Sally
Taylor, Elizabeth Breeden, Connie Cheetham, Satyendra Huja, Trudy Rohm, Carolyn
Silver and many others – all have shown me ways to lead a good life.
I
came to know my wife, Bonnie Sheppard, through TJMC. Our six kids all participated
in church activities as they were growing up. My son David married a woman
whom he had met through the LRY – Liberal Religious Youth – the
precursor to today’s teen program, YRUU – Young Religious Unitarian
Universalists.
Most
of the people with whom we socialize are those we know through TJMC. (PAUSE) As
Pam Philips said recently, I’m “married” to this place.
In addition to the personal benefits I get from TJMC, I’m proud to
be in an organization that is doing so much in the community. My specific
contribution to community outreach is helping with the Food Pantry and Bonnie
and I frequently make sandwiches for the Soup Kitchen – programs that
are bound to become more important during this economic downturn.
Now
you might think, after hearing this glowing testimonial, that Bonnie and
I are really big
financial contributors to TJMC. But that’s not quite the case. We’re
both retired and living on essentially fixed incomes, although we do have
investments that we can tap for special purposes – such as TJMC’s
upcoming (I hope) Capital Fund Drive, which is so desperately needed to help
solve our serious space problems. So we’re pretty much limited to holding
our own at about five percent of our basic income for our pledge, plus regular
support of Social Action collections, the Scrip program and the Auction.
As
you can imagine, the continuing rise in energy, medical and food costs,
as well as real estate taxes, eat into the part of our income that’s available
for donations. Gordon McKeeman has pointed out, however, that many of the
organizations that request our charitable contributions have large numbers
of supporters, whereas TJMC has only a relatively small number. So it seems
appropriate for us to maintain our support of TJMC whilst cutting back on
others. As of last year, TJMC received about 80 percent of our deductible
contributions. And – speaking of deductions – remember that all
of us who itemize deductions on our state and federal income tax returns
are really paying only a fraction - probably seventy percent or less – of
our charitable contributions.
Thanks
for listening!
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