Canvass
Testimonial
Sharon
Utz
In
thinking about making a pledge to the church for the coming year, I found
myself pondering the canvass theme, “For All That Is Our Life”.
I reflected back about what brought me to this church in the first place.
Like many of you, it was the need for a place to share my spiritual journey.
For me it was also to find solace after the death of my parents and to express
my spirituality through music. The church has indeed helped with all those
aspects of my life for several years. But one of the most compelling reasons
I stay connected to this church is the opportunity to be part of a network
of people who take actions for social justice. Although I’ve been involved
in various social justice actions such as PACEM, working on a Habitat house,
etc., the current one I’d like to mention is the work of “CareNet” that
is organized through this church. This program has been in place for several
years now and it comes down to simply making sure there are organized ways
to care for each other, and thus to extend goodness to our community. It’s
kind of like “random acts of kindness” that are organized instead
of random. My small part in giving to others recently has included “Driving
Miss Carolyn” (Silver, that is), which is an intergenerational experience
and a lesson in joyful living that I look forward to each time I bring Ms.
Carolyn to church. So what does pledging money to the church have to do with
this experience? Well, it takes funds and people in the office to organize
schedules and mail communications about bringing our local UU treasures to
church. And it takes – let’s face it -- money to pay our two
co-ministers to be available to people who need more than just a ride on
Sunday morning. Caring for each other in our church community creates ripples
of goodness that extend out to the community around us. I want to be part
of a church that does that.
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