Congregational Proud Moments
Has something amazing happened at your congregation this year that you are particularly proud of? Have you met a funding goal? Successfully completed a project? Achieved Welcoming Congregation Status? Increased your membership? Become a Fair Share or Fair Compensation Congregation? Have your children or youth done something new and amazing? Then share your good news with the rest of the district!
At District Assembly, we want to hear and share your proud moments, whatever they are! Congregational Proud Moments that are submitted to the district office by March 20th will be posted in the Marketplace at District Assembly. In addition, some moments will be selected by the District Assembly Planning Team to read and highlight during the assembly. Then, in the summer issue of District Doings we will list all the proud moments shared with us, including those submitted during the District Assembly.
2010 Congregational Proud Moments
New River UU Fellowship, Beckley, WV
We have deepened our partnership with Covenant House, a social services organization based in Charleston. Over the past 1-2 years, one of their social workers has been using space at the NRUUF to perform weekly outreach to provide housing assistance to folks with HIV/AIDS. We have just established an agreement for their Beckley Mpowerment Project to use space Monday through Friday at the NRUUF. This project's objective is to use educational and social means to prevent the contraction and transmission of HIV/AIDS among a high-risk demographic in Beckley, young gay men. We feel supporting this project is an important way for us to take social action on an issue needing urgent attention and to be a truly Welcoming Congregation.
We also are proud that, thanks to our Chalice Lighters grant, we have new signage. This will increase our visibility in the community by enabling us to inform passersby of upcoming activities and events.
Another proud moment for us is that, thanks again to our Chalice Lighters grant, one of our members, April Puzzuoli, is now our Media Coordinator. She has increased our visibility by sending church announcements to local media, created a beautiful seasonal display board with photos of members and friends and has put together a memory book to keep photos and mementos of special moments in our church's history. She has made a real difference to us.
Southwest UU Church, North Royalton, OH
Southwest Unitarian Universalist church is proud to celebrate the purchase of their first church home this year! We will be moving from Berea to North Royalton Ohio, which is an area underserved by Unitarian Universalism. We have launched our capital campaign, and the early results show a huge success. We plan to rehab the building, add a lobby extension and put in an elevator, accessible bathroom, new heat/ air conditioning, office and RE space. And when we are done, we expect to have the entire project and building paid off in three years.
We would like to thank the chalice lighters for paying for a new church sign. Our temporary sign, now visible, has already attracted several people.
West Shore UU Church, Rocky River, OH
West Shore has been a teaching church for over twenty years, and is proud of its history as an “incubator of ministers”. This past year has been particularly stellar. Last September Jeremiah Kalendae (formerly Jeremy Elliott), who had first begun attending West Shore as a teenager and graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry, was ordained at West Shore.
We currently have three West Shore members who are seminarians at Meadville-Lombard – Aidan McCormick, Katie Norris, and Pam Rumancik.
This year we have intern minister Sunshine Jeremiah Wolfe, who comes to us from Starr King School for the Ministry. Our choice of Sunshine was a significant step along our path toward becoming an anti-racist, anti-oppressive, multicultural congregation. We decided to work with the UUA Diversity of Ministry program to consider an intern of color, and from several applicants were most impressed with Sunshine, who is biracial (Native American and white) and who also happens to be gender-queer.
While we feel that West Shore is a rich learning environment for interns, we also feel that we benefit immeasurably from the experience of working with the incredibly talented interns that our seminaries are producing.
UU Congregation, Erie, PA
A team from UUCE was chosen to represent our District at the Interfaith Youth Core in Atlanta. Jack Blount, Religious Education Chairperson, and Inanna Felton, a teen from our congregation attended the conference in January, and were profoundly moved by their experiences.
UUCE has begun offering Covenant Groups, with three facilitators and twenty participants. The groups are very successful, and we look forward to more participants at the next sign-up.
UUCE wraps up its building renovation project by installing a 4'x7' limestone sign on church grounds, beautifully mounted on stone, and illuminated by night. Besides our name, the new sign proudly displays a flaming chalice.
UU Congregation of Smithton, PA
The Universalist Church of Port Royal began when 11 people met with an itinerant minister in 1860 and decided to form a church in the rugged Monongahela River valley south of Pittsburgh. The church moved into its current building in nearby Smithton in 1887 and became the Thomas Universalist Church, named after the donor of the steeple bell (which still rings to open worship services today). This year in June, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Smithton celebrates its 150th anniversary and you are invited! Once the final details are settled, we will publicize the schedule of events, including an exciting theme speaker and interesting programs and activities. We are anxious to show you our hospitality and to use this momentous event as a springboard to expanding our message of hope and love in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
First Unitarian Church of Cleveland, OH
The church is proud of their relationship with John W. Raper School for the past 25 years. Over the past two years, thanks to our special Outreach effort, we have been able to increase our involvement with them significantly. Working with the principle, Ms. Sylvia Aziz, and the teachers, we have been able to support the following programs: Reading Is Fundamental book distribution, monthly attendance incentives, book donations for kids, a Kindergarten field trip, transportation requests, instructional volunteers, mentoring volunteers, individual student rewards, and a Cleveland Goes to College program. We have been able to provide funds for Lady Bound, Fiber Arts, Leap Frog Centers, and a Typing Class (which we also staffed). The school will close at the end of the year.
First Church of Cleveland gives away our basket every Sunday. Since September we have given away $17,000. We budgeted only $22,000 for our baskets but expect to exceed the $23,000 we gave away the previous year. This is in addition to our line item of $12,500 for community outreach.
UU Congregation of Greater Canton, OH
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Canton--a congregation of 45 members--voted last May to pursue Green Sanctuary status. Since then they have had a local-foods potluck, a film festival, and a fundraiser selling home-made earth-friendly cleaners. They reduced paper usage by going to reusable order of service covers and an email newsletter, and the steering committee led a Sunday service about their personal experiences with learning to live gently on the earth.
UU Congregation of Ginger Hill, PA
Ginger Hill UU Congregation of Slippery Rock, PA is extremely proud to be a founding organization of the monthly 'Community Meal' in Slippery Rock. The Community Meal is an interfaith effort, which welcomes all members of our community to share food and companionship regardless of income, creed or need. Members of several local congregations work together to plan, cook, serve and clean up. Our congregation routinely provides the most volunteers for all duties, and also has the largest representation on the Steering Committee. Members of our congregation source local meats and produce for these meals, in order to foster a connection between local farmers and eaters. Also, this year Rev. Tom Bodie was (finally) invited to participate in the local Ministerium cohort.
UU Church of Akron, OH
- We successfully concluded our ministerial search and calling the Rev. Tim Temerson
- The Rev. Tim Temerson accepted our call on April 2009 to become our 20th settled minister in our over-one hundred year history.
- The Rev. Tim Temerson joined us, effective August 1, 2009.
- We celebrated at a beautiful Installation service on Sunday, March 14, 2010
- We started a major shift in emphasis for our fall 2009 stewardship campaign, beginning to move our campaigns to face-to-face canvassing by by visiting stewards. Thirty-five were trained for the fall campaign.
- We completed a successful mission-vision weekend in January 2010 where we developed a new church mission for adoption by the congregation at our April 2010 annual meeting. 114 members participated in nine workshops, plus a leadership/facilitator retreat on Sunday afternoon where the final statement of mission was completed.
- Our worship services are achieving new heights, with music to match.
- We just held our annual celebration of Interdependence Day worship service, focusing on what came first, the person or the web? The seventh principle of Unitarian Universalism affirms the interdependent web of all existence while our sixth source lifts up the wisdom of Native American and other earth-centered traditions.
Olmsted UU Congregation, OH
As part of its year long 175th Anniversary celebration, the Olmsted Unitarian Universalist Congregation applied to the Ohio Historical Society for approval for a roadside Historical Marker. The application was approved and a partial state grant was awarded, because of the exceptional historical merit of the church history.
The First Universalist Society was founded in 1834. The sanctuary was built in 1847, making the building the oldest surviving Universalist Church in continuous use in Ohio. The church was founded by leading Olmsted pioneers, and still uses the original bell, cast in Boston in 1851. A woman minister (Abbie Danforth) was ordained at the church in 1878, and the church belfry is believed to have hidden slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. The Historical marker will be installed and dedicated after the church service on May 30, the final event of the 175th Anniversary celebration. It will be placed in front of the church, on Porter Road, a well traveled North Olmsted traffic artery. The Olmsted Historical Society and the North Olmsted Landmarks Commission both provided support for the application process, and will participate in the dedication ceremony.
We are proud to have completed the Welcoming Congregation workshops at OUUC over this last year. Now we are in the proses of submitting a report of our progress to the LGBT office of affairs with the UUA and updating our publicity that still might appear to be prejudice to any peoples sexual orientation. This has been a great experience and we look forward to our role as a WC UU church.
UU Congregation of Meadville, PA
We initiated a Sharing the Plate program, in which we donate half the collection plate to charities connected with the congregation, including UUSC, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children), and a local Soup Kitchen. Despite the budget strains, this program has been enthusiastically supported by the congregation.
We participated in the Standing on the Side of Love campaign, helping to block SB 707.
Our Acting DRE co-organized the CROP walk this past fall with the youth director from the Catholic churches; the walk raised about $10,000 for Center for Family Services, UUSC, and Church World Service.
Our Youth Group has big plans for this spring, including coordinating an inter-faith community service project for Earth Day, organizing a fundraising and awareness project for Global Youth Services Day, and planning a musical Sunday service for this summer.
All Souls UU Church, Bellville, OH
We raised nearly $600 in special collections during social hour after services to aid the relief efforts in Haiti. In addition the church worked in Haiti to establish a microbank, so the tragedy of the quake was felt deeply by our small church family.
We also conduct a monthly special collection we call 'coins for Kenya' that helps support an orphanage and school in that nation. There are 39 children who are participating in the organization. A Village Library has also been established and the response has been very positive.
Send in your Proud Moments now! Email them to the district office at office at ohiomeadville.org
