Oct 4, 2024 | Stewardship and Membership
Over many years, we have likened stewardship to a shepherd watching over their flock; ensuring the flock is protected and has what it needs to flourish. Put in simpler terms, our community is blessed with many Members and Friends who contribute their time, their talent, and their treasures to ensure that our community has what it needs to flourish.
Thank goodness for our volunteers who make our community possible. With our limited amount of staffing, we rely heavily on our Members and Friends to help with both large and small tasks critical to ensuring a robust and fulfilling experience for all Members and Friends.
Did you know it can require up to 35 people to assemble a Sunday morning? And what about all the individuals who serve as committee and board members or the folks who maintain our building and our grounds. Or the many Members and Friends who help with Hospitality or the auction or packing food boxes during the holidays. The list goes on and on and all of us benefit from this abundance of giving of our time.
Many volunteer opportunities take only a few minutes, take little, if any, training, and can be done at your convenience. How about volunteering to be a greeter on a Sunday morning? Or helping prepare for or clean up Coffee Hour occasionally? Or sign up to bring flowers for a Sunday service?
How does one get more involved in serving our community? Talk to someone who is already doing something you would be interested in. They will point you in the right direction. When you volunteer – when you give back to our community – you experience the satisfaction of giving and the gratitude of the community you serve.
UUCOD Stewardship and Membership Committees
Oct 4, 2024 | Minister's Message
Dear ones,
An ad was placed in The Desert Sun in October of 1959 that asked readers “Are you a Unitarian and don’t know it?” It was placed by the Rev. Ray Manker, from Riverside. And then on the evening of Wednesday, October 19, 1959, a diverse collection of people—a few humanists, liberals, and at least one person who was already Unitarian—gathered for the first time at the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce office.
Since then, this community has grown and thrived, through struggle and wandering in the desert, through ministers coming and going, through dreaming and hard work. And here we are, 65 years later, stronger than ever!
Sep 1, 2024 | Stewardship and Membership
For our church community, September is like early Spring in the desert. Even though our fiscal year officially begins in July, July and August are quiet months. September is when full-year Members and Friends begin to emerge from our air-conditioned homes and return from vacations away as the heat subsides. We begin to anticipate and plan for the surge in activity that begins in October. And our seasonal Members and Friends contemplate closing their summer homes and preparing for their season in the desert.
In September, our Board of Directors meets to determine our goals for the church year. Our various committees reconvene and make plans for the coming year in anticipation of our Church Council in October. Our church calendar will be bursting with activities, and we will celebrate the coming together of both full-time and returning seasonal Members and Friends with our In-Gathering luncheon on Sunday, October 13 following our service.
Is September a good time for each of us individually to determine our plans for the coming church year and identify how we can participate in and support our church community?
Our community is stronger than the sum of its individual parts and our contributions that support our community. Each of us, at some level, contributes to the well-being of our community and we rely upon our Members and Friends to be generous with their time, their talents, and their treasures.
What can you offer to support our community in the coming year?
Sep 1, 2024 | Minister's Message
Dear ones,
Our theme for the month of September is Nurturing Sustainable Relationships. As we live into our value of Interdependence we commit to create and nurture sustainable relationships of care and respect, mutuality and justice.
As this month goes along I’ll invite you to ponder and consider your closest relationships and your more casual relationships. How do you choose to nurture these relationships? Do you pay active attention to how they’re going? Do you check in with your partner, your friends, your acquaintances and figure out together how to make your relationship stronger, richer, and more sustaining?
Aug 1, 2024 | Stewardship and Membership
It is August now.
In the desert, it’s hot, our energy is low, and we tend to rest. It’s a time for rest and reflection.
Some of you may be in areas where the weather, friends, and families are keeping you very busy leaving little time to think about UUCOD. Perhaps allow yourself some moments to consider last year and the coming year both where you are now and, in the desert, when you return.
When we reflect on our Church experiences this past year, we think of all the people we call our friends.
When you think of last year in our UUCOD Beloved Community, what comes up for you? Smiles, laughter, joy at what events? Which people? Groups you are a part of? Friends you have made? Are you laughing as you consider these things?
We also reflect on the activities in which we engaged during the year. Some we want to continue; some new ones we want to try out and see how it fits for us.
Reflections include allowing memories to come to you in quiet spaces and times. Memories will also include emotions and feelings to which we consider how we want to respond.
Consider all these situations, events, memories, joys as you consider how you would like this coming year at UUCOD to be for you.
Do you want to make new friends? Consider Men’s Breakfast or Women’s Night Out. Join a Chalice Circle.
In our July article we spoke of Community of Communities. In this coming year, do you want to join a small community? Choir? Hospitality? AV team? Worship? There are so many more options available for you in small communities (Membership, Stewardship, Finance, Social Justice, Facilities).
Most importantly, make a decision to do something differently this next year that will bring you that “I belong here” feeling of community or as one of our new members said, “I found my people”.
UUCOD Stewardship and Membership Committees
