 Resources for Churches, Organizations, Laity and Clergy of the Diocese of California
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United Thank Offering: Expanding the Circle of Thankful People |
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Written by PCN Print Edition Writers
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Monday, 06 December 2004 |
We in this diocese are beginning to expand the circle of thankful
people! The United Thank Committee (UTO [national]) has done it by
awarding three grants in the past two years to the Diocese of
California. One went to True Sunshine Community Center, enabling them
to hire a director to coordinate all the programs of their Community
Center, serving Asian immigrant children in Chinatown. Another went to
the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation's Chinese Ministry to hire a
part time pastoral educator to be a bridge between the parish and the
neighborhood Chinese people. One also went to St. James Episcopal
Church for the creation of a no-fee Saturday morning preschool serving
at-risk children of diverse constituencies in the Richmond District of
San Francisco. In order for these grants to happen, we in the church
encourage daily prayers, offerings, and an awareness of the abundance
of God's blessings by dropping our small coins in our blue boxes.
At the 2003 Fall Ingathering at Grace Cathedral we were able to send
coins of thanksgiving and prayers in the amount of $12,609.61 to UTO,
and at this past spring meeting at Good Shepherd Church, Belmont, the
amount sent was $13,032.54. At the last General Convention coins from
the nine Provinces in the Episcopal Church amounted to over 3 million
dollars. As your Diocesan Coordinator, I was proud of the part each of
you played in that $3 million. I smiled when I presented that check to
the Presiding Bishop.
We have eighty-seven parishes and missions in this Diocese. Can you
imagine what our checks might amount to if all of us in our churches
dropped coins in our little blue boxes whenever we were thankful for
something? At the moment there are only twenty-three parishes
participating at our Ingatherings! We need to do something about
thankfulness in all the other churches!
Remember, UTO is not a fund raiser. It is not money taken away from a
parish budget; it is the giving of small coins from our hearts to
people and places in this world that are in need of so many things. One
hundred percent of the offerings goes directly to the funding of these
grants. Think of our three grants, where would they be without the
small coins from people they will never know or be able to thank! Think
about attending our next Ingathering and hearing more about United
Thank Offering.
The Fall Ingathering will be at Grace Cathedral on Saturday the 20th of
November beginning at 9 a.m. Our guest speaker that day will be Eric
Nefstead, the newly appointed Executive Director of Sojourn Chaplaincy
at the San Francisco General Hospital. Sojourn was a grateful recipient
of a UTO Grant in 2000. Eric is a priest of this diocese and has served
as a chaplain and CPE Supervisory Candidate at Alta Bates Summit
Medical Center in Berkeley/Oakland, and St. Francis Memorial Hospital
in San Francisco. Most recently, he spent over a year as a hospice
chaplain in Florida and taught last spring at CDSP. Won't you please
think about joining us? We even have some clergy in attendance. We are
thankful for that.
It is my hope and prayer that the clergy and members of every parish
and mission in this Diocese participate in the practice of thankful
offerings. It isn't hard, you know, and think how it will make you feel!
In September we will be sending out an information/registration sheet
for the November meeting. Please check with your UTO Parish
Chairperson, your clergy or parish administrator. The information will
be mailed to your church, or if you have a chairperson, it will go
directly to him or her. If you want to know now how to obtain UTO
information for your church, please be in touch with me at 230 Lake
Merced Hill #1B, S.F., CA 94132, (415.239.1972) or e-mail me at
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--Sally Young |
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