The Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica

Featured Articles - January, 2009

Wanted

WHO: You
WHAT: ComUUnity Greeter Program
WHEN: Each member/family volunteers to greet at one Sunday service a year
WHERE: The courtyard before church and the coffee hour after church
WHY: A friendly and welcoming community for ALL— visitors, newer members, and longtime members alike
HOW:

• 1. Sign up at the Greeters’ Table before services on Sunday or in the church office anytime
• 2. Take written instructions and refrigerator reminder of your time and date
• 3. Join Greeting Committee members at Greeters' Table before the service on your assigned date and time

The CommUUnity Greeting Program resumes this January after a brief hiatus. The purpose of CommUUnity Greeting is to have each member/family/friend participate in our greeting program at least one Sunday a year. This investment of a mere hour or so a year from each of us will help make this church truly welcoming and truly a community. The sign-up book will be at the Greeters' table on Sunday mornings. You'll find it in the church office after the 11 a.m. service and during the week Remember the first time you visited this church?

Remember the first person or persons who welcomed you, who took the time to talk to you during the coffee hour, who told you about the church programs and activities you joined and enjoyed? The CommUUnity Greeting Program gives you a chance to pay this welcome forward to new visitors and friends. And, it has the extra bonus of weaving a stronger community between all of us, longtime members and first-time visitors alike.With our country and world poised with promise and fraught with uncertainty, belonging to a welcoming, caring community is vitally important for all of us.

Our formal name is the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica. The word community has 13 different definitions in my dictionary: a geographic community, a voluntary group of individuals, a population sharing unifying characteristics or interests. The list goes on. But most of us are here for reasons that my dictionary did not list: A warm, welcoming, caring community. Meaningful services and sermons. A family place for children. A chance to participate in something special. A chance to give back to our church community and the community at large. Thus, the CommUUnity Greeting Program plays a vital role in strengthening our community.

Our consumer culture prompts us to look for “What's in it for me?” Twenty-first century life can be so stressful and harried that the thought of setting aside an hour to participate as a CommUUnity Greeter may seem daunting to overloaded multi-taskers. An hour is actually just 1/8760 of a year. A small investment of time. And a rich return on your investment.

If you're still wavering about signing up for one Sunday a year, perhaps UU science fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Stanford scholar Robert McAfee Brown, or the public radio program“Speaking of Faith” could persuade you.

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which this terrible disease of loneliness can be cured,” advised Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“How does one keep from 'growing old inside?' Surely only in community. The only way to make friends with time is to stay friends with people. Taking community seriously not only gives us the companionship we need, it also relieves us of the notion that we are indispensable,” counseled Robert McAffee Brown.

“Religious institutions at their best,” says Krista Tippett, host of the public radio program Speaking of Faith, are a “heart of community.” Quaker author Parker Palmer, in his recent conversation with Tippett, spoke of “reweaving a knowing community of mutual aid, mutual knowing, mutual assistance which is in itself the abundance [spiritual wealth] we seek.We are looking for the type of abundance that comes from knowing that we are willing to feed one another, knowing that we are in those generative relationships that when you need my support I am able to offer it as best as I can and when I need yours the same is true of you.”

— Katie Malich

Meet and Greet with Calvary Baptist Church

In an effort to reach out to other cultures, the Multi- Racial Development Committee arranged to meet for dinner with four members of our neighborhood church, Calvary Baptist on 20th Street in Santa Monica. Pastor Herman Kemp and his wife May attended along with Victoria Johnson and Martha Johnson.

From UUCCSM were our own Rev. Roberta and Dennis Haskin, Edna and Phil Bonacich, who hosted the event at their home, John Raiford, Rick Rhoads, Ron Francis, and Sandra Trutt.

It didn’t take long for the awkwardness of new acquaintances to wear off, and we began sharing our life experiences. Rev. Kemp told a story that occurred during his religious training when he and fellow divinity students were dropped off in a different city, with no money, dressed as homeless people, and had to survive for two and a half days days until they were picked up. Pastor Kemp said living this lifestyle for a few days gave him insight into another world. He learned first hand how it felt to be looked down upon, to beg for money to buy food, and to seek shelter from the cold.

Everyone shared times in their lives when they were inexperienced and did stupid things, or survived on very little but their wits.

We felt like old friends by the end of the evening. I shared our efforts at making our church more sustainable and the members from Calvary Baptist were eager to get more information about things they could do.

Future contact with Calvary Baptist members may be when we both participate in a tree planting activity with the U.S. Forest Service in the Santa Monica Mountains in March.

The Multi-Racial Development Committee meets the second Sunday of each month. Join us next time and participate in our attempts to get to know other faith congregations in our area.

— Sandra Trutt

Oh, Christmas Tree!

The annual tree decorating in our sanctuary was led this year by the expert team of Hanson-Lisovsky.

Pictured (left to right) are: Nels Hanson, Hildreth Simmons, Lauren Way (center front), Alyssa Wood, Greg Wood, Sarah Sullivan, Brit Malpiede, Jennie Roberson, Alex Baker.

A Message from Our Treasurer

The church needs your help. To continue our mission of helping our congregation and those in our community to find a spiritual home or charitable help, our finances will need a significant boost. The economy has affected our pledge receipts this year, and new pledges made for the 2009 calendar year, significantly and adversely—as it has undoubtedly affected your budget as well. In fact, the church faces an anticipated shortfall of $90,000 over the next twelve months, perhaps more, which could completely deplete our unrestricted savings. Additionally, we will have expenses related to our settled minister in 2009 that would present an additional $30,000 in expenses. However, the church has fixed expenses that cannot easily be cut without hurting church services and employee and congregational morale alike, and the church is of finite resources.While we do have some emergency funds, it is our sincere hope that we do not need to tap our “life savings” to maintain our mission.

We want to bring better services to our congregation; we want to add to adult religious education; we want to bring new social programs; we want to be your resource for not only spiritual, but also social needs. However, we now find our church with a very lean budget, and we need funds to maintain the status quo, let alone bring new and better services to our congregation and community.We pledge that as a church we will invest into expanding our services to provide more opportunities for you to explore, learn, and socialize if we do not have to commit those resources to meeting our operational budget. This will help our church grow, adding new members and adding new programs to help more people realize what it means to be a UU. These efforts and investments may help improve our finances down the road.

We hope that you can reach into your hearts to help your church and your friends achieve our mission of helping each of us explore our faith and providing meaningful services to help those in our community who are truly in desperate need. Sincerely,

— Gene D Balas, Treasurer

Progress in 2009 Pledge Campaign

The economy is tanking. People are losing jobs. Retirement savings are shrinking. Given this background, the 2009 Pledge Campaign is not doing badly. As of December 9 we had 172 pledges, up from 120 last year on the same date. Total pledges were $240,123, versus $200,170 a year ago. Although among those who pledged this year and last, average pledges are down 10%, we have heard that nationally church contributions are down 15% to 25%, so we are doing well in a relative sort of way. Below is a picture of the bricks we’ve been using to symbolize the building of our church community through pledges.

However, in absolute terms we are in trouble. Our current projections are that we will run a deficit of $90,000 this year, depleting our unrestricted (nonemergency) savings if we use this to make up the deficit. The paradox is that a healthy vital church can be especially important in difficult times. The church provides a supportive community. Church activities, such as musical and RE events, are low or no cost. And, we will soon be faced with the added expenses associated with a settled minister.

What I’m going to say now applies only to those of us who are lucky enough to have not lost our jobs or whose retirement savings have not been halved. The church will not stay the same for very long as it is if we maintain the same level of contributions as in the past. Borrowing from Dickens, picture some future Christmas with a dingier, drabber church, with an unimpressive RE program, a half-time minister, no musical programming, and an inadequate staff, which is less able to contribute to the wider community. It’s up to us.

— Phil Bonacich Chair, Stewardship Committee

Back to Features Index