The Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica

Good morning! I came to this church in December 2001, looking for a place to help ground my children morally… and to help me put down roots in a very large city…I came looking for intentional community and in the past four and a half years I’ve forged relationships with some very wonderful people. I can now call you people “my people.”

It’s also been about four years that I’ve served on the stewardship community…wading knee deep in the dollars and cents of running a church and raising the money that keeps it going. I’m studying and learning what makes church communities strong…

And because of that, I’ve begun an internal shift. For me, being a Unitarian Universalist is now more than coming to church on Sunday, signing petitions for marriage equality and steeping my children in some moral tea.

For me, living a Unitarian Universalist life is about looking at the way I spend myself – my time, my energy, my money – to create nurturing community at home and out in the world, with people I love dearly and people I don’t know at all.
Peter Henrickson, author of a very practical book, “Financial Management in the Church,” would seem like an unlikely agent for my transformation.

But he’s been integral. And inspirational. Today, I light the chalice in gratitude for his work, and in the hopes that what he has to say resonates with you too.