Cecilia Rawlins and Eleanor Lane are standing in for Rev. Lisa Bovee-Kemper, Associate Minister, while she is on sabbatical.
Members of the Interim Steering Committee from ESJM (Earth and Social Justice Ministry) recently met with the Community Plate Committee to discuss how the two groups could work together. As the Interim Steering Committee of the Earth and Social Justice Ministry (ESJM) was envisioning a direction for moving our congregation forward, numerous people expressed a desire to increase the collaboration between the ESJM and the Community Plate Committee. When members of these two groups met recently, exciting ideas emerged.
As part of the discussion, we focused on the need to better explain to our congregation how the Community Plate will work. We envision looking to the various ESJM action groups to identify organizations in which they are involved and have clear needs, and recommend these as Community Plate recipients. As a member of an action group, you may be called on in the future to educate us about the good works of community organizations already known or new to us. We hope this will support heightened volunteerism from our congregation. This means that everyone’s time, talent and money are needed and appreciated. We want to continue to try to donate a substantial financial amount to various community organizations while at the same time encouraging our fellow UUCA congregants to volunteer at the selected organizations. In this way, we will view the community organizations as partners. Our sweat equity will become equally valuable to our financial contributions.
Since we also take our responsibility for the social justice development of our youth very seriously, we will meet with RE staff to further discuss ideas for the involvement of our youth in this process
We are excited about the further development of the Community Plate program and encourage the full participation of all congregants with our envisioned community partner program.