‘Tis the season for giving thanks, which makes it appropriate to give huge appreciations to Jerry Steinberg and his hardworking Enlistment Team of Sanford Berg, Andrew Ragsdale, Liz Harvey, Anna Heinemann,Tracy Bachmann and Taylor Williams – and to our wonderful accountant, Catherine Cake. With input from the whole UCG community, the Team’s efforts raised over $741,000 toward our operating budget. This is a significant accomplishment, which I hope we all will celebrate.

And yet . . .sorry, I’m the Board of Business chair and it’s my job to say this kind of thing . . .And yet, we have a considerable way to go. The challenge budget approved by the congregation in October calls for pledges totaling $814,429. Since then, there have been some unforeseen add-ins like unexpectedly high health insurance increases that together put the pledge line over $820,000.

To state the obvious: a budget gets balanced either by increasing income or by reducing expenses. Your BoB, the Church Council, and your ministers and staff, are working on ways to close this admittedly large gap. But ultimately it’ll come down to each and all of us to decide how to go forward. You have a part to play – and, yes, we’ll all be hearing more about this soon. We are entering the period of Advent, when our hearts are invited to embrace the possibilities of hope. May this time of anticipation remind us also that the gift that is UCG exists because of each and every one of us. I believe that, together, we will find creative ways to resolve this budget problem. And I have deep faith in the community of UCG as, together, we work to manifest radical love in our desperately hurting world.

Blessings
Maureen Killoran, Chair
Board of Business