This month I want to write about all UUCville has accomplished since July in our current fiscal year. I wanted to list some of those things, so we can appreciate how far we have come in a few important areas of our congregation life: supporting each other and developing our sense of community, being good stewards of all our resources, and supporting the larger Charlottesville community. There are so many things going on, I cannot list them all, but here are some of the things we have accomplished.
Supporting Each Other and Developing our Sense of Community:
In the three long years of the pandemic, no one has become sick with COVID while participating in congregation events. This is truly an impressive record! Many thanks to our Building Use Task Force for their excellent guidance. Thankfully, we are now at a low enough COVID rate in our community that masking is now optional in our facilities.
Rev Tim, our Developmental Minister, started with us on August 1st. Rev Tim is a joy to work with! He leads with vulnerability, vision, wisdom, commitment and hard work. He is inspiring and we are grateful to have him!
Our expertly-led multi-platform services have been accessible and inclusive. Many people have expressed appreciation for being able to come in person and to also zoom in when they are traveling or have moved away from Charlottesville. Videos of the sermons are available through our website on Youtube.
Our fabulous Communications Committee works daily to keep the website up-to-date and relevant. It is easy to find out what is happening and check on all aspects of congregation life. Our Wednesday and Friday emails keep us connected with both heartening and informative posts.
We have had 16 Cottage Conversations related to our Developmental Goal 1 of defining a broad shared vision of our purpose. Well over a hundred congregants have participated! We have many groups that meet varying needs of our congregants: UU Parents Weekly Conversation Circle, UUCville Women’s Friendship Group, UUCville Young Adult Group, Youth RE groups, Children’s RE classes, Adult RE classes, the CareNet Team, the Active Hope Faith Development Group, the Active Minds Discussion Group, and the Interweave LGBTQ+ Fellowship Group. We have seven active Covenant groups, once-a-month newcomers circles, and weekly zooming with Rev Tim.
Our Pastoral Care team is there for us when we most need love and support. We have had so much fun with the pool gathering in August, the Auction Party in September, social dancing for all ages and numerous soup and cake luncheons on Sundays. Our hospitality crew really knows how to celebrate!
Being good stewards of all our resources
We appointed a Stewardship Steering Committee with a charge to develop both short and long-term priorities in enabling and expanding the Stewardship Ministry to care for all our resources.
Our Facility Rental Task Force worked to improve rentals in order to stabilize and improve the revenue stream. They have done extensive work from researching and benchmarking our fee schedules and evaluating our facilities, to promoting our facilities with beautiful pictures on our website and updating our rental agreements and policies.
Our Vice President (Bev Ryan) and the Personnel Committee have developed policies, salary guidelines and recommendations for staff benefits after thoroughly evaluating the UUA values-based policies and practices.
Our Treasurer (Kay Frazier), Our Director of Administration and Finance (Sean Skally), and the Finance committee have been working extremely hard to ensure that we have up-to-date information on our finances and transparent record-keeping. The Finance Committee’s excellence in not only figuring out the numbers, but in also considering the heart of our congregation, has led to respectful, thoughtful conversation and support.
The Grounds Committee has kept our campus looking beautiful and well-maintained. We now have a new Building Committee to provide oversight and care of all our structures. Summit House has a new HVAC system and we are beginning repairs on Summit House’s fire escape and ramps.
In June and July, thanks to the wisdom and action of Sean, we survived the lightning strike and thanks to quick thinking (and acting) members and staff, we survived the basement flood. We had a fun and lucrative yard sale in July and a terrific auction in September.
Supporting the larger Charlottesville Community
We have many groups that support numerous parts of the Charlottesville Community. We host PACEM, supply lunch at the Haven Soup Kitchen on Sundays, host the Friday Food Pantry, engage in IMPACT, participate in the Charlottesville Pride, Food & Cleaning Supply Drive with Ebenezer Baptist Church, assist with the Warm Clothes Drive for the Haven and sponsor a refugee family from Afghanistan.
We have a monthly Social Action Collection to support 12 local groups each year. Since July, we have supported B.U.C.K. Squad, RISE Foundation, IMPACT, New Beginnings Christian Community Food Ministry, Meal Packets, Birth Sisters, PACEM, African American Teaching Fellows and Charlottesville Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR).
In the Cottage Conversations, we have heard about numerous small kindnesses and the friendships people experience through UUCville and how much all these things mean to us. Participants have spoken about how coming to UUCville allows them to be a part of something bigger in the world and how that makes all the difference to them. We are truly a loving community doing good in the world.
Submitted by, Pam McIntire, President