Sharing the Plate
Upcoming recipients:
Share the Plate Sunday, December 30. The collection will go to the Coalition of the Homeless, a group of people who are currently experiencing or have experienced homelessness, along with their allies and supporters. The Coalition's work is two-pronged: to meet immediate needs of people who are or could become homeless as well as address t he systemic and attitudinal changes necessary to work toward ending homelessness . Please make sure that checks are made out to Church of The Reconciler . http://www.churchofthereconciler.org/ National Coalition of the Homeless website: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/
November:
December: TBA
How Share the Plate Works
In September of 2006, the church board asked the Justice Committee to facilitate a four month pilot program called Share-the-Plate where the church would donate the offertory collection one Sunday a month to a worthy charitable organization.
For our first month, in September, we easily chose the World of Opportunity, a school for residents who have been passed over by city programs who seek to achieve GED and employment skills to lift their chances to earn fair wages. The congregation responded by donating four times the average Sunday collection.
In October, we were able to bring our long-term relationship with Greater Birmingham Ministries together with our intention to fund smaller groups that need money at hand by donating to GBMs effort to help the preservation of the Rosedale Community. Once again, the congregation chose to be very generous in response.
For November and December, we selected programs that improve the lives of Birmingham homeless men and women: the Old Firehouse Shelter for men and Pathways Shelter for women and children. Although these collections were on holiday weekends, the amounts far exceeded gifts we have been able to afford in the past.
The congregation and leadership have concluded that this program is a heartfelt way of congregational outreach and it is extended into the future. Previously, the Justice Committee filtered pledge funds to charities, where now individuals give directly to a cause as they choose.
The Justice Committee will still apportion funds for organizations that support our principles such as the extremely effective Alabama ARISE. Multiple churches and civic groups support this larger entity and the pooling yields greater impact than any one church can ever make. We also support timely events such as Martin Luther King, Jr. commemorations with calls to act on poverty and violence and efforts to promote peaceful resolution of conflict.
As we continue the Share-the-Plate program in 2007, we raised funds for Bridge Ministries and Birmingham AIDS Outreach to support their lifeline to victims and families of HIV-AIDS. We will seek suggestions from the congregation for future recipients. As we grow in this process, we hope to share our experiences and learn from other churches who practice similar methods of giving to the community.
Share the Plate recipients have included:
- World of Opportunity
- Greater Birmingham Ministries
- The Old Firehouse Shelter
- Pathways Shelter
- Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (¡HICA!) to fund ESL (English as a Second Language) classes
- West End's NorthStar Youth Ministries
- Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
- Project Hope Alabama
- Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)
- Alabama ARISE
The Justice Committee welcomes your suggestions for the Share program. See the Justice table for a discussion of the criteria we use to evaluate and choose recipients.
Email the Justice Chair at chair_justice@uucbham.org.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham
A member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Location: 4300 Hampton Heights Drive · Birmingham, Alabama · 35209 · U.S.A
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 19786 · Birmingham, AL 35219
Phone: (205) 945-8109 · Fax: (205) 945-8111
E-mail: office@uucbham.org
Copyright © 2006-2008 Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham
All Rights Reserved.