Martha Durkee-Neuman
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The Sanctuary Boston is my spiritual home and you are my chosen people. I have belonged to many different churches and religious organizations, both personally and professionally. So I am used to the regular process where you come for a while, and then someone asks if you want to take the new member class and then they invite you to sign the book. Shortly thereafter you are asked to pledge a financial contribution.
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I was used to this way of doing things. But at Sanctuary Boston, we do things a little differently. We don't have formal membership. So even after I had been coming here for many years as a young adult, I still hadn't pledged or made an ongoing financial commitment. If that's you, that's perfect and ok. You are welcome exactly as you are.
But slowly this place had started to become my home. The place I would come to when I needed comfort or solace or a good cry or a good dance-it-out or to be reminded of what is most important to me and to be held to it through accountable relationship with my community.
Eventually, I had a friend crush on Rose and she was organizing the retreat. So I signed up to co-organize it with her as a friendship creation strategy. It worked wonders might I add.
One of the jobs was to categorize everyone's retreat payments. I realized as I was logging them in our PayPal, that all my friends were pledging to Sanctuary. Wait a second. Their generosity was making possible this thing I loved so much and got so much out of. This is the value of a little positive social pressure on me.
Not wanting to be left out I decided to pledge. If all the cool kids are doing it... But it was hard to figure out how much.
It's impossible to quantify what this place means to me. How can I put a price on the time I got to co-write a song (for the first time in my life) with my community members at a retreat.
Or the time I got to dance barefoot in the grass with the kids and bubbles in the air and my heart soared.
Or the time I came here so lost that the words "loved right through" made me tear up but made me remember again.
Or the time I needed a place to crash and I slept on the couches in the homes of the members of my small group ministry for a month.
Or the time I came here the day after the last devastating election and heard Elizabeth say, when the barn burns down, you can still see the moon.
I can't put a price on any of that.
The guidance I follow is that of our religious friends and neighbors in other traditions who tithe. So I give away 10% of my annual income. 5% to religious organizations and 5% to community-based justice-making organizations. This means I pledge to Sanctuary, and I give regularly to our offering ask, which are different pots of money.
If it's helpful, we've created an info sheet with all kinds of information about Sanctuary this year, including our values and suggestions for giving. We ask that the more you make, the higher percentage you pledge.
Our budget last year was an ambitious one. It included a significant deficit and Sanctuary Boston operates with a smaller budget and less money than just about any other UU congregation our size. In our Sanctuary interviews last year, we heard from our community that times are tough and people are struggling. We also heard how much our community members value this wonderful place, and so we took a leap of faith to invest in Sanctuary and have invited everyone who gets something out of it to do the same.
To balance our budget, we need to increase donations by an average of 20%. If you can right now, we invite you to increase your pledge. We also know that others of us need to cut back on their pledge in these hard times. We trust that our giving and receiving will work out to support us all.
Giving 10% of my income away helps me feel connected to my community and my world. This helps me stay grounded and feel that I am participating meaningfully in the place that has done so much beautiful work in my life and the lives of those around me.
I still can't put a price on it, and I won't try. But you are my people and this is my place. And if you're here, it's yours.
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