Chalice Lighter Invite

This is an open invitation for you to become a Chalice Lighter in the Ohio-Meadville District. The Chalice Lighter Program is the single best, most effective way we have to directly support our fellow congregations who are working to reach out to others, who want to grow in health and numbers, but need a little help from the rest of us to get the job done.

Four times each year, the OMD Board chooses an outreach and growth project for funding from among those submitted by our congregations. Then individual Chalice Lighters throughout the district are asked to contribute $10 or more if possible. It’s that simple and easy.

Right now, in Fall 2008, the Oberlin Unitarian Universalist Fellowship was chosen to receive Chalice Lighter assistance to increase its outreach to address its lack of visibility in the Oberlin community. The congregation has no building of its own. It meets for Sunday service in a day care center and rents office space in a small building. There is no sign on the office building and only a hand-lettered sign outside the day care center on Sunday morning (see www.ohiomeadville.org for a photo).

If you join Chalice Lighters now by mail or through the OMD website (www.ohiomeadville.org), your donation will be used by the Oberlin congregation to:

1. Purchase signs so the congregation has an attractive physical presence throughout the week. This includes 4 highway signs to be posted by the main roads into Oberlin, a sign on the office building, and an attractive sign for Sunday mornings that can be read from both directions.

2. Purchase a demographic study from the UUA which will be used to help identify potential new members and create and target mailings and newspaper advertisements based on the information.

There is more information about Oberlin’s plans and the Chalice Lighter Program on the Ohio-Meadville District website – www.ohiomeadville.org – including examples of how other congregations have used Chalice Lighter money to reach out.

To become a Chalice Lighter, you can send a check made out to OMD Chalice Lighters for $10 to the address below. Be sure to send your email address, if you have one, with your check to receive future Chalice Lighter notices.

Chalice Lighters

Ohio-Meadville District, UUA

PO Box 157

St. Clairsville, OH 43950

Or visit the OMD website at www.ohiomeadville.org to sign up online and donate using a credit card.

And please consider increasing your donation to $15 or $25 or more if you are inspired to help this small congregation reach out to its neighbors in need of a welcoming spiritual home.

So -- why should you join the hundreds of OMD members who are already Chalice Lighters and sign up today?

Hope!

Hope for the Future.

Hope for the future of Unitarian Universalism in the Ohio-Meadville District and in the world.

Please visit the OMD website and show your hope and support for the faith that means so much to us all.

And many, many thanks to those of you who faithfully support Chalice Lighters. You are making a direct and much needed difference here in the Ohio-Meadville District.

Blessings,

Rev. Joan Van Becelaere

District Executive