Stewardship and Generosity

Your generous contribution will help the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent’s mission to inspire love, seek justice, and grow in community. Together, we can create a more compassionate and just world. Your donation is tax-deductible.

Jump to 2025 Generosity Campaign details

Sending Donations or Pledge Payments

We invite you to complete the online pledge form below in support of our 2024-2025 Budget. If you have any questions, please contact the church office, [email protected].

If you have difficulty with the online form, you can print a pledge card.

Fiscal Year 2025 Generosity Campaign

A Message from Your Generosity Team

Dear Friends,

When the Generosity Team started work on our Pledge Drive this year, we were a different church. Our conversations with Rev. Steven looked forward to our shared ministries with him and our excitement at what we could do together. Now, grieving, we continue. We continue, not alone, but with each other and with the memory of Rev. Steven, who wrote this to the congregation in support of the Pledge Drive:

The song “Draw the Circle Wide” was written in 1994 by Fr. Gordon Light, an Anglican priest from Toronto, Canada, as a response to an address he heard at the Canadian Episcopal Church’s executive council. Presiding Bishop Ed Browning talked about the state of the church, mentioning at least twice, “We need to draw the circle wide.” Theologian Amy Howe wrote, “Once we acknowledge that there are no walls separating us, love and mercy flow unfettered, and all people are deemed equally valuable.” The circle is made wider still. No one stands alone.

Our congregation was founded in 1866 by Universalists, who believed in a God that loves everyone, that no one is left out. Today we speak of a Love that holds and sustains all of us in its embrace. This Love invites us to continue to draw the circle wide through serving one another and the world, teaching our children our UU values, working for justice, providing a safe and inclusive welcome and space for all, especially LGBTQIA+ individuals and others on the margins, and doing a variety of ministries that change and touch lives. This is all possible because of your continued generosity, the sharing of your gifts of money, time, and your unique self with all your skills, talents and passions. Thank you.

We continue to learn from all the ways Rev. Steven served this church, and we honor those lessons in our work together. Our pledge support makes the operating budget of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent. When making your pledge this year, think about what it is you will joyfully support. Rev. Steven asked us this:

I invite you to take some time to reflect about what this spiritual community means to you. How has the Love that holds you changed you for the better? How are you inspired and challenged by this Love to serve others and the world?

With Gratitude,
The Generosity Team: Sandy Eaglen, Lois Weir, Andrew Rome

A Message from Your Board

UUCK Community,

I hope this letter finds you well. As we enter into our church’s 159^th year, I would like to invite you to participate in continuing to grow into our mission to inspire love, to seek justice, and to grow in community.

As you know, we continue to be in a liminal time of considerable change. In addition to the recent loss of Reverend Steven, the COVID-19 pandemic had already changed the dynamics of our community. We completed Hobbs Hall and added Zoom services (which continue to permit a broader community of worshippers to participate in our live services). These milestones increased costs, and some of our prior pledging members became inactive, relocated, or passed on. Along with macro-trends like inflation, over the past few years these dynamics have led to a deficit between our operating costs and our income. Some of our staff members are paid below UUA’s standards for fair pay and have not received cost-of-living adjustments.

The good news is that we have made progress in decreasing that deficit over the last year and our vibrancy has grown. Our music ministry, under the direction of our new Interim Music Director, Emily Hall, has blossomed. RE continues to be a strong core program, engaging young families in the community and helping to develop the next generation of good stewards of our world. We welcomed several new members to our congregation this year, and have welcomed numerous visitors to our services, many who have stayed. We are testing a new two service model in February and March in the hopes that we will both make it easier for more folks to attend Sunday services and revitalize our Adult RE program (which has served to help connect people more fully to our community in the past). Meanwhile, we have multiple long-term rentals either in place or in development, which will help both financially, as well as in service to the “Not For Us Alone” spirit in which Hobbs Hall was built. We are confident that as we continue to grow in service to our broader community, and in membership, we will eliminate the budget deficit in the next two years. [CLICK HERE to read more . . .]

The reality is, it takes money to allow our beloved community to function. Our campaign goal is $284,500 towards this year’s operating budget.

The results of our pledge campaign will play a large role in our future ministerial transition. Pledged income is our greatest financial resource. Please consider your generous pledge as an investment in the future of our beloved church community.

FY2025 Pledge Campaign: Draw the Circle Wider

Please pledge generously. Increasing your pledge by the amount suggested below will help see our congregation through this time of fiscal challenge. Our goals are to support our ministries, grow our congregation, and provide fair compensation for our staff.