Program Resources
Program Resources
Here are resources from congregations' experiences with various programming. Click on the topic to go to resource
Welcoming Congregation
Green Sanctuary
Fair Trade
Chalice Lighters
Advertise on NPR
UUSJ Home and Hope Booster Grant
CAUUC Cluster Grant
Welcoming Congregation
What is a Welcoming Congregation?
"Welcoming Congregation" is a course of study developed by the UUA to help congregations embrace gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) people of faith. The congregation audits its practices of welcoming this cohort and through education and activities works toward reducing exclusionary practices and increasing understanding, acceptance, and inclusion of people of different sexual orientations. Upon successfully completing the course, the congregation is granted status as a "Welcoming Congregation." A second course of study is offered by the UUA also, "Living as a Welcoming Congregation."
Advertise on NPR
Advertising on Local NPR Stations
Congregations like Rockford, Geneva, DeKalb, and the "snowbelt" congregations of northern Indiana are buying time on NPR stations to advertise their programs. Here's how: "Bundling":
The congregation registers with NPR as a "Corporate Sponsor." Members of the congregation who normally support NPR can express their support through the church. The congregation collects the contributions in checks to the church with "NPR" in the memo line. The congregation consolidates all the contributions and sends a single donation to NPR in the name of "corporate sponsor (your church name here)."
UUSJ Home and Hope Booster Grant
Home and Hope Booster Grant Program
a program of the UUs for Social Justice (UUSJ)The Home and Hope Booster grant program is designed similar to the Chalice Lighters grant program of the Central Midwest District. Its goals are (1) to assist organizations helping the homeless which Chicago area UU congregations have been helping with volunteers, fundraising, and other ways, and (2) to recognize and applaud the efforts that Chicago Uu congregations have been making to assist the homeless. If your congregation has been helping such an organization, or provides such services directly, the UUSJ encourages you to nominate your congregation for the next booster award.
Green Sanctuary
Green Sanctuary Program
The "Green Sanctuary Program" is a project of the "Seventh Principle Project" (now the UU Ministry for Earth), an arm of the national organization focused on realizing the seventh principle of UUs: "We covenant to respect the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part." The Seventh Principle Project is focused to promote behavior contributing to the sustainability of the planet and its resources.
Five important goals underlie the Green Sanctuary Program:
1. To build awareness of societal environmental issues among UUs
2. To generate commitment for personal lifestyle changes
3. To motivate UUs to community action on environmental issues
4. To build a connection between spiritual practice and environmental consciousness
5. To build awareness of and rectify environmental injustices.
Fair Trade
Sunday morning coffee hour
It all began with coffee. For many in our denominational community, coffee is an important part of congregational life. We joke about its place as our true "communion" beverage, but there it is! Coffee, however, has been the subject of hugely unfair trade practices in some of the poorest countries of the world. The large coffee cartels are able to manipulate the world coffee market and drive down the price of coffee, returning "profits" to small farmers that do not sustain subsistence even at the poverty level.
CAUUC Cluster Grant
CAUUC Cluster Grant
The Chicago Area Unitarian Universalist Council (CAUUC) is charged with supporting member congregations in efforts undertaken jointly because individual congregations may not have the necessary resources or participants. CAUUC has established a program of "Cluster Grants" designed to support this initiative.
Candidates for this program include congregations who may decide to pool resources and participants in order to
- deepen the religious experience of their members
- spread the influence of the principles of Unitarian Universalism in the Chicago area
- effect our Unitarian Universalist values for a just and equitable world.
Chalice Lighters
Chalice Lighters
Chalice Lighters is a program of the Central Midwest District of the UUA (each District conducts a "Chalice Lighter Program"). The mission of the program is to offer to congregations a way to help each other grow. There are two parts to the program.