As of today, we have 121 pledges, and the average pledge increase this year has been 15.5%, which exceeds our target of 15%! THANK YOU to all of you who have taken the time to pledge, and for digging deep and contributing so generously to our beloved UUCW.

If you haven't pledged, it's not too late, and it's easy!  Our goal is 140 pledges, and we still need more to balance the budget and provide our staff with wages that are in line with the UUA. Just follow this link.

As promised during the service on Sunday, below is a quote from Elijah Anderson's book The Cosmopolitan Canopy:  Race and Civility in Everyday Life.

Canopies are in essence pluralistic spaces where people engage one another in a spirit of civility, or even comity and goodwill.2 Through personal observation, they may come casually to appreciate one another's differences and empathize with the other in a spirit of shared humanity. Under the canopy this sense of familiarity often breeds comfort and encourages all to be on their best behavior, promoting peaceful relations. Here racially, ethnically, and socially diverse peoples spend casual and purposeful time together, coming to know one another through what I call folk ethnography, a form of people watching that allows individuals informally to gather evidence in social interactions that supports their own viewpoints or transforms their commonsense understandings of social life. In this context of diversity and cosmopolitanism, a cognitive and cultural basis for trust is established that often leads to the emergence of more civil behavior.