United Thank Offering Ingathering
September 28, 2008

On Sunday, September 28 we will have the United Thank Offering Ingathering. Last April we passed out the little blue cardboard boxes for parishioners to say a prayer of thanksgiving to God and drop in a coin or bill. Please bring back your boxes on September 28 so our offerings from Trinity can be combined with the offerings from the other churches of the diocese and then with those of the rest of the country. The money is used to advance the mission work of the Episcopal Church throughout the United States and the world.

The United Thank Offering started in the nineteenth century as a practice of prayer and thanksgiving. People offer a prayer of thanks and then give tangible thanks for the blessing in the form of the money put in the box. For 2009 the new vision statement for the UTO states that the collected funds will go to implement projects to alleviate human suffering as described in the Millennium Development Goals.

We will also have envelopes to make a donation to the UTO on Ingathering Sunday. Extra blue boxes are always available in the church office and in the Cloister Room for filling throughout the year. There are so many things to be thankful for in this life, and the little blue boxes give us an opportunity to reflect and give thanks to God when a spare coin turns up or as a deliberate practice in daily life.

On behalf of the national UTO, many thanks to the people of Trinity Church and the children of St. Richard's for participating in this simple form of prayer and thanksgiving.