By Eva Morriss
Diocese of North Carolina
The United Thank Offering is very different from other groups. We are not fundraisers and we do not collect contributions or donations. We do not think of UTO only once or twice a year. What we do in the United Thank Offering is first to offer our prayers to God. This is the major difference between us and other groups. The United Thank Offering is prayer oriented. Then we give tangible thanks for the blessings in the form of coins or bills. The money is an offering - not a donation. An offering is not the same as a donation or a contribution. An offering is a thanksgiving to God - always. We do this every day - not just once in a while. Thanks be to God.
The United Thank Offering is a program encouraging men, women and children to share their thankfulness to God through daily prayers and offerings in the "blue box" to pass those blessings to others. In 2005, the United Thank Offering Committee awarded $2,710,247.22. One hundred and thirty-one grants out of 200 requests were partially or fully funded. Two grants were awarded in the Diocese of North Carolina. Let us remember what a tremendous blessing it is for the UTO Committee to have awarded eleven grants in the Diocese of North Carolina within the past eleven years.
Concluding in August 2005, with assistance from a UTO grant, one hundred 4-17 year-old disadvantaged children benefited from a summer camp program sponsored through the Youth Programs of The Chapel of Christ the King, in Charlotte. Another 2005 UTO grant is funding a speaker's bureau to develop curricula to advance the coordinated efforts of Student Action with Farmworkers and the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry.
By Christmas 2005, construction will be completed on La Casa de San Marcos /Saint Mark's House - an interracial and multicultural center adjacent to Saint Mark's in Wilson. For Saint Mark's and La Guadalupana, the vision of providing a community center and gathering place for the immediate neighborhood, and the community beyond, became reality with the awarding of a $30,000 UTO grant.
United Thank Offering application forms for grants to be disbursed the following year are available at the Diocesan House by October lst of each year. UTO application forms for 2006 grants are now available. Call Margo Acomb at (919) 834-7474 or (800) 448-8775 to request application forms. Applications must address compelling human need and/or expansion of mission and ministry. The absolute deadline for completed 2006 applications is November 28, 2005.
For any information call Eva Morriss at (252) 237-5020 or e-mail .
