Sample Guest at Your Table announcements and articles

These samples can be used in worship services, committee meetings, newsletters, websites, and listservs. (Download this information as a PDF).

_{Before
your program begins}

_{For during
your program

For
following the close of your program}

Before your program begins

It's time to welcome a Guest at Your Table!

On (November 23, 2008), we'll open our Guest at Your Table program with an intergenerational worship celebration.

When we bring home our Guest at Your Table boxes, our families and friends will learn about real struggles for justice in the United States and around the world.

With each box comes a copy of Stories of Hope, written to teach children, youth, and adults how the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee helps to change our world for the better. The stories introduce you to human-rights champions, like Serafina, the South African grandmother who partnered with UUSC and others to restore the constitutionally protected water rights of marginalized people.

When we share our blessings with our guests, we ensure that UUSC and people like Serafina can continue their important work.

And thanks to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, gifts of $100 or more are eligible to be matched, dollar for dollar, doubling your good works!

If you miss picking up your Guest at Your Table box and Stories of Hope, you can do so at _________ or by talking with __________, our UUSC local representative.

Welcoming a Guest at Your Table

Each year at this time, friends and families in our congregation participate in the UU tradition of Guest at Your Table.

By bringing home a beautiful Guest at Your Table box, families and individuals learn about how the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee puts our shared principles into action in the United States and around the world. Through a potent combination of advocacy, education, and partnerships with grassroots organizations, UUSC promotes economic rights, advances environmental justice, defends civil liberties, and preserves the rights of people in times of humanitarian crisis.

Sharing our blessings through Guest at Your Table ensures that UUSC's human-rights work continues, while building UUSC membership. UUSC members are vitally important, as UUSC is an independent, membership-based organization that receives no funding from the UUA or the U.S. government.

Through the booklet Stories of Hope we connect with people in the United States and around the world who are working hard to advance human rights - and protect their own rights - in partnership with UUSC.

In each household, the Guest at Your Table box is placed in a prominent spot, often at the family meal table. When family and friends gather to enjoy their blessings, they can reflect on the contributions of their Guests and share generously. Each week, we can choose a different story to read, bringing our Guests to life and helping to celebrate our own rights.

If you would prefer not to bring home a box, you can take a donation envelope or support UUSC directly online at www.uusc.org.

We will open our Guest at Your Table program with an intergenerational worship celebration on (date).

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For during your program

Celebrate the Guest at Your Table!

Our Guest at Your Table program is going strong. So many families and friends have brought human rights home and welcomed Guests to their lives!

Thanks to our support, our Unitarian Universalist Service Committee is working throughout the United States and around the world to advance human rights. Your beautiful Guest at Your Table box and Stories of Hope introduce you to people whose lives have been changed by this work.

Each week, families and friends can focus on a different Story of Hope as we sit down to meals together and consider our many blessings.

This week, meet Serafina, the South African grandmother who partnered with UUSC and others to restore marginalized people's access to water. Consider what water means to you and your family. Consider what even a small gift to your Guest at Your Table will mean to Serafina and her friends.

You can learn more about UUSC's work on protecting our right to water online at www.uusc.org.

If you have not yet picked up your Guest at Your Table box and Stories of Hope, you can do so at _________ or by talking with __________, our UUSC local representative.

Your generosity with the Guest at Your Table is tax deductible! Be sure to complete the form on your box.

And remember ... gifts of $100 can be matched by the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock!

For each subsequent week, replace paragraph four with one of the following items:

This week, meet Dalia, the young Egyptian woman whose strong voice for women's rights is echoing through the world in a partnership with UUSC. Consider what rights the women in this country enjoy freely. And consider what even a small gift to your Guest at Your Table will mean to Dalia and women like her around the world who, often at great peril, are standing up for their rights.

You can learn more about UUSC's work on advancing women's rights and civil liberties worldwide online at www.uusc.org.

***

This week, meet Maria, a Cuban immigrant who spent years working in unfair conditions in a U.S. poultry plant and is now working with a UUSC partner to empower workers to stand up for their rights. Consider what it means to be able to earn a fair wage to provide food, housing and clothing for yourself and your family. And consider what even a small gift to your Guest at Your Table will mean to workers like Maria who are working hard to ensure fair wages and decent working conditions.

You can learn more about UUSC's work advancing workers' rights online at www.uusc.org.

***

This week, meet Amina, who is leading UUSC's efforts to protect women and girls in Darfur. Consider what it means to be safe from violence, to be secure in your own home, to know that you have allies with your best interest in mind. And consider what even a small gift to your Guest at Your Table will mean to the women and girls surviving humanitarian crises in Darfur and elsewhere in our world.

You can learn more about UUSC's work addressing human rights in the wake of crises online at www.uusc.org.

***

This week, meet UUs just like you who journeyed with UUSC to Mexico, to see the effects of NAFTA with their own eyes. Consider how your life might be changed as these UUs' lives were when they witnessed for themselves the plight of another nation's struggling people. And consider what even a small gift to your Guest at Your Table will mean to the many individuals and human rights activists whose lives are altered through UUSC's JustWorks and JustJourneys experiences.

You can learn more about UUSC's JustJourneys and JustWorks opportunities online at www.uusc.org.

Time to collect your Guest at Your Table!

On (date), we'll close our Guest at Your Table program with an intergenerational worship celebration.

Over the recent weeks, our Guest at Your Table boxes and Stories of Hope have taught us of real struggles for justice in the U.S. and around the world. And our power to change the world when we support our Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and the many amazing people they partner with.

Before bringing back your Guest at Your Table box, be sure to complete the form on the box. And please convert your cash and coins to a check.

We'll announce the results of our Guest at Your Table program as soon as we are able. On behalf of UUSC, we thank and commend every person who has chosen to share their blessings with the Guest at Your Table.

If you miss bringing back your Guest at Your Table box, you can pass it to __________, our UUSC local representative, at any time.

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For following the close of your program

A celebration of another successful Guest at Your Table program!

Friends,

Congratulations! This year we were able to raise ($ amount) through our Guest at Your Table program. Plus, our gifts of $100 or more are eligible to be matched thanks to the generosity of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock.

**Some suggestions for how to celebrate the amount your congregation raises**

Report how many memberships the program raised, and urge the congregation to strive toward a goal this year - for instance, 50% of the congregants are UUSC members by the end of the church year.

Consider sharing the good you have done in these terms:

$40 and up

o Your support of $40 allows our partner Barakat to send one girl to school in Afghanistan for a whole year. If you pitch in $200, it will allow 5 girls in Afghanistan to go to school for an entire year.

o A contribution of $100 will provide Educational Kits to 10 UU youth groups to teach their peers about Fair Trade and economic justice.

$200 and up

o Your support of $200 allows our partner Barakat to send 5 girls in Afghanistan to school for an entire year.

$500 and up

o A contribution of $500 allows Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) to fund travel for U.S.-based torture survivors to Washington, DC, to share their stories and lobby Congress to stop torture.

o Your support in the amount of $800 will provide a JustWorks travel and learning scholarship for underrepresented youth and young adults

o Your support of $750 will make it possible for MPOWER (Mississippi Poultry Workers for Equality and Respect) to provide workers' rights workshops for 4 Latino and African American poultry workers;

$1000 and up

o A contribution of $1200 allows Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC)) to fund travel for international torture survivors to Washington, DC, to share their stories and lobby Congress to stop torture.

o Your support in the amount of $1500 will provide a JustJourney travel and learning scholarship for low-income seminarian students

o Your gift of $1,250 will assist Kenya's Rock Women Group provide school and job training for 80 child workers;

$2,000 and up

o Your generous gift of $2,500 will allow our partner in Iraq to train 75 women on their political rights and how to fully participate in the upcoming elections in Iraq. If you double that, $5,000 will enable them to train 150 women. A gift of $10,000 will allow the training to be expanded to 300 women.

o Your support of $10,000 allows our partner HAMSA to support 20 young activists in the Middle East to attend a civil rights training in Morocco.

o Your support of $3,000 will fund a Let Justice Roll organizer for one month to mobilize UUs and other faith-allies to continue the push for raising the Kansas minimum wage above $2.65 per hour;

o $5,000 will supplement Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT) revolving loan fund to 41 women street vendors who lost their stock and businesses during the post-election crisis in Kenya.

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