Home

Get Involved!

Become involved with a project that has caught your passion: whether it's Green Sanctuary, Gift-Based Ministry, as a worship associate, leading a covenant group, or something entirely different, your congregation needs your involvement in order to benefit from your unique talents and gifts!

Become a religious educator. Whether you are working with children, youth, young adults, or adults, this work can be deeply fulfilling and fun!

Offer to become a lay leader in your congregation. Talk to your nominating committee. If your congregation's in search for new professional leadership, think about whether you might contribute in new and exciting ways to that venture.

Witness your faith in the company of others, on behalf of your congregation. Seek out connections with other religious groups who share similar values. Help carry the message -- beyond your congregation -- that makes clear Unitarian Universalism's values and voice in this challenging world.

Become a delegate to your UUA District's meetings. You'll learn new skills, develop a sense of Unitarian Universalism that extends beyond your own congregation, and help nurture the vitality of our faith in your district.

Don't wait to be asked: contact your congregation's Nominating Committee and tell them you're willing to serve. They'll be glad to hear from you!

- from the UUA

Trustees of the Pennsylvania
Universalist Convention (TPUC)

TPUC Annual Membership Meeting

At the Budget meeting you heard about the grants we’ve received from the TPUC. Each year we get offered our share of the distribution as a member of the TPUC. It comes from the earnings of the general endowment of the Pennsylvania Universalist Convention. We are one of the six remaining Universalist Heritaged churches still in existence in the state. Cynthia B and Fern C are your Trustees and as such they represent our community at a Board of Trustees level.

Each year there is a membership meeting where each church can send up to 5 voting delegates and a minister. At this meeting, the slate of officers is elected and we share information about our individual communities. The location of the meeting rotates so that each group has the responsibility in turn.
We last hosted the meeting in 2016. So now, 6 years later, it is our turn again. During the pandemic, we had two membership meetings that were held electronically. This year we are planning a hybrid event. Folks usually travel on Friday and arrive in the late afternoon or early evening. Traditionally, a welcome reception with snacks is held at the hotel for the visiting delegates. Saturday is the real day of the meeting. The membership meeting is in the morning and includes the various reports from each church and the election of the officers and then a keynote address.

In 2016, we had the then UUA president, Rev. Peter Morales as our speaker.

A communal lunch is always served following the meeting. In the afternoon, the trustees have a business meeting while there are activities offered for the delegates and their traveling companions or families. Saturday night the tradition is to have a dinner and some form of entertainment. Sunday, delegates often attend the hosting church’s regular worship service and we prepare brown bag lunches for those who request them for their trip home.

This year our meeting will be on Oct. 7 - 9. Please mark your calendar and plan to join us.

The dinner is a fun time to get to know other UU’s from Pennsylvania. The other five churches are:

  • Girard which is a small town south of Erie in the NW part of the state
  • Smithton which is an even smaller town south of Pittsburgh, in the SW,
  • Brooklyn which is in the NE, near the state border south of Binghamton, NY,
  • Athens-Sheshenquin is near the state border south of Elmira, NY, and
  • Reading which is not too far away from us, in the SE part of the state.
Planning will be starting soon, and we welcome others to be involved in the effort. Check in with Fern or Cynthia if you would like to learn more.

We are one of the six remaining Universalist-heritaged churches in Pennsylvania and have been active members of the Pennsylvania Universalist Convention that was revived in the late 1970’s by a group of like minded folks including members of this church.

The Annual meeting is always held in the fall and rotates around the state with each member congregation having a turn to host the event. We last hosted the event in 2016 and will have another turn in 2022. This year the Keynote speaker was the UUA President, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray. Her most recent article in the UUWorld is entitled "Love is an essential spiritual and moral value." She writes: If our justice work does not emerge from the moral and spiritual value of love, in the end it will reinforce practices of domination and violence, just in new forms.

We are entitled to 5 voting delegates from our congregation and have our Trustee and Alternate Trustee, Fern C. and Cynthia B. We also can have one voting delegate from the church staff. Talk to the Moderator or Cynthia B. to learn more.

The Six Universalist-Heritaged Churches in Pennsylvania

First UU Church Berks County
416 Franklin St
Reading, PA 19602

UU Congregation of Smithton
251 2nd Street
Smithton, PA 15479

UU Church of Athens and Sheshequin
112 North Street
Athens, PA 18810

Unitarian Universalist Church
of Girard
107 Myrtle Street
Girard, PA 16417

First Universalist Church
Brooklyn Village
6925 Maple Street
Kingsley, PA 18826

Unitarian Universalists
of Mount Airy
6900 Stenton Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19150

Back to Top of Page