All Saints’ Sunday, Ascension Sunday, or What Works for You?

By Kathy Mank, Financial Secretary, UTO National Board

The special UTO Alms Basin is available for collecting your Ingathering offerings. Contact Dorothy Smith, UTO Coordinator in the Diocese of NC, for reserving and scheduling the basin.

The special UTO Alms Basin is available for collecting your Ingathering offerings. Contact Dorothy Smith, UTO Coordinator in the Diocese of NC, for reserving and scheduling the basin.

In trying to locate a current source of why All Saints’ and Ascension Sundays have traditionally been selected by congregations throughout The Episcopal Church for UTO Ingatherings, I found little, except for lots of old UTO Blue Boxes with dated UTO slogans and prayers and the infamous UTO basin. In short, if I cannot track down a source for this and have served on the UTO Board for six years, why should anyone be relegated to All Saints’ and Ascension Sundays for UTO Ingatherings? If these Sundays fit into your congregation’s liturgical cycle and expand the circle of thankful givers, please continue to prepare for the feast days of All Saints and Ascension with UTO in mind. However, if your priest and liturgical ministers would prefer a different Sunday or Sundays for an Ingathering, please have conversation with them and discuss what would work best to promote gratitude in the form of thank offerings and the periodic blessing of the tangible results of our gratitude in worship.