UTO Update - Annual Meeting 2020

The United Thank Offering (UTO) is a ministry of The Episcopal Church, which was started by ECW members and grew into a national church mission. Everyone is invited to practice a spiritual discipline of gratitude, recognizing little things daily for which they are thankful, then making a small donation in the little Blue Box. Some prefer to make a mental note and write a check for the collection taken up periodically by their congregation. UTO distributes 100% of what is collected to support innovative mission and ministry throughout the Episcopal Church and Provinces of the Anglican Communion. “Thank you” to all who, through a personal spiritual discipline of gratitude, contribute to the United Thank Offering Ingathering. Since UTO’s official founding in 1889, UTO has awarded 5,257 grants for a total of $137,094,170.52. This year the UTO awarded $1,548,013.66 in 26 grants from the 2019 offering.

Our Diocese received one grant that will fund a project to train women who are homeless, poor, or experiencing domestic violence to become skilled in the food industry.

For more information on all the grants, go to: www.episcopalchurch.org/UTO. Our diocesan offering for fall 2019 was $8,900.00.

Because of the pandemic, and with churches closed, there was little activity this spring. We are asking everyone who has offerings to please send them to our acting treasurer, Mary Hawkins, to count for the Spring ingathering.

UTO Alert

From the United Thank Offering Board:

Plans for our grant year 2021 have been altered by the current pandemic. The theme chosen for next year has been postponed until 2022. Due to the great need created by the COVID-19 virus, our focus has been changed to:

Recovering with Love and Gratitude: An Episcopal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Local Contexts.

The funds gathered in 2020 will be split into two granting cycles. There will also be two funding levels in order to fund as many projects as possible. There will be separate applications for these categories.

I will have more information about this later. Finally, practicing gratitude honors God and binds us spiritually in this important mission. Contact me for more information.

Dorothy Smith
United Thank Offering Coordinator
UTO@ecw-nc.org