Honored and humbled: Reflections from the EDM
We are honored to steward your gifts. We are humbled by the generosity and intentionality of your gifts. You are dedicating your birthdays to AllianceQ. (We often don’t know about each personal fundraiser; please let us know so we can extend a personal acknowledgement!) You are setting up your own Giving Tuesday fundraisers for AllianceQ.
About Giving Tuesday
Last year for Giving Tuesday I wrote this, “Every Day.” Just one month after joining AllianceQ as staff, it felt strange asking for financial support. I highlighted the everyday gifts: phone calls, sermons, pastoral care with LGBTQ+ individuals and families, small groups, the witness of open & affirming ministry.
Last week we mailed and emailed our annual update, highlighting the ministry you have made possible in 2020; and we included the invitation to fill out a commitment card with ways to embody our beliefs. Find the commitment card here or return the mailed card. (Didn’t get mail from us? Send me an email with your mailing address so I can update our records.)
We know that giving takes various forms. We need your financial contributions to sustain and grow this ministry and we need your time and talents, too. <<<Every church is seeking and asking for your time, talents and treasures this time of year. Please receive our sincere gratitude for the everyday gifts every day of the year. Watch these messages of thanks from Council Members and AllianceQ members and friends.
I was weepy last week. (I’ve had a lot of weepy days this year.) On this day, I wrote:
I just paused the Pandora Christmas music to answer a call from an AllianceQ member who was worried that her donation did not go through. She wanted to be certain the Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance received her contribution. I’m actually catching up on data entry — an often tedious task for which we need better tech — and I’m enjoying immensely the opportunity to type each name and contribution, praying for the individual or family. I just entered a $5 gift from a church that gives every year no matter the year. And I’m feeling weepy: every gift makes the ministry of AllianceQ an embodied reality. Suffering bodies, especially our trans siblings of color, need the message of God’s love and affirmation and the church’s inclusion. Church, we need every body. I’ll go back to my “data entry” that truly is bringing tears to my eyes. There’s a profound witness in that $5 gift during this year of pandemics. Grateful.
It is an honor to serve with AllianceQ.
I thank you for sharing your stories with me, those of welcome and unwelcome. I thank you for showing up for our conversations and events, the learning and equipping to create more stories, more experiences of welcome. I thank you for extending grace and trust. To me and to AllianceQ. I am humbled by your graciousness. I commit to more listening, learning and action to transform our Church and world.
Thank you for all the ways you give of yourself, supporting AllianceQ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.)
P.S. You can make a financial gift here or mail contributions to P.O. Box 44400, Indianapolis, IN 46244.
P.P.S. If your gift is tech or you know of a great automation for data entry between platforms or you like to create graphics and artwork, take photos or create inclusive liturgies, all these gifts will help our ministry. Fill out the commitment card and/or email us.
P.P.P.S. My family will be giving to the Christmas offering that supports the work of regional ministries this Christmas. Info on the 2020 Christmas offering, REJOICE, can be found here. We’re all in this together.
That’s a lot of post-postscripts.