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Nov./Dec. response: Responsively Yours
A Season of Hope
by Sally Vonner
As this issue of response reaches you, you may be setting your tables for Thanksgiving and decorating your homes for Christmas. You may be shopping, wrapping gifts, planning menus, and making travel plans. And I hope that come December, you will be filled with the wonderful joy and anticipation of this Advent season, preparing your hearts and minds for the coming of Jesus.
General Secretary and CEO
United Women in Faith
Beginning in December, be sure to read our Advent devotions on uwfaith.org. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you through these words and guide you on this journey of hope, peace, love, and joy.
Oh, what a wonderful season this is!
Just as Advent starts a new liturgical year for the church, so, too, a new season has begun for United Women in Faith. We want to give thanks for those board members who served during the last four years, and we want to welcome our new board of directors. The members of this new board are already serving boldly, focused on a vision that increases membership, revenue, and our $60 million Legacy Endowment Fund goal. I have great hope for all the inspiring, influencing, and impacting we will do together in this next quadrennium.
This is also the season to celebrate our new Reading Program. Each book has been selected to help women of faith lean into spiritual growth, strengthen leadership skills, equip for local and global mission, take faithful action for the common good, and build community. Please read and consider joining book discussions on United Women in Faith Digital.
One of the devoted readers who helped prepare this reading list happens to be our new president, Jana Jones. Get to know her better beginning on page 11 and join me in welcoming her and our other officers and board members. I am especially moved by Jones’ favorite scripture, Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”
Speaking of love and kindness, I would like to take this opportunity to say that I am so very thankful for the prayers and support I received from you, our members, concerning the loss of my son, Arvis. It has been a difficult time, but I have felt your love, and I thank you.
You can help United Women in Faith carry out our mission of love and justice by contributing to our World Thank Offering. It is another part of this wonderful season and one of the five channels of undesignated Mission Giving of United Women in Faith.
Our annual World Thank Offering contributions help make our total program of mission possible, including social justice work, spiritual growth opportunities, leadership development events and resources, scholarships, resources to promote Just Energy for All and Interrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline, grants for projects developed by our international mission partners, program support for nearly 90 National Mission Institutions in the United States, regional missionaries, and more.
On the next page, you’ll find a Bible study that connects this important giving opportunity to potluck meals. Perhaps you are planning to participate in one of these gatherings as you celebrate the holiday season. As you do, note that when everyone brings something to the table, it becomes a table full of diversity and abundance.
As you prepare your tables during this season of hope, think of the flavors you add to United Women in Faith. Think of the gifts you bring to our membership and know that you are helping ensure there is a seat for everyone.
SALLY VONNER
General Secretary and CEO
United Women in Faith
