Prayer Booklet 2021 Call for Prayers
Every three years, the United Thank Offering assembles a small book of gratitude-related prayers, one of the most popular items we give out at each General Convention/Triennial and afterward for as long as they last. We are looking for original prayers in the following categories: Gratitude, Guidance, Healing, Love of God & Creation, Sorrow or Fear, Prayers for Morning, Prayers for Midday, Prayers for Night, and Other. I invite all who are interested to write prayers for the 2021 UTO Prayer Booklet in any language and in any format – collect, litany, free form, or prose. Please submit all prayers, including a title for the prayer, your name, and your diocese, by September 1, 2020, here. (Please contact Heather Melton if you have any trouble submitting the prayers to this web address.) I look forward to reading and praying all of your prayers.
2019 Grant Deadline Extended
In light of the current pandemic, all 2019 grant recipients have been notified by email that the deadline for reporting will be extended until December 1, 2020. If you received a 2019 grant and did not get the email, please let Heather Melton know so she can share the information with you.
Challenge for the 2020 Annual Report
by the UTO Board and Staff
We are continuing to collect stories about how UTO members are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Heather tried to find details about what UTO members were doing during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 and found that many did not connect that work to their practice of gratitude directly until it came time to send more missionaries and support to hospitals, schools, and so forth. We know now that our practice of gratitude is directly linked with our behaviors during this pandemic. Therefore, we want to document in the 2020 UTO Annual Report (and here in our E-Newsletters) what everyone is doing during this time, so please send us photos of how you are helping or let us know where you are donating your time or money. If you are staying at home, take a photo of your odometer on the car at the beginning of June and then at the end of June to show us how far you didn’t go this month. All of these actions – sewing masks, chalking the sidewalks, placing bears in windows, taking meals to those in need, helping an elderly neighbor with groceries, or simply staying home – are ways of giving thanks for the efforts of essential workers to help those that are sick. We are so grateful for all of the ways you are helping flatten the curve, and we want to make sure we tell those stories. So please, send us your photos or stories! Thank you for helping us tell the story of this time. We are also going to share some here in the UTO E-News to highlight the awesome work you all are doing.