- Description
- UU Connection
- Comments
- Backers
Project Description
The roof on our church building began leaking earlier this year and has already begun to damage our sanctuary’s plaster walls. Unless we replace our roof, we risk more serious – and costly — damage, not only to the walls but to our historic organ. The project includes shingle 
replacement, fascia repair and gutter replacement. The total estimated cost is $38,000.
Olympia Brown served as minister of our church from 1878-1887. Our church building is in Racine’s Historic Sixth Street Business District and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The church serves as a center of social justice activism both for our congregation and for many other like-minded people in our community. The building is not just a physical home for our spiritual community engaging in this important work, it is a symbol to the wider community of the faith that we live, inside and outside our 123-year-old structure. Replacing our roof is necessary to enable us to continue the important work we do unimpeded by worries about its future.
Our congregation is in a time of transition after enjoying 43 years with the same minister. Improving our long-term financial planning and operation are among the important tasks we are undertaking during this interim period. Ensuring that we have a sound and solid building is part of that agenda.
Last year we had a major repair project on our congregation’s annex building that exhausted our Building & Grounds Maintenance fund as well as drawing down our operating reserve. That reserve will be the main source of funds for the roof repair. We ask for your help through Faithify to defray the costs of our roof repair and to supplement our remaining operating reserve to pay for the project.
Project UU Connection
Our congregation was founded as a Universalist church in 1842 and moved into its first building in 1851. In 1878 the Rev. Olympia Brown -- the first woman in the United States to be ordained by a regularly established denomination -- accepted our church’s call; she served as its minister until 1887. Under her ministry, the church became a forum for the discussion of all social issues. Olympia Brown invited Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony to air their views from the pulpit. Under her ministry the women began to vote and hold offices in the church. She subsequently retired from ministry to devote the rest of her life to the battle for women’s equality, at the ballot box and in society. 
Soon after Olympia Brown’s tenure the congregation built its current building. It was dedicated in 1895 as the Church of the Good Shepherd. Today we are called Olympia Brown Unitarian Universalist Church in honor of Rev. Brown’s ministry among us.
Living out Olympia Brown’s legacy and the Seven Principles of our Unitarian Universalist faith, our church has long been a center for witness and action for social justice in the Racine community. For nearly a decade, we have shared our weekly cash collection with local organizations promoting social welfare and social justice, and we serve as a meeting place for a variety of groups and initiatives striving to bring more love and justice to our community and our world.
We founded what became Racine’s annual Pride March for LGBTQ rights. Engaging with area mental health organizations, we made the issue of mental health in our community our social justice focus for two years, culminating in the recent recognition of our congregation as a community partner by the Racine Friendship Clubhouse, a day program for community residents who live with mental illness. We subsequently adopted immigrant rights as a social justice focus, partnering with other area churches to support sanctuary for undocumented residents of our community. This past year, we have expanded that focus to support the movement for Black Lives Matter and to examine our own conscious and unconscious involvement in white supremacy in our congregation, our denomination, and our nation.
5 thoughts on “Help Save Our Historic Sacred Space From Stormy Weather”
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12/17/2018$100.00
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12/17/2018$100.00
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12/17/2018$25.00
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12/16/2018A Christmas present to my father Harry Chalekian who was a member of this congregation for many many years before moving away.$100.00
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12/15/2018$20.00
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12/15/2018$200.00
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12/15/2018$15.00
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12/15/2018This is one of the most significant UU congregations in the Midwest and I hope the campaign succeeds.$100.00
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12/07/2018$200.00
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12/06/2018$200.00
susan
The cost is listed at 38,000. Is it 380,000 or 38,000? thanks –
Stephen
Typo is fixed. Thanks.
Kim Gloede
What I didn’t realize until today is that if we don’t meet our $10,000 goal, we won’t receive any of the money people have pledged.
Halcyon@Faithify
Hi Kim-
Yes, projects (other than Disaster Relief) are “All-or-Nothing” funding on faithify.org. Research shows that this type of goal is highly motivating and less risky for the success of projects. SO share the link to this page with your friends – thanks!
Stephen
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll make sure we make this clear in future communications.