Coffee Hour

Jeff Wilson says:

A very interesting question, and since it won't ever happen, I guess it's basically a chance to indulge our fantasies. As a matter of fact, I've already had the "I've won the Lotto, now I can spend money to advance UUism" fantasy plenty of times before on my own. One of the first things I would do is donate a bunch of money to churches for building repair. I used to be the office manager of the Fourth Universalist Church in NYC, and our historic building was always fallling apart because the congregation couldn't support the maintainence fees. A lot of other churches have this same problem.

Second, I'd give a lot of money to young adult programs. I grew up UU, and one thing I found as I aged out of Sunday School but didn't yet have a family, was that there was essentially no place for me in UUism. In fact, I still don't have kids, and I still don't feel a real place in UUism now, ten years later. The lack of support for young adult UUs is the major reason that we lose such an enormous percentage of our youth to other denominations. So funding programs that keep young adults engaged with UUism would be a big priority of mine.

I would also fund television commercials inviting people to visit a UU church or go to uua.org. I'm not kidding! I live in the South and see commercials all the time for churches and denominations, and not just on Sunday mornings either. Obviously this is one way to reach people, and to raise the profile of the denomination generally. So I'd get some awesome commercials made that really showcase the exciting aspects of UUism, and get they played in all sorts of markets.

I would also make a big donation to Skinner books, so they can publish more on UU history.

Two final pet projects: I'd create a fund to give money to new churches, to encourage adding more congregations to our denomination. And I would set up another UU seminary, probably in the South, to add to our paltry list of UU seminary institutions.

Mark Brooks says:

The things that Jeff plans would be good with me too. When I've had the fantasy of "What would I do with that much money?" I'd attend seminary, but (here's the catch) I would only do it on a audit basis. I don't want to be a minister, but I'd love to know more detail about religion in general (and contemporary Universalism in particular). So, I'd attend Jeff's UU Seminary of the South. But wait, that means we'd both have to with the lottery! Okay, I'll let him win and I'll attend his seminary after I take early retirement from my job.

Christine Robinson says:

If it was a really big jackpot and a really lot of money, I'd buy 8 acre parcels of land just outside of the growing edge of a bunch of cities where the established UU church was a long way away, and then challenge the UU's of that area: If you establish a new congregation and settle a minister, I'll give you the land.

Christine Robinson

Peg says:

Fellowship halls.
Scholarships.
Establish/boost travel subsidies for GA delegates (specifically for churches where sending the chairs of Denominational Affairs and Social Concerns/Action isn't already a given).

Elizabeth McKeeman says:

Well, I think I'd give half of it to the Church of the Larger Fellowship and half to the congregation in Chico California. The congregation in Chico is growing and could use a full time minister and a good library.

Oddly enough. I already plan that if I should hit the big time I'd tithe on it to the UU church. Of course I'd have to actually go out and buy a lotto ticker ; )

Rebecca says:

I would set up an endowment for Young Religious Unitarian Universalists to spend however it saw fit.

Chris Walton says:

See also the responses at the following blogs: Across, Beyond, Through, Boy in the Bands, My Irony, and Philocrites, my site.

Will Shetterly says:

1. The UU Hour weekly radio show.
2. The UU Half-Hour weekly TV show.
3. New UU churches in inner city locations where people could reach them on foot or by public transportation.
4. A virtual UU church on the web. (Hey, steal other people's good ideas--it's the UU Way!)

Carolyn Mansager says:

I agree with a lot of the posts already here.

I went to seminary to become a UU minister. Unfortuately, I can't live on the internship stipend either for the one year full-time or two year part-time required internship to meet the requirements of going before the MFC. In the meantime, I have student loans from seminary that I can't pay off while living on an internship stipend. There's no way to get ahead financially on the stipend, and I have no other means of financial support.

Therefore, even though I graduated in 2000 with an M.Div, I, literally, can't afford to finish the ordination requirements. I know there are other UU's, and graduated seminarians, in this financial situation.

Therefore, if I won the lottery and had an unlimited amount of money to further Unitarian Universalism, I would provide teaching congregations enough money to support their ministerial interns a reasonable, cost of living wage, for a full time year, so our future clergy-in-training would not have to find additional full-time work in order to survive. That way, our ministerial interns could devote time and attention to their internship and also be able to practice real self-care.

I would set up scholarships for graduated seminarians for money towards helping pay their student loans from seminary, since an M.Div is a requirement for becoming a UU minister.

I would also donate a lot of money to the retirement fund, and provide lifetime health care benefits for our ministers, both active and retired.

Also, I would create an automated lending library for seminarians, and other interested UU's, with books by Beacon Press and Skinner Press and with the hard to find, or out of print, books that are on the Ministerial Fellowship Committee (MFC) required reading list.

I would also donate a lot of money to the Church of the Larger Fellowship.