March 15, 2009
By Julie Caran
When Kevin and I came to Harrisonburg in 2002 for his interview with the JMU chemistry department, one of my first tasks was to look at the church listings in the local yellow pages. Because I was leaving my position as a Director of Religious Education at another church in order to accompany him on his career path, he knew there was one solid condition to my moving: there had to be a UU church wherever we relocated. So while Kevin interviewed, I picked up a map and drove around town and into the country side, making my way to HUU. It was easy to imagine living in such a beautiful area, and I’ll admit that I was instantly charmed by this lovely historic schoolhouse with HUU on the bell tower.
We moved to Harrisonburg in the summer of 2003 and attended HUU the first Sunday after we arrived. That day the consulting minister, Rev. Byrd Tetzlaff, was fulfilling her promise to do a sermon of jokes, thanks to Robin McNallie’s purchase at the last HUU auction. We saw that this was a community of people who enjoyed each other’s company, who had a sense of humor, and who really seemed to know each other well. I had never attended such a small UU church before, but I looked forward to becoming a part of the HUU community. That year I recognized HUU people at every educational, political, or social justice event I attended. I knew that being a part of a UU church connected us to many different individuals with shared values.
Kevin and I did not join the church until spring of that school year, when we had acclimated to life in Harrisonburg and felt ready to truly commit to membership – which to us meant investing in this community with active participation, regular attendance, and a financial obligation.
Although growing up I had always contributed part of my allowance to my church, pledging was more than an expectation or the symbolic “giving back to God in thanks for all that God has given me.” I had seen the practical side of church budgets and knew that running a church was impossible without its members’ generous contributions. As a DRE I had personally depended on church members’ generosity to determine whether I would receive a raise or benefits. Pledging also determined whether the RE program would be able to offer the same activities that it had offered the previous year, whether the church would be able to get its leaking roof fixed, and whether it would be able to contribute the necessary amount to be a UUA “fair share” congregation. So when we became members of HUU, I knew how many benefits we would enjoy as members of the church and knew we needed to give something back – not only our time and participation, but at least some financial contribution. At the time, I was in school full time and living off of student loans, and Kevin had his first-year-public-university-professor salary. We couldn’t pledge as much as the church was worth to us. But each year since then we’ve upped our pledge by about 15 per cent.  It’s part of our commitment to HUU that, as we become more financially stable, we contribute more as we are able.