Securing the future of May Memorial is important to me. Sure, May was around for more than 150 years before I showed up, and I expect it will manage to survive somehow after I’m gone. Yet sometimes I wonder: Will the fantastic, fractious fellowship of the UU faithful at May really survive?

Liberal religion seems as fragile today as it ever did, even as the faith community in the wide world is fracturing. “True believers” espouse their exclusivist doctrines. Mainstream Protestantism, Catholicism, even Judaism are riven by schism and drained by apathy. The disaffected, the alienated and the distracted retreat to their faith-less sanctuaries. And the young? They pursue all manner of cults and callings, zone out in cyberspace, pursue the dollar or otherwise fall through the cracks.

So what role is Unitarian-Universalism to play in this dispiriting arena? Of course, my thinking is that UU faith is a way out of the spiritual morass. Trouble is, our religion hasn’t exactly caught fire in the world — yet. With enough apathy, enough buffeting, enough disaffection and disinterest, could the flame in our UU chalice flicker out some day?

If May Memorial were a “rich church,” its temporal future at least would be secure. Alternatively, running on deficit budgets, depleting our reserves and limping along with an very modest Endowment Fund, May’s future looks a little shakier. Faith will provide, I suppose, but it’s nice to have a little more to go on.

A couple of weeks ago I joined a small band from MMUUS to attend a fact-filled workshop on Planned Giving at the UU church in Utica, put on by the ever-more-active St. Lawrence District under the energetic leadership of Tom Chulak. Since I knew little on the subject, my learning curve that Saturday was steep.

A major insight for me that day was that there are three types of church “giving” under the broad rubric of stewardship. The first is the canvass, where you share from your discretionary funds to finance the running of the church. The second is the “stretch,” where you dig a little deeper from time to time to support special church needs — like a Capital Fund Drive to build an addition or rehabilitate your aging church home. (Gee, when was the last time May Memorial had a Capital drive?)

The third leg of stewardship is the Legacy Gift — a bequest included in a will, for example, or some kind of Living Trust. This type of giving typically goes into the Endowment Fund, helping to build a permanent foundation of financial support.

In coming days, I will be discussing Planned Giving with my spouse. It’s a new idea for me — other May Memorial members surely are way ahead of me. (If so, feel free to clue me in!) From time to time, the group of MMUUS members that is forming in the wake of the Utica workshop aims to use the newsletter and/or website or other means to “raise the banner” of Planned Giving at May.

This isn’t a sales pitch, by the way. Apparently that’s not the way Planned Giving works. It’s a matter of individual faith — and commitment to keep the flame at May Memorial alight. More broadly, a Planned Gift is a way to ensure the survival of Unitarian Universalism and liberal religion in this needy world. If the spirit moves you and you have questions, please ask me — or Barb Mihalas, Mal Clark, Nan Gartner or John Marsh.