Dignity/New York Advent Appeal 2021

November 28, 2021
Dear Members and Friends of Dignity/New York,

With the arrival of Advent and the beginning of a new liturgical year, we naturally look back upon the past year. It has been a time of transition for our community. After more than fifteen months away, we cautiously returned to in-person liturgies at St. John’s in June, while also offering a Zoom option. Although slightly different in some ways, our liturgies continue to joyfully celebrate who we are as LGBTQ+ Catholics and allies.

We couldn’t have gotten through this challenging period without your generous contributions of time, talent, and treasure. So, we come to you once again, as we do every year at this time, to ask for your continued support.

As you can see from the financial report below, our expenses exceeded our income by about $400. Notably, we received more than one third of our annual income online. Now that we have gone back to St. John’s, most of our expenses have returned to their former levels, but our weekly collections do not fully cover our operating costs. In fact, we depend on our annual Advent Appeal to contribute approximately $5,000 toward our yearly expenses, and we hope we are able to meet that goal this year.

One of the things we pray for during Advent is the coming of justice. In past years, as part of our commitment to social justice, our community has made financial contributions to the Trinity Place Shelter for LGBTQ+ youth on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This year, in continuation of that tradition, we have committed to contribute 10% of our Advent Appeal to this excellent organization, which provides transitional housing and professional supportive services for up to 18 months for 10 young adults at a time.

To help enrich our experience of Advent, each household in our community has been offered a free physical or electronic copy of The Little Blue Book Advent and Christmas Seasons 2021-2022. Using this book as a resource, we will have three online meetings to reflect on how our Advent and Christmas experience is going. The dates are all on Tuesdays: November 30, December 21, and January 4 at 7:30 PM, using the regular Zoom link for our Sunday liturgy. This can be found in the Worship Aid that can be accessed at www.dignityny.org under Liturgy toward the bottom of the homepage.

As always, we look forward to seeing you every Sunday evening at 6:30 PM EST at St. John’s or online for our regular Sunday liturgies, and for our Christmas Eve liturgy on Friday, December 24, at 6:30 PM EST. We will not have a liturgy on Christmas Day, but will resume our regular Sunday liturgies on December 26.

With our best wishes and prayers for a safe and peaceful Advent and Christmas, and a Happy New Year,

The Steering Committee of Dignity/New York
Chris Alberti, Danny Larkin, Tom McLoughlin, James Osbourn, Lewis Speaks-Tanner, and Jeff Stone

[Click on the attached PDF file for formatted letter with financial detail]
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You may contribute using a credit card by clicking the donation button on www.dignityny.org or by mailing a check to our address:

Dignity/New York
PO Box 1554, FDR Station
New York, NY 10150-1554

This appeal will be sent by email only. If you wish, you may print out and mail in the reply form below. However, this is not necessary.

If you mail a check, please make it out to “Dignity/New York” and indicate on the memo line that it is a contribution to the Pride Appeal.

Please also indicate if you would like a portion of your contribution to be used to renew your annual membership, which is a joint membership in Dignity/New York and DignityUSA. The annual fee is $60 for an individual, $120 for a couple, or $160 for a household. However, we make membership available to all regardless of financial ability, so please let us know if you would like to become a member and your finances are limited.

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ADVENT APPEAL 2021
In support of Dignity/New York and all it is doing to serve the members of
the LGBTQI community I wish to make the following donation:
Advent Appeal Donation: $____________
In addition, I/we wish to become a member
of Dignity/New York and DignityUSA
$____
$60 single
$120 couple
$160 household
In addition, I/we wish to renew my/our joint Dignity/New York and DignityUSA membership
$____
$60 single
$120 couple
$160 household
Name: ________________________________ Email: ___________________________________

Address: ________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Phone: __________________________________

Please make out all checks to: Dignity/New York

If you prefer to use a credit card: Use the “Donate Now!” button on our website, DignityNY.org, which will take you to the DignityUSA website. Your contribution will be directed to Dignity/New York.

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