Individual Membership

Whether or not you belong to a church that has a partner church outside North America, your joining the Partner Church Council as an individual member will provide you with information and connection as well as help strengthen US and Canadian support of Unitarianism and Unitarians around the world. For $30 a year (US or Canadian) you get the following:

• A PCC newsletter subscription 3 times per year.
• An email discussion group called pcc-chat whose members exchange stories and helpful advice about partnering concerns, as well as energize each other.
• Help in planning your travel to Transylvania, including a van, driver, and translator.
• Voting rights at the annual meeting held at the UUA General Assembly in June.

Your membership funds are applied to the basic costs of hourly bookkeeping to track funds and membership, producing and mailing the newsletter, a booth at General Assembly, and bank fees for transferring funds to partners in Transylvania. In addition, the PCC helps fund the following:

• The van and travel service used by US and Canadian UUs to visit their partner churches in Transylvania. See our Trips and Tours Page for more information.
• A full-time English teacher for Unitarian seminarians in Kolozsvár.
• Occasional special projects that benefit church partnering but would go undone if the PCC did not exist.
• The cost of individual membership is minimal, but the benefits keep on giving, the more you get involved.

Institutional Membership

To become an Institutional member of the UU Partner Church Council, simply print, fill out, and mail this UUPCC Institutional Membership Form.

Partnered churches need more support to deepen the connection with their partners. Institutional membership gives you:

• Four newsletter subscriptions.
• A district networker to advise you and help you connect with other partners in your UUA district.
• Executive Committee members and consultants who know about your partner church and are able to contact your partner directly if you have urgent concerns.
• A reliable system for delivering donations to your Transylvanian partner. See our Services Page for more information.
• An email group called pcc-chat, whose members exchange stories and helpful advice about partnering concerns, as well as energize each other.
• This web site full of partner church information.
• Help in planning tours to Transylvania, including a van, driver, and translator. See our Trips and Tours Page for more information.
• A database that tracks partnership information and changes on both sides of the ocean.

Institutional membership indicates a commitment by your whole congregation (not just a few individuals) to the partner relationship. It recognizes that the entire partnering process exists only because an international collaboration of individuals and institutions supports it.

Since its founding in 1992, the PCC has grown into a significant support network. Without that network, each partnership would have to operate alone, solving its problems without benefit of the knowledge of other partners. Over time, the partnerships would dribble into nothing.

Your dues money pays for producing and mailing the newsletter, a part-time executive director and bookkeeper, some secretarial help, a table at General Assembly, and the transfer fees for the money going to Transylvania. In addition, the PCC has put money into, or raised money for, the following:

• The van and travel service for the use of visitors to their partner churches in Transylvania.
• An English teacher at the seminary in Kolozsvar.
• In some years, bringing district representatives from Transylvania, Hungary, and India to meet with the US and Candian district networkers at their annual training meeting.
• Special projects that benefit church partnering but would go undone if the PCC did not exist.

It is an illusion that partnering just happens. A continued, successful partnering program needs the support of the PCC in both directions. The cost is minimal. It should be an item in your church's budget.