Sunday Service: In-person and Online Sunday at 10:30am
Music Sunday!
Come celebrate the beginning of Advent with a service featuring movements from Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols (complete with harp), a few additional carols, and poetry celebrating the meaning of this time of year.
Six books are now available for sign-out on transgender issues, as put together by the Rainbow Alliance. Ranging from historical perspective to fiction, from bios to personal essays, from adult to children, in their own way all present a truth worthy of exploration.
Available for sign-out now. Look for them on the new lending library shelves.
Transgender History: Covers the history of the transgender movement from the mid-20th century through 2008. The first chapter includes a useful vocabulary breakdown. There’s an extensive resources list for other materials.
Gender Outlaws: the Next Generation: A personal look at the lives of a range of transgender folks. Essays, commentary, comic art, and conversations, all of which explore what gender means. Written by Kate Bornstein, who authored the original Gender Outlaws. Kate’s collaborator S. Bear Bergman is an award- winning author, storyteller, and performer.
Gender Failure: a creative book with alternating biographical essays. Includes song lyrics, photos, and art. Spoon, an indie folk-electronic musician, writes of the difficulties of dating when questioning one’s identity. Coyote, an author and spoken-word performer, writes of the decision to get a bilateral mastectomy.
Red: A Crayon’s Story: A picture book that makes the point to be true to your inner self, despite the opinions of others. A blue crayon mislabeled red tries to live up to the expectations of others who want him to conform to what red is. A new friend offers a fresh perspective that makes all the difference. Works as an uplifting story for children (pre-school through kindergarten) and as an allegory for adults.
10,000 Dresses: about a gender-variant child’s struggle to become who she feels she is inside. Bailey dreams about magical dresses but no one appreciates her passion. When Bailey meets Laurel, her life changes. NOTE: some reviewers thought negative elements in the story were not resolved. We advise you read Dresses before sharing with your child. Elementary reader level.
Symptoms of Being Human: the teen offering in our compendium. A debut novel in which Riley, the protagonist, is tagged an “it” in high school. Riley identifies as gender fluid and is forced to decide if they should come out when their anonymous blog attracts threats. Deals with many teens’ feelings of isolation.
SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice)
Hold Dec 10 to attend the SURJ training on accountability, privilege, and the movement for racial justice. The purpose of the workshop is to increase racial consciousness among whites and get more white folk in Chicago active in the fight for racial justice. The event is open to the public but the content will be geared toward addressing whiteness and White people’s position as oppressors. Look for location and time information in the coming days.
Bystander Intervention Workshop
Hollaback (ihollaback.org) is an organization and movement to end harassment in public spaces. They offer training on how to help someone who is the target of harassment in the moment of the harassment. Haven’t we all said to ourselves, “I wish I knew what to say/do”? Go to ihollaback.org and look for BYSTANDER INTERVENTION TRAINING WEBINAR. Tuesday, Nov. 29 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm Central time. They ask for a small donation (of any size) to participate.
YWCA Evanston/Northshore
Lots of ways to take advantage of the YWCA’s programs to eliminate racism and empower women, stand up for social justice, help families, and strengthen communities is as relevant as ever. Here are some things you could do to become part of that mission:
1. Go to a Let’s Talk @ Lunch: bit.ly/TalkatLunch
2. Sign up for YWCA’s monthly e-newsletter here: bit.ly/YWCA-News
3. Become a donor and support the issues you care about: bit.ly/GivetoYWCA
“Our Story in Africa”
Through interviews conducted by Rev. Bret with ministers and lay leader serving in each African country with a Unitarian Universalist presence, stories emerge of hope, inspiration, and struggle.
Congrats to all of the 30 teams in UCE who went through the Long Range Planning process earlier this year. The Councils and the Board have assimilated all of your great plans and we are now ready for Phase 2. But first, let’s talk about the outcomes of the plans and process.
Phase 1: Long Range Planning Process
After leaders and representatives from the church teams were trained in how to facilitate the brainstorming process, they held 5-Year Long Range Planning meetings with their teams. Reports were that they came up with new ideas, heightened their energy around goals, helped to prioritize and created an enthusiasm for the future. Additionally, it was a great way for 3 young teams to set themselves up for success. As the teams brought their plans to the Councils, they were able to see where there was overlap and create collaboration and coordination. We are asking every team to revisit their Plans every 6 months…around January and June. Want to see other team’s Plans? Just go to the UCE website in the “Members & Friends” top tab, then the “Leadership & Governance” sub-tab.
Phase 2: Long Range Plan Project Evaluation
In order to bring many of the great ideas and projects to fruition, we need to get specific on priorities, what it would cost, what efforts it would require etc. So the Integrated Stewardship Council (ISC) is putting together a Long Range Plan Project Evaluation Team to work with all teams who have projects that would require funding or have other major impacts on the church. Some projects will need professionals to assess the projected costs. Other projects may involve changes in our church building that could affect multiple teams and many congregants.
Phase 3: Capital Campaign
Once we have more specifics for what our great plans will cost, then we’ll create a Capital Campaign Team that will help to guide us through the fund raising process.
In the meantime, the teams are progressing forward with great energy on many of their plans that can be accomplished with current funds and volunteers. We’ve observed that this process has helped to take UCE’s energy and excitement to live our Mission “To nurture the human spirit for a world made whole” to an even higher level.
“Breaking Bread Together”
We will break bread together, symbolizing our determination to break only bread and never bodies, spirit, faith, or hope. A Thanksgiving worship service for all ages. Please bring a loaf (or other form) of bread representing your heritage and accompaniments such as cheese, jam, or fruit. During the service, we’ll partake of the bread in celebration of the sustenance we share. Following the service we’ll share a simple meal of bread and the accompaniments you bring.
The Choir will be off on Sunday, November 13 but UCE congregants will have a treat with Howard Levy, Evanston and national famous harmonica/piano performer providing our music.
Howard Levy is an acknowledged master of the diatonic harmonica, a superb pianist, innovative composer, recording artist, bandleader, teacher, producer, and Chicago area resident. In 1970 at the age of 19, he discovered how to play the diatonic harmonica as a fully chromatic instrument. This opened new possibilities for an instrument that had been limited to playing Folk and Blues.
Equally at home in Jazz, Classical, Rock, Folk, Latin, and World Music, the two- time Grammy Award Winner is a favorite with audiences worldwide and a recording artist sought after by the likes of Kenny Loggins, Dolly Parton, Paquito D’Rivera, Styx, Donald Fagen, Paul Simon, and many more. Howard has appeared on hundreds of CDs and played on several movie soundtracks. He is well known for his work with Bela Fleck and The Flecktones. Howard’s other prominent collaborations include Trio Globo (with Glen Velez and Eugene Friesen), oud player/composer Rabih Abou Khalil, guitarist Chris Siebold, and The Riessler/Levy/Matinier Trio.
Howard’s recordings on his label, Balkan Samba Records, include Chévere de Chicago’s Secret Dream and Time Capsules with Acoustic Express. His solo CD Alone and Together on Balkan Samba and the trio CD Tonight and Tomorrow on Chicago Sessions both received 4-star reviews in DownBeat in 2010.
In 2011 Howard released a classical CD featuring his “Concerto for Diatonic Harmonica and Orchestra,” and recorded a reunion CD, Rocket Science, with Bela Fleck and The Flecktones. He won a Best Instrumental Composition Grammy Award for co- writing “Life in Eleven” on this CD.
The most recent Balkan Samba CD’s are From Matzah to Menorah, music for Passover and Hanukah with Cantor Alberto Mizrahi and Trio Globo, and First Takes, a CD of free Jazz improvisations with bassist Larry Gray and Howard’s son, drummer Miles Levy. And a brand new release, “Tango and Jazz”, with performances of Piazzolla tangos and Howard’s original jazz compositions.
Howard also has an online harmonica school with hundreds of members, www.howardharmonica.com. His main website is www.levyland.com.