Sunday Service: In-person and Online Sunday at 10:30am
“Compassion Leads the Way” – 9:15 and 11:00am
As you journey into the New Year, let compassion lead your way. Our service will engage in meditative ways to create and grow compassion for ourselves, our neighbors, and our world. Susan Frances, Ministerial Intern leading.
Submitted by: Rev. Eileen Wiviott
Rev. Bret and I are pleased to announce that we passed the Evanston Sanctuary Resolution with 93% present voting yes to being in solidarity with the City of Evanston and other faith communities and to protect those who are marginalized and targeted, without due process, for deportation. There was relatively little discussion about the resolution itself, and more concern expressed about the way the vote was taken. We decided to have a secret ballot rather than a show of voting cards because, following our vote to put up the Black Lives Matter sign in 2015, some expressed that they didn’t feel comfortable voting publicly against it. They feared the social pressure or stigma that might result. There can be no doubt that most of those who attend our church identify as liberal – both religiously and politically. We do strive to be open-minded and tolerant of a spectrum of views but there are those (and I am refraining from quantifying this) who feel we fall short in this regard. We live in highly polarized times. Speaking for myself, as extreme views on the political right are given legitimacy and greater power – views that feel threatening to everything I believe (and often are threatening to actual people), I know I am pulled further to the left. We each must struggle to keep our hearts and minds open to one another so that we do not lump every view that contradicts our own into a category such as “wrong” or “racist.”
As one member pointed out, we have for many years voted on statements of conscience using open ballots, and relied on secret votes very rarely and only for sensitive issues. We could argue that this was a sensitive issue, but whether we have a secret or open vote, several questions remain: are we living our covenant of engagement in a way that allows us to voice differing opinions and to discuss them productively? Does having a secret ballot on a statement of conscience allow everyone to remain comfortable, quietly disagreeing, but unable to discuss difficult and important issues? Is there value in disagreeing and being able to express that in our beloved community? Are we able to love, or at least respect, one another even if we vote against the majority? These are questions we will, I have no doubt, continue to wrestle with.
Another concern expressed was that we don’t have the time or energy to devote to the issue of immigration, which signing the statement demands of us. I agree we must put the words we affirmed into action. I also agree that we are spread thin and we lose some efficacy when we take on too much. However, this is what we have been called to respond to and this resolution is part of work already underway and doesn’t commit us to “new” work. We will not be able to do everything that must be done to address the complex issue of immigration and protect those who are marginalized. The good news is that signing onto this statement does strengthen our relationship with the congregations and organizations that are already deeply engaged in this work. It lets them know we are committed to join them as best we are able. There are actions already underway and a team that is forming. Look to your newsletter for upcoming events and ways you can participate. If you’d like to join us, please let me know.
Here is a link to the updated resolution.
Can We Talk?
Do you remember Joan Rivers, the comic many of us grew up watching on the Tonight Show? As part of her schtick she often used the phrase, “Can We Talk?” Audiences expected to hear it from her each time she performed even to the extent that they would shout it at her.
Now, your Board of Trustees wants to ask, “Can We Talk?” In fact, the Board wants to hear from you so much that it made “Continual Communication” with the membership one of its primary goals for 2017-18. The Board especially wants to know what you enjoy about your UCE experience, what you are less excited about, and what you would suggest the Board think about as they plan for the future. It wants to know your thoughts about UCE and its involvement in our community, our denomination, in our world.
Already there are opportunities for you to share your thoughts and more are planned for the future. Trustee and Board of Trustee Vice-President Jeanne Kerl has conducted and is planning additional “Chat with the Board” sessions that will give you an opportunity to speak with a Board member. Participation in the upcoming “Powerful Question” sessions will present you the opportunity to answer questions such as “What kind of a church are we?” and “What should we be?”
The Board hopes you will seize the opportunity to share what you think. UCE has a strong history and a bright future. With your participation, the future will shine even more brightly.
Dr. Mary Lamb Shelden
“As I thought back to that moment . . . I knew exactly why I looked away. I was so afraid of my own need, I couldn’t look need in the eye.”
~ Brené Brown, Rising Strong
A few days after Thanksgiving this year, an old high school friend reported on an interaction he’d had with a stranger, a black man, on Chicago’s South Side. The man had approached him saying, twice – “I’m not robbing you, but I’m desperate for money.” My friend, a white guy, a tradesman working in the area, gave him the $20 he had in his wallet, and was now processing the event on Facebook, trying to figure out whether this was “a new kind of scam.” With alarming speed, the discussion thread turned to weapons for self-defense. Few were the voices urging mercy and compassion – though when we emerged, I think we gently rounded off the discussion. I hope we helped others on the thread re-think their positions, but I have my doubts.
This stranger who approached my high school friend has been much on my mind this holiday season. I have come to think of him as one of the guests at my table.
I know the Guest At Your Table boxes you took home this season back in November – or maybe left in the church at their usual stations – may have become invisible to you by now. I know because this has sometimes happened to me during this season. It is a truism among UUs that, as Emerson warned, repeated rituals can become “dead forms.” But there is another opportunity in ritual practice that I hope we consider. As we daily or nightly light our chalice or menorah or kinara, I hope that by the candlelight we can see this little box as a placeholder for the very real people desperate for our help.
Who is the guest at my table? It is the man who sits outside the Evanston Athletic Center, with his daily greeting and request for aid. I have generally walked by him, explaining that I don’t have my wallet, which is true. But a couple of weeks ago, after I had passed him in the usual way, another woman came behind me with a folded bill in hand. “Thank you for remembering me,” he said, and she replied, “I always have something for you.” And in a moment, I realized that I had been so concerned about being suckered, that I had forgotten to be concerned about being hardhearted. The guest at my table is also the guy outside the CVS, where I go only a couple of times a month, always noticing that he is faithfully at his station – so that I have come to ask, what am I doing so faithfully as he, and is it worth doing? The other day, I picked up two Panera gift cards and a couple of packs of handwarmers, for the EAC guy and the CVS guy, whose names I do not know – Margie’s idea that I felt was a good one. When I gave this little gift package to the CVS guy, he was clearly touched – but it was the difference it made to me that I want to share with you. I was aware that this gift was insufficient. I began to think, though, then about the larger difference I might make if I could make such a contribution – which was well within our means – a regular practice. I was feeling pretty good about this Idea while I was parking at the club – and then the guy I had expected to see there wasn’t at his usual station. He has been much on my mind since then. Today will be my first opportunity since to deliver his little package. I hope he is well. I hope I will see him, as it has turned colder. Or that he is someplace warmer.
Who is the guest at your table? Have you seen the men I’ve described here? Or the woman who sits outside the Jewel on Chicago Avenue? Who do you walk by as you go about your dailiness? Are they in your thoughts and prayers? Might you make room for them there? Might you make their well being a practice in your own life?
Tulsidas Ramayan tells us that when Hanuman, servant of the god Rama, was asked what he was, man or beast, he answered quietly: “When I don’t know who I am, I serve you; but when I know who I am, I am you.” The guest at our table, friends, is us.
The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (https://www.uusc.org/) – the legacy of the organization that we learned about during our visit from the General Assembly Chalice, that helped so many immigrants escape the Nazis—is our UUA organization assisting those around the world most desperate for our help. This holy week—as our congregation has affirmed that we stand ready to protect the immigrant strangers in our midst, as we remember that ancient holy family, escaping Herod’s wrath and treachery—I invite you to keep those most desperate in mind, to stay awake to their need, and to your means of answering it. May our flame of aid and assistance burn brightly in this dark season. May we be of service. May it be so.
9:15 and 11:00am
Special returning guest preacher and musician (you’ve heard him at General Assembly!) Matt Meyer will lead a Christmas Eve morning worship with song and poetry.
Race Matters
an occasional blog from your Racial Equity Action and Leadership (REAL) team
A question about the Black Lives Matter vigil:
What’s the point of people standing out on Ridge Ave for 20 minutes after church with Black Lives Matter signs? What possible benefit does that have?
A REAL answer: There are several reasons the vigil is worthwhile and even important. It reinforces UCE’s presence in the community, its witnessing and acting for racial justice. We have gotten feedback from variety of people in the community who have noticed and appreciated our being out there. We always get supportive honks and raised fists (and very rarely fingers) from cars. For people who usually don’t feel comfortable physically demonstrating about various issues, it’s a safe way to expand their comfort zones and “put their bodies where their mouths are.” Plus, it’s invigorating and fun for the people standing there with signs and song sheets. A rousing, even if slightly off key, rendition of “We Will Not Be Moved” increases community spirit and individual sense of purpose.
REAL events coming up in the next few months:
What can you do this month to further racial equity?
In addition to joining the vigil on Sundays, this is a month for extra giving. Organizations that do wonderful work combatting racism include:
Southern Poverty Law Center: https://www.splcenter.org/
Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative www.eji.org/
For more ideas, go to:
http://www.racialequityresourceguide.org/organizations/organizations/sectionFilter/Racial%20Healing
Want a good book to read and/or give this holiday?
Sue Carlton reviews Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving (Cambridge, MA : Elephant Room Press, 2014):
What does it mean to be white in the United States?
Waking Up White is the story of one white woman’s journey to understand how racism in the United States has shaped her. Debby Irving grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts during the 60s and 70s. Her childhood in this predominantly white upper-middle class suburb was blissfully sheltered. After college, she began work in Boston as an administrator in a variety of arts related, community based, not-for-profit organizations. It was here that she began to observe a racial divide. Irving repeatedly found that her best efforts to “help” students of color caused more harm than the good she intended. Her diversity efforts lacked traction. She sensed racial tensions in her personal and professional relationships and found herself worrying about offending colleagues and neighbors she dearly wanted to befriend. Then in 2009 one “aha!” moment launched a journey of discovery and insight that drastically shifted her world view. She enrolled in a graduate course entitled “Race and Cultural Identity” and began to comprehend white privilege and how much she had benefited over the years because she was white. She began to realize that the playing field in the United States is not level and whites help keep it not level – that without her knowledge or active pursuit, she lives in a society which is set up to reward her at the expense of people of color. Because of this white privilege, the lives of people in the United States play out very differently along racial lines.
Speaking from her own perspective and sharing her personal narrative, Irving opens a rare window on how whites in the United States are socialized. She details the struggle to understand her racialized belief system and how the mechanics of racism operate in her own life. Her brutal honesty as well as her recognition that it is possible to be both a good person and complicit in a corrupt system helps create an atmosphere that supports readers in reconsidering their own perceptions and beliefs. Irving’s exploration of how white privilege operates in her life also allows readers to more readily see how systemic privilege plays out in their own lives. Irving stresses that it is only through doing this difficult work that she has gotten to the point where she can more effectively contribute to the movement of righting racial wrongs. As she observes, “Wanting beloved community is not enough. If we don’t take on the task of educating ourselves about how to dismantle racism both in ourselves and in our communities, we can do more harm than good.”
Waking Up White is written in short chapters with exercises at the end of each chapter that prompt readers to explore their own racialized ideas. This makes it a particularly good resource for both individual exploration and group discussion. It is available in print, eBook and audio formats. One reader offered up a particularly pithy review that captures an important reason to seek out and read Waking Up White: “This book is a great place to start learning what you don’t know that you don’t know you don’t know.”
Plan ahead for next summer:
The critically acclaimed Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, on Noyes, has just announced their exciting lineup for summer 2018. The season starts on June 16 and includes three plays and two concerts. Best deal: sign up for Premium Gold Member card by 12/31 and get all 5 for $55:
From the Mississippi Delta by Endesha Ida Mae Holland, PhD., June 16-July 1
Top Dog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, July 14-29
Crowns by Regina Taylor, August 11-26
Crossroads Blues Festival, August 30
Old School R&B Concert, August 31
Last year’s productions were profound and powerfully acted, and ticket prices are a bargain. This is an important community institution and a resource worth supporting. Learn more at fjtheatre@cityofevanston.org.
What and Who is the REAL team?
The REAL team originated in the spring of 2015. We work to increase our congregation’s understanding of racism and our capacities to confront and eradicate it. The current planning team consists of Karen Courtright, Martha Holman, Lynn Kendall, Sarah Vanderwicken and Betty Walker. All those in the congregation who support and participate in this mission are part of the team. Come join us!
Sunday, December 24, 5:00pm – “Lessons and Carols, UU-Style”
An untraditional service, crafted with families in mind, of Lessons & Carols with traditional texts set against modern poetry and prose. The trombone choir will play a brass prelude beginning at 4:45.
Sunday, December 24, 9:00pm – “For the Time Being,” a service of Lessons and Carols based on W. H. Auden’s famous Christmas poem.
A dramatic reading of W. H. Auden’s For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio in the form of colorful monologues spoken by the traditional characters in the Christmas story. Widely viewed as one of Auden’s greatest works in which he reconsiders the idea of faith in modern times, the poem recasts the story as relevant to finding hope in the dark days of the ancient world, and ours. The choir sings at the 9pm service.
A Special Sunday of Solidarity!
9:15am – A short, 30-minute service where we will sing, reflect on the Christmas message as it relates to our times, and celebrate as always our commitment to justice.
10:00am – Gather to vote on Evanston’s Sanctuary Community Resolution where we decide how we will work with other communities of faith in Evanston to do all we can, in our own ways, as communities of solidarity, strength, and hope.
11:00am – The “No Rehearsal” Christmas Pageant
We’ll enact the Christmas story and reflect on its meaning. Have you always wanted to be a star? Or maybe an angel, a wise person, or a shepherd? This is your chance! No advance preparation is required: costumes, props, and stage directions will be provided on the spot. A worship service for all ages.