Wonderful Blessing of Outdoor Projects Completion
UCE is now even more welcoming! The Capital Campaign Implementation Committee has been working for about a year planning a series of projects to make our church building and grounds more safe, accessible, welcoming and beautiful. Rev. Eileen led a meaningful and fun Blessing Service September 2nd at our front door…all while keeping physically distant. Everyone really enjoyed coming together for a service, since it has been 6 months since our last service at the church.
We had drumming led by Alicia Hempfling, we sang familiar songs, gave appreciation and gifts for all of the hard work put into these projects… and even a little celebratory dancing. Adam Gough made sure that if people wanted to stay in their car they could hear everything through their car radio (very cool –right?). Members also enjoyed the Blessing Service standing by their cars and in the garden.
Projects Blessed
We completed:
- Installing new storm sewers under the parking lot
- Ripping up and laying new asphalt in the parking lot
- Striping and laying car stops on the lot
- Cleaning up the landscaping around the lot and the north garden/sidewalk area
- Designing and laying a brand new sidewalk to enter off Greenwood, so you don’t have to walk through the parking lot
- Lots of landscaping work to create a new pollinator garden, surround the new sidewalk with grass and gravel borders and clean up the bushes
- Repaired parking lot lighting and added new lights along the sidewalk
- Added large white flower pots at the front door for beauty and protection
People To Thank
Sandra Robinson and Greg Grabowski were the project leads on most of these projects spending thousands of hours planning, deciding and overseeing to make sure every detail was taken care of well and budgetarily responsible. Janelle Brittain generally oversaw everything, while Vickie Doebele tracked our spending. Sandy Danforth, also on the CCIC team, has been busy working on the indoor projects which we’ll hear about more later. And not to be forgotten are our two blessed souls who were on the committee from the start: Ann Peterson and John LaPlante. Ann was instrumental on the Capital Campaign, the Feasibility Study and the beginning of the Implementation work. John also worked on the Capital Campaign and the early stages of the committee. The north sidewalk was a passion project for him.
What a wonderful experience the Outside Projects Blessing Service was!
–Janelle Brittain, Chair, Capital Campaign Implementation Committee
From the MSC: September 11, 2020
Dear Friends:
This week it was brought to the Search Committee’s attention that the question included in the Congregational Survey regarding personal feelings about calling a minister based on several different categorical identifications caused unintended but very real harm in our church community. We are grateful that we are in relationship with members in our congregation who can bring this to our attention in clear, direct ways. We sincerely apologize and are committed to putting in place a process that will allow us to begin a return to right relations.
We immediately closed the survey and removed the question. We will also reach out to those individuals who shared their hurt and pain with us. The survey will be re-released shortly. For those who have already submitted their survey responses, the response to that one question will be thrown out; answers to the other questions will be included in the survey results.
The survey is based on questions developed and provided by the Unitarian Universalist Association. The question at issue came from there but in discussion with the UUA we learned that specific question is no longer recommended. It’s not clear why that question was still included in the questions provided to us. The UUA is very sorry for their part in this issue, as expressed by our Transitions Coach, Lisa Presley. However, we want to acknowledge that the search committee also did not identify the potential for harm caused by including the question in the survey we distributed.
The work of dismantling systemic racism and confronting white supremacy and other systems of oppression is difficult and messy. White supremacy is so entrenched in both the individual lives of white people in the U.S. and our country’s institutions that we missed the potential impact of our decision with respect to the survey question even while our congregation and our national association are in the midst of making a commitment to confront and dismantle systemic racism. While we most certainly would have preferred that this harm had not occurred, we hope that as a committee and as a congregation this can be an important teaching moment. One in which we learn both more about identifying aspects of white supremacy culture and institutional racism and how to best respond when a mistake is made.
September 13, 2020
We will host an online worship service on Sunday, September 13th at 11:15 am.
“Reconstitution”
Water is life. It renews, refreshes and reconstitutes our world and our spirits. Though we can not be together when it would be the time of our Ingathering, we will join together virtually for water communion in a new way. We invite each of you to bring to this worship service a bowl or cup of water and a stone for each person in your home. We will share in a ritual of collective healing and replenishment. Revs. Eileen, Karen, and Susan are our worship leaders.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 am, we will try to read it that Sunday. Thank you for your patience as we are adapting to best serve you all! Note there will only be one service time during the summer so that we can gather together as a whole community of faith. You can still give to the shared offering through “text to give,” mail a check to the office with “shared offering” in the memo line, or go to our website and hit “give” on the upper right or click here. This Sunday’s shared offering recipient is the Shorefront Legacy Center.
Support the Laundry Cafe
Support The Laundry Café, an initiative to serve the 5th Ward and bring community together.
Evanston’s 5th Ward is a historic landmark in the eyes of many, but unfortunately it is under-served like never before.
Tosha Wilson and her cousin Jacqui White grew up at the confluence of the 2nd and 5th Wards. They have a vision to bring a much needed business to the 5th Ward – a laundromat – that includes a community center/gathering place element that brings a café feel. They call it The Laundry Café.
The Laundry Cafe aligns perfectly with UCE’s goal of supporting anti-racism efforts. The disinvestment in the 5th ward (and 8th ward) is the result of structural racism in Evanston, plain and simple. There are no grocery stores, no school, no bank, and no laundromat in the neighborhood with a higher density of renters than most of our town.
Tosha is an Evanston police officers and Jacqui is also in law enforcement. Their Evanston roots run deep. In addition to their own project, they are working hard to support other black-owned business through their Boosting Black Business FB group. In their flagship month, they raised over $20,000 for Chi-Fresh Kitchen, a food service contractor with social justice aims. Now it’s The Laundry Café’s turn!
It’s an important ask of the community to support the nascent Black business, and it’s easy to do. Below are links to the Facebook groups and the GoFundMe page for The Laundry Café.
UCE Composting Remains “Open for Business”
Did you know that (even in the midst of the pandemic) many UCE members continue to participate in the “UCE Composting Coop?” Since we are eating at home more and, thus, have greater control over our food waste, composting becomes even easier to integrate into our daily lives. But, does composting really make a difference? Consider the following statistics:
- Food scraps that go to landfills decompose “anaerobically,” releasing methane gas in the process. Methane is around 30% more damaging than CO2 over the long-term and 80 times more damaging over the short-term!
- The EPA estimates that 22% of what goes into landfills is food waste. Food waste is the single largest material sent to landfills.
- The average American wastes a pound of food a day – that comes to 150,000 tons of food per day across the U.S. Not surprisingly, healthier diets rich in fresh produce and minimally processed ingredients are associated with higher levels of food waste.
- According to the Composting Council, if everyone in the United States composted all of their food waste, the impact would be equivalent to removing 7.8 million cars from the road!
This is where composting can help. Food scraps that are commercially composted are given the right environment to biodegrade and thus do not contribute to methane gas production. Rather, composted food scraps are turned into rich, organic soil treatment.
The cost to participate in UCE’s Composting Coop is only $60 per person per year (up to a $180 maximum per household.) Or, if you live in Evanston, you might choose to participate during the winter months only (December-March) for $20 per person for the full four months, up to a $60 maximum per household. (This four-month program is especially designed for Evanston residents who compost food scraps in their Evanston yard waste containers during the non-winter months.)
If you are interested in signing up for either service, fill out the UCE composting signup form. For an additional $10, Collective Resource (the commercial composter we use) will provide you with a kitchen counter composting bucket. (Please do not include the $10 in your payment to UCE but rather contact Erlene Howard of Collective Resource at erlene.k.howard@gmail.com to make separate arrangements.)
See the Composting Tip Sheet for more information on how to set up your kitchen for composting and for a listing of what is/is not compostable. The green composting bin(s) are located at the southeast end of the church parking lot. Just drive in and deposit your weekly composting (no plastic bags; however, paper or other compostable bags are fine.) If there are two green composting bins, please fill up one completely before using the second. The FAQ page of the Composting Tip Sheet should answer most questions, but if not, email Renee Hoff at rdhoff99@yahoo.com.