VirtUUal RE: January 8, 2021
What’s Happening in Lifespan Religious Education?
Welcome to our new theme of Imagination! You can access the new Soulful Home packet here.
This week we focus on the segments The Welcome Mat, At the Table and On the Message Board. Check out this week’s video.
Soul Kits were mailed this week too, so hopefully they arrive this weekend!
Christmas time is gone…
Those who took a costume home for the Christmas pageant can return it by either calling the office ahead of time to ensure someone can let you in, or by emailing Kathy (kunderwood@ucevanston.org) to arrange a time. You can leave costumes in the lobby where you picked them up. Thanks!
Many Ways to Connect
Popcorn Theology Online for 6th-8th Grades – This Sunday at 1pm via Zoom. Click here to join the meeting.
Pre/K Kids and Families – POP (Parents of Preschoolers) – January’s materials are available here. The password is YouGotThis2020 (case sensitive.) This UU-based program is to be used all month long. Do whatever fits your family’s schedule.
High School Youth – Sunday at 4 pm. Look for an email with more details.
Be sure to sign up for REvisioning our Multigenerational Religious Education Program! Please note that this Saturday’s gathering has been cancelled due to few registrants. Instead, we are combing those registered for this Saturday with the gathering on January 16. Feel free to sign up for another one! Please join us for ONE of the following virtual gatherings by registering here:
- January 16 – 1-2:30 pm
- January 17 – 2-3:30 pm
UCE Forum Discussion
UCE Forum – Sunday, January 17th at 10 am
3rd UU Principle
Leaders: Shirley Adams and Emily Sanna
Please join the Forum Discussion Group on January 17 to discuss the 3rd UU principle: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.
Click here to join the Zoom meeting. Meeting ID: 924 4957 5721; Passcode: 489150; One tap mobile +13126266799,,92449575721#,,,,,,0#,,489150# US (Chicago)
Upcoming Adult RE Program
PROCESS RELATIONAL THEOLOGY: A Vision For Environmental And Social Justice – (Part of the “Visions of God” Series)
Tuesdays, January 12, 19, 26. at 7-8:30 pm
Facilitated by Rev. Eileen Wiviott and Bob Mesle.
The process relational worldview, values, and modes of thought offer a broad worldview which creatively links these UU principles and give them greater depth. Since this is part of a larger series on VISIONS OF GOD, we will give some attention, but not all of our attention, to this radically different concept of God. Process relational thinking is a valuable resource helping us address issues of environmental and social justice, and links with feminist, womanist, and queer theologies.
We will highlight how Process Theology relates to these UU Principles:
1. The Inherent worth and dignity of every person
2. Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations;
7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are all a part.
UCE Congregational Record: December 18, 2020
After spending the last several months gathering information about our congregation and what we are looking for in a new senior minister, the Ministerial Search Committee has completed work on the Congregational Record, a document that honestly and completely describes our congregation. Questions range from a description of Sunday services to UCE’s history to expectations of the senior minister and include the feedback that we received from members fo the congregation in the focus groups, cottage meetings, and congregational survey.
You can read the completed version of the congregational record – all 50 pages of it!
If you have any questions, please email us at ministerialsearchcommittee@ucevanston.org.
In addition, we heard from several of you at our presentation a couple Sundays ago that there are questions over the UUA’s process for considering internal ministerial candidates and why an internal candidate must be considered before opening the search to others. We requested a fuller explanation of the rationale behind this process from the UUA and received the following information. First, no minister in search would want to apply if they know there is an inside candidate. Being a member of the UU Ministers’ Association comes with professional expectations and covenantal relationships—and part of this is not competing with inside candidates. Second, it ensures as level a playing field as possible for anyone to apply: it is unfair, in other words, to place a candidate a congregation doesn’t know against someone they already know and to whom they are close. And finally, such a process ensures the most clarity possible both for the search committee and the congregation. It is better to make a decision on an inside candidate and have a clear rationale either way before moving forward with other candidates; to do otherwise could cause hurt feelings or estranged relationships with a new minister and/or between congregants who wonder what would have happened if the opposite choice had been made. Hopefully these answers clear up some of your remaining questions—again, we welcome any feedback or comments via email!
Important Message from BOT: Updated January 15, 2021
Instructions for Voting at the Congregational Meeting
A congregational meeting will be held on Sunday, January 24th, immediately following the service to vote on calling our ministerial candidate, Reverend Eileen Wiviott. Due to COVID 19 restrictions, we will be holding our meeting virtually. If you cannot do zoom, and would like a phone buddy for the meeting and vote, please contact Martha Holman at holman.martha@gmail.com for arrangements.
In following UCE’s Bylaws, in order to be able to conduct a vote on this important issue, we must have a quorum of 40% of our congregation’s eligible voting members. This quorum differs from that of our annual meeting, which only requires 20%. You must be a UCE member for at least 90 days to vote. It is important that as many eligible voting members of the congregation as possible be present. Additionally, in accordance with our Bylaws, in order to be called, a minister must receive a positive vote from 80% of the votes cast by eligible voting members of the congregation present at the meeting. The UUA recommends it be 90% of the votes.
The Agenda for this meeting is as follows:
- Election of the chair of the meeting
- Confirmation of a quorum
- Immediate vote (no discussion) on whether to call Rev. Eileen Wiviott as UCE’s settled senior minister
- Announcement of results
- Adjournment of the meeting
If you have any questions or comments and want to participate in a discussion about the candidate, please attend one of the forums during candidating week or contact the search committee at ministerialSearchCommittee@ucevanston.org.
If you are an eligible voting member, you will be sent a Zoom link from the UCE office. This Zoom link will be sent to the email address the office has on file for you. Please do not share that link. You will need that link in order to be admitted to the meeting and vote. Be sure to check your email for that information; the Zoom link will be sent on Wednesday, January 20th. Please contact the office at admin@ucevanston.org before Friday, January 22, if you have not received the link. Once you have received the Zoom link, please keep that email handy to use on Sunday, January 24th.
When you log in to the Zoom meeting, we ask that the name that appears on the screen be your full name, rather than any nicknames or other designation. Instructions for changing your name on a computer are here. Instruction for changing your name on an iPhone or iPad are here. If you will be joined on your screen by another eligible voting member, please add that person’s full name to your screen name. Only two eligible voting members per screen will be allowed.
Please be patient as you enter the Zoom meeting. It will take some time to check you in and confirm that you are a voting member. We will need to check everyone in before beginning the meeting.
Please contact Adam Gough at agough@ucevanston.org, if you need assistance using Zoom before January 24. Please contact George Monical if you need help on January 24. If you are unable to access Zoom, please contact Jessica Tomell-Presto at prestomgk@comcast.net; we will find a phone buddy to work with you that day.
If you are not an eligible voting member, you will be able to watch a livestream of the meeting on Youtube. Please do NOT have both the Youtube broadcast and Zoom running at the same time.
Thank you! Please exercise your right to vote!
From the BOT: January 8, 2021
It is our goal as the Board of Trustees to maintain connections with you. To that end, we are beginning a new program entitled, “Reflections with the Board.” We will host these sessions via zoom once a month at 10am before the service. The purpose of these sessions is two-fold: One, we will often have information that we would like to share and two, these sessions are a time for us to listen to you. We want to hear how you are, as well as your ideas, suggestions, and concerns.
Our next session will be held on January 10th at 10 am. For this session, the Board would like to spend some time talking with you about Widening the Circle of Concern. For this session, we will focus on Chapter One, Theology. We began our discussion of Chapter One in December and will continue it in January. You did not have to attend our session in December to join us this month. Here are the questions from the WTC Study Guide:
- How can we as a community move away from an attitude that puts emphasis on rejected beliefs? How can we embrace a posture of working through honest and robust engagement? How can we move toward commonly held beliefs and practices based on our inherited tradition?
- What kinds of programming and activities could help members of our community to gain a rich and deep understanding of Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist theologies? In what ways could we intentionally and courageously make space for learning from people often marginalized in our communities?
- The first recommendation questions a prevalent assumption among UUs: “that you can believe whatever you want and be a Unitarian Universalists.” Our shared faith is a covenantal faith that presents us with a theological container in which we can hold multiple religious belongings and theological understandings. What shift would happen in our communities if we were to be intentional about understanding, interpreting, and sharing with others our views of our movement’s theological container?
- The second and third recommendations call us into an encounter with the liberatory potentials of our theological inheritance. It asks us to acknowledge anti-oppression work as a theological mandate of our faith. How could such a mandate find expression in our worship? In our congregational life? In our community relations, particularly alongside marginalized members of our faith as well as in the larger community?
- The fourth and last recommendation reminds us of the covenantal nature of our faith. How do you understand the significance of being a covenantal faith for the present and future thriving of the faith?
- Reflecting on the four recommendations in this chapter, what are the barriers to their implementation, and what changes are needed in order to overcome them?
Which of these questions would you like to discuss? What have you been learning as you have been reading Widening the Circle? Please join us on Sunday. Thank you.
Click here to join the Zoom Meeting.
Meeting ID: 862 4288 7134
Passcode: 220807
One tap mobile +13126266799,,86242887134#,,,,,,0#,,220807# US (Chicago)
January 10, 2021
We will host an online worship service on Sunday, January 10th at 11:15 am.
To Begin a New Story: Imagining a Shared Ministry – Rev. Karen Gustafson, Interim Minister
The Interim between settled ministers is, by design, a time for a congregation to look at itself and to claim the strengths and to address challenges that have shaped its history. One of the presenting challenges at the start of the current Interim was the story of complicated relationships between UCE and your past ministers. To fully express the potential of this amazing congregation, UCE is being invited to embrace a new story about the nature of ministry and the nature and role of your new settled Senior Minister.
The Interim between settled ministers is, by design, a time for a congregation to look at itself and to claim the strengths and to address challenges that have shaped its history. One of the presenting challenges at the start of the current Interim was the story of complicated relationships between UCE and your past ministers. To fully express the potential of this amazing congregation, UCE is being invited to embrace a new story about the nature of ministry and the nature and role of your new settled Senior Minister.
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 Community Renewal Society (CRS).