December 5, 2021
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, December 5th at 10:15 am.
A Light in the Darkness: Opening to Joy in Relationship
As the longest night approaches, people of many faith traditions celebrate light in the darkness. Unitarian Universalism, draws wisdom from many sources and we strive to appreciate with respect, the many cultures and traditions that contribute to humanity’s search for meaning. This Sunday we celebrate Chalica, the Unitarian Universalist celebration of our principles and this year we will celebrate all eight! Finding meaning and joy in our principles, we share our inner light with one another.
A few important notes about participating in-person:
- Everyone over 2 in and around the UCE building will need to be masked.
- We will maintain physical distance, which means, chairs will be spaced apart and seating is limited in the sanctuary to 150. We will have overflow seating in room 3 (30) and room 6 (25), to participate in the service through the livestream.
- Vaccinations are expected. If you can be vaccinated, we expect you are if you enter the building.
- Please review our UCE Guidelines for Building Use before Sunday.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 9 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 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 Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC).
Endowment 2021-2022
Endowment Grants 2021-2022
Boodles of Thank Yous: November 26, 2021
A huge thank you from the entire auction team to all our Serendipity Auction bidders this year. Thanks to you (and all our amazing and creative donors), we exceeded our auction goal, grossing over $30,000!! About 100 people attended our closing celebration and enjoyed entertainment in the form of music and quizzes while making last minute bids on favorite items and purchasing tickets for 5 fabulous raffle items! Many thanks to Christine Allender for the past auctions photo slideshow, Kristin Lems and Steve Courtright for premiering Kristin’s “We Need a Vaccine” song and to Lizzy Powers and the Serendipity Singers for a super fun, serendipity auction version of “Let It Go”!
Just a few items are left in the catalog, including a few seats at some great and affordable virtual entertainment–Jim Strickler’s Civil War Reparations talk, Kristin Lems’ concert, a Virtual Karaoke night, Ben Butler a Play by Richard Strand, and an Evening Square Dance. Take a look here. All are now set as “Buy It Now”, so items are first come, first served. If you are not registered, use your email in the church directory to do so or email us at auction@ucevanston.org for help. And if you haven’t collected your boodle yet, please come during church office hours, Tues-Fri from 10 am-5 pm to pick up your items.
Thoughts about how to make the auction better, or interested in being a volunteer for next year? We would love to hear from you at auction@ucevanston.org.
From DLRE: November 26, 2021
Holiday Happenings are Here!
The winter holiday season is about to begin, and there are many ways you and your family can engage and connect at UCE, both in-person and virtually. There is something for everyone in the coming weeks during Faith Formation Hour and beyond. Please know that it is perfectly fine if you can’t participate – this really isn’t meant to make anyone feel guilty! Just know that you are warmly welcomed to partake in whatever works for you and your family, and whatever will help brighten your spirit this holiday season. Here’s a synopsis of what is coming up:
This Sunday, our Faith Formation Hour focuses on spiritual practices – just what you need as we head into the holidays!
- Hanukkah – All ages are invited to room 6 to learn about the holiday, share stories and traditions, play games, hum songs, and have fun! This will also be available on Zoom for those who prefer to participate from afar. Join on Zoom.
- Meditation for Compassion: A Beginner’s Meditation Mantra from Thich Nhat Hanh’s, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching in room 12. Bob Mesle leads this program for people wanting to begin or renew their meditation practice. Experienced folks are invited to come and share their experience and insights.
- Chair Yoga – Doug Erickson facilitates this spiritual practice that is perfect for those who are less mobile or new to yoga. This will also be offered on Zoom. Join on Zoom.
In December, I hope you can join at least one of these events. Helping people in need and connecting with others can be a spiritual practice on its own, and certainly good for your spirit:
- Now through December 10 – UCE Mitten Tree – sign up here to purchase a gift for a person in need, staff a table, or to help wrap gifts. There are many ways to help!
- December 5th during Faith Formation Hour (11:35-12:30)
- Ornament Sunday – come make ornaments for the UCE Christmas trees or to take home.
- Forum – the Green Team will be sharing ways to green your gifting.
- December 6th – Chalica, a UU Holiday, begins for 8 days. Use this guide for your family!
- December 10th from 6-7:30 pm – Charity, Carols, and Cocoa – all ages are invited to help assemble care bags for Connections in room 6, followed by a tree-lighting, carols, and cocoa outside. Come for either or both events.
- December 12th during Faith Formation Hour (11:35-12:30)
- Storyteller Workshop – join our storyteller, Graig Turtullien, for all-ages fun in room 3.
- Caroling – spread some holiday cheer in the neighborhood!
- December 19th
- Annual Christmas Pageant during worship – everyone can be a star in this no-rehearsal pageant. Come to the back of the sanctuary by 10 am to choose a costume. Folks from home can join via Zoom and be animals or twinkling stars.
- Forum – during Faith Formation Hour – Personal connections during the holidays and a pandemic.
- December 21 – Solstice (Yule) Ritual – this will be a family-friendly event to celebrate the turning of the wheel and the return of the sun.
- December 24 – Christmas Eve worship at 7 pm. Join in community at UCE or virtually on our YouTube channel.
- December 26 – Worship service on “Nurturing Our Spirits with Laughter”. This promises to be a good time for all ages!
May your spirits be filled with love and joy!
In Faith,
Kathy Underwood
Director of Lifespan Religious Education
From Immigrant Solidarity Team: November 26, 2021
On October 27, the Immigrations Solidarity Team showed the film La Bestia, a documentary following a number of Latin American migrants who try to reach the United States by riding Mexico’s railroads, followed by a panel of Oscar Chacon of Alianza Americas and Charlotte Jones-Carrol, chair of Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice.
Current US immigration policy toward Latin American immigrants, essentially unchanged since the 1940s, creates roadblocks to that immigration, but migrants continue to find ways around the roadblocks. Oscar argued that our best approach is to try to address the intolerable circumstances in the home countries, which are the root of the migration. More migrants are coming in family groups and even unaccompanied minors, people who often travel in “caravans”, or even on buses, who are seeking to join families already in the States. One impact of the use of Rule 42, rejecting people on the relatively specious grounds that they represent a danger of covid infections, is that people turned back on those grounds do not face the potential 10 years’ bar that arises from legal deportations, so they continue to try to reenter.
Oscar argued that the gradual predominance of Latin Americans in migration patterns to the US was met from 1940 on with a concerted white supremacist campaign that migrants are dangerous. At the same time, he has noticed that Latin American migration tends to increase when jobs are more plentiful in the US. Thus, he argued, Latin American migration, and migration in general, is actually a net positive for the US economy and for wealth generation and even tax collection. Charlotte pointed out that the industries which are primarily reliant on migrants are hospitality, food preparation (including meat and poultry butchering), and agriculture. Migrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits.
UUSJ is trying to address US immigration policies by lobbying Congress. Charlotte mentioned that several reasonable legislative proposals have been submitted to Congress, but that the only avenue that has any reasonable chance of progress is Dream Act reform. While that is a positive step, it addresses at most 700,000 people, while the undocumented population of the US is closer to 11 million. Oscar argued that the persistent negative campaign against Latin American immigrants has made immigration reform a toxic issue for Democrats, who fear that they will be defeated in the polls if they push for such reform.
November 28, 2021
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, November 28th at 10:15 am.
Holding History: The Liberatory Ministry of Joshua Young (winner of the 2016 UU History Convocation sermon prize)
Joshua Young was a Unitarian minister who, with his wife, was a conductor on the Underground Railroad and through serendipity, conducted the funeral of radical abolitionist John Brown. Young’s ministry preached what we today would call “collective liberation;” his story is one that inspires.
Our guest preacher, Reverend Karen G. Johnston is the Settled Minister at The Unitarian Society, a UU Congregation, in East Brunswick, NJ. She has preached here once before. Ordained in 2016, she won the 2019 Dana Greeley Sermon Prize and the 2016 Unitarian Universalist History Convocation Sermon Prize. She is the co-author of the entry on Joshua Young, the focus of the sermon, in the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. The heart of her spiritual practice is befriending death; she is the founder of Date with Death Club, a way to explore mortality in community.
A few important notes about participating in-person:
- Everyone over 2 in and around the UCE building will need to be masked.
- We will maintain physical distance, which means, chairs will be spaced apart and seating is limited in the sanctuary to 150. We will have overflow seating in room 3 (30) and room 6 (25), to participate in the service through the livestream.
- Please review our UCE Guidelines for Building Use before Sunday.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 9 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 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 Renaissance Social Services.
November 21, 2021
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, November 21st at 10:15 am. THIS YEAR BREAD WILL BE PROVIDED SO NO NEED TO BRING YOURS TO CHURCH.
We Gather Together in Joyful Thanksgiving
This Sunday, we express gratitude for the nourishing, sustaining, and transformating power of community. Our annual bread communion is a treasured tradition. As with all traditions and rituals in a progressive faith, they adapt and evolve to speak to the reality of our current lives. If you are participating from home, please have some bread or other nourishing food with you to enjoy during the service. Rev. Eileen Wiviott and Heike Eghardt lead the service.
A few important notes about participating in-person:
- Everyone over 2 in and around the UCE building will need to be masked.
- We will maintain physical distance, which means, chairs will be spaced apart and seating is limited in the sanctuary to 150. We will have overflow seating in room 3 (30) and room 6 (25), to participate in the service through the livestream.
- Please review our UCE Guidelines for Building Use before Sunday.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 9 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 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 Renaissance Social Services.