From Kathy Underwood: April 29, 2022
Life is awakening in the earth and at UCE! It has been a joyous month, with many activities happening and I wanted to share some of it with you.
Our first Rosemary Zwick Afternoon of the Arts event was a “rebirth” of the former Night of the Arts and was a wonderful time to be creative and get to know people better. Families appreciated the earlier time so that younger children could participate. About 45 people engaged in a wide variety of art activities to feed the soul.
And on the next day, our awesome youth led a thoughtful and informative worship service on “Gender: Bending the Narrative”. I was so impressed with their leadership, not to mention their lack of procrastination. They were quick in organizing with little nudging from their advisors, Linda Herreid and Margaret Shaklee.
Easter Sunday was definitely a joyous day, with a beautiful Music Sunday worship followed by Easter eggs and hot cross buns and kinship time. Two of the youth helped hiding canned goods and Easter eggs around the South Lawn, and 24 youngsters then had fun looking for them all. Thank you to all who brought canned goods, which were donated to Connections for the Homeless.
We then had yet another youth-led event for Earth Day, coordinated by Kristin Lems and Lucinda Lindstrom Lodder among others in the community. I am always amazed at the dedication and passion we have at UCE, especially when youth are involved. It makes me feel so much better about the future of our world.
Last Saturday, 21 youth from four area UU congregations gathered at Busse Woods for a “mini-con” – the first time they have gathered since late in 2019. An afternoon of games, a nature walk, and a demonstration from a therapy dog and trainer. It was a perfect way to gather again after so much time.
This past Sunday, the Green Team led a social action fair on being eco-friendly for our Faith Formation Hour. As a part of this, the Family Ministry Team coordinated making 50 lunch bags for Connections for the Homeless. We learned how we can make our lunches more eco-friendly, especially in regard to composting.
And now with May just a couple of days away, Rev. Eileen and I will be hosting some listening circles to hear your experiences with our new faith formation hour. What have you participated in and how was that experience? If you didn’t participate, what kept you from doing so? And what would you look forward to that can help awaken your spirit and faith? Our first one is this Sunday after Kinship Time. Please join us at any of the following:
In Faith,
Kathy Underwood
Director of Lifespan Faith Formation
May 1, 2022
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, May 1st at 10:15 am.
Building Upon Braveness
This year has been a journey full of ups and downs, twists and turns, and having to re-chart our course more than once. We have envisioned what a multigenerational community looks and feels like and began building it by being brave and experimenting with new ways of doing things. Today, we celebrate the beauty of what we have built and look towards ways to build upon our braveness. Kathy Underwood leads the service with Rev. Eileen as worship associate.
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 UU Prison Ministry of Illinois (UUPMI).
From Rev. Susan Frances: April 22, 2022
Dear Friends,
Today is Earth Day! I hope you are able to join us in the sanctuary or online from 7:00-9:00 pm tonight to celebrate. Details are in this newsletter.
As a teenager, the first label I ever consciously claimed was “environmentalist.” It is a label I still strive to live into and that still impacts my day-to-day living. Over my lifetime, I have found that it is a label that means different things to different people. For some, it is about how you live your daily life by composting or biking instead of driving. For others, it means extreme living, such as being off the grid. For some, it means financially supporting the conservation of land and animal species. For others, it is reserved only for environmental scientists. Are you or your family environmentalists in some way?
My senior year of high school, I was the co-chair of the Social Studies Club. That year (1990-91), we started a recycling program at the high school. We used Club funds to buy blue recycle bins to put around the school. My carpenter dad and I built two large holding bins. Those bins lived outside by the school’s dumpsters. The school wanted proof the program would work, so while they agreed to pay for the pickup from the holding bins by the local recycling company, student volunteers were responsible for taking the contents of the inside bins out to the holding bins at the end of each school day. By the end of the school year, whatever proof the administration had wanted had been fulfilled and the recycling program became a regular part of the building maintenance. I am still proud of that.
A few years ago, my wife and I decided to start composting. Since we live in a condo building, we looked into several options. We tried a spinning barrel on our back porch and our neighbors tried a worm bin in the basement. Both of these are good composting options, but they didn’t work out great in our building. Finally, we proposed a building wide composting plan that allows us to collect compost like we do here at UCE, which means we can put any organic material, plant or animal, as well as compostable paper into the collection bins and the composting company picks up the bins every other week. Now more than half of our building participates. I learned in the process of researching about composting options that around 40% of the food in the U.S. goes into a landfill and then turns into greenhouse gases as it decomposes. The food we compost is processed until it is nutrient rich soil that is returned to us twice a year for our small garden.
Our congregation has a great recycling and composting system. Look for the line-up of four bins around the building. Use the bin for compost, the one for paper only recycling, the one for all types of recycling, or, when needed, the one for waste going to the landfill.
As we find ways to care for our environment, we also receive so many benefits from it. Beyond the physical care the world provides us with air, water, and materials for shelter, there are the spiritual, mental, and emotional benefits. For me, the natural world is the basis of my theology, my guide to slowing down and being present, and the place where I find solace and inspiration.
Donald A. Cosby describes Religious Naturalism as “the recognition that to be is to be natural and the conviction that nature in all of its forms and manifestations is a proper focus of religious commitment.” The natural world, including our relationships with nature and other people, is my theological foundation.
Rachel Hopman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Northeastern University, and other researchers describe the benefit of spending time outdoors. “20 minutes outside three times a week is the dose of nature that had the greatest effect on reducing an urban dweller’s levels of the stress hormone cortisol.” I have found that walking to the rose garden just two blocks from UCE and back to the building clearly benefits my mind and mood on any given day.
And, even when I can’t be out and about, or when life is exhausting and I spend a night watching television, I have been able to fulfill my curiosity, experience joy at this marvelous planet of which we are a part, and find beauty and awe in the natural world by watching documentaries like Night on Earth, The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station, or Our Great National Parks.
There is always an invitation to feed your spirit with the wonders of the natural world and a simultaneous invitation to care for it. And if life is overwhelming right now and contemplation of the benefits and concerns of the environment is too much, that’s okay. Take care of yourself. Reach out when you need. You are a valuable part of the world.
I’ll leave you with these 10 ways that I regularly try to make every day Earth Day:
Yours in the interdependent web of life,
Rev. Susan
April 24, 2022
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, April 24th at 10:15 am.
Engaging the World, Engaging our Lives
Our planet is the focus of so much vital social action right now. This attention to the health of our world intersects with human oppression again and again. Addressing the complexity of these issues is necessary to creating a more equitable, compassionate, and just world. This vital social action and social justice work has the potential to create beauty, strength, love, joy, and community in our lives. On this Earth Day weekend, we will hear reflections from four different people about how the social justice work they have engaged with over their lifetimes has shaped them.
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 Faith in Place.
New Fundraising Effort for Afghan Family: April 15, 2022
The Immigrant Solidarity Team is so grateful for all donations to the Bakeer family last fall and winter. We were able to pay their rent through July and buy clothing as well with our fundraising and the generous support of an Endowment grant.
Now we are shifting our attention to an Afghan family. We are not naming them because of privacy concerns. The young woman who heads up this family is in her 20s and her husband is still in Afghanistan, unable to come to the U.S. for now. One of our volunteers, when making a visit to the apartment building of the Bakeer family (Syrian) was approached by this young mother—she asked “could you please help me too?” She was provided an apartment and some basics by the resettlement agency, but they are very strapped right now and she had no sponsoring family to help her learn the ways things operate in our society.
This brave young woman has a 9-month-old baby and her 10-year-old nephew in her family. Two of our volunteers—Marilyn Wroblewski and Sheila Holder have taken the lead with this family and have been providing food, clothing, furniture and general advice about shopping, food stamps etc. Andy Shlickman is assisting with much needed legal help on behalf of the husband. Other team members working with the Afghan family include Jane Kenamore, Carol Nielsen and Jeanne Kerl and we are also collaborating with Building Peaceful Bridges (a local nonprofit). The young mother is taking English classes online and will be getting some tutoring help from another UCE member. Other volunteers on the refugee team have also pitched in—getting her a new bed and other necessities. She is very eager to work and earn money for her family.
Her rent support from her resettlement agency runs out April 30th, so we are launching a fundraising campaign to support her with a goal of $7800 to pay the family’s rent from May until October. Please donate on the page on the UCE website. Every amount helps us reach our goal. We will have Facebook posts as well and we ask that you share those with friends if you feel comfortable doing that. We want to get many donors outside our church membership as well.
Please dig deep and contribute if you can. Checks can be mailed to The Unitarian Church of Evanston, Refugee Family Fund, 1330 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201. Please write“Refugee Fund” on the memo line of your check. You can also use this online form and scroll down to “Refugee Family Fund” and enter your amount and fill out the form to donate, as directed.
Any questions? Please email Jeanne Kerl at figkerl@gmail.com. And thank you for considering this.
Join the UCE Team Race Against Hate: April 15, 2022
In 1999, Ricky Byrdsong was murdered by a self-proclaimed white supremacist. Byrdsong was a Skokie resident and the first African-American coach of the Northwestern University men’s basketball team. He was also the father of 3 young children, 2 of whom were with him near their home when he was shot. The man who murdered Byrdsong also shot 5 other people of color in Indiana and Illinois, as well as 6 Orthodox Jews in Rogers Park. Byrdsong’s wife of 20 years, Sherialyn, established a foundation which has collaborated with the YWCA Evanston/North Shore to turn Byrdsong’s tragedy into a victory over hate. Each year on Father’s Day, Sherialyn kicks off the Race Against Hate, which she is proud unites thousands of people of different racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds to celebrate diversity, promote reconciliation and declare that racism is not welcome or tolerated ANYWHERE in America. Now in its 23rd year, the Race Against Hate will be held on June 19, and UCE will again be a part of it.
Some of us run, some walk, some roll! However you roll, please be a part of our Race Against Hate by joining the UCE REAL Team 2022. Join the team here.
If you can’t be with us in the Race, but want to join in spirit, support the team through your donation. Donate here.
Dana Deane is coordinating the UCE REAL Team 2022. Please let her know if you have any questions.
April 17, 2022
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, April 17th at 10:15 am.
Awakening to Possibility
We celebrate spring and the holidays of the three coinciding Abrahamic Traditions – Easter, Passover, and Ramadan – with our annual Spring Music Service. These singers and instrumentalists will share music from the Baroque, Romantic, and 20th Century Classical eras as well as Jazz, Gospel, and Musical Theatre: Our beloved UCE Choir, under the direction of Vickie Hellyer, will, for the first time in 25 months, be singing live at a UCE service. Vocal soloist and choral conductor, Amanda Thomas, will be sharing her beautiful mezzo-soprano voice in two solos and with the UCE Choir. Keyboardist and virtuoso harmonica player, Howard Levy, will be featured in two magical videos made especially for this service. Our amazing pianist, Gregory Shifrin, will be working his magic – in collaboration with the choir and playing a masterful and moving piano solo. Join us for this special Sunday service.
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 Faith in Place.