July 3, 2022
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, July 3rd at 10:15 am.
The Circle of Love
This Sunday we gather in the Universalist spirit and are reminded that no one is outside the circle of love. Joining with guest speaker, the Rev. Allison Farnum, we are invited to feel the power of our living tradition through the lens of the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois.
Rev. Allison Farnum (she/her/hers) is the Director and Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois and an affiliated community minister at Second Unitarian Church of Chicago, Illinois. She lives with her partner and two children in Evanston, IL.
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 the Moran Center for Youth Advocacy.
From Kathy Underwood: June 24, 2022
On the Cusp
In case you haven’t heard, since my last article Todd and I have officially become grandparents. We welcomed Clementine Jennifer Underwood (CJ for short) on May 25. Mom Michelle is struggling a bit but is slowly adjusting to the many unusual sounds of a newborn.
And I am carefully balancing on the cusp between being a supportive mother-in-law and an over-bearing one. I keep offering to help in any way I can no matter how small and have only been asked once to stay with the baby so Michelle could sleep. I know they need to find a new rhythm to their family life though, and so I continue to offer my help and wait to be asked.
As I write this on the Summer Solstice, I can’t help but notice how today is also a day of being on the cusp: the cusp of summer. While our culture celebrates the solstice as the beginning of summer, it is seen as the middle of summer, or midsummer, in many other cultures such as Scandinavia as well as in the Wiccan tradition. From this day until the Winter Solstice, our time of daylight is gradually decreasing with each passing day. We are on the cusp and at the peak of our time with the sun. And while this may seem a bit depressing, we manage to make it a time worth celebrating with joy and gratitude for all the sun and earth provide us.
We are collectively on another cusp at UCE: hopefully coming out of a pandemic. We adapted quickly in 2020 to virtual worship and groups, and from there we explored other ways of doing things as we slowly returned to in-person gatherings. We had many events and groups outside – even OWL, the sex ed program for youth! We needed to discern what was meaningful in the past and what we could let go of in the future. We dared to be brave and tried something new with the faith formation hour.
Being on a cusp gives us a new perspective. It offers us the opportunity to see that we have many paths to choose from and to forge ahead and boldly go wherever it takes us. We will continue needing to ask ourselves, “How much of the past do we continue to uphold and how much do we let go of to leave space for the new? How do we continue to minister in all the ways we want to minister to each other when many of us are still recovering from the past two years?”
I believe we still need to nurture ourselves and each other as we continue on the path to a “new normal”. We need to gather in as many different ways as possible, whether in person or virtually: covenant groups, committee efforts, worship, social action, and faith formation (which includes all of these). And so this summer the Faith Formation Council continues the Wednesdays on the Lawn program and is coordinating local meetups at outdoor concerts around Evanston. The Family Ministry Team is also doing monthly gatherings outdoors. Our first one was geocaching at Emily Oaks, which was a bit challenging and lots of fun. Look for details in the newsletter to see what all we have going on this summer.
As we head into the new church year this fall, our plan is to continue with a variety of ways for you to connect with others, such as potlucks, game nights, holiday rituals and celebrations, campfires, etc. We are also looking at how we can tweak the worship and faith formation schedule based on the feedback we have gotten so far and are reaching out to leadership for their thoughts as well.
We won’t be on this cusp for long – might as well enjoy the view while we can.
In Faith,
Kathy Underwood
June 26, 2022
We will join the UUA General Assembly worship service on Sunday, June 26th at 11:30 am. Please join us in the sanctuary or from your home. Kinship time will be held in the back of the sanctuary before the service at 11 am.
2022 UUA General Assembly Live Streamed Sunday Worship Service
Join us at 11:30 am for the largest annual gathering of UUs worshiping together. Rev. Gretchen Haley, Senior Minister of the Foothills Unitarian Universalist Church in Fort Collins, CO, will lead the Sunday Worship service, along with worship team members Rev. Sean Neil-Barron, Shari Halliday-Quan, and the GA Choir. We will live stream the service from the sanctuary at 11:30 am. You may live stream from home, by clicking here.
We will not be able to read any Joys and Sorrows this Sunday. Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form, and we will read it next Sunday, July 3. 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 Restore Justice Foundation.
From Rev. Susan Frances: June 17, 2022
Dear Friends,
Happy Pride! This week I am reveling in the diversity of the queer communities living in and around Chicago. The photo is of me early this week on my next door neighbors’ porch. My entire block is decorated with a plethora of flags, signs, and banners. Many of which I’ve had to look up to find out what the colors represent. It has me feeling grateful for where I live and the communities of which I am a part. Thank you, to all of you who are part of our wonderful UCE and wider UU communities, for being exactly who you are!
This joy has been starkly contrasted by the realities being supported at the hearings being presented by the House Select Committee Investigating the January 6, 2021 Insurrection at the US Capitol. Right now, I am finding some hope that our democracy will continue to thrive and improve by looking back at some of our country’s history. I want to share the words of our UU ancestor Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, who was born a free African-American in Baltimore, Maryland, was raised in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, and became a Unitarian in 1870 when she joined the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia.
In May 1866 she addressed the Eleventh National Women’s Rights Convention in New York City. This quote from her speech titled “We Are All Bound Up Together” could sadly have been written about our current events.
“We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul. You tried that in the case of the Negro. You pressed him down for two centuries; and in so doing you crippled the moral strength and paralyzed the spiritual energies of the white men of the country. When the hands of the black were fettered, white men were deprived of the liberty of speech and the freedom of the press. Society cannot afford to neglect the enlightenment of any class of its members. At the South, the legislation of the country was in behalf of the rich slaveholders, while the poor white man was neglected. What is the consequence today? From that very class of neglected poor white men, comes the man who stands to-day, with his hand upon the helm of the nation. He fails to catch the watchword of the hour, and throws himself, the incarnation of meanness, across the pathway of the nation.”
‘The man who stands to-day’ she references was our 17th US President, but Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s sentiments from 1866 apply aptly to our 45th US President. I know it is overwhelming to think about all that is happening in our country right now, but I encourage you to continue to draw strength from and live into your UU values in each moment as you are able.
Our congregation is involved in so much work for social change. As Marian Wright Edelman, an American activist for civil rights and children’s rights, reminds us, “We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.”
Here are ways to get involved right now. Email any contact person listed here at admin@ucevanston.org or find their personal information in REALM.
I know that is a lot of options. And if what you need right now is to take care of yourself in some other way, that is okay. If you are having trouble navigating life right now, whether it is figuring out how to be engaged with the world or how to address your complex emotions in response to a personal problem or social ill, reach out to your friends or family, to your co-workers or your ministers. You may request support from our Caring Team or Pastoral Care Team for yourself or someone else through this form on our website. Reach out – relationships are one way to build hope and create joy and beauty to endure and overcome these hardships.
This past weekend, my wife and I sought out some joy and beauty by venturing out to the Andersonville Midsommarfest to meet up with friends that we have not seen in-person for a long time. It is the first large, dense gathering we have participated in since March 2020, and we wore our KF94 masks. We didn’t see many other masked individuals, but we also did not encounter any hostility toward us. A few odd looks, but for our family’s medical history, masking will continue to be something we will choose to do when others with a healthy family history are able to choose maskless options. I encourage you to continue to do what is right for you and your family as we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.
We met our friends at Midsommarfest to watch the cover band called She’s Crafty. They are an all-female Beastie Boys tribute band. In the middle of their set, they honored our black and brown siblings who have been killed by law enforcement officers by asking for a moment of silence. My first thought was that a request for silence in the midst of a bustling street festival would not feel respectful. But it only took a moment for there to be complete silence in the block leading up to the stage. A silence that spread out and was held for longer than I expected.
In that silence, I felt my individual sadness, and then I started to feel a connection, a silent connection to all those strangers. I felt my sadness being held and I also felt the anger, despair, uncertainty, heartbreak, helplessness in that group of strangers. What I took away from that moment, knowing that I sometimes read too much into such moments, is that this sharing of a moment of silence, in the midst of a crowd of mostly white cisgendered able-bodied strangers in the midst of a busy street fair in the midst of a big city, is one sign of a growing comprehension by those who hold white and other social privileges that we are all in this together. That none of us are unaffected by the violence against our black and brown neighbors. A growing comprehension that this violence and the violence against the Asian and Asian-American communities, against the gay and trans communities, and against women are all interconnected. A growing comprehension that the racism embedded in our culture and influencing our implicit biases must be addressed in order to fuel the change needed to make our democracy stronger and to transform our culture so we are a just and equitable society.
Take care of yourselves, my Beloveds. Find joy and beauty where you can. Get involved when you can. Seek support and nourishment when you need it. We are all bound up together.
Yours in faith,
Rev. Susan
Urgent Need for Sack Lunches: June 17, 2022
Urgent Need for Sack Lunches at Connections for the Homeless Pick up Sites
Connections for the Homeless has an urgent need for sack lunches to be provided at its three pick-up locations. Food insecurity is ever present in our community and making lunches is one way we can help!
Please note the different delivery instructions for different locations. If you have any questions about how to sign up on the Connections calendar, please contact Sheila Holder through REALM or at admin@ucevanston.org. Sheila also has packets of mayo and mustard to include in your prepared lunches.
HOW TO NAVIGATE THE CONNECTIONS WEBSITE
Scroll down to “Make Bag Lunches” and click the link at the bottom of this section. This takes you to a calendar. Select the date and location you want. If you click the “more” button, it will give you the detailed list of what to prepare.
1. For either the Main Office, 2121 Dewey Ave. Evanston 60201, or Hilda’s Place, 1458 Chicago Ave. Evanston 60201 (Lake Street Church):
2. For the Margarita Inn, 1566 Oak Ave. Evanston 60201:
Thank you for helping our neighbors who are experiencing food scarcity.
~ UCE Food & Shelter Team
June 19, 2022
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, June 19th at 10:15 am.
Juneteenth: Reclaiming Joy on the Long Journey of Freedom
We honor and celebrate Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday last year. This day marks an end to slavery in this country when, two and a half years after the emancipation proclamation, people enslaved in Galveston, Texas finally got word that they had been freed. The struggle for true justice and liberation was then, as it is now, far from over. As we reckon with history, we hold in awe the power and joy that persists amidst suffering. Rev. Eileen leads the service with Annette Wallace 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 Restore Justice Foundation.
Endowment Fund Applications: June 10, 2022
Ten proposals for Endowment funding were submitted to the Endowment Committee by the May 31st deadline. Thank you to UCE’s committees, teams and staff for all the effort put into their preparation. The applications are:
- Buildings & Grounds – $15,000 – Integrated Stewardship Committee
- Connections for the Homeless Youth Programs Aftercare – $40,000 – FAST, UCE Prison Ministry Team
- Denominational Affairs Scholarships – $8,825 – Denominational Affairs
- Family Focus After School and Summer Program Scholarships – $6,750 – REAL
- READI for Re-entry – $7,500 – REAL, Prison Ministry Team
- Solidarity Circles Grants – $4,000 – UCE UU Prison Ministry of IL Team
- Soup Kitchen – $1,450 – FAST/Soup Kitchen
- Support for Afghan Refugee Family – $5,950 – Immigrant Solidarity Team/Refugee Team
- UCE Garden Rejuvenation and Maintenance – $1,380 – UCE Garden Team
- Worship Arts/Support of Choir Section Leaders – $9,000 – Worship Arts Team
The applications are available to read Applications – Pending.
The Endowment Committee will review the proposals at the June 13th meeting and make recommendations for funding to the Board of Trustees. The Board will make final decisions on funding in June.
Submitted by
Margaret Schatz, Endowment Committee Chair