Updates from Kathy Underwood, February 28, 2025
DLFF Newsletter – February 2025
I am sitting in my office with the sunlight streaming in as I write. One of my favorite things to do is sit in a sunny window and read while sipping some decadent flavor of tea. Last week when it was below zero, I took my dog for our usual 1.5 mile walk and saw a small flock of robins in a tree. It was then that I knew spring was coming soon. Sure enough, after a couple of colder-than-normal weeks for this time of year, it is a balmy 52 degrees out today! There is hope after all!
I am one of those people who is closely attuned to weather and seasons. I love to surround myself with tokens that remind me of this – rocks, shells, leaves, bird nests, warm blankets, and the colors of the season. This parallels my feeling about life in general – things are constantly changing, so take notice of them before they’re gone. I try not to fret over something that will not last long. I need to keep this in the back of my mind and hold it internally during these turbulent times in our country and world. I want to believe that this will not last.
Of course, the pressing issue is about what happens in the meantime. The saying, “Be the change you wish to see” resonates with me but I struggle in discerning where and how to do this. What injustices and causes are most important? They all are, in the end. Because everything is interdependent, each one has a direct connection and effect with the others. We can also refer to this as intersectionality. So with this reasoning, the answer to myself is simply to act on ANY cause, and it will tug on the threads in the web of life that are connected to it.
UCE gives me the inspiration to act. Hearing people’s stories, finding ways to widen the circle, and seeing the impact of so many people individually and collectively, gives me hope. Our young people need to hear and see this as well as take part in it as best they can. As parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles, we need to include them in our conversations on the injustices we are passionate about and listen to their perspectives and solutions. They need to know that we care about their future, that we have not abandoned them and left them to deal with it when they grow older. They, like us, need to know that spring is coming.
Our Family Friday event earlier this month was making toys for dogs and cats from old t-shirts for a local animal shelter. Next month, we will be planting a variety of seeds to take home and tend to. Our middle school youth are interested in planting trees or something similar. These are simple ways to include younger people in our efforts to make the world a better place. If you are part of a local effort that can include children and youth in any kind of social action, please let me know.
May we create the change we wish to see.
In Faith,
Kathy
March 2, 2025
The Internal Work of Radical Welcome
The work of sustained cultural change that puts love at the center is done through relationships. What does it look like to broaden our horizons and make room for true pluralism and alterity? What does it mean to trust people to be the experts of their own lives? As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr described, it starts by making room for the other within.
Dr. Emma Farrell, ministerial intern, leads the service, with Bob Mesle as Worship Associate. Charles M. Anderson will be our vocalist/hymn leader and Gregory Shifrin our pianist.
March’s shared offering recipient is the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois (UUPMI), whose mission is to equip UU’s in Illinois to transform institutions; partnering with and supporting people harmed by the prison industrial complex.
Upcoming Services:
March 9th – Progress is Possible, Not Guaranteed: Stories of Lesser Known Heroes – Rev. Eileen
March 16th – In What Can We Trust? – Rev. Eileen
March 23rd – Call and Response – Matt Meyers, UU Musician and Worship Leader
March 30th – Rev. Susan returns from sabbatical to share her experiences
Friday, February 21, 2025
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Update from Dr. Emma Farrell, February 21, 2025
Dear Beloveds,
I write to you from a place of deep reflection and inspiration. This week, I have the profound honor of attending the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, a national annual gathering dedicated to nurturing, sustaining, and mobilizing the African American faith community. It is a space of wisdom, courage, and collective power, where faith and justice meet in ways that challenge the mind, stir the soul, and call the body into action.
I cannot fully describe the experience, but I will try. To be a guest—a minority in a cultural space—offers a broadening perspective. It is humbling. It compels me to listen more deeply, to step outside my own context, and to witness faith in a way that is embodied, urgent, and alive. There is a deep invitation here: an invitation to alterity, to step into another’s lived experiences with an open heart and an open mind. And when we do, we are transformed.
In this sacred space, I have seen a radical commitment to justice—not just in words, but in action. I have seen a people standing firmly in faith, unshaken by fear, and bound together by the belief that liberation is not just a hope but a divine calling. I have heard truth spoken from the pulpit with boldness and conviction. I have felt the energy of a congregation that does not sit passively but engages with their whole being.
When the preacher says, “Every good leader feels the suffering of his people” (Rev. Dr. F. Bruce Williams, Sr.), the people respond with audible assent. When the call is made, “The most effective tool of oppression is the oppressed mind” (Allan Boesak), the room erupts in claps of affirmation. And when the truth is spoken about “…the psychopath in office who uses the power given to him by the people *on* the people,” the people rise to their feet in a collective declaration that they will not be silent, that they will not be moved.
This kind of worship does not allow for passive spectatorship. It evokes full, embodied participation. It calls us to bring our whole selves—our joys, our struggles, our righteous anger, and our relentless hope. Friends, I wish you could be here with me to witness it. But know this: you are here in my heart. You are present in my prayers. And I carry back with me not just stories, but an invitation—for us all—to listen more deeply, to love more boldly, and to come alive for justice.
With love and solidarity,
Emma
February 14, 2025
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February 23, 2025
The Weaving of Our Messy Lives: Barbara Mesle’s Spiritual Journey
Barbara Mesle, who attended the Deepening The Spiritual Journey class in the fall of 2023, shares her story of learning and loving in community. Kiley Korey and Rev. Eileen will be her Worship Associates. The UCE Choir, directed by Vickie Hellyer and accompanied by Gregory Shifrin on piano, provide the music.
This month’s offering will be shared with Community Renewal Society, a faith-based, community organizing and public policy organization that works with congregations in and around Chicago to address issues of racism and poverty.
March 2nd – The Internal Work of Radical Welcome – Dr. Emma Farrell
March 9th – Progress is Possible, Not Guaranteed: Stories of Lesser Known Heroes – Rev. Eileen Wiviott
March 23rd – Call and Response – Matt Meyers, UU Musician and Worship Leader
February 16, 2025
Our Hidden Conversations on Race
Race. Your Story. 6 Words. Please Send. These words appeared on the front of hundreds of thousands of post cards placed in various public locations all around the country, by journalist Michelle Norris. Fourteen years and more than 500,000 responses later, Norris wrote a book titled, “Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity.” Rev. Eileen and the REAL Team: Alison Issen, Becky Crawford, and Cheryl Mounts, explore this project and our own stories, with Kiley Korey as our hymn leader and Gregory Shifrin on piano.
This month’s offering will be shared with Community Renewal Society, a faith-based, community organizing and public policy organization that works with congregations in and around Chicago to address issues of racism and poverty.
February 23rd – Barb Mesle’s Spritual Journey
March 2nd – The Internal Work of Radical Welcome – Dr. Emma Farrell
March 9th – Progress is Possible, Not Guaranteed: Stories of Lesser Known Heroes – Rev. Eileen Wiviott
March 23rd – Call and Response – Matt Meyers, UU Musician and Worship Leader
February 7, 2025
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February 9, 2025
Conspiring Together for More Love
Amidst the rise of hate and division, how do we conspire together to bring more love, joy, hope, and peace into the world? Rev. Eileen leads this service as our pledge drive kick off with Pledge Drive chair and Worship Associate, Carla Williams. The UCE Choir, directed by Vickie Hellyer and accompanied by Gregory Shifrin on piano, Jenn Wisegarver and Kiley Korey, vocals; Kevin Barrow, vocals and guitar; Mike Dickenson on bass, and Steve Courtright on drums provide music for the service. Following worship, join us for the SOUP-er Bowls Sunday lunch, to celebrate our pledge drive kick-off and provide more generosity to our community partners.
This month’s offering will be shared with Community Renewal Society, a faith-based, community organizing and public policy organization that works with congregations in and around Chicago to address issues of racism and poverty.
Upcoming Services:
February 16th – The Race Card Project – Rev. Eileen and the REAL Team
February 23rd – Barb Mesle’s Spritual Journey
March 2nd – The Internal Work of Radical Welcome – Dr. Emma Farrell
March 9th – Progress is Possible, Not Guaranteed: Stories of Lesser Known Heroes – Rev. Eileen