Congregational Care & Support Teams

Building a Caring Community

UCE is a congregation of mutual care and support in service of our overall mission to: Nurture the human spirit for a world made whole. We work toward this by building beloved community through inclusive welcoming, compassion, care, generosity and forgiveness. We create a supportive place to take risks and grow in service to others.

Request for Care

Offer Care

Mission

The Unitarian Church of Evanston creates a culture of caring by sharing and tending to life’s joys and sorrows together. The UCE Congregational Care and Support Teams are comprised of three teams that offer practical support such as meals or rides, as well as emotional support in the form of listening and presence.

Goals

An essential part of our church community is the love and care we provide to each other in times of difficulty and challenge. Helping a member of our community, who needs a hot meal, a ride to a medical appointment, or a sympathy card or emotional support is the core work of the UCE Congregational Care and Support Teams.

The Congregational Care and Support Teams recruit volunteers from our church community who can offer assistance. When a need in our community arises, they will match a volunteer with the person or family in need.

Congregational Care & Support Teams

Please reach out to any Team Leaders using contact information in Realm. Check out the Realm Resources page for more info.

The Caring Team provides practical, short term assistance to members and friends of the church who are experiencing pressing needs in the following ways:

Providing meals when a surgery, illness, or injury occurs or when a new baby joins the family
Grocery shopping, drugstore pick up, or other essential errands when someone can’t leave their house
Providing rides to medical appointments or help coordinating ride sharing to church
Contacting the congregation on an annual basis to check-in
Sending cards to members and friends experiencing joys and sorrows

Team Leaders: Karen Courtright, Dana Deane, Lynn Kendall, and Peggy Boccard

The Pastoral Care Team works closely with the Senior Minister to provide ongoing support for our members and friends who are experiencing struggles of the mind, heart, and spirit including loss and grief, loneliness, aging and end of life issues. The Pastoral Care Team provides support in the following ways:

Calling or emailing to check in with those who have expressed a need for support or who others express concern about someone’s needs
Visiting in-person with those who are homebound or isolated
Supporting those going through a life crisis and at times of joy
Maintaining contact with those who are unable to attend church
Supporting friends and family involved in care giving
Comforting the bereaved
Contacting the congregation on an annual basis to check-in
Sending cards to members and friends experiencing sorrows or joys

Team Leaders: Rev. Eileen Wiviott and Ellie Feddersen

Team Members: Rev. Elizabeth Harding, Dr. Emma Farrell, Wendy Herman, Ann McCallister, Jeanie McCullough, Bob Mesle, Christine Peters, Ellen Rieger and Sean Talmage.

The Memorial Reception Team coordinates memorial receptions for members who die. In cooperation with the minister officiating over the service, the Memorial Reception Team provides support in the following ways:

Receiving requests for memorial receptions and working with minister(s) on the memorial service timing and announcement
Coordinating list of volunteers to fulfill needs for food, set up, and clean up
Creating and providing online sign-up systems and recruiting volunteers
Training new volunteers and coordinators
Maintaining well-written instructions on memorial reception coordination

Team Leader: Margaret Shaklee

Team Member: Kathy Talmadge

Please reach out to any Team Leaders using contact information in Realm. Check out the Realm Resources page for more info.

Care Resources

To help navigate the various teams that provide resources, check out the care resource flowchart.

Congregational Care & Support Teams Flowsheet

Depending on your needs or interest in volunteering, please fill out one of the forms below to get connected.

Request for Care

Offer Care

More about UCE's Culture of Caring

Do you know the difference between the Pastoral Care Team and the Caring Committee? While the two groups have distinct roles within our community, there is a lot of overlap in what we do. On paper, the Pastoral Care Team provides ongoing spiritual and emotional care for folks in our community, while the Caring Committee provides short term, practical help like meals or rides to doctor’s appointments. In reality, there’s an awful lot of pastoral care that takes place when someone brings a meal to someone in need or during the car ride to the doctor’s appointment. More germane to the conversation with the Pastoral Care Team was the realization that if some of us on the team aren’t clear about what role we’re playing, it’s likely that others in the congregation aren’t clear either. How are people in crisis or need supposed to know how to access the care we provide?

At the worship service on Sunday, November 17, 2019, Rev. Karen talked about the ways we tell our true stories and how multiple stories about one thing can be true at the same time. One story that has emerged, which is true, is that we need to create a culture of caring. Another version of that true story is that we do have a culture of caring AND we need systems that make our culture of caring institutional and understood. A culture of caring with a clearly communicated process for accessing that caring would mean fewer people fall through the cracks.

This, in part, is what our community is for: to collectively cultivate caring for each other and the world. We help one another to hold the pain around us and the possibility too. Together, we can find ways to weave our caring safety net a little tighter so that people needing care don’t fall through the cracks. There are folks who need rides to church or a meal or two after surgery. There are those who would love a call or visit after they’ve lost a loved one or had an unexpected life transition. This is a shared project and one that each of us can find a way to take part in.

Click here to read Rev. Eileen’s full message from November 21, 2019.

When to Call a Minister

Consider how the ministers of the Unitarian church of Evanston may be helpful to you outside our times together on Sunday mornings. When:

You would like to talk about your faith, your religious values or practice.
You want to get acquainted, introduce your child(ren) to us, or talk about joining the church.
Someone close to you has died, is critically ill or emotionally troubled.
You’d like to know more about Unitarian Universalism.
You are to be hospitalized (or know someone who is) and want a visit.
You are pregnant and wish you were not.
The general pace of life is confusing and anxiety filled…and you want to sort through the tangle.
You are planning to be married or to celebrate your union.
You have personal/family problems to discuss…job, children, relationship…and someone listening would help.
You want to discuss memorial service planning.
You want your child dedicated.
You are disappointed with/excited about the church and want to talk about it.
Your child/youth wants to talk about something to someone in addition to you.
You are upset with someone and would like coaching about how to address the person directly.
You are either pleased with the minister or upset with the minister and would like to share your thoughts and ideas.
You feel called to offer your gifts, talents and energy to the church and its larger purpose, and are seeking the right place to serve.

This is by no means a complete list, but might start you thinking. The best ways to reach one of us are:

Mailboxes are in the Church Office
At UCE, 847-864-1330

Rev. Eileen Wiviott, Acting Senior Minister – Ext 201; ewiviott@ucevanston.org

Rev. Susan Frances, Assistant Minister for Congregational Life – Ext 107; sfrances@ucevanston.org

More information about the Congregational Care & Support Teams

Check out this document to learn more about the Congregational Care & Support Teams.