Sunday Service: In-person and Online Sunday at 10:30am

VirtUUal RE: May 3, 2020

As I mentioned last week, the Children and Youth Program Team and I have been making some phone calls to see how families, especially parents, are doing. We want to hear from you what it is that we can be doing to help during this time. Please know that we want to provide programs that are helpful to you, and not to overwhelm you. So in that spirit, feel free to explore the following activities whenever the spirit moves you! And if there is something you would like to see happen that you or your family would enjoy, let me, or another member of the Children and Youth Team (Sue Larsen, Sarah Iles, Gillian Lawrence, Beth McDonald) know. 

Happy May Day and Beltane to those who celebrate! With a new month, we begin exploring a new theme: Thresholds. This week’s VirtUUal RE session is about the thresholds many are experiencing at this time of the year – those who are school-age and are ending the year and possibly beginning a new phase on their educational path. You can read this week’s VirtUUal RE session here or watch the video here.

For middle school youth, you can watch some videos on Native American life:  

High school youth can connect Sunday evening at 7 pm on Zoom. Look for an email from the advisors later in the week with info on how to join. 

Of course, we also have our virtual worship service on Sunday mornings at 11:15 am. I continue to post ideas on the UCE Children and Youth Facebook page, along with some interactive things to share, so look for that as well.  

For our theme of Thresholds this month, check out the Soulful Home family packet here.

Here’s the last week of Creating Sabbath Space from Soul Matters. 

And for adults, the Non-Fiction Book Group will be discussing An American Summer: Life and Death in Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz on Sunday, May 3rd at 2 pm with Sarah Vanderwicken leading the discussion. Look for more information on this discussion in this week’s newsletter.

A new program facilitated by Robb Gieger, The Infrastructure of Morality, will be on Wednesday evenings beginning May 6. Email Robb if interested so he can send you some info and the link to the program: rjg6177@gmail.com 

In Faith,
Kathy 

VirtUUal RE: May 3, 20202020-04-30T21:08:28+00:00

VirtUUal RE: April 26, 2020

I hope that this week finds you and your family healthy and safe. It’s hard to believe that by the time you read this, it will be about 50 days since UCE closed its doors. Time seems to be going by quickly and slowly at the same time for me. For those of you with school-aged young people at home, it might feel differently!  

The Children and Youth Planning Team and I have been making some phone calls to see how families, especially parents, are doing. We want to hear from you what it is that we can be doing to help during this time. So far, we are learning that most families are feeling overwhelmed and not finding time to be together. That seems strange since we’re all stuck at home, right? For many of you though, the kids still have schoolwork to do, music lessons, martial arts, and other activities, and many parents now have to work from home. Please know that we want to provide programs that are helpful to you, and not to overwhelm you. So in that spirit, feel free to explore the following activities whenever the spirit moves you! And if there is something you would like to see happen that you or your family would enjoy, let me know. 

You can read this week’s VirtUUal RE session here or watch my video here.

If you missed the virtual Easter Egg Hunt (https://tinyurl.com/vpyujjy) you can still participate until May 1. So far, over 500 people have done the hunt!  

Calendar Connection:  

For middle school youth, you can learn about Native American medicine and healing in this short session. 

High school youth can connect Sunday evening at 7 pm on Zoom. Look for an email from the advisors later in the week with info on how to join. 

Of course, we also have our virtual worship service on Sunday mornings at 11:15a. I continue to post ideas on the UCE Children and Youth Facebook page, along with some interactive things to share, so look for that as well.  

For our theme of Liberation this month, here’s a family social action activity.

From Soul Matters: Creating Sabbath Space, week 4.

And for adults, the Non-Fiction Book Group will be discussing An American Summer: Life and Death in Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz on Sunday, May 3rd with Sarah Vanderwicken leading the discussion. Look for information on how to join this virtual gathering later this month. 

A new program facilitated by Robb Gieger, The Infrastructure of Morality, will be on Wednesday evenings beginning May 6. Email Robb if interested so he can send you some info and the link to the program: rjg6177@gmail.com.

In Faith, 

Kathy Underwood 

VirtUUal RE: April 26, 20202020-04-24T21:11:49+00:00

VirtUUal RE: April 19, 2020

For some UUs, this coming week is more sacred than last week with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22. The irony of a pandemic at this time has not been lost on me. Spring is in the air – or at least every few days or so – and it has been noted and observed that air pollution and smog have diminished significantly with the stay-at-home orders. More people are outside walking and noticing the wonders of nature around them. Perhaps Nature has conspired with the coronavirus to slap us in the face and make us wake up to the possibilities, if only we were to choose differently.  

You can read this week’s VirtUUal RE session here or watch my video here.

If you missed the virtual Easter Egg Hunt you can still participate until May 1. So far, over 500 people have done the hunt! Click here and join in.

For the activities I mention, here are the links: 

Calendar Connection:  

Next Tuesday, kids and parents can join me for a virtual Chalice Circle at 3:30p. We will have an Earth Day Challenge: using things around the house and in your recycling bin, build the tallest structure you can that can hold an egg on top. You can join the meeting here or by phone instead at +1 209-844-4600,,392873602# 

For middle school youth, you can learn about Native American spirituality in this shortened Map and Tack Sunday session. Click here to access the session.

High school youth can connect Sunday evening at 7 pm on Zoom. Look for an email from the advisors later in the week with info on how to join. 

Of course, we also have our virtual worship service on Sunday mornings at 11:15 am. I continue to post ideas on the UCE Children and Youth Facebook page, along with some interactive things to share, so look for that as well.  

For our theme of Liberation this month, click here for a family social action activity.

Click here for a new offering from Soul Matters: Creating Sabbath Space, week 3.

And for adults, the Non-Fiction Book Group will be discussing An American Summer: Life and Death in Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz on Sunday, May 3rd with Sarah Vanderwicken leading the discussion. Look for information in this week’s newsletter on how to join that discussion.

A new program facilitated by Robb Gieger, The Infrastructure of Morality, will be on Wednesday evenings beginning May 6. Email Robb if interested so he can send you some info and the link to the program: rjg6177@gmail.com.

In Faith, 

Kathy Underwood 

VirtUUal RE: April 19, 20202020-04-19T14:15:43+00:00

Digging In

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row, please bless these seeds I sow
Please warm them from below, ‘til the rains come tumbling down

~ David Mallett

 

First, let me express my gratitude. When I landed in Evanston last May, I had every expectation that I would be headed back to Virginia in August. There, I had a job that I loved, but that I knew I could not keep doing. Here, I had my partner and, at not too great a distance, our daughter, and Margie’s family, and my brother and his family in Madison – but no prospect of a job, let alone a career. When I started attending at UCE, it was because I was in need of community, which I found in abundance. But in Bret, I found encouragement. As I described to him my spiritual path and sense of ministry, he helped me to discern a vocation and calling. And after I decided to apply for this position, he was a gentle but consistent guide on what has been a delightful but very challenging path. I have a buoyant spirit, but I know what a great gift it is to be taken seriously, and I am grateful to Bret for this. It will be hard, indeed, to bid him farewell.

But this is the task before me, before us: to send him on his way with a blessing, to wish him well as he faces what is next for him, and to ready ourselves for what is next for us. It is a time to plant, dear ones – and in order to plant, we need to dig in. There is much in store for us, much of which we cannot foresee. Still, it’s time to ready the bed in which we will sow our seeds. We have work to do together, and I am looking forward to it! Once our interim is with us, we will have their lead to follow – but in the meantime, we need to prepare the ground for their arrival!

One thing I’ve been digging into this spring with our Children and Youth Programs Team, our Learning Associates Team, and our Lifespan Learning Council, is the idea of growing UCE’s ministry with families. I have not been shy with folks about the fact that this is a growth area for me.  To be sure, I have been part of a UU family in my history, and this experiential memory is a help – but the world has changed a little since my 31-year-old was 3 and we joined the Elgin church together, and even more since I was 3 and attending the Palatine church with my folks. One thing I know remains the same, though, is that families grow best together with other families. I have in mind an herb garden, where basil and sage, dill and lavender, rosemary and chamomile grow all together, the contrast in foliage and flower showing each to beautiful advantage. To prepare the bed for this garden of families, I think we need to think about ourselves and one another as both seedling and gardener. To be sure, we need to re-think our inter-generational programs, and I am both grateful and excited that our Lifespan Learning Council has already taken on the tending of programs we have traditionally offered in the past, like our Passover Seder, and of new initiatives, like our Pi Day Celebration. But we also need to think of every one of us as tenders of our UCE families, and of our larger UCE family. And this, in my view, requires that we think beyond Sunday morning religious education, and even beyond, special intergenerational events, to engaging our children and families in worship, at coffee hour, and throughout the church activities of our week. One source of nurture in store for our beautiful garden of families is that the 0-12th grade Sunday morning RE program will move to the Soul Matters curriculum in the fall – to the same thematic program that has informed our worship and the work of our covenant groups. This lifespan approach to curriculum will offer new opportunities for UCE members and friends of every age to talk with one another about what we are currently learning about ourselves, each other, and our world. We will be deliberate in the coming year about making opportunities for these intergenerational conversations outside of RE, so watch this space – and let us know what ideas you have, too!

These and other initiatives are in store as we complete this church year and turn to the one coming. I know that many of you have recently pledged, or revisited your pledge, to help nurture and sustain our community, and I am grateful not only for the confidence you have shown in not only our UCE staff and congregants, but for the commitment you have made to our denomination as a whole. I believe our communal faith is lifegiving, life-sustaining, lifesaving. This soil we tend, the seeds we plant, the care of our attention – these are what will grow our community, not only in size, or yield, but in rootedness. As Bret pulls up roots, let us dig in more deeply and consider not only what we will have to show our interim come August, but what we will have to show our settled minister in two years or to Bret, should he happen back this way again in five years, or ten. May each of us do the work at hand to nurture and sustain this community of faith, to tend it, as we have been tended to. May it be so. May we make it so.

 

© April 19, 2018

 

Digging In2018-11-19T18:30:04+00:00

Update from the Director of Religious Education Search Committee

The members of the search committee charged with finding a Director of Lifespan Religious Education are pleased to announce that the position has been filled by Dr. Mary Shelden. The interim position is for a two-year period. Mary brings to UCE a strong background in teaching, leadership, mindfulness, and music. She has relocated to Evanston from Virginia where she was a lay leader at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church in Glenn Allen, Virginia, and a faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University. The search committee was particularly impressed with Mary’s passion for social justice, worship arts, lifelong learning, and artistic expression, as demonstrated in her work, teaching, and UU service. We are also excited about her background in curriculum development and teaching experience with adults. We are thrilled to welcome her to UCE!

Update from the Director of Religious Education Search Committee2017-07-28T15:08:07+00:00

“Living the Interdependent Web”

This year, our Sunday-morning religious education program for children and youth will focus on “Living the Interdependent Web.” We’ll broadly and deeply explore what it means to respect, revere, and participate in the interdependent web. Our curriculum and activities are structured across ages and grade levels to focus on our “seventh principle,” which calls for “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part,” in ways that are holistic, multigenerational, and multidimensional. Participants will have the opportunity to explore ideas, develop relationships, and put values into action.

Following the natural cycle of the year, our focus on the interdependent web will include five major sub-themes:
The Growing Cycle (September – October)
Water: Sustainer of Life (November – December)
Energy, transformation, and conservation (January – February)
Growth and renewal (March – April)
Environmental stewardship (May-June)

Our classes will be grouped as follows (and will have the opportunity to give themselves nature-themed names):
Preschool (three- and four-year-olds) (9:15-10:30 and 11:00-12:15)
Kindergarten-First-Second Grades (9:15-10:30 and 11:00-12:15)
Third-Fourth-Fifth Grades (9:15-10:30 and 11:00-12:15)
Sixth-Seventh-Eighth Grades (11:00 only)

As much as possible, teachers will be scheduled in six-week units, with rotation from assistant to lead, for consistency and relationship-building.

Children will begin in the sanctuary each week for the first part of the worship service before going to classes. Nursery care for infants and toddlers will be available from 9:00 – 12:30, and our High School Youth Group will meet at 11:00.

Themed worship services for all ages in fall and spring and multigenerational social and social justice activities throughout the year are planned to help bring “the interdependent web” to life.

Further opportunities for learning this year:
“Our Whole Lives” sexuality education
(offered for Kindergarten-First Graders and Fourth-Fifth Graders
on Sunday afternoons in February-March)
“Journeys: Boston and Beyond” coming of age program
(offered for Seventh- and Eighth- Graders
on Sunday evenings as scheduled from October-May)

Future years may focus on the two other pillars of our seven Unitarian Universalist principles as part of a three-year cycle:
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning (our fourth principle)
The stories that shape us, myths, Christian and Hebrew scriptures, world religions, etc.
The inherent worth and dignity of every person (our first principle)
Appreciating difference and diversity, racial justice, etc.

Our Religious Education Program for Children and Youth is structured to be appropriate to developmental levels and incorporate:
What it means to belong to this religious community
Unitarian Universalist principles
The natural world and our place in it
Our Jewish and Christian heritage
The world’s religions
Ethics, decision making, and relationship building

Registration forms for 2016-17 are available here.

 

“Living the Interdependent Web”2017-05-24T14:18:46+00:00

Unitarian Church of Evanston

A Unitarian Universalist Congregation

1330 Ridge Ave
Evanston, IL 60201
Directions

(847) 864-1330
uce@ucevanston.org

UCE's office hours:
Tuesday - Thursday: 10am - 4pm
Friday: 10am - 1pm
Sunday: 10am - 1pm

In-person and Virtual Sunday Service is held at 10:30 am.

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Member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association covenant to affirm and promote the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism.

The Unitarian Church of Evanston is recognized by the Unitarian Universalist Association as a Welcoming Congregation, a Peace Advocate Congregation, and a Green Sanctuary.

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