Google the word resilient, and you will find countless stories of people succeeding despite living through adverse conditions. They are raised up as models of who we could be. But do we really need to be so resilient? Isn’t this putting the onus on the individual instead of the systems that cause these situations?

The Rev. Darrick Jackson (he/him) is the Director of Ministries for Lifelong Learning of the UU Ministers Association and an Affiliated Community Minister with the Second Unitarian Church of Chicago. He is one of the authors in the book “Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity and Power in Ministry.” Rev. Darrick is active in DRUUMM (the UU ministry for people of color) and is the treasurer for Healing Moments (a ministry for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s). He is pursuing his D.Min in Theology and the Arts at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Rev. Darrick and his husband, Dr. James Olson, live with their two cats, Merlin and Morgana.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service this Sunday at 10:30 am.

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 Interfaith Action of Evanston.

A place to be yourself. To relax. To know you belong and are welcome. These describe the best kinds of home.  As UU’s we aspire to make our congregations warm and welcoming, to create a sense of coming home for those entering our doors. But, there’s always a catch. What if our own sense of home makes someone else feel left out? Rev Pam will open a conversation around what we can do personally and as a congregation to widen the circle and make that space of home for all seekers on the journey.  Using stories from Sci-Fi genre – she’ll invite us to widen our imaginations and see ourselves and others with new eyes. Rev. Pamela Rumancik is our guest preacher this morning and Bob Mesle is the worship associate.

The Rev Pamela Rumancik is poet, native plant enthusiast and spiritual seeker retired from serving the Unitarian Church in Hinsdale who now works as a hospice chaplain.  Her spiritual roots reach back to Catholicism, and she is an initiate into the Sufi tradition. These deep liturgical origins inform her love of the arts as a vehicle for experiencing the Holy. Pam’s deepest commitments are to remembering the divine in each being and finding ways to open conversation with folks who see the world differently. Originally from Lorain, Ohio and she is the mother of three grown children and the wife of Rev Karen Mooney. Pam and Karen live in Bull Valley, Il, share their home with goldendoodles Parker & Ruthie and spend a lot of time out in the garden.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, July 30th at 10:30 am.

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 Community Renewal Society.

Magic and Miracles

Contemporary American culture is steeped in capitalist notions of productivity and “earning” our worth. Commitments to flourishing and to honoring our inherent worthiness are radical acts that our Unitarian Universalist faith calls us to do. Let’s explore lessons from Disney’s Encanto that illustrate how we can be the magic and miracle for each other. Our Guest preacher is Rev. Beth Monhollen and Ann McCallister is our Worship Associate.

Rev. Beth Monhollen is originally from southeastern Kentucky and she has called Milwaukee, WI home since her teen years. She stumbled upon Unitarian Universalism while engaging in reproductive rights activism more than 25 years ago and joined her home church the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee in 2013, where she discerned a call to UU ministry. Earlier this summer, she completed a two-year ministerial internship in eastern Pennsylvania and graduated with her MDiv from Meadville Lombard Theological School. She’s excited to be reunited with her spouse and their three rescue pets as they prepare for a move to Champaign, Illinois where she has accepted the call to serve the UU Church of Urbana-Champaign.

Rev. Beth’s grounds her theology on experiencing the divine through our interconnections and interdependence with all life and in fostering mutuality in all our relationships.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, July 16th at 10:30 am.

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 Building Peaceful Bridges.

Practicing Peace in Anxious Times

Our minds and bodies have evolved anxiety to respond to real threats. Given the threats we face today, issues that we can’t respond to with the same kind of immediacy, how do we manage the anxiety our minds and bodies still carry which does not serve us? We’ll practice together some ways of building our capacity to hold the inevitable anxiety and cultivate more happiness and inner peace. Rev. Eileen leads this service with Worship Associate Elaine Seigel.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, July 16th at 10:30 am.

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 Building Peaceful Bridges.

Taking Risks and Making an Impact

This Sunday, member Janelle Brittain shares her life and spiritual journey, her search for belonging and how she has found meaningful ways to live her values.
Rev. Eileen will be her worship associate.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, July 9th at 10:30 am.

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 Building Peaceful Bridges.

Hanging On, Letting Go

Lao Tsu, founder of Taoism said, “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” However, change is easier said than done. This sermon will explore the dance of hanging on and letting go. Rev. Julie Taylor is our preacher this morning.

Rev. Julie Taylor is a Unitarian Universalist community minister specializing in critical incident response, community crisis and pastoral care. Rev. Taylor is the Senior Director of Contextual Ministry and an affiliate professor at Meadville Lombard Theological School. Agitating, preaching, and working towards dismantling systems of White Supremacy are key in Rev. Taylor’s theology and work.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, July 2nd at 10:30 am.

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 Building Peaceful Bridges.

2023 UUA General Assembly Live Streamed Sunday Worship Service 10:00am

Join us at 10:00 am CT for the largest annual gathering of UUs worshiping together. Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti, Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, Michigan, will lead the Sunday Worship service, along with worship team members Stella Anderson, Janice Marie Johnson, Rev. Danielle Di Bona, Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd, and the GA Choir. We will live stream the service from the sanctuary at 10:00 am. You may live stream from home, but clicking HERE.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, June 18th at 10:00 am.

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 Deborah’s Place.

Juneteenth: Celebrating Liberation and Resilience

On June 19th, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally got word that they were free. In this era of information overload and calculated misinformation, when obfuscation and lies continue to be used to maintain oppressive systems, how are we called to speak truth to power and to advance liberation for all?

Rev. Eileen Wiviott leads the service with Annette Wallace as Worship Associate.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, June 18th at 10:30 am.

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 Deborah’s Place.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, June 18th at 10:30 am.

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 Deborah’s Place.

Delighting in Our Gifts

We celebrate 100th Anniversary of the annual tradition of the flower ceremony, a cherished and uniquely Unitarian Universalist ritual, created by Unitarian Minister and founder of the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia, Nobert Capek (1870-1942), to lift up joy in the midst of despair. Please bring flowers, whether from your garden or purchased, to add to our collective bouquet. If you worship online, please email a picture of a flower for your yard or wayside to agough@ucevanston.org by Friday of that week! Together we will take delight in the gifts we bring to one another.

This is also our annual picnic, so please bring a dish to share for after the worship service.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, June 4th at 10:30 am.

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 Deborah’s Place.