We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, May 22nd at 10:15 am.

Owning Our History, Envisioning Our Future
Sankofa is a word in the Twi language of Ghana, meaning “go back and get it;” we must look back and know who we are to move forward into who we want to be. Our newly adopted values statements include a commitment to honestly and bravely explore our shared history and this exploration will inform our actions in the future. How will we embark on this exploration of our history, bravely telling the truth and imagining the more just and equitable world we want to build? Rev. Eileen leads this service with Joe Romeo 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 UU Prison Ministry of Illinois (UUPMI).

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, May 15th at 10:15 am.

Wider and Deeper Than Tolerance
Intolerance is clearly on the rise. The chasms between people on opposing sides of any and all issues are deepening and widening. Amidst such divisions and polarization, is mere tolerance really the aim? If we can’t count on basic tolerance, how can we build our capacity for genuine curiosity, openness, celebration of difference, and a willingness to be transformed in life-giving ways? Carla Williams and Cheryl Mounts were the bidders at the 2021 Serendipity Auction who won the chance to talk with Rev. Eileen and plan this sermon topic. Diane Markel will be the 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 UU Prison Ministry of Illinois (UUPMI).

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, May 8th at 10:15 am.

Nurturing Beauty in Our Children
In our faith tradition, we dedicate our children to our community and we dedicate our community to the spiritual care and faith formation of our children and families. Through this ritual, we re-commit ourselves, people of all ages, to the cultivation of Beloved Community, and to finding beauty and meaning amidst our shared struggles and limitations. This service is led by Rev. Eileen Wiviott, with Shannon Lang as Worship Associate, and reflections by Nehanda Julot and Ellen Bates-Jefferys.

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 UU Prison Ministry of Illinois (UUPMI).

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, May 1st at 10:15 am.

Building Upon Braveness
This year has been a journey full of ups and downs, twists and turns, and having to re-chart our course more than once. We have envisioned what a multigenerational community looks and feels like and began building it by being brave and experimenting with new ways of doing things. Today, we celebrate the beauty of what we have built and look towards ways to build upon our braveness. Kathy Underwood leads the service with Rev. Eileen 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 UU Prison Ministry of Illinois (UUPMI).

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, April 24th at 10:15 am.

Engaging the World, Engaging our Lives
Our planet is the focus of so much vital social action right now. This attention to the health of our world intersects with human oppression again and again. Addressing the complexity of these issues is necessary to creating a more equitable, compassionate, and just world. This vital social action and social justice work has the potential to create beauty, strength, love, joy, and community in our lives. On this Earth Day weekend, we will hear reflections from four different people about how the social justice work they have engaged with over their lifetimes has shaped them.

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 Faith in Place.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, April 17th at 10:15 am.

Awakening to Possibility
We celebrate spring and the holidays of the three coinciding Abrahamic Traditions – Easter, Passover, and Ramadan – with our annual Spring Music Service. These singers and instrumentalists will share music from the Baroque, Romantic, and 20^th Century Classical eras as well as Jazz, Gospel, and Musical Theatre: Our beloved UCE Choir, under the direction of Vickie Hellyer, will, for the first time in 25 months, be singing live at a UCE service. Vocal soloist and choral conductor, Amanda Thomas, will be sharing her beautiful mezzo-soprano voice in two solos and with the UCE Choir. Keyboardist and virtuoso harmonica player, Howard Levy, will be featured in two magical videos made especially for this service. Our amazing pianist, Gregory Shifrin, will be working his magic – in collaboration with the choir and playing a masterful and moving piano solo. Join us for this special Sunday service.

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 Faith in Place.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, April 10th at 10:15 am.

“Affirming the Worth and Dignity of Every Gender”
Each of us is a gendered being.  But our gender is subject to societal dictates of which genders have power and privilege.  We reach out to you to embrace a spectrum of genders as equally deserving of power, privilege and possibilities.  The service is co-created by the UCE Youth Group. 

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 Faith in Place.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, April 3rd at 10:15 am.

Awakening Curiosity
To nurture the human spirit and make the world more whole, we must practice together being open to all there is we don’t know. We will explore what it means to cultivate curiosity through cultural humility. Rev. Eileen Wiviott leads the service and Robb Geiger is our 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 Faith in Place.

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, March 27th at 10:15 am.

Faith in Meaning
We are meaning making people, and we make meaning in our lives out of the stories we share. But what is meaning making when our stories are so subjective and there is little to no agreement about what is true? How do we create meaningful lives without being attached to any one meaning or single story? Rev. Eileen Wiviott leads the service and Marianne Griebler is our 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 UU Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI).

We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, March 20th at 10:15 am.

Living Into Our Commitments
with guest preacher, Dr. Elías Ortega
We will discuss ways in which living into our commitments is an invitation and a sacred task. It is an invitation to be a people committed to repairing harm and restoring covenant. When we live into our commitments as a sacred task, we are transformed by the work we do into the beloved community’s likeness.

Dr. Elías Ortega became the President of Meadville Lombard Theological School in 2019. He is an interdisciplinary scholar who received his M.Div. and Ph.D. (Religion and Society, Magna Cum Laude) from Princeton Theological Seminary. Prior to coming to Meadville Lombard, Dr. Ortega served as Associate Professor of Social Theory and Religious Ethics at Drew University Theological School.

Dr. Ortega currently serves the larger Unitarian Universalist movement as a member of the UUA’s Commission on Institutional Change, which created the Widening the Circle of Concern report. In recent years, his denominational service included a term in the Religious Education Credentialing Committee (2016-2018). From 2015 to 2017, he served as a mentor in UUA’s Growing Racial Justice initiative, and during that same period was the Co-Chair of the UU Legislative Ministry of New Jersey’s Dismantling Racism Group.

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 UU Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI).