We will host an online worship service on Sunday, March 28th at 11:15 am.

Tending The Invisible String: Commitment in Community
A community of faith thrives when the shared mission is at the center. Each of us has a different understanding of our personal commitment to that common endeavor of UCE – nurturing the human spirit for a world made whole. What does our shared commitment ask of us individually and collectively? Embracing brave commitment in community – authentically, accountably, and realistically.

Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 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 Poor People’s Campaign.

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, March 21st at 11:15 am.

Coming Out of Hibernation

The Spring Equinox draws us out of hibernation, pulls us from isolation to community and reminds us how to be in kinship with the world. As we re-engage, renew commitments, and re-connect with others, may careful and honest attention to ourselves and each other guide the way. Deepening our commitments to self-care, repairing bonds of connection, and the well-being of the whole.

Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 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 Poor People’s Campaign.

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, March 14th at 11:15 am.

Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 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 Poor People’s Campaign.

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, March 7th at 11:15 am.

The 8th Principle
Our congregation is on an ongoing journey of shaping our welcoming community through our anti-racism and anti-oppression work. One part of this journey involves the proposed 8^th Principle, which reads: “We … covenant to affirm and promote: Journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and in our institutions.”

This week we will touch upon the concepts encompassed within the 8^th Principle. Together, we can actively engage in accountable anti-oppression and anti-racism work as we build Beloved Community.

Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 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 during the summer 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 Poor People’s Campaign.

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, February 28th at 11:15 am.

The Collective Goods: Time, Talent and Treasure
In Beloved Community, each of us brings our whole selves, and contributes as fully as we are able to the life of the congregation. Our faith tradition is built upon the principle that each of us has inherent value, yet no two people bring the same gifts to the collective. UCE thrives and fulfills its purpose when every one of us participates in some way, giving what we can and receiving in turn what we need. Together, we celebrate the abundance of time, talent, and treasure shared among us.

Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 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 during the summer 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.

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, February 21st at 11:15 am.

The Danger of a Single Story
Guest Preacher: Rev. Connie Simon
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a wonderful TED Talk on the danger of a single story.  When many of us talk about the history of Unitarian Universalism, we tell a single story – one that leaves out the contributions of Black and Biracial people, Indigenous People, people of color and others of marginalized identities.  How must that make them feel?  How does it diminish the message of Unitarian Universalism?

Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 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 during the summer 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.

About Rev. Connie Simon
Rev. Connie Simon was called as minister of First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati in August 2018.  An avid history buff, Rev. Connie is a Trustee of the Unitarian Universalist History and Heritage Society and Editor of the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography.  She also teaches UU History and Theology at Midwest Leadership School and the Extended Leadership Experience.  Rev. Connie recently adopted a four-year old Brussels Griffon mix that she named “Rev. Dr. Janeetha Ridley” or “Mama” for short.

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, February 14th at 11:15 am.

Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 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 during the summer 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.

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, February 7th at 11:15 am.

Renewing our Covenant: We Begin Again in Love – led by Rev. Eileen Wiviott
As a new shared ministry begins out of a long-standing relationship, we rekindle our commitments to one another – me as your newly called senior minister, and you as a congregation eager to live into the partnership and practice of Beloved Community. We will make explicit our promises – how we strive to be together in service to our common mission. Together, we celebrate beginning again.

Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 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 during the summer 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.

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, January 31st at 11:15 am.

Now, More Than Ever – Lea Morris
Now, More Than Ever, it is imperative that we create not with knee-jerk emotional reactions based on past experience and expectations, but with care and intention. Within our imaginations, we bear the divine seeds of potential, change, creation. So, what now? 

“A great voice singing great songs.” That is the simplest way to introduce you to LEA’s music. While she often draws comparisons to other female phenoms like Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell and Ani DiFranco, LEA’s sound seamlessly blends gospel, jazz, country and R&B into her own style – SoulFolk.

LEA was born in Baltimore to a father who toured the world playing trumpet in the funk band Black Heat and a mother who dreamed of opera while performing with her siblings in the Jones Family Gospel Singers. LEA was singing on the pulpit of the Baptist church where she grew up as soon she could speak. When she discovered the acoustic guitar as a teenager, she began teaching herself to play by writing songs. LEA’s final year in high school in Germany at a classical conservatory, where she sang with the jazz ensemble Black & White and co-wrote with the British pop trio Indigo Wild.

Having shared the stage with luminaries including Odetta, Mavis Staples, Dar Williams and Anthony Hamilton, LEA performs at a far-ranging array of venues, including arts centers, universities, festivals, and places of worship. She is consistently acknowledged by the Washington Area Music Association* as one of the region’s best vocalists, songwriters and recording artists. She is a graduate of the prestigious Artist-in-Residence program at The Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, MD and a beloved children’s music performer among DC families.

LEA’s latest recording, the crowd-funded and highly-anticipated “Let You In,” is a collection of songs the artists hopes will cultivate greater compassion for femininity. LEA’s stunning vocals and award winning songwriting are supported by rich instrumentation, featuring Howard Levy (of Bèla Fleck and the Flecktones) on the harmonica. Learn more on LEA’s website.

Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 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 during the summer 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 Deborah’s Place.

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, January 24th at 11:15 am.

The Only Lasting Truth is Change – Rev. Eileen Wiviott

In these tumultuous times, the earth shifting under us, it is natural to seek the steady ground of sameness. Can we embrace change as a constant, even comforting, principle? Can we welcome the emergent opportunities afforded by ongoing change? Can we ‘shape change’ as author, Octavia Butler’s prophetic protagonist, Lauren Olamina, advocates in the novel, Parable of the Sower? We explore this novel and the wisdom of embracing change.

Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 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 during the summer 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 Community Renewal Society (CRS).