Blessed Spring, My Friends!

I have been enjoying the bird migration, the blooming flowers, the amazing clouds, and our wonderful community this spring. The photo collage is of me on a walk at Clark Square (lower left), our Beltane Maypole viewed through the Flame sculpture on the UCE South Lawn (upper left), our Passover Seder dinner in the UCE Sanctuary (upper right), and the potluck table outside the kitchen after our Easter worship service (lower right).

The news about international wars and about the citizens and institutions of our democracy being undermined and attacked continues. If you are feeling overwhelmed (anew, again, or ongoing) by what is happening in our country or in your personal life, please do not hesitate to reach out to me, Rev. Eileen, or Rev. Elizabeth. You may also fill out the Request for Care form on our website to have someone reach out to you. We are here to support each other as we navigate what is happening in world events and in our private lives.

One way I am navigating these times is that each day, I purposely take time to practice gratitude or find beauty in my surroundings or connect with loved ones. I recently learned the wonderful term “framily.” Framily is a way to refer to a group of friends who are so close to you that you considered them family.

Another way that I am working to create the world I want to live in is by participating in the Beacon of Light gatherings once a week over the summer. The gatherings are a physical space to share messages of love, inclusion, solidarity, and hope.

This summer, members of numerous Evanston faith communities will be gathering at three different locations every Thursday evening. You are invited to show up at any one of the three locations: Dempster & Ridge; Chicago & Main; or Central & Central Park. The idea is for folks to be able to walk or bike to the location closest to their home. For those who will need to drive to one of these three locations, you are invited to think about how you might bring a Beacon of Light gathering closer to your home as the summer progresses. It only takes 3 people with signs to bring light to an entire neighborhood.

Please join me at the corner of Dempster & Ridge every Thursday, from 7:00-7:30pm, starting June 5 through August 28, as a beacon of light for our country’s future. Bring a sign with an inspirational message that reflects how you are dealing with the week’s events and your vision for the days ahead (sign inspiration here). On June 12th from 5:30-7:00 pm, you are invited to join our Racial Equity Action Leadership (REAL) Team in Room 3 for a sign making event. That Thursday, we will walk together over to Dempster & Ridge. If you can’t make that event and need a sign, please let me know. I have “Side With Love” and “Black Lives Matter” signs in my office.

It is my hope that we will have at least three folks from UCE standing with signs on the corner of Dempster & Ridge every Thursday through the summer. I will be there most Thursdays. If you are able to commit to a Thursday or two over the summer, please go into our UCE Beacon of Light signup and add yourself to one of the dates. Folks who volunteer through the signup schedule are committing to being one of the three core people for that Thursday. Everyone is invited to show up whether or not you add your name to the signup.

Taking care of ourselves is one way to support our continued resistance to unconstitutional actions, to encourage others to join in our efforts to preserve our democracy, and to have the energy to care for each other.

Yours in becoming a Beacon of Light,

Rev. Susan

 

2025.03.28 enewsletter column (3)

Dear Friends,

This is my last newsletter column before I leave for a three-month sabbatical. I will be away from UCE from December 10, 2024 through March 10, 2025. I am grateful to be able to take this sabbatical time. I will be spending part of my sabbatical learning about meditation in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian traditions and look forward to sharing my experiences with you in the spring.

This past week, I’ve talked with several of you who were not able to attend one of our post-election gatherings on Wednesday, November 6th, and know many of you are still processing an array of feelings, including sadness, anger, fear, and disbelief, at the outcome of the national election. You are not alone. You are not alone in how you feel. You are not alone in being able to face what will come after the inauguration in January. We will continue to be a community that centers love and relationship in all that we do, from welcoming visitors on Sunday mornings to showing up when needed to protect and expand our civil liberties.

If you are in need of talking with someone, please contact Rev. Eileen at ewiviott@ucevanston.org or Rev. Elizabeth at eharding@ucevanston.org. If you or someone you know are feeling an intense sense of despair, please call 988 for the national suicide and mental health lifeline or call 800-322-8400 for the Trilogy Crisis Response in Evanston. Now is the time to care for ourselves and support each other.

Now is also the time for us to deepen our relationships with people and communities who share our values. That is not to say that we need to cut off people in our lives who have prioritized other values in how they voted, but it is to say that to move forward with shaping our society in a way that reflects our values that we will need to lean into our relationships with people and organizations that share and prioritize our values.

I was at a Post-Election Town Hall put on by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (ACLU-IL) on November 13th and one thing that Collen Connell, the Executive Director, said that brought me some comfort was essentially that the ACLU will not be responding to every announcement made by the next presidential administration. They will be responding when action is needed. And it gave me great comfort to know that an organization with a brilliant staff dedicated to preserving our democratic civil liberties will help me navigate whatever comes from the next federal administration. UCE already has great community partners, such as the Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI), Community Renewal Society (CRS), Faith in Place (FIP), and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), who will help us know when and what action to take.

Part of being ready and able to act when called upon by our community partners is making sure that we are taking time away from the news cycle and the constant barrage of announcements for

our lives – our inner lives and our personal relationships. On the day of the election, my stepdad sent me an article published in The New York Times on November 3rd that has helped me through the past few weeks. The article, titled Free Your Mind. The Election Will Follow., by Oliver Burkeman, reminded me that “the total colonization of inner life by politics is a traditional hallmark of totalitarianism. … the attempt to care about everything impedes taking concrete action on anything. The admonishment that if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention belongs to an era when attention was abundant. What our current era demands, by contrast, is often a willingness to withhold attention, even from some causes and stories that matter, and to be willing to pick battles. Doing so will make you more effective as a volunteer, activist or donor in whatever battles you do pick while retaining your ability to assert primacy over your own mind.”

I invite you in the weeks ahead to make time to care for yourself, so that you have the energy and interest in being engaged when we are called upon to join our community partners in action. If you are wanting to know how to be engaged through UCE in the months ahead, here are a few suggestions:

· Keep reading this weekly newsletter.

· Connect with our Legislative Action Team

· To be informed of more time sensitive matters, sign up for our Local Response Network, which is designed to send out communications about actions, demonstrations, city council meetings, etc. when folks are needed to show up. Sign up by clicking here.

We are on this journey together. I look forward to rejoining you in March to live out our values in the world for years to come.

Yours always,

Rev. Susan

Dear Friends, 

 I, along with so many of you, am holding anxiety about the November 5th election in my body, my mind, and my spirit. Three practices that are helping me reduce my anxiety are: 

• Spend time with family and friends. I am making time to talk and laugh with folks I know hold values similar to my own about our vision for the future of our country, our state, and our local communities.  

• Be active in get-out-the-vote initiatives and values based conversations. I am also making time to do what I can to talk with folks who may not hold values similar to mine about the value of voting and about the importance of our democracy. Even with the flaws of our political system, this year it is important to talk with folks who you may usually never discuss politics with about the importance of voting for candidates who will support the foundations of our democracy and work to improve upon them. 

• Prayer or Quiet Reflection. Prayer, for me, is often about working through my thoughts, recognizing my concerns, and making time to acknowledge that for which I am grateful. You don’t have to call it prayer in order to make time to sit or walk quietly by yourself and reflect on your life and what is happening around you.  

 As the election approaches, we need to continue supporting each other. I will be holding space at UCE on November 5th and 6th for us to gather together as we wait. Wait for votes to be cast, wait for votes to be counted, and wait for the threatened challenges to our legitimate election processes to be addressed. I invite you to join me at one or all of these times: 

 Nov. 5, 8-9 am, sanctuary  

Nov. 5, 1-2 pm, sanctuary  

Nov. 6, 1-2 pm, room 3 and zoom

Nov. 6, 6-7 pm, room 3 and zoom 

 In this moment in our country’s history, it is time to participate to the fullest extent you are able in our electoral process. As you do this, it is also important to be getting enough sleep, staying connected with others, and noticing if you are not doing well and need some additional support. Please reach out to me, Rev. Eileen, or Rev. Elizabeth if you are overwhelmed and need a pastoral conversation. We are all in this together! 

 Yours, 

Rev. Susan 

May 17, 2024

Dear Friends,

I have been enjoying the spring weather, the sunshine and the rain. This past weekend, I planted milkweed seeds and zinnia seeds in my building’s front garden and morning glory seeds in the flower boxes below the make-shift trellis on my back porch. It’s been a while since I planted seeds and I marked on my calendar when I should see each species germinating. There is something about digging in the dirt that makes me feel interconnected with the earth and the cycles of the seasons.

We are in a busy Spring season at UCE. On April 13, I led the opening worship for the Chicago Area UU Council’s Spring Conference, which focused on the Welcoming Congregation Renewal process. On April 27, I drummed for the Maypole dance celebrated at UCE by our Pagan Collective for the holiday of Beltane.

In addition to annual events, Spring is the time of year when teams and groups at UCE engage in our Annual Review Process and submit their annual report. This year at our Annual Meeting, which is this Sunday following the worship service, we will be voting on our budget, the slate of candidates for elected positions, and an Israel-Gaza Ceasefire Resolution. I have been the ministerial presence at four of the seven open conversations about the resolution, and I am proud of the way in which we are talking about this difficult situation. We are centering relationship and lived experiences when there is disagreement around a concept or language used in the resolution. The Ceasefire Resolution Working Group has taken into consideration the different viewpoints expressed in these conversations and reworked the resolution several times. While the resolution will never be able to encompass all the nuances, or continually unfolding events, of the situation in the Middle East, I support the current form of the resolution, which to me reflects our UU values.

It is my primary hope, whether you are voting for or against the resolution, that you continue to ground our discussion on the motion at the Annual Meeting in relationship, knowing that we will have votes for and votes against the resolution for numerous reasons and that is okay. My secondary hope is that you will stay until the vote for the resolution is called so that we maintain a quorum and don’t have to plan another congregational meeting in June.

And while the work of Spring conferences and annual reviews are things that I enjoy, I know that is not true of everyone. So, while I encourage you make time for the work of our congregation this Spring (meaning, make sure to attend the Annual Meeting this Sunday because we need a quorum!), I also encourage you to make time for the other things that bring you joy. Slow down, breathe deep, smell the coming rain, feel the sun on your face, listen to the birds sing, taste the newest flavor of frozen yogurt, and be in each moment.

If you are having a difficult time right now and could use some support, please reach out to me or Rev. Eileen. You may also submit this Request for Care form and someone from our Caring Team or Pastoral Care Team will connect with you.

May this Spring bring you what you need.

Yours in faith,

Rev. Susan

April 19, 2024

Dear Friends,

I want to share my good news that I have been granted Full Fellowship status by the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Ministerial Fellowship Committee as of April 7, 2024. I appreciate all of the congratulations I received by those of you who were at the worship service this past Sunday and the lovely emails that have followed over the week.

The question I am getting asked most frequently this week has been: Am I planning to stay at UCE now that I have Full Fellowship? Yes. Yes, I am. I spent time in discernment over the past 18 months thinking about if I wanted to remain in the role of Assistant Minister or seek another ministerial path. After deep reflection, I have decided that I really enjoy my role with UCE along with the members and friends with whom I collaborate, have a deep appreciation for the collegial relationships with Rev. Eileen and the staff, and deeply resonate with the Mission and Values Statements of UCE. So, my plan is to stay, hopefully for many years to come.

One of the things I value about UCE is our expanding ability to lean into challenges and grow from them. After our Rummage Sale last year, we pulled together a Rummage Sale Response Planning Group consisting of members from the Committee on Shared Ministry, Board, Anti-Oppression Task Force, REAL Team, and Rummage Sale. We reached out to Dr. Gilo Kwesi Logan, who was one of the consultants from our work with the YWCA Equity Institute, to help us engage in Restorative Justice Circles.

We held three circles with various people who were present at the Rummage Sale on Friday, May 12, 2023, when three customers were asked to leave the building. A few of the things we learned from these circles are:

· That after being offered their money back, three community customers continued to yell and curse at three Rummage Sale volunteers and the volunteers acted reasonably in asking these customers to leave the building.

· That this event was a racialized incident for the reasons that these customers identify as Black and these UCE volunteers identify as White and, in our US culture, we cannot get away from how race impacts our lived experiences and how we engage with each other.

· That our protocols around safety and security were created out of a culture of white privilege.

Among other things that have grown out of these learnings, we have:

· Updated the UCE Rummage Sale mission to include community building.

· Created clearer procedures for handling issues that arise during a UCE event that is open to the public. The new procedures include having a Support Team at such events to assist regular volunteers and the public in their interactions with each other.

· Implemented a training for UCE members and friends who volunteer at a UCE event that is open to the public. The training includes pieces on impact vs. intent and welcoming across identities.

If you enjoy volunteering with our Rummage Sale, Soup Kitchen, or fundraising concerts, to name a few of the UCE events open to the public, you are invited to attend our Public Event Volunteer Training tomorrow, April 20, 2024, from 1:30-3:30 pm. An email to the congregation went out earlier about this, so hopefully, this is not the first you are hearing of this training. The training will be facilitated by Dr. Gilo Kwesi Logan, myself, and our Rummage Sale leadership. Members of our Emergency Preparedness Team and Radical Welcome Working Group helped shape our agenda. · To attend in-person, register here. · To attend via Zoom, register here.

If you have any questions about anything I’ve written about here, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at sfrances@ucevanston.org.

As we engage in the hard work of continuing to grow, learning how to accountably live into our Values Statements, and maintaining our covenantal relationships with each other, we must also make time for beauty, joy, and self-care in our lives.

The photo is of me watching the 94% partial eclipse of the sun from the top porch of my building on April 8th, while wearing the t-shirt I got when I traveled to view the totality during the 2017 solar eclipse. This year’s eclipse was beautiful and reminded me that life on this planet is precious. To be in relationship with each other and the cosmos is what grounds me and inspires me. I feel blessed to be your Assistant Minister and look forward to deepening our relationship.

Yours in faith,

Rev. Susan

March 1, 2024

Dear Friends,

As we continue to build capacity to welcome new members and connect with each other, I invite you to attend some of our upcoming fundamental classes and workshops.

Are you still figuring out how to find the Membership Directory or how to email your team through REALM? Join Adam Gough on Sunday, March 10, from 12:00-1:00 pm in Room 12 for a REALM training to increase your capacity to use this communication tool. Register here or just show up.

Are you looking for a way to learn or refresh your knowledge about UU history, the UCE Covenant of Engagement, or discuss our values and spiritual underpinnings? Join me and the Membership Team for a three-part Journey of Belonging series on March 5, 12, and 26 from 7:00-8:00 pm via Zoom to explore these topics. Register here.

As part of our shared ministry, we encourage members and facilitators of each group to be engaged in leadership. Everyone is invited to attend the Leadership Development Team’s Living Leadership Workshop on Sunday, April 7, from 12:00-1:30 pm in Room 3 to explore our UCE Leadership Model. This interactive workshop is for folks who are in formal leadership positions as well as folks who lead through their participation. Register here.

As we continue to build our capacity to engage in social justice work with our community partners, I invite you to get engaged. Here are some upcoming events, look for details in the newsletter:

• March 23, 2024, 1:00-3:00 pm, the Legislative Action Team is hosting a reception for a quilt exhibit by Faces Not Forgotten in our lobby. Join us in supporting gun control legislation through this powerful exhibit.
• March 24, 2024, 2:00-3:30 pm, the Evanston Interfaith Clergy and Leaders group will facilitate the Evanston community discussion of Apeirogon by Colum McCann. This event is being hosted at UCE. Join us in continuing to learn about the history and dynamics underpinning the war in Israel and Palestine.
• Save the date on Saturday, April 13, 2024 for the Chicago Area UU Council (CAUUC) Spring Conference. This year’s conference is being held at UCE and focuses on the Welcoming Congregation Renewal process, which has been updated to assist congregations in being more welcoming of the trans and non-binary communities.
• Save the date on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 for the Soup Kitchen with the Food and Shelter Team.

If your schedule is not conducive to attending calendared events, I invite you to join in some of the social justice work going on that you can engage with on your own time:

• Our UUtheVote initiative launches on March 10. Stop by the UUtheVote Program Table after the Sunday morning service on Sundays throughout March and April to pick up postcards to write and mail. For more information, please contact Greg Grabowski.
• Our Giving House, which is the miniature house that lives in the lobby, is collecting rice, soup, dried cereal/oatmeal, beans, canned fish/meat, and pasta. You may drop off these items on Sunday mornings or during office hours from 10 am – 4 pm Monday-Friday. If you have questions about the Giving House, please contact Ellie Feddersen.
• Become a Pen Pal through the Prison Ministry Team with someone locked up in prison. Working with the UU Church of the Larger Fellowship to connect with a UU who is in prison, the UU Prison Ministry of Illinois offers connection and support to pen pals in our congregation. If you are interested in becoming a pen pal, please contact Steve Serikaku.

Get engaged as you can. If there are too many options and you aren’t sure how to proceed, please reach out to me at sfrances@ucevaston.org and let’s talk. If what you need right now is some pastoral care, please fill out the Request Care form and someone from the Pastoral Care Team will contact you or you may always email me or Rev. Eileen. In caring for our world, we also care for each other.

We are a large, engaged congregation and I am grateful for being a part of our shared ministry.

Yours in gratitude,

Rev. Susan

January 19, 2024

Dear Friends,

You are invited to join me and Mickey for the Virtual Livestream of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (ACLU-IL) Lunch from 12:00-1:30 pm on March 1, 2024. Mickey and I are sponsoring a virtual table this year. Actor Busy Philipps, who was born in Oak Park, will provide the keynote remarks at the event.

If you would like to attend, please register here.

and I will provide the ACLU-IL with your name and email address. The ACLU-IL will email you directly with the link for the livestream. If you are interested in attending in-person, you may find more information here. If you want to join me and Mickey online, please register by February 7^th.

This past Monday, I attended the Community Renewal Society’s 2024 Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Faith in Action Assembly. The civil rights at the core of Dr. King’s work continue to be in jeopardy. In this election year, our commitment to civil rights for everyone in this country must remain at the core of our work to preserve our democracy.

Janos Marton with the ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice, the ACLU’s decriminalization initiative, reminds us that the strategies used by Dr. King –  are still vital today. We must continue to partner with local, impacted leadership. We must continue to develop innovative tactics. We must continue to insist that our values be reflected in the political world. And, we must continue to invest in others.

This month starts my third year on the Board of Directors  –  with the Illinois Affiliate of the ACLU. I am consistently humbled by the caliber of my Board colleagues, who join me in taking seriously the importance of our civil liberties in this time when the foundation of our democracy is being tested in all three branches of government. UCE makes me proud to be able to speak with other Board members about our Legislative Action Team’s engagement with state legislators, our get out the vote work with the UUtheVote Working Group, our Local Response Network’s ability to keep congregants informed of local actions, and our Prison Ministry Team’s care and compassion for people locked up in Illinois jails and prisons. If you would like to get connected with any of these UCE groups, please email me at sfrances@ucevanston.org.

I recently learned that Roger Nash Baldwin, a Unitarian born in 1884 in Wellesley, Massachusetts, was one of the principal co-founders of the ACLU. A quote from Baldwin reissued in a 2017 UU World article  –  has Baldwin reminiscing that “social work began in my mind in the Unitarian Church, when . . . I started to do things that I thought would help other people.” Then, when receiving the “Medal of Freedom in 1981, Baldwin described liberty as an ongoing practice of healthy democracy.” In this moment in our country’s history, I find Baldwin’s story and the values he championed inspiring. I hope you will make time this year to talk with your friends and family about:

• the importance of our democracy, with all its flaws;
• the importance of learning about the platforms upon which political candidates are running because those platforms reflect their values; and
• the importance of voting for the platforms or values that reflect our Unitarian Universalist values of supporting the dignity of every person, maintaining a healthy interdependence between humans and the environment, working toward the goals of peace, liberty, and justice for all, and having the ability to engage in the free and responsible search for truth.

One of my heroes, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, founded the ACLU Women’s Rights Project  –  in 1972 and led its efforts until 1980 when she was appointed to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. I am such an admirer of hers that at Christmas last month my parents gave me the book Pocket RBG Wisdom: Supreme Quotes and Inspired Musings from Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I have talked with some of you about my vocational transition from being an attorney to being a minister. Justice Ginsburg sums up my original decision to become a lawyer in this quote in the book: “The notion was that law was, yes, a way to earn a living, but also to do things that would make life a little better for your community.” My journey through practicing law into practicing ministry follows this sentiment of working in a context that makes life a little better for the communities of which I am a part.

Another quote of Justice Ginsburg’s in this book is: “We should each be free to develop our own talents, whatever they may be, and not be held back by artificial barriers.” I want our faith community to be the place where each of us has the support and acceptance to develop our own talents, while knowing that we are accountable for our actions as we develop these talents. Extending from that, I want our faith community to be in coalition with others to ensure that the government, the school system, the media, or any other institution is not creating artificial barriers to being able to be our authentic selves, to exercising bodily autonomy, or to expressing our opinions (when those opinions do not incite violence against others). And, that is why I encourage you to not only be engaged with non-profit organizations that reflect your values, but to also be engaged in civic discourse and elections.

I know civic engagement can be overwhelming, so I invite you to think about one thing you can do to protect our civil liberties as granted to us by our Bill of Rights and additional amendments to the Constitution of the United State of America. I also invite you to acknowledge and then set aside the thoughts about all the things that need to be done, so you can figure out a way forward that is not overwhelming. I’m here to talk with you about this any time! Doing things together makes it less overwhelming. Doing things together is what our faith community is all about.

Yours in supporting civil liberties,

Rev. Susan

December 17, 2023

Season’s Greetings!

My wife and I have been spending many of our evenings the last two weeks listening to good music (some holiday favorites, but often just music we enjoy), basking in the glow of our first set of indoor holiday lights, which we strung across our mantel and through the hanging evergreen wreath (Mickey gifted me LED lights that are a mirror image of the ones that were on my family Christmas tree as a child), and writing holiday cards to friends and family.

This year I am feeling festive – embodying the cheerful and jovially celebratory definition of that word – in a way that I have not in many winters. I am someone who enjoys the winter holidays. The gatherings of people, the special music and ritual, the taste of roasted chestnuts, the smell of fresh pine, and the focus on generosity of spirit and care for one another – this all makes me happy. But I have to admit that the last 5 winters have been hard. Mickey and I spent from December 2018 through December 2019 dealing with Mickey’s stage 3 cancer diagnosis (they are 4 years cancer free now!) and then rolled into the pandemic lockdown of 2020, another shutdown at UCE due to caring for our community during the pandemic in December 2021, and then last year was spent readjusting to being in-person again.

But this year, I find that I am not only enjoying the trappings of the holidays, but that my spirit is uplifted – I have a smile on my face and holiday songs in my head. My whole being has the emotional and physical energy to breathe (I restarted my morning meditation practice) and bounce (or leap, see the staff holiday greeting next week). I know we all go through cycles of energy and emotion in our lives and that the pandemic has shortened or elongated these cycles for many of us. My invitation to you this year is to take some time to notice how you are feeling and to embrace it (and maybe give yourself a hug while you’re at it). To celebrate or mourn, to sing or to cry, to do something to honor the state of your whole being in this moment in time.

I know for many of us that the events in the world are heavy on our hearts, especially with our congregation’s personal relationships with people affected by the Ukraine war, the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza, and the instability in Afghanistan. Please continue to check the newsletter for ways to engage in expressing our values out in the world. If you want more immediate information about ways to show up, please email me at sfrances@ucevanston.org to join our Local Response Network, which is an email list of people who want to attend vigils and demonstrations that align with our values.

Some of us are in a moment of deep grief following the death or an anniversary of loss of a loved one. Please reach out to your friends and family who are grieving with a note of understanding and care. If you are in need of spiritual or pastoral care this winter season, please email me or Rev. Eileen at ewiviott@ucevanston.org. You may also submit a Request for Care by clicking on this form, click HERE. Know you are loved and held by our community.

One of my wishes for you is that you find a moment this winter, during the holidays or afterwards, in which joy manifests for you. When your obligations become interests. When your grief brings you loving memories. When your meal takes over your senses and your entire being relaxes. It may be just for a moment, but what a wonderful moment it might be.

Our congregation is filled with members and friends practicing a rich variety of theological and cultural winter traditions. I hope you share them with each other. I’m wishing each of you good food and good memories as you celebrate these traditions.

Blessed Holidays,

Rev. Susan

November 17, 2023

Dear Friends,

You are invited to stop by my office to see the amazing deep brick red color of the Maple tree leaves outside my windows. My office hours are now Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 4 pm. I continue to maintain Mondays and Saturdays as my days of rest. I hope you are finding ways to navigate your obligations to work, family, and volunteering, while also maintaining times for self-reflection and rejuvenation.

Our Engagement Fair on Sunday, November 5, during Kinship Time was joyful! Not only did folks join groups from the Garden Team to the Anti-Oppression Task Force, there was a lot of relationship building with engaged conversations around what people are doing, what is nurturing them, and how they are living their values in their everyday lives. I was fortunate to talk with some of you during the Fair and receive feedback from others. If you have ideas that arose during the Engagement Fair, please share them with me at sfrances@ucevanston.org.

One part of the Engagement Fair was the Realm Help Desk hosted by Adam Gough. We also had a station to take photos for your Realm profile. The photo is of me in front the tapestry at the back of the sanctuary. You are invited to take a photo in front of the tapestry on a Sunday morning and upload it into your Realm profile as part of our Membership Directory.

In addition to Realm being the home of our Membership Directory, it is also home to where we keep track of volunteers. You are encouraged to update your profile by filling in your skills and interests. If you need help accessing the Realm Membership Directory or your personal profile, please contact me or Adam Gough at agough@ucevanston.org.

Realm has also become the repository for these membership documents, which will no longer be posted on the website:

• Monthly Board Minutes
• Monthly Financial Reports by the Treasurer
• Monitoring Reports on our Values Statements by Rev. Eileen
• Shared Offering Program disbursements and thank you letters

These documents are available to Members and Pledging Friends by logging into Realm HERE.

Once in Realm, you may go into your Profile and look for UCE Members under groups or by searching for the UCE Members group. Once in the UCE Members group, click on the Files tab, and you’ll find links to those documents.

Adam has created some good video guides for Realm that live on our Realm Resources webpage. Again, if you need assistance, please reach out to me or Adam.

I have really enjoyed working with staff and leadership as we dig into our website refresh project to figure out how to have these documents available to members and pledging friends without having this information posted on our website. Learning about how to protect our congregational data from digital scammers and still have it be available for full transparency has taken a lot of conversation and practical engagement with our available software options. If you have questions or ideas about how to organize and store other information important to the congregation, please share that information with me.

Another piece of organization going on is an update to our Org Chart.

As you can see, we now have listed our two task forces, as well as our new Personnel Committee. We announced at the beginning of this congregational year that the Faith Formation Council and the Membership Engagement Council merged to become the Congregational Life & Faith Formation Council, which we are affectionately calling CLFF (pronounced “cliff”). You can see the teams that make up that council. If you have questions about UCE’s organizational structure, please reach out to me or Rev. Eileen.

This year, the staff is doing a lot of sorting and organizing. If you have items at home that you think should go into the UCE archives or if you have photos that you think UCE should have a copy of, you are invited to bring those documents or photos to my office. Please label them “for the archive.” Or, you may email me a copy at sfrances@ucevanston.org.

I hope you embrace the darkness of winter as a time for some self-reflection, which sometimes is accompanied by some self-organizing with healthy doses of recycling, deleting, and shredding. Making time to release the stacks of papers, accumulated inbox messages, and lingering lists often makes way for something new to appear or creates time for a deeper dive into something you already cherish.

Yours in Organizational Bliss,

Rev. Susan

 

October 13, 2023

Dear Friends,

It has been a difficult week to process. It is hard to know what to say without seeming trite or oversimplifying the nuances of the situation following the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7th and the Israeli government’s response. I have heard from you and know that we are grieving and mourning for everyone who is suffering at this moment. My heart is breaking over this devastating act of violence and its consequences for the people living in Israel and Palestine.

With the violence unleashed by Hamas and then that event being used as the basis for fake social media postings by people trying to divide the Black Lives Matter movement in the US, it is difficult to hold all of the feelings, discern the facts of what is happening, and know how to respond.

For me, the way forward is through relationship. The intertwining complexities of our times make it vital that we continue to share with and support each other. Reaching out to family and friends with loved ones in Israel and Palestine, reaching out to those who are part of the Black Lives Matter movement, reaching out to folks who share our values. If you are in need of some support or want to talk through what is going on in your life or in the world, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at sfrances@ucevanston.org, Rev. Eileen at ewiviott@ucevanston.org, or the Pastoral Care Team by filling out a Request for Care form .

In our faith community, we will continue to strengthen our relationships with each other. In the coming weeks, we are running new member classes, forming 6-month covenant groups, and inviting you to a congregation wide Engagement Fair on Sunday, November 5, 2023, after the worship service.

If you are new to UCE and are interested in learning about what it means to be a member or know that you want to join, please plan to attend our Journey Toward Membership class. Join Rev. Susan and the New Member Team in-person in Room 12 on Sunday, October 29, 2023, from 9:30-10:20 am. No registration needed, just show up. The same class is repeated online via Zoom on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, from 7:00-8:00 pm. Register to receive the Zoom link.

All members, friends, and visitors are invited to join one of our 6-month covenant groups. A Covenant Group is a small group of people who regularly meet to establish meaningful connections and further ground themselves in our community. 6-month covenant groups will

meet once a month from November 2023 – April 2024. Sign-up for a 6-Month Covenant Group now.

Our Engagement Fair on Sunday November 5, 2023, from 11:30 am – 12:30 pm is about building relationships. While I hope you will learn something new about UCE or even get involved with a new group while attending the Fair, what I hope for the most is that you will engage in conversations with each other about how we are living into our mission to nurture the human spirit for a world made whole. The Engagement Fair will be a lively event with music, snacks, the opportunity to get your photo taken and updated in our membership directory, time to learn more about our groups and teams, and a raffle to win 3 tickets to our Serendipity Auction happening on November 18th. I hope to see you at the Fair!

I invite you to continue to be in relationship and in conversation with me, Rev. Eileen, each other, and our extended networks of family, friends, and colleagues. It is through staying connected with our communities, including our faith community, that we find comfort, hope, and a way forward.

In loving care,

Rev. Susan

September 6, 2023

Dear Friends,

After the worship service last Sunday, I had such a good time looking at the drawings on the paper wall, getting cards from you to mail, and even finding a Yes! sticky note on the chancel as I cleaned up! 

I have been humming our closing hymn #1024, “When the Spirit Says Do,” all week and want to share some of the creative history of this hymn. Here are the lyrics: 

You got to do** when the spirit says do**! 

You got to do** when the spirit says do**! 

When the spirit says do**, you got to do,** oh Lord! 

You got to do** when the spirit says do**! 

Spirit says do.** (6x) 

**Word gets replaced each round. 

During last week’s service, we sang verses to sing, jump, laugh, and love! These words were some that received multiple requests when I asked for suggestions during our Time for All Ages. Here are some of the other suggestions: 

Shout! Breathe. Quilt. Bake. Write. Build. Fly. Dance. 

There were many other suggestions of what the Spirit may tell us to do from “journal” to “celebrate”! 

Words for this song could have included “march” or “change” as this African American Spiritual dates from the Civil Rights Era. The UUA Singing the Journey Song Information webpage shares that this zipper song was used at virtually every demonstration, mass meeting of activists, and march in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Singing songs such as this gave the activists strength and a sense of self. The book, When the Spirit Says Sing!: The Role of Freedom Songs in the Civil Rights Movement, written by Kerran L. Sanger has more details. 

 The version in our hymnal was arranged by Mark Freundt. Further research by Rev. Kimberley Debus on her blog, Notes From the Far Fringe, reveals multiple versions of this African American Spiritual, including an arrangement titled You Gotta’ Sing by musician Raffi that is almost identical to the one in our hymnal. It is a beautiful thing when creative works meet each other and build upon each other. We often don’t take time during our one hour worship service to share the creative journeys of our songs and our words. When we sing “When the Spirit Says Do” again, I hope you will think about who may have created this African American Spiritual during the Civil Rights Era, who marched with this song, shared this song with each other, added to this song, and shared it again with the next generation. For me, when we sing this song, it is about signing for a better future for everyone in our neighborhoods and society. 

The history and community use of this song has me thinking more about my time at the Parliament of World Religions in August. It was a time of collective visioning for a better future for everyone, embracing our differences in culture, religion, and other identities. It was a space deliberately created for listening, sharing, and future planning with each other. The photo is of me outside the Women’s Village at the conference, where a space was created for everyone as well as for women. I enjoyed dance performances at one of the plenary sessions, walked through the art gallery, and happened upon a choir rehearsing in the lower level of McCormick Place. Every plenary session, workshop, and ritual I attended was facilitated by more than one person, often from more than one faith tradition. There was credit given to the originators of ideas, composers of music, and creators of art. We grappled with various histories and how we have used and misused our power, privilege, and natural resources. I experienced collaboration in the creation of ritual, art, and ideas. And running through it all was history, community, and hope in the future. 

As we head into our new congregational year with our Ingathering and Water Communion worship service this Sunday, I hope you will bring your history, your life experience, your concerns, and your creativity to our community. In our Shared Ministry, we strive to be in relationship with each other and our community partners in ways that allow us to live into our mission to nurture the human spirit for a world made whole. I invited you to collaborate with me, Rev. Eileen, each other, and those beyond our walls as we share, sing, cry, celebrate, and shape our future.  

Yours in creating our future together, 

Rev. Susan 

Dear Friends,

I am back from my summer vacations. Mickey and I spent the last week of June staying in a yurt in Saxapahaw, North Carolina, where I was introduced to the wolf spider! These nonvenomous spiders may grow to have bodies 1 inch long with a leg span of 2 or more inches. The bath house up the hill from our yurt had a huge poster about the venomous black widow spiders and brown recluse spiders showing their actual size. And next to it was a photo of the wolf spider with a note that read: “Wolf spiders eat black widows and brown recluse, please do not kill the wolf spider!”

Our second night in the yurt, we walked in after having dinner with friends living in Burlington, NC, turned on the light, and a little spider was running toward us. In my own home, I am typically someone who catches a spider and releases it outside, but this spider, running toward me and being the same size as the brown recluse and black widow spiders in the bath house poster, did not receive this kind of treatment. After stomping on it and thinking it was odd that it was running toward me, I saw what it was running from – a fully mature wolf spider! It is literally the largest spider I have ever seen outside of a caged tarantula in a pet store. And there it was, 3 feet from the base of the bed I was about to sleep in.

After what seemed like a long conversation, but was probably only a few seconds, ranging from “it is huge” to “we can’t kill it, it eats the deadly spiders” back to “wow, it’s so big”, Mickey had the presence of mind to get the broom from the wonderfully large back deck we had spent the morning enjoying and to encourage that amazingly large spider out the front door. Only it went under the bookcase instead. Nature!

I have had many thoughts about the spider I killed and the spider I spared since returning from our trip. One of my thoughts has been that just as I decided the fate of each of those spiders in that moment, so too are there forces larger than ourselves that often influence a moment in our lives. A fatal or life altering accident, a terminal or chronic diagnosis, a global pandemic that shuts down your employer or a partner who has an affair. So many things are out of our control. And, while we do not control how we feel about these circumstances in our lives, we often can control how we respond to them. If there are too many things outside of your control right now and you could use some support, please reach out to me, Rev. Eileen, or our Pastoral Care Team. You can also request care by clicking on this Request for Care form.

I am grateful for our faith community that provides us with. I am grateful for our faith community that provides us with relationships and care as we figure out how to respond to those events in our lives that are out of our control.

Last Wednesday, Mickey and I took a 3 o’clock work break and walked up the street to get ice cream. On our way, there were three American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) street canvassers. We decided to stop and introduce ourselves. As a member of the ACLU of Illinois Board of Directors, I thanked them for their work. We ended up having an interesting conversation about how their job is not just about canvassing for funds, but also about educating people about the civil liberties work of the ACLU. Before Mickey and I walked on, one of the workers, Jerome, asked if we could take a selfie, which is the photo above of me, Mickey, Jerome, Noah, and River.

That afternoon conversation on the street brought back to mind the North Carolina spiders and the metaphor of being at the whim of things beyond our control. Canvassers are constantly affected by the actions of the people who walk by. People can choose to be courteous, curious, rude, or a myriad of other ways of interacting that will affect the day, and the safety, of these three canvassers.

In my own neighborhood, I often stop a moment to thank the canvassers of non-profits for their work, even if I don’t give a donation, but I never stop if I am walking around downtown. Just like in my reactions to the spiders, my feeling of familiarity with my surroundings affects me and how I react. I invite all of us to practice being more aware of how we engage with other beings when we are in a place we know, a place that is new to us, a place that is fast paced, or a place that lets us slow down. Our interactions with each other matter.

As we move into the beginning of our new congregational year, several of our teams are working on how we might be more welcoming and inclusive, not only to the new visitors who walk through the doors on Sunday mornings, but also in our regular team meetings and as our current members move through life transitions. I invite you into exploring the ways in which we can make our connected and caring community a place where our everyday interactions with each other are filled with more grace, more compassion, and more awareness of our privileges and our places of marginalization. When you are invited to join a hospitality team, engage in a workshop with the Leadership Development Team, or participate with one of the working groups of the Anti-Oppression Task Force, please say yes!

We live in an interconnected world. Our interactions with nature, our engagement with others working to support civil rights, and the care we take with the relationships within our faith community are the moments that matter.

Yours in nature-filled and civil rights-supporting community,

Rev. Susan

Dear Friends,

Each week I spend time collaborating with the volunteers of our four Sunday morning hospitality teams. Our hospitality team schedule is set up for a 12-month cycle following our congregational year from July through June. So, as we transition into a new year, I am sending out a BIG THANK YOU to each one of you who has volunteered on a Sunday morning over the past year! I am grateful for your energy and care for our community.

As our congregation is continuing to emerge from the pandemic lockdown, we are in need of your assistance to continue to expand our ability to care for our growing community. Right now, I am looking for 11 more volunteers for our Greeters Hospitality Team, which involves arriving at 9:45 am on a Sunday morning to greet folks attending the worship service in-person. I am also looking for 11 more volunteers for our Livestream Chat Host Hospitality Team, which involves logging onto our YouTube UCE Channel at 10:25 am on a Sunday morning to greet folks attending the worship service online. Will you join in our Sunday morning collaboration?

Each member of a hospitality team is asked to volunteer 4 Sundays over the course of a year, and we can always find a substitute if your schedule changes. We are a large and vibrant congregation and if most of us are involved with one of the hospitality teams, then the ask of only volunteering 4 Sundays over the course of the year is easy to fulfill. If you have taken a break from our hospitality teams and would like to engage again, if you are a newish member and would like to join a hospitality team, or if you have questions about what the hospitality teams do, please email me at sfrances@ucevanston.org.

I am also collaborating regularly with two of the three Anti-Oppression Task Force (AOTF) working groups, while Rev. Eileen is collaborating with the third working group. Right now, we are moving from our equity assessment phase to our implementation phase. The AOTF has taken the recommendations provided by our YWCA Equity Consultants and prioritized the first set of recommendations that they will be working on to advance the AOTF’s three aims:

1. Expanding ownership of the anti-racism and anti- oppression work;

2. Power sharing; and

3. Radical inclusion and hospitality.

The AOTF will also be following the lead of our equity consultant, Dr. Gilo Logan, as we continue on a restorative justice process of healing and repair following the events occurring at our rummage sale. If you are interested in joining the work of the Anti-Oppression Task Force, please contact me at sfrances@ucevanston.org.

I am also enjoying the beautiful weather. My condo association is self-managed, and we collectively contribute to the care of our landscaping. This week, I spent a morning trimming hedges around the building, a morning watering the grass seed in the park row, and a morning setting up my porch plants. This time out in the fresh air with the birds chirping and the sun still rising behind the neighboring buildings to the east has been good for my mental and emotional health.

What is good for your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health right now? What can you do to care for yourself? What will your self-care adventure be this summer? If things are overwhelming right now, please reach out to me, Rev. Eileen, or our Pastoral Care Team. You can request care by clicking on this Request for Care form. There is so much to do and so much going on in our personal lives and our society. It is important that we make time to care for ourselves.

Finding the balance of caring for our community and caring for ourselves takes practice. We cannot let go of one for the other. I invite you to join me on the path of choosing both, finding a way to balance both, and feeling the benefits of being engaged in both.

Yours in community and self-care,

Rev. Susan

Dear Friends,

I’m sending out a big thank you to everyone who volunteered at any point during our week-long rummage sale event, from set-up to the very busy sale itself to clean-up. I have heard many stories of new members getting to know people and excitement about our revised and streamlined format that no longer involves every room downstairs. Thank you!

As often happens in life, joys and challenges are often intertwined within the same event. This is true for our rummage sale this year.

At the rummage sale on Friday there was an incident in which three customers shopping in the sanctuary were asked to leave the building and our security volunteers were called to walk them out of the building. Over this past week, I have talked with 11 UCE volunteers and 4 customers who were present that Friday. Relevant to this learning moment is that the UCE volunteers who I talked with identify as white, and three of the four customers who I talked with identify as black. In my conversations, I found everyone was willing to have the conversation with me, to share what happened and to share ideas about what we might learn from this situation.

There will be ongoing smaller conversations that will address what happened as we hone our processes and procedures for engaging with each other during the rummage sale and other events when we invite the public to join us in the building for large events, and as we engage with the three aims of our Anti-Oppression Task Force:

1. Expanding ownership of the anti-racism and anti- oppression work;
2. Power sharing; and
3. Radical inclusion and hospitality.

What I want us, as a community, to grapple with collectively, are the larger disconnects happening when we are engaging with someone who has an identity different from our own. During my conversations this week, I discovered two recurring disconnects.

The first disconnect was that most of the white volunteers I spoke with did not perceive of the situation as being related to race. They experienced the situation as having to do with a financial transaction and the customers involved happened to be black. The black customers I spoke with experienced the situation as being related to race.

The second disconnect is the disparity in experience based on what “calling security” meant. The white volunteers I spoke with knew that security was a group of UCE volunteers. The black customers I spoke with did not know that. For the black customers I spoke with, calling security meant calling the police, which, as we know from repeated public incidents, is an escalating scenario for someone who is black.

The entire event is more nuanced than these two pieces I am highlighting, but I believe these particular differences in experience that came across during my conversations are something we can ponder together. For me, these disconnections are a direct reflection of the US culture in which we live in. There are no ready-made answers for how to bridge these disconnections. I believe the answers lie in our ability to keep calling each other in. A key part to calling each other in is listening to each other’s experiences. Not tweaking the rules or fixing the processes, although those things can often have positive long term affects, but in trying to be open to hearing each other across our varied cultural and life experiences. Trying to bridge the gap in understanding and expectation.

One of the components to being called in is being able to hear the invitation to stay engaged in the conversation. And one of the ways to stay engaged is to stay present. And one of the ways to stay present, is to breathe – breathe through the desire to shut down or to move on too quickly. To breathe into being open.

So, I invite you right now to take a deep breath in and recognize the feelings you are having after reading about this. Take a few breaths as you acknowledge and hold those feelings. What you feel is what you feel, so honor that. As you exhale, silently name those feelings if you can.

I invite you to inhale again, holding those named feelings, and when you exhale, I ask that you let those feelings go for the time being. In their place, I invite you to inhale and feel a sense of curiosity about what brings us, you and the people with similar identities as you and also the people with different identities from you, what brings us as individuals with unique identities to a place of having different experiences in the same moment. As you exhale, let go of any anxiety or discomfort that has arisen.

I invite you to inhale again, this time with a sense of wonder. Wonder at the complexities of life, wonder at what we are capable of addressing if we are able to stay present and engaged. This is one of the learnings of being called in. This ability to stay present, to stay curious, to stay engaged in relationship with each other as we work through difficult situations. This is one component to how we call each other in, or maybe back in, to the work of being in relationship. I believe it is through relationship, through being able to share our experiences with each other, that we will find a way forward to transforming our own lives, our congregation, and our society into a truly equitable multi-racial community.

Yours in working toward transformation,

Rev. Susan

Dear Friends,

I love new experiences. From trying a new food to trying trapeze for the first time, I love the curiosity, the openness, and even the occasional trepidation that accompanies trying something new. The photos are of me flying and then falling into the net at the trapeze school on Foster Beach in Chicago a few weeks ago.

Before the pandemic, trying something new for me typically involved traveling. Since I am not yet getting on planes, trains, or buses, I am actively seeking out new things that I can experience close to home. Things that I can do outside, inside with a mask on, or online. Things that have always been around me, but my attention has been elsewhere.

One of the new things I recently said yes to is being an online presenter at the Faith in Place 2022 Green Team Summit. I will be one of a handful of faith leaders each presenting a short spiritual practice that grounds our environmental justice work during Session 3: Interwoven – Exploring Environmental Justice with Faith Leaders on September 12, 2022.

What will be a new experience for you this year? What might you say yes to?

Here are a few things you are invited to say yes to:

· Vote in the November 8, 2022 election. The three Illinois Supreme Court elections are crucial this year. Educate yourself on the issues. Fill out one of the “I Commit to Vote This Election” sheets while waiting in line for food at our congregational picnic this Sunday.

· Take our UCE Journey of Belonging series, which is a membership class for visitors and members. Get to know folks in our UCE community as we delve into UU History, our sources, and our values and principles. The first three classes (A Journey Through UU History; Spiritual Journeys & Inspiration; and Journeying in Covenant) are for everyone and the fourth class (Journey Toward Membership) is geared toward visitors interested in becoming a member.

Register here for the online series being held each Tuesday in October from 7:00-8:00 pm. The first three classes will be part of the regular Tuesday night adult education program and the fourth class will be additional for visitors interested in becoming a member.

The series will also be offered in-person on the second Sunday of each month. Register here for A Journey Through UU History on October 9, 2022 from 9:30-10:30 am.

 

· Join a 6-month Covenant Group meeting from October 2022-March 2023. A Covenant Group is designed for meaningful connections between members of a group of up to 10 people who meet on a regular basis to establish and further themselves in community. Click here to sign up

 

· Volunteer to be on the Greeters Hospitality Team. We have a core of dedicated volunteers who would love to have you join the Team to welcome everyone on Sunday morning. Email me at sfrances@ucevanston.org to find out more.

 

· Volunteer with the Mitten Tree. This is our annual program to provide winter holiday gifts to clients of organizations that share our values. We are looking for a co-captain as well as shoppers and wrappers. Contact Bridget Wild to find out more.

I know some of us are feeling overwhelmed and the idea of doing anything outside of what is required to get through the day is not an option. If that is true for you, please reach out to family or friends, contact me, or consider submitting a Request for Care form to get connected with Rev. Eileen or the Pastoral Care Team. There are still many changes happening with the pandemic from masking requirements being lifted to a new booster being on the way to loved ones getting sick and needing care. I often think about how we are caring for ourselves through all of this.

For me, a piece of my mental, emotional, and spiritual self-care is continuing to engage in new experiences. A year and a half ago, a friend and I started meeting once a month to go for a walk and we go someplace new each time. To name a few places, we’ve explored the entirety of the 606 or Bloomingdale Trail, Northerly Island Park, Jackson Park’s Wooded Island with the Garden of the Phoenix, and walked through several cemeteries including the Bohemian Cemetery with the columbarium for Cubs fans and a memorial for the Eastland Disaster of 1915. These explorations have enriched my life and if I hadn’t been prevented from traveling abroad by the pandemic, I might never have explored these places so close to home.

I invite you to make time to figure out what it is you need to care for your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual self. If you don’t know, try out your ideas until you find that one thing that brings comfort or delight to your day.

Yours in faith,

Rev. Susan