From Rev. Susan Frances: October 23, 2020

Dear Friends, 

I am finally feeling settled into my role as Director of Congregational Life. Part of this role involves shepherding the various aspects of membership. I have found myself reflecting on two aspects of membership this month: hospitality and belonging. 

How do we welcome new individuals, couples, and families into our community? I have been wondering about how we open our hearts and minds to people who may be different from us. I know UCE to be a place that strives to embody radical hospitality. Hospitality, hospitable, hospital, hospice, all come from the same root word, meaning generous, caring, sustaining.  The Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell reminds us that radical “means ‘out of the ordinary,’ ‘revolutionary,’ even. So what would it mean to receive someone—a stranger—with a presence that was not just polite, but to receive them with revolutionary generosity?”  

Over the years, we have been able to practice doing this in person. And, now, with Sunday services and other events being online, we need to think about how we will practice doing this virtually. What does it mean to sit online with someone who we feel uncomfortable with, not because they are being offensive, but because they are actively expressing a need for assistance or a viewpoint with which we disagree? How do we acknowledge our discomfort and also make space for another person’s struggles or ideas? How do we express our compassion for someone while maintaining healthy boundaries? We are practicing all of these ways of being radically hospitable online.  

As we continue to be in virtual spaces together, I invite you into generosity as we are introduced to new people. With having so much of our lives online and all of the cyber threats, I know how difficult it is to have the emotional energy to engage with the unfamiliar. Keeping this in mind, I invite you to practice creating an inner emotional and spiritual space large enough to have your needs met as well as the needs of others, knowing that if a person is abusive or threatening, clear boundaries will be established by the moderator of the online space.  

And then, once we have been introduced, how do we get to know each other better? One way is through Proximity Partners. When the church building closed in March, Rev. K Mooney, Adam Gough, Ellie Feddersen, Susan Carlton, Shirley Adams, and Melanie Kitchner organized the members and friends of UCE into groups based on geographic proximity. Some of the groups are still forming and other groups are already active and meeting via Zoom or gathering outside always wearing their masks and being physically distanced. The photos are of a gathering in Manor Park in Glenview, a backyard Pumpkin Party, and the end of a trail walk in LaBaugh Woods with the bags of trash collected along the way. If you would like to connect with your Proximity Partners or join a covenant group, email Adam at agough@ucevanston.org and he will connect you with the group leader for your area.  

Another way to get to know more about each other and the UCE community is to take the Journey Toward Membership class. This is a class that focuses on the exploration of our spiritual lives and what it means to be a member of the intentional and covenantal community at the Unitarian Church of Evanston.  

I invite you to join me in our next Journey Toward Membership class, which will be held in two sessions from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm on October 27th and 28th. Here are the Zoom links:

Click here to join the Journey Toward Membership Part 1 class on October 27.
Click here to join the Journey Toward Membership Part 2 class on October 28.

I look forward to meeting you during our Sunday morning worship, getting to know you better in our Journey Toward Membership class, or seeing you again at another Zoom meeting.  

In faith, 

Rev. Susan