Sunday Service: In-person and Online Sunday at 10:30am

From Rev. Susan Frances: August 14, 2020

Dear Friends, 

I was so pleased that so many of you could join my ordination ceremony via Zoom on August 2, 2020. The accompanying photo is of me in the robe that I bought with the gift certificate to WomenSpirit Vestaments that UCE gave me at the end of my internship and the exquisite stole that Carol Nielsen created as my gift from UCE upon my ordination. Thank you! The other gift from UCE upon my ordination was the wonderful O Love piece by the joint UCE and 2U Choir! Thank you to everyone who sang, to Vickie Hellyer for the rehearsals and for conducting, to Gregory Shifrin for the accompaniment, and to Adam Gough for editing it all together.  

I have been thinking about the start of the new church year and how to express the tone and live into the culture shifting challenge set at the 2020 Virtual GA. The speakers I heard and the Actions of Immediate Witness that were passed reflected the calls I hear locally and nationally for a new social and economic order in conjunction with a revitalized democracy.  

So many of our principles support this cultural and political transformation: justice, equity, and compassion in human relations – a free and responsible search for truth and meaning – the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large – the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.  

When you have a moment this week, think about which one of these principles resonates most with you right now? Life ebbs and flows and it might be a different principle next week, but this week, what resonates with you. And then think about how you might put that principle into practice. Reach out to me if you have an idea. Now is the time to be creative in our compassion and our action. 

In faith, 

Rev. Susan 

From Rev. Susan Frances: August 14, 20202020-08-13T16:47:19+00:00

Learn more about IST: August 14, 2020

Welcome to the Immigrant Solidarity Team Choose Your Own Adventure Newsletter Article! Below you will find a list of projects from last church year, which the IST sponsored. If any of these activities are of interest to you, and/or if you would like to participate in future, similar actions, join us! We meet on the third Saturday of the month, nearly every month.

A. Register New Citizens to Vote. Members of IST have participated in efforts by ICIRR to register newly naturalized citizens to vote. Learn more.

B. Oscar Chacon discussion on the causes of migration out of the Northern Triangle countries. IST sponsored a talk and discussion by Oscar Chacon, founder of Alianza Americas, on the causes for migration from the Northern Triangle countries.  More than 60 people attended.  This discussion led us to begin efforts to contact Senators Duckworth and Durbin and Congresswoman Schakowsky to discuss issues related to immigrants and immigration.  Also, a grant for $500 was applied for and approved to be given to Alianza Americas from our Endowment Fund. Learn more about Alianza Americas.

C. Shared plate for ICIRR. Requested that ICIRR become a shared plate recipient; the SRT approved this for June, 2020. Worked with Eileen to develop and participate in the Labor Day Immigrant themed service. Autumn, 2019:  Coat drive to provide cold weather jackets for migrants arriving in Chicago without appropriate clothing for our winter climate. Check out ICIRR.

D. Team Brownsville Shared Plate recipient. Requested of Carol Neilsen that Team Brownsville be a part of the Shared Plate contributions for November.  Carol kindly and enthusiastically agreed. Learn more about Team Brownsville.

E. Meeting with Representative Schakowsky. November, 2019:  Met with PASO and Representative Schakowsky to discuss immigration issues and conditions in Matamoros, Mexico.

G. Micro-education regarding Resistbot. December, 2019:  Held micro-education sessions with UCE members regarding how to use Resistbot to advocate against the Migrant Protection Protocol, aimed at harming migrants at the border with Mexico.

H. Supported Countryside Church efforts to establish Chalice House for asylees. Held meetings with members of members of Countryside Countryside Church, to support their efforts to open Chalice House as a temporary place for asylees to live while they await determination of their status.  Applied for and received a grant from the Endowment Committee to support these efforts of Countryside in this regard. Learn more about Chalice House.

F & I. Partnership with PASO & Water for Matamoros encampment of migrants. Met with Betty Alzamora from PASO regarding the conditions in Matamoros. Applied for and received a grant to pay for Team Brownsville to help provide potable water for migrants.

J. Donated Spanish books to Centro Romero. We delivered about 200 Spanish books to Centro Romero. Learn more about Centro Romero.

K & L. Helped inform immigrants of West Rogers Park of free health care options and about the census process and its importance. Met with Daniel Boone Elementary School principal and staff to plan and hold meetings to encourage parents to participate in the census.  Online efforts to the same end since the closing of school due to Covid 19.  Also requested that Boone principal to make sure that residents of that residents of that neighborhood in West Rogers Park are aware of the medical services offered by Heartland Clinic, which does not require payment of documentation for medical care, and that they are reminded of the need to complete the Census. Check out the Boone Newsletter.

M. Informed UCE members of opportunitiy to assist in Chalice House preparation. Requested assistance from UCE members to prepare and support Chalice House for the asylees. Check out this letter from the Chalice House Organizers below.

From Chalice House

Dear Chalice House Supporters, 

We are happy to report that the family – mom, dad, and 3-year-old daughter – is all settled into Chalice House!  The mentor team and ICDI case manager, Ryan, gave them a warm welcome and have spent some time getting them familiar with the home and the neighborhood. They are enjoying the park district walking trail down the road, the forest preserve, and the neighboring playground. While we can’t share more specifics to protect privacy and confidentiality, please know that all of your help, support, and contributions is very much appreciated.

Now that they are settled we’ve identified a few more needs that are unfilled. A few practical items like bikes (to go back and forth from the grocery — so a basket would be helpful too!), shoes and bed rails for the toddler are needed as soon as possible.

View the Sign Up HERE. 

IMPORTANT: Items should not be delivered to the home. Instead, donations can be delivered as follows:

  • Drop off at Countryside (North door) on Friday August 14 from 10 – 11 AM
  • Drop off at Countryside (North door) on Saturday August 15 from noon –  1 PM
  • Drop off at Countryside (North door) on Sunday August 23 from 1 – 2:30 PM
  • We’ll be happy to arrange another time for drop off OR pick things up from you up if these times aren’t convenient for you. Email us at ChaliceHouse@ccuu.org.

To Learn More About the Congo
If you are interested in learning about their home country, ICDI recommends King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild.  The book is available from this independent book store in Woodstock (nominal shipping fee) as well as from Amazon and other retailers. We are considering doing a study group based on the book in the fall; please email ChaliceHouse@ccuu.org if you would be interested in that.

Other Help Needed
We want to extend a huge thank you to Kathy Millin at Partners for our Community (POC) for inviting the family to POC yesterday to shop in the community store for clothing and food. If you are in a position to make some donations, Kathy tells us that the POC food pantry is really in need now. Like people everywhere, many of our neighbors face food insecurity challenges, and the pantry helps them feed their family and pay other bills.  Kathy suggests items like cornmeal, cornstarch, in addition to rice, beans, canned fruit, cereal and shelf-stable protein (tuna, peanut butter, etc.) “Your Chalice House family was searching to find those cultural foods and I am sure others would appreciate those also!”  Items can be dropped off at POC on Thursdays from 9 – 11 AM, or bring them to Countryside at any of the times listed above and we will make sure to get them over to POC right away. POC is located at 1585 North Rand Road — across from the McDonald’s on Rand Road just south of Dundee. Drive around to the southside of the POC building where volunteers are working the pantry.

Peace to you, 
Laura and Christine, Co-Chairs, Chalice House

Learn more about IST: August 14, 20202020-08-12T22:03:44+00:00

August 16, 2020

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, August 16th at 11:15 am.

“Faith on the Tightrope” – Rev. Lucas Hergert
Life can be precarious. Sometimes, it can feel as vulnerable as walking on a tightrope. How do we find faith for taking the next steps when we encounter uncertainty? This is a sermon about nurturing faith and finding hope in challenge.
The Rev. Lucas Hergert has been a minister since 2009, currently serving the North Shore Unitarian Church in Deerfield, Illinois. He grew up in a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Cincinnati, Ohio, and first heard his call to the ministry in high school. Lucas holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Miami University, a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, and a Doctor of Ministry from the Pacific School of Religion. Lucas was also previously a college faculty member, teaching courses in philosophy and comparative religion. His interests include yoga, Shakespeare plays, biking, continental philosophy, fantasy novels, interfaith work, and humor.

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 are My Block, My Hood, My City and Bryan Stevenson’s group Equal Justice Initiative.

August 16, 20202020-08-07T19:10:25+00:00

From the BOT: August 7, 2020

The Board of Trustees at the Unitarian Church of Evanston has been having conversations and has been listening closely to conversations in our communities about race, anti-racism, and white supremacy. In response, the Board has created this statement:

We hear the clarion call to address issues of oppression both within our walls and within the larger community. We hear this call from our Evanston Interfaith leaders who say, “We call on our congregants, especially those who have white skin privilege, to engage in the struggle to dismantle white supremacy as it collectively exists.”1 We hear this call from our national organization, the UUA, who through the Commission on Institutional Change, states, “Our internal work as people of faith is to become more inclusive, equitable, and diverse while our external work is to be accountable to those most affected by injustice.”2 Black Lives of UU calls on all Unitarian Universalists “to advocate for the formal adoption of an 8th principle, articulating a commitment to the dismantling of white supremacy, within the stated principles of our faith.”3 Perhaps, most importantly, we hear this call in our congregation, on our doorsteps, and in our streets. We, as Dr. King said, feel “the fierce urgency of Now. […] Now is the time to make justice a reality.”4 It is time to answer this call and continue this work.

Consequently, the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Church of Evanston has commissioned the Anti-Oppression Task Force. The purpose of this task force is to determine the ways in which this congregation might answer this call, making justice a reality both in our congregation and beyond. Paying special attention to including diverse voices from within our congregation, we will be inviting representatives from the Board of Trustees, the REAL team, the Lifespan Learning Council, the Young Adult Group, the High School Youth Age Group, the Social Justice Council, Membership Engagement Council, Ministers and key staff, the Search Committee, Nominating and Recruiting, Endowment Trustees, as well as inviting interested members at large.

As part of this work, the Interim Team in conjunction with the Task Force will pose a series of Powerful Questions to the congregation beginning in August and resuming in November after the Search Committee survey and cottage meetings have occurred. Task Force and Interim Team members will listen carefully to how the congregation answers these questions, document the answers, and attempt to sort the information into ways these answers influence us and move us forward as a congregation. This work will be ongoing and multi-faceted. Although it will begin as interim work, it will continue beyond the interim and carry forth into every aspect of our congregational life. We are excited and pleased to begin this journey. Further details for ways to be involved will appear in the newsletter in the weeks ahead.

1. https://ucevanston.org/evanston-interfaith-juneteenth-letter/
2. https://www.uua.org/uuagovernance/committees/cic/widening
3. https://medium.com/outfront/black-lives-of-uu-organizing-collective-urges-adoption-of-8th-principle-in-unitarian-universalism-377480e615ef
4. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

From the BOT: August 7, 20202020-08-06T19:22:24+00:00

From Karen Gustafson: August 7, 2020

Dear ones,

As your interim minister I take seriously my charge to help you to identify your strengths and your challenges in ways that will help you to thrive during this time of preparation for your next covenant of settled ministry. I also support the Ministerial Search Committee in presenting a clear and honest profile of the congregation to prospective candidates.

In the weeks since my last message in which I summarized the interim work going forward, I have been invited in a variety of ways into a new urgency of consciousness about white supremacy culture and systemic racism. At the UUA General Assembly the UCE delegates were present at the unveiling of the Report of the UUA Commission on Institutional Change entitled Widening the Circle of Concern. This document is an in depth report on the state of our association of congregations and our Unitarian Universalist faith regarding our understanding of racial justice and systems of oppression. It is a call to self examination and a call to meaningful action.

Clearly this awareness has been underway at UCE as reflected in the leadership of the REAL Team, the participation of a number of members of UCE in Beloved Conversations and classes on racism and the initiative that put the Black Lives Matter sign on the lawn. Now you are being encouraged by your General Assembly delegates and others to go deeper and wider in the cause of dismantling oppression in the many places that it is hard wired into a system that is built on white cultural values.

You will need to be prepared to be in conversation about all of this with anyone interested in assuming the position of Senior Minister at UCE. Among the many efforts to “widen the circle of concern” at UCE, I will be engaging you over the next year in conversations that will help you look at where systemic racism and white supremacy culture has become embedded at UCE. What then might it look like to make more real and visible a fuller embrace of Unitarian Universalist values and principles?

These conversations are beginning in August with elected and lay leaders and staff. They will be suspended in September and October to allow for a full focus on the Congregational Survey and the Cottage Meetings conducted by the Ministerial Search Committee. No doubt these issues will come up in these places as well. In November we will open the conversations again and hope to involve everyone in one way or another.

We will continue to work on other areas of UCE governance and structure as identified in the Interim Report. If you have questions or concerns about any of this, please feel free to contact me by e-mail at kgustafson@ucevanston.org.

In love and gratitude,

Karen

From Karen Gustafson: August 7, 20202020-08-07T15:31:38+00:00

August 9, 2020

We will host an online worship service on Sunday, August 9th at 11:15 am.

“Let the Mud Settle” – Rev. Teri Schwartz
Our minds can be like the water of a pond–sometimes clear, and sometimes cloudy with the mud and muck from the pond bottom. There has been much in our world and lives that continues to unsettle the mud. Practices of mindfulness can bring us a bit more clarity in our interior landscape. When our minds are less clouded, we can then see our world more clearly, if even by a bit.
The Rev. Teri Schwartz serves the First Unitarian Church of Chicago, her along with her spouse, the Rev. David Schwartz as a co-ministry team since 2013. First U is a multi-racial, theologically a plural house of worship located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Teri also serves a chaplain to students at the Meadville Lombard Theological School since 2013. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School and Brown University, Teri has served as a professional hospital and hospice chaplain prior to her current call as a parish minister. You can find Teri walking around her home neighborhood of Woodlawn with her puppy, who is only one and a half times her size.  She lives with her clergy spouse and their two elementary-aged kids and with their four cats, and that giant St. Bernard, their house is filled with chaos, fur, and even more love.

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 are My Block, My Hood, My City and Bryan Stevenson’s group Equal Justice Initiative.

August 9, 20202020-07-31T17:28:49+00:00

Welcome Susan Frances!

On Monday, August 3rd, we will welcome the very newly (less than 24 hours, to be precise) ordained Rev. Susan Frances, as our part-time Congregational Life Director. As you hopefully know by now, Rev. Karen Mooney is departing UCE as she has decided to focus solely on being the Executive Director of UUANI. We are so grateful to Karen for the time she has been with us. Her wisdom, deep spiritual nature, and powerful ministry has been so very needed at this difficult–to–navigate time and she will be dearly missed. Thank you, Karen, for your ongoing commitment to our faith. 

We recognize that the decision to hire Susan Frances, our former Ministerial Intern, may have seemed swift and somewhat veiled. As we examine our power structures and how they show up in hiring practices, we are mindful of the harm a lack of transparency can cause. However, while we needed to make the decision quickly, please know that it was well-considered. Karen Mooney’s announced departure came just three months after we had concluded a thorough search for the position, in which we considered several strong candidates including Susan. The timing didn’t work for Susan last year, but it does now and having someone with Susan’s skills and well-established relationships is a windfall for the congregation, especially at this complicated time.  

We are thrilled to have Susan join the staff team. She brings the same insight, compassion, intelligence, and excellent skills to the role of Congregational Life Director as she did as our Intern. Her contract with us is for one year at which time it will be re-considered. The settled senior minister, who will be determined by the spring of this year, will be in dialogue with Susan and the board about the position long-term. 

For now, please join me in welcoming Susan into the role of directing UCE’s focus on social justice and membership.  

Yours in faith and in service, 

Eileen 

Welcome Susan Frances!2020-07-30T16:20:51+00:00

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Evanston

1330 Ridge Ave
Evanston, IL 60201
Directions

(847) 864-1330
uce@ucevanston.org

UCE’s office hours:

Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday: 10 AM – 12:30 PM, 1:30 PM – 4 PM
Wednesday: 10 AM – 1 PM
Thursday: 10 AM – 12:30 PM, 1:30 PM – 4 PM
Friday: 10 AM – 1 PM
Saturday: CLOSED
Sunday: 10 AM – 1 PM

In-person and Virtual Sunday Service is held at 10:30 am.

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Member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association covenant to affirm and promote the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism.

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Evanston is recognized by the Unitarian Universalist Association as a Welcoming Congregation, a Peace Advocate Congregation, and a Green Sanctuary.

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