Sunday Service: In-person and Online Sunday at 10:30am
“Where We Learn Generosity”
The conclusion to our annual pledge drive turns our attention to the generosity present among us and two questions: How we will use our resources to continue the work of our congregation, “to nurture the human spirit for a world made whole; and, when faced with fear, “where do we learn to be generous?” Both answers are rooted in finding balance. Rev. Bret Lortie, preaching
As the board moves forward with the Interim Minister search process, we’d like your input. Just click here to answer this one question survey. We will be filling out the application form in the next couple of weeks, so we’d appreciate your quick response.
The Process
To review: March/April is the application and matching time for Interim Ministers. We will know by mid-May who our Interim Minister will be and they would start on August 1st. In the meantime, Rev. Eileen will be covering through the rest of May and the first part of June. Then she’ll go to General Assembly and take her vacation. During that time, we’ll have a Summer Minister, arranged by Revs. Bret & Eileen, since they know our church well, know who is available, and who would be a good match for the Summer. So, as they say, “We gotcha covered!”
Why a 2 Year Interim?
Many people have asked if we could replace our minister within one year. We understand that a year would mean a shorter time of uncertainty until we have our next settled Senior Minister in place. However, Interim Ministry is important and vital ministry and our Unitarian Universalist Association Transitions office recommends two years as a best practice. Additionally, the search process can take more than a full year to be done well and thoughtfully. Our focus now is on finding a really great Interim Minister who we will learn from, inspire us and keep our church advancing forward. So when our next settled Minister arrives we will be setting them up for a strong start.
Yours,
Janelle Brittain
UCE Board of Trustees President
“For Such A Time”
The Rev. Sarah Lammert, the UUA’s Co-Director of Ministries and Faith Development will speak to us about finding our individual calls to transformation in challenging times such as these. She is also the official Endorser for Military and VA Chaplains. She is a graduate of Brown University and Starr King School for the Ministry and is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her ordination this year.
Dear UCE Family,
I am writing in regards to the Black Lives Matter sign that we will be voting on in May. Let me begin by just saying how much this sign has meant to my wife and I. Since its installation, it has been a constant reminder to me of why I chose to become a member of this community. There are a myriad of reasons why the sign is so important but l will mention just a couple.
First, it makes me proud because it tells all who pass by that UCE understands. It lets passersby know that this church gets that there are still very real issues in this country (world?) for people of color regarding the justice system, stereotypes, equal pay, law enforcement relations, civil rights, employment (and on and on). This understanding is a big deal. I feel as if I spend a lot of time trying to explain to people simply how these issues still present themselves to us in our day to day lives. My wife and I have more than once been mistaken for maids when lodging at a very nice hotel. Not sure what maids wear flip flops and a swimsuit cover up but I have stopped trying to figure it out. I just assume that my brown face seems out of place in a five star hotel – unless of course I am the maid. However, I do not have to explain these issues or problems to my church community. UCE understands -so much so that they put up a sign announcing it to the world. The sign does not just say Black Lives Matter; it says so much more.
My wife and I once joined the gathering to stand by the sign on a Sunday after church. An African American couple initially drove by with the wife enthusiastically hanging out of the window and her husband honking in support. The next thing we knew – they had parked and come to join us. They said they could not just drive by and that they wanted to stand with us. They seemed amazed that this group of (truth be told) mostly Caucasian People thought that Black Lives Matter. They even asked “What church is this”? It was just wonderful and I will never forget it. This is the message that the Black Lives Matter sign is sending, even when no one is gathered near it after church on Sunday.
The sign also makes me proud because it took courage to put it up in the first place. When so many cannot even begin to understand the slogan and get stuck asking “Doesn’t my life matter too?”. It is refreshing to me to know that I belong to a community that knew that when the sign went up some in the community may not only be unhappy but could very well vandalize the sign or church for that matter. Only pure love and courage could put the sign up anyway.
Thirdly, the sign is so important because like any sign it announces loud and clear what is happening inside of the building that it is in front of. Any good sign has one job and that is to inform in a short and concise manner what’s inside (a school, hamburgers for sale, open or closed for business, a church, etc.). Our Black Lives Matter Sign shouts that significant work is taking place inside of our church’s four walls. Why else would one put up a sign like that – unless it was to announce to the world that this is what we are about? In its simplicity, the sign tells the world about the wonderful and essential work that UCE has been doing and I am certain will continue to do. I personally NEVER get tired of telling people that MY CHURCH had Dr. King speak at it. People literally run from me when I start bragging. Never mind that I was not even born when he visited UCE.
Thank you for allowing me to tell you my feelings about the Black Lives Matter Sign. To me, it is a thing of great pride and beauty. I smile a big, fat, stupid grin every single time I drive by it. It was relevant when we put it up almost three years ago and it is still relevant. It is my sincere hope that the members of UCE will vote that it remain.
My best,
Debra Clements-Simmons
Friday, March 23: 6:00 – 9:00 pm and Saturday, March 24 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Register today @ uupmi.org and let Dale Griffin know you are coming
This weekend-long justice event is a collaboration between several Unitarian Universalist groups – the UU Prison Ministry of Illinois, the UU Action Network of Illinois, and the Youth & Young Adult Visioning Team. Our goals are to build power through affirming our collective story. We want to educate and agitate our faith community so that we can better contribute to movements working to abolish unjust systems. We will weave a narrative that includes a drastic reduction in our prison population, a fossil free world and a fair economic world. We recognize that dreaming sharing a larger vision can dramatically sustain us in this work. We affirm the value of multigenerational communities engaged in this work in our congregations and beyond.
Friday: Dinner & Panel Discussion be inspired by advocates and organizers: Ethos (Circles & Ciphers), Monica Cosby (Mothers United Against Violence & Incarceration), Marlon Chamberlain (Live Free Chicago), Michelle Day (Nehemiah Trinity Rising).
Saturday workshops: Rev. Scott Aaseng (UUANI), Monica Cosby, Ethos, Rev. Karen Mooney (UUPMI), Rev. Booker Vance (Faith in Place), Saeed Richardson (CRS/Poor People’s Campaign)
Brought to you by UU Advocacy Network of IL, Youth and Young Adult Visioning Team and UU Prison Ministries of IL :: Learn, Reflect, Act
From Janelle Brittain
UCE Board President
Rev. Bret’s sharing with us about his moving into a new role as a Chaplain in the Air Force has brought us a variety of responses. We are pleased that he’ll be able to share his unique and valuable ministerial support to people of many faiths at challenging times in their lives. We may feel sad that we are losing our wonderful minister who has touched our hearts, inspired our minds, challenged us to action and led the way on social change. As we look toward his last Sunday on May 6th, you may be asking, what happens after that?
Your Board of Trustees have been busy working with Rev. Bret, Rev. Eileen, and our regional and national specialists in ministerial transitions. We have decided to go forward with an Interim Minister. We are at a good time in that March/April is the application and matching time for Interim Ministers. We will know by mid-May who our Interim Minister will be and they would start on August 1st.
In the meantime, Rev. Eileen has agreed to cover through the rest of May and the first part of June. Then she’ll go to General Assembly and take her vacation. During that time, we’ll have a Summer Minister who will be someone Rev’s Bret & Eileen will choose, since they know our church so well and who is available who would be a good match for the Summer. So, as they say, “We gotcha covered!”
FAQ’s
A couple of commonly asked questions are:
Couldn’t Rev. Eileen just step into the Senior or even Interim Minister position?
The quick answer is no. The Ministerial Fellowship Committee will require Eileen to eventually serve another congregation in order to achieve Final Fellowship. She will definitely be with us at UCE at least through the next year (2018-2019).
Couldn’t we just do the “Evanston Model” approach we used last time we were in between ministers?
Even though we enjoyed all of the great ministers who each came for 2 Sundays + one workshop, it took a major toll on the church at a staff level, on support for our programs and did not set up the next minister well. Additionally, Interim Ministers have specific training and accreditation that will be a benefit to us as we move forward.
We have a very strong and healthy church. We are so grateful for how Rev. Bret has brought us together, lifted us up and helped to lead us to have the strong foundation we have today. We thank each of you for your participation and leadership as we go forward. After all, the church is made up of the congregation…YOU!
Receiving Generously When we think of generosity we often think of those who give freely of their time and resources. But generosity requires a giver and a receiver. What can we generate together and how are we transformed through generous giving and receiving? Rev. Eileen Wiviott will be preaching.
an occasional blog from your Racial Equity Action and Leadership (REAL) team
Member Shannon Lang shared these words at the town-hall meeting about the Black Lives Matter Sign on 2/18/18:
I have been a member of UCE for almost 2 years. As you may have noticed, I am one of the few Black and Brown lives that attend the Unitarian Church of Evanston. What made me walk through those doors in the in the first place? It was because of the Black Lives Matter sign out front. One of the reasons I stay is because of the Black Lives Matter sign out front.
That sign is a daily reminder to me, a Black Life who is a member of this church, my family and to our Black and Brown Brothers and Sisters in Evanston, that you do care, that you are empathic to the struggle of being Black or Brown in Evanston, even if you don’t fully understand that struggle.
What about the statement “well, all lives matter, not just black lives.” This is true. Of course all lives matter, but there is serious and painful flaw in that statement. A New York Times article from July 2016 put it this way: “Those in the Black Lives Matter movement say black people are in immediate danger and need immediate attention, like the broken bone or a house on fire. Saying “All Lives Matter” in response would suggest to them that all people are in equal danger, invalidating the specific concerns of black people.”
If you attended church on January 28th, you heard Reverend Lynnda White speak about the history of the Unitarian Church and its treatment of Black Lives. We learned that in the past, The Unitarian Church, as an organization, has failed its Black & Brown Members. By keeping the sign up, the Unitarian Church of Evanston can, in a small way, atone for past mistakes of the organization as a whole.
I asked my daughters what they thought about UCE having the discussion about whether to keep the Black Lives Matter sign up or take it down. Marlowe, age 12 said: “We should keep the sign up. If we take it down it would show a sign of weakness. If we leave it up, it shows we are brave and that we support Black Lives Matter and it shows that we are not afraid to say what we think.” Francesca, age 8 said: “They need to leave it up because many people don’t believe that Black Lives Matter and maybe the sign will help people learn that Black Lives Do Matter.”
I would love for each of us to ask ourselves the following questions: 1) Do Black Lives not matter anymore? 2) Has the systemic injustice to black and brown lives suddenly resolved itself? 3) And most importantly, what statement would it make the community to take the sign down? If the congregation votes to take the sign down, I don’t know if I would be able to walk through the doors again.
Shannon Lang UCE Member
“Persevering in Changing Times”– 9:15 and 11:00am
The particulars may change, but the arc of history teaches that change may be the only constant in the universe. In our community, country, church—all changing, all the time.
How do we adapt when we don’t know what is coming next? ~Rev. Bret Lortie, preaching
Dr. Mary Lamb Shelden
Losing love is like a window in your heart.
Everybody sees you’re blown apart,
Everybody feels the wind blow.
~Paul Simon, “Graceland”
I lost my father to lung cancer when I was in my mid-twenties, when my daughter was just three years old. It had been a rough go – just under a year between diagnosis and death, in my memory, and by the end, the great man who had towered over our family was half his former size. I spent the years following Dad’s death fairly fixated on my own mortality and demise, and I developed a couple of chronic conditions that fed this fixation. I was worried all the time about whether I might have this or that terrible disease, and I learned I wasn’t alone in this. The internet was a relatively new phenomenon then, but what it offered almost immediately was food for worry, and a community of worriers. I had plenty of conversation partners – people in the prime of life attending to all the little aches and pains, anxious that it might be cancer, trying to ensure that, if it was, they would catch it early. I went to see many doctors, who generally could not even help me address my symptoms, let alone their root causes. Finally, after roughly six years mired in this obsession, a new idea occurred to me: the more fearful question for me was not so much, what if I died, as it was, what if I lived? What if I pulled through? What might be asked of me then? And really, what was I here to do?
Up to that moment I had admittedly been angry with my father, for reasons I thought myriad and complex. I was mad at the breadwinner complex that kept him so many hours away from our family. I was mad that he hadn’t stood up to my mother more in her moments of fury. Even as I fumed, I could see that I what I was really mad at him for was dying. I would have made it about the cigarettes, had I had the option, except that for much of this period, I was still myself smoking. Indeed, I may have ultimately given up smoking, the better to be mad at him for it. Then, as I let go of this numbing habit, I found my anger easing, and my grief and love for him welling up in its place. I began again to recall the early mornings of my childhood, when I would awaken and come downstairs, and see him through the banister rails, in the living room – in lotus, or mountain, or child, or sirsasana, and I would tiptoe past him to the kitchen and get out the milk and cereal for us, for our quiet breakfast to come. This vision of him is as clear to me today as it was 47 years ago, and I cannot now recall it without a wash of pain that fills my eyes. The hurt is simply attendant to my love for him; I cannot retrieve one without the other.
Grief hurts, to be sure. There is a reason they call it heartbreak; to grieve is to be broken open. But grief has important work to do, and it is best if we understand that as we stand here, open to all the universe, it is then that we may best be filled. “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding,” says Gibran. It hurts – but like death itself, the pain of grief is not unceasing. It changes. It eases. It passes. If we can bear simply to be with it, in it, we will learn almost immediately that it ebbs and flows. But if we are attentive, we can give the pain of grief permission to go, knowing that, like the tide, it will be back, knowing that we will not get it all done at once, or maybe ever, at least until the moment of our own passing. Grief hurts, but it also teaches. It teaches us what matters, what to hold fast to, where we have erred and what are the consequences of error. It teaches us what we are capable of bearing, and why it matters that we bear it. And at its best, it teaches us that those around us have also known grief and can help us to bear it.
Here’s the thing: love entails loss. When we love truly, we don’t merely risk loss – we guarantee it. Loss is an inevitable part of love, in just the way that death is an inevitable part of life. We are mortal. If we love, we will suffer. It can be hard to remember, here in the thick of it, that grief is just part of the rent we pay for being human. That, indeed, if the rent is high, we are among the lucky.
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.
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.
