July 9th, 2023
Taking Risks and Making an Impact
This Sunday, member Janelle Brittain shares her life and spiritual journey, her search for belonging and how she has found meaningful ways to live her values.
Rev. Eileen will be her worship associate.
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, July 9th at 10:30 am.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 9 am, we will try to read it that Sunday. Thank you for your patience as we are adapting to best serve you all! Note there will only be one service time so that we can gather together as a whole community of faith. You can still give to the shared offering through “text to give,” mail a check to the office with “shared offering” in the memo line, or go to our website and hit “give” on the upper right or click here. This Sunday’s shared offering recipient is the Building Peaceful Bridges.
From Sandra Robinson
Greetings from your Executive Operations Director
Happy Fourth of July weekend. I hope you and your families enjoy the holiday and that the air quality improves so that all of us are safer and remain healthy. Our office will be open for a half day on Monday and closed on Tuesday, the 4th of July.
Below are important updates on our finances, buildings and grounds, rentals, and administrative details. Please contact me for more information or if you have questions at srobinson@ucevanston.org
This month Vickie Doebele and I have been preparing for the end of the 2022/23 Fiscal Year. If you have not finished your pledge payments, please do so today. Even if you get your pledge check to us by Sunday it can be credited toward this fiscal year. We hope to end the year with a net income rather than a loss. Given that rentals have been so challenging this year, we are counting on our successful fundraisers and pledges to carry us through to that end.
I’ve been busy training Adam on Buildings and Grounds responsibilities he will take on July 1. We have had fun together walking through the building, watering the gardens, gathering bids for the parking lot repairs and sealcoating. Adam will work with Robb on the management of that project once we get the bids in. RFPs were sent last week seeking quotes.
Robb and I have been attempting to address a situation in the sanctuary that involves seepage and spalling in the sanctuary where the walls meet the roof. We have tried hiring a structural engineer who can identify any serious issues that need to be addressed before repairing the area. Robb, co-lead and Adam, staff lead for buildings and grounds will work on this project together once an engineer is interviewed and hired.
Security Cameras will be installed in various locations throughout the inside of the building and one which includes a flood light at the south end of the building. This is a Capital Campaign project that Adam and I have been working on for the past several months. Adam, after much research, has purchased the cameras and has installed boosters throughout the building to support them.
The cabinet for the lower-level accessible bathroom has arrived and will be assembled in the weeks ahead. New light fixtures were installed in each of the two stalls in the east bathroom and the one stall in the west bathroom. The lighting in the rooms is much improved.
On the Administrative front, Eileen and I have made changes to the UCE Compensation Guidelines, with the Board’s approval, to provide health insurance coverage for employees working 30 hours or more. Our previous policy was 40 hours. We are now working on changes to the guidelines, which we will propose to the board, that provides Life & Disability benefit to employees working 30 hours or more. Currently that benefit is for full time employees. It is our goal to provide as much coverage for as many employees as possible. These two changes move us toward to that goal.
Rentals are picking up slightly during this last quarter of the year. We have had and continue to rent for memorials. Craig Sieben, who grew up in this church, was wed here on Saturday. Large fundraisers and big music events are fewer post-pandemic. However, we will welcome North Shore Choral Society in November for a concert. In November and December, we will also welcome back Skunkwerks, a dance studio which sponsors a competition between youth from the south and west side of Chicago who participate in an exciting dance in our sanctuary. Check out our website Ucevanston.org home page and scroll down on the left side to the rentals section to enjoy a video of last year’s dance competition.
Stay tuned for more information about our November auction. Planning meetings are in progress currently. Volunteers to serve in a variety of ways would be greatly appreciated. If you think you might like to be a part of this fun fundraiser, please contact me and I will pass your name along to the organizers or contact Chris Allender directly.
July 2nd, 2023
Hanging On, Letting Go
Lao Tsu, founder of Taoism said, “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” However, change is easier said than done. This sermon will explore the dance of hanging on and letting go. Rev. Julie Taylor is our preacher this morning.
Rev. Julie Taylor is a Unitarian Universalist community minister specializing in critical incident response, community crisis and pastoral care. Rev. Taylor is the Senior Director of Contextual Ministry and an affiliate professor at Meadville Lombard Theological School. Agitating, preaching, and working towards dismantling systems of White Supremacy are key in Rev. Taylor’s theology and work.
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, July 2nd at 10:30 am.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 9 am, we will try to read it that Sunday. Thank you for your patience as we are adapting to best serve you all! Note there will only be one service time so that we can gather together as a whole community of faith. You can still give to the shared offering through “text to give,” mail a check to the office with “shared offering” in the memo line, or go to our website and hit “give” on the upper right or click here. This Sunday’s shared offering recipient is the Building Peaceful Bridges.
From Rev. Susan Frances – Minister for Congregational Life
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
June 25th, 2023
2023 UUA General Assembly Live Streamed Sunday Worship Service 10:00am
Join us at 10:00 am CT for the largest annual gathering of UUs worshiping together. Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti, Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, Michigan, will lead the Sunday Worship service, along with worship team members Stella Anderson, Janice Marie Johnson, Rev. Danielle Di Bona, Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd, and the GA Choir. We will live stream the service from the sanctuary at 10:00 am. You may live stream from home, but clicking HERE.
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, June 18th at 10:00 am.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 9 am, we will try to read it that Sunday. Thank you for your patience as we are adapting to best serve you all! Note there will only be one service time so that we can gather together as a whole community of faith. You can still give to the shared offering through “text to give,” mail a check to the office with “shared offering” in the memo line, or go to our website and hit “give” on the upper right or click here. This Sunday’s shared offering recipient is the Deborah’s Place.
June 18th, 2023
Juneteenth: Celebrating Liberation and Resilience
On June 19th, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally got word that they were free. In this era of information overload and calculated misinformation, when obfuscation and lies continue to be used to maintain oppressive systems, how are we called to speak truth to power and to advance liberation for all?
Rev. Eileen Wiviott leads the service with Annette Wallace as Worship Associate.
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, June 18th at 10:30 am.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 9 am, we will try to read it that Sunday. Thank you for your patience as we are adapting to best serve you all! Note there will only be one service time so that we can gather together as a whole community of faith. You can still give to the shared offering through “text to give,” mail a check to the office with “shared offering” in the memo line, or go to our website and hit “give” on the upper right or click here. This Sunday’s shared offering recipient is the Deborah’s Place.
