The Sounds of Silence
Summer is not usually a quiet time — festivals thumping, barbecues sizzling, leaf-blowers blaring, birds singing, and protests crying. This service asks when we might want to seek silence, and if silence is even possible. What is lost, or what is found, when we slip into silence? When might silence, as the famous song suggests, carry its own sound? Annette Wallace is Worship Associate and Gregory Shifrin is on piano.
Our Worship Leader is Dr. Emily Mace, a UU ministerial candidate and a seminarian at Meadville Lombard Theological School, where she is the Student Advisory Council Co-President for 2026. She currently serves as the ministerial intern at Unity Temple in Oak Park, and she completed her clinical pastoral education unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Emily holds a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a PhD in religious studies from Princeton University. She is a writer, UU historian, and teacher, as well as a fiber artist and nature lover. Emily lives in Highland Park, IL, where she and her spouse are raising two teen daughters.
Today’s offering will be shared with Mother and Child Alliance, whose mission is to strengthen the safety net for pregnant persons before and after delivery, to prevent HIV transmission and other serious infections in newborns, and to address the disparate prenatal and postpartum systems of care in Illinois and across the U.S.
Upcoming Services
8/16/2026 – Ryland Rich, Imperceptible Song
8/23/2026 – Rev. Susan Frances, Slackline Thoughts
8/30/2026 – Rev. Allison Farnum, Activating Transformation
9/6/2026 – Rev. Eileen Wiviott, The Power of Coalition
