Update from Rev. Susan – 10/10/2025

Hi Friends,

Mickey and I just returned from four days at Starved Rock State Park. We celebrated our 18-year wedding anniversary on Monday evening on the patio of a restaurant overlooking the Illinois River with delicious food and a flock of freshwater pelicans as entertainment.

The changing climate was evident at the park. The few park rangers we talked with bemoaned that the nine canyon waterfalls that rely on rain to feed them were dry this year due to limited rain fall. St. Louis Canyon, the only canyon waterfall in the park that relies on a spring to feed it was still flowing. I’m standing in front of that waterfall in the photo. This trip reminded me how grateful I am that our congregation continues to be proactive about finding ways to reduce the negative impacts of our consumption of natural resources.

I hope you will stay after the service this Sunday, October 12^th, from 12-1 pm for our Solarbration! Rev. Nic Faison, the Outreach Director of Faith in Place, Cara Pratt, the City of Evanston’s Sustainability Officer, and Chris Gersch, the CEO of Verde, will speak in the sanctuary before we head out onto the South Lawn for a congregational photo as part of a green ribbon cutting. We will honor the bequest from Barbara Young and the grant from Faith in Place that allowed us to afford to install our solar panels this year. Then, you are invited to view the solar panels on the wing from my office windows and enjoy treats provided by our Green Team.

I also hope that you will find a way to be engaged next weekend, on Saturday, October 18^th, with the No Kings day. Here are a few options for ways to be engaged:

• 10:00 am, training at Second Baptist Church, Evanston, IL. Join facilitators from Second Baptist Church in a “Houses of Worship: Preparing for ICE Encounters” interactive and skill-building workshop. See flyer in this newsletter for details. If you attend this, please contact me so we can find ways to share what you learned.
• 10:30 am, No Kings Rally at Fountain Square, Evanston, IL. Rev. Eileen and UCE folks will meet at 10:30 am on the southwest corner of Fountain Square.
• 12:00 pm, No Kings Rally at Butler Field in Grant Park, Chicago, IL. Rev. Susan and UCE folks will meet at 11:45 am on Michigan Avenue in front of the lion on the south side of the stairs to the Art Institute and walk over to Butler Field together.
• All day, call or email your federal representative and senators to encourage them to continue to request a full release of the Epstein files or to thank them for a vote that was in line with your values.
• All day, make a financial donation to a non-profit organization that shares your values.

Many of you know that I am on the Board of the Illinois Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-IL). Their message on October 3^rd was: “On Saturday, October 18, No Kings protests will be happening across the country. To push back against the administration, we must show up and protest in large numbers. If you have not attended protests in the past, this is the moment to do so. It is important to encourage everyone in your network to attend a protest to take a stand against the abuses of power from this administration.”

If you would like to be added to the UCE Local Response Network (LRN), which is the internal email list we use to send out information about civic meetings, rallies, and vigils, as well as about trainings and preparing for demonstrations, please click here to submit the form to request being added to the LRN.

I was also reminded this week that this fight against the diminishment of civil rights and human rights for citizens and non-citizens, this push back against the fear of violence, and this choice to experience the joy and beauty in everyday life is something we can do. Something that previous generations have done. One of our UCE members who recently returned from the Alabama Living Legacy Pilgrimage sent me this quote from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Rabbi Heschel marched in the Selma Civil Rights Movement and wrote: “For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.'”

Let us pray with our participation this coming Saturday. Let our pluralist faith be a beacon of hope for all fighting for civil and human rights. Let our covenantal faith bring us into deeper relationships so that our future is not a return to the status quo, but a movement into our country’s future with a government that supports the most vulnerable and a culture that embraces all.

In hope,

Rev. Susan