Faith Formation Hour this Sunday!

Backpack and Bag Blessing during worship!

Feel free to bring your backpack/bag and participate in this annual ritual.

Childcare (0-3 years) is available in room 11 from 10a-11:45am

Wisdom Tales & Wild Games (pre-6th) Hey there, Mates! We will be “visiting” Australia. Our last summer gathering will be on the 27^th for Sundae Sunday – yes, that means ice cream!

TransParentsy Group – 12p in room 2 - A support group for parents and grandparents of transgender individuals.

Families can explore our summer theme, Delight, at home at their own pace with the Soulful Home packet.

It’s Registration Time!

Our Faith Formation Program for Children and Youth officially begins on September 17! Please register your young people here. Feel free to come to the Celebration and Orientation too – details below.

UU The Vote!

Join us, Thursday, Aug.24, 6:30-7:30pm, for snacks, camaraderie, and creative post carding for Virginia’s November election!

The 2023 Virginia elections are on November 7, 2023 and all 40 seats of the Virginia Senate and 100 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates are up for grabs.

So, what? Why does this matter? This is a pivotal election for legislative control in the State of Virginia. If the Governor ousts progressives from their remaining toehold, the state Senate, a sharply conservative policy agenda is sure to emerge.Virginia has become more aligned with UU values over the last two decades. Our work will send information and inspiration to registered voters who share our values and are facing voter access challenges. Join us to make a difference, both for freedom in Virginia and nationally in 2024!

Questions: Contact Carolyn Laughlin, or Admin@ucevanston.org

Greetings from Rev. Eileen Wiviott

The Parliament of World’s Religions is meeting this week in Chicago for the third time in its history. The Parliament first convened at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago to cultivate global interfaith cooperation and engagement. One hundred years later, the Parliament met again in Chicago and has met since in Cape Town, Barcelona, Melbourne, Salt Lake City and Toronto. I was excited to attend though I had no clear plan for making the best use of my time there. Like the UUA’s General Assembly multiplied by 10, this gathering at McCormick Place is pretty overwhelming... 

Welcome New Staff Member!

We are so pleased to introduce our new Communications Coordinator, Suzanne Lis Daley, who has started this week. After an extensive search, we feel fortunate to have Suzanne join our staff team. She brings a wealth of knowledge, skill, and experience to the position and we feel strongly that her values and character will make her a wonderful match for our congregation.

Here is a little more about Suzanne. Please join us in welcoming her to UCE when you have a chance to meet or talk with her.

Hats Off to Jeanie McCullough

Our hats are off to Jeanie McCullough. Jeanie joined UCE in November of 2023 and dove right into church life. Jeanie has been volunteering with the Garden team, and more recently has lent her expertise to the Buildings and Grounds team along with Robb Geiger to address issues with the church's roof. She is also set to begin helping the Pastoral Care team address pastoral needs within the congregation. Thank you, Jeanie, for your time and your talent.

A concert to honor Gay Menges, Jon's mom, on August 20th. This is a free concert but if you're able to make a contribution of $10-$20, it would be greatly appreciated.

Twenty-two current and past leaders gathered Saturday August 12th for the UCE Stewardship Summit. The Summit was organized in response to concerns about UCE's financial stability. The focus of the event was to identify opportunities to grow and expand revenue.

Specifically, the goals were to: 

• Build a shared understanding of the revenue challenges facing us based on trends and projections for pledge, rental, fundraising income, and other giving. 
• Brainstorm an approach to stewardship that aligns with our shared values and collective aspirations for achieving our mission, presents giving as a spiritual practice, and recognizes the variety of ways available to financially support our UCE community and its work. 

Participants included representatives from the Board of Trustees, Integrated Stewardship, Social Justice, and Congregational Life and Faith Formation Councils, Endowment, Rummage Sale, Serendipity Auction, and Fair-Trade Cart, and staff and past congregational leaders. Attendees reviewed information about revenue sources and addressed three questions:  

• How can we cultivate generosity of spirit and financial stewardship?  
• How can we expand the giving opportunities available to members?  
• How can we expand opportunities to generate income from external sources? 

Small group conversations generated many ideas addressing activities like the pledge drive, building rentals, fundraising events, communication strategies, and continuing congregational conversations about how to secure UCE’s financial future. Ideas gathered will be shared with Summit participants during an online session on September 5th so that possible next steps can be identified. Watch the newsletter for updates later in September. 

Service of Remembrance Sun August 27 - 9:00 a.m. 

The Chris Isely Cancer Support Group will again host the annual Service of Remembrance on Sunday, 8/27/23, at 9:00 a.m. This service honors the loved ones we’ve lost for any reason, whether within our church family or in our personal lives. Rev. Eileen and members of the group will lead the brief ceremony. 

Anyone who wishes to honor the memory of a loved one, regardless of when they died, is invited to attend. The service will take place outside on the south lawn of the church. (In the event of rain, the service will move inside, to the rear of the sanctuary.) The community is invited to join us.

The nonfiction book group will meet at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 27th via Zoom to select the books we will discuss in the coming months. Everyone is welcome to join us. Contact Jackie Seaman through the Realm Membership Directory if you have questions. Click here to join Zoom meeting.

Faith Formation Hour this Sunday:

Childcare (0-3 years) is available in Room 11 from 10am-11:45am

Looking Ahead… 

Celebrate Summer – before it ends! 

Join the Family Ministry Team on September 3 for an afternoon full of sunshine, waves, and friendship at Lighthouse Beach. 

In the Neighborhood… 

The Center on Halsted’s QFam Family Museum Trip to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum - August 19 @ 10am 

QFAM is open to LGBTQ+ families with children ages 0-11. During the visit our group will experience a special butterfly release! 

Pre-registration is required, and we still have a few tickets available!

 Sign up here or  Email Eli with questions.

Volunteer Celebration & Orientation – September 17,  12 -1:15p 

Curious about Faith Formation for Children and Youth this year? Whether you plan to volunteer or just want more information before helping, come to a little gathering to learn more about what, how, and why we do what we do. Here is a short video to watch at your convenience about the basics of our Faith Formation program. Sign up here to join the celebration so we can plan for food and childcare. 

UCE launched our postcard campaign to the state of Virginia last Sunday, and YOU picked up 1,400 cards! Thanks to your commitment. Virginia registered voters aligned with our UU values will be far more likely to have their voices heard in their critical November House and Senate elections.

We're restocking! More postcards will be distributed after the worship service on August 20th. Mail dates are Sept 8-Oct 25, giving us plenty of time to make a huge impact. Thank you for living our values out in the world!

Questions? Contact Greg Grabowski through the REALM Membership Directory or at admin@ucevanston.org.

UCE Local Response Network Joins

Social Justice Council!

Beloved Conversations Registration Open

Through August 31st

What does that mean for a team to join the UCE Social Justice Council (SJC)? 

The UCE Local Response Network (LRN) is a communication system designed to enable the UCE community to take immediate, short-term action on social justice issues. LRN members are members and friends of UCE who may or may not serve on other social justice teams. Members receive periodic “alerts” about rallies, protests, meetings, and other events which require folks to show up, participate, and live their values, without a long-term commitment.

Serving on the Social Justice Council (SJC), the LRN representative will learn about “action” opportunities across all of our social justice areas and bring those opportunities to LRN members. The LRN rep will also encourage social justice teams to consider new short-term action opportunities to share with the broader congregation. Importantly, the LRN representative is in a unique position to identify opportunities that may “fall between the cracks” - not clearly in the domain of a single team - and foster collaboration on these events. In short, having a seat at the council table will expand the ways in which LRN members engage with issues which reflect UU values!

Carolyn Laughlin will be our first LRN representative sitting on SJC. If you would like to get involved with LRN, please email Carolyn or admin@ucevanston.org. 

Thank you to everyone at UCE who worked with the Legislative Action Team and UU Prison Ministry Team to encourage our state legislators to pass the Pretrial Fairness Act, also known as the SAFE-T Act!

After the law’s constitutionality was upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court on July 18, 2023, in a 5-2 ruling, the portion of the Pretrial Fairness Act ending cash bail will take effect on September 18, 2023.

The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice has put out a call for community court watching across the state to monitor the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act during pretrial hearings in September and October.

Volunteers must be able to attend one training virtually and take at least two in-person shifts (each lasting between 2-5 hours) observing pretrial hearings in the county where they were trained.

The REAL Team highly recommends that anyone who has not taken the online version of Beloved Conversations sign up for a “Beloved Conversations: Within Course for BIPOC+” or a “Beloved Conversations: Within Course for White People." Register here.

The Beloved Conversations in-person curriculum has evolved to be a three-part online curriculum divided into the Within Phase, the Among Phase, and the Beyond Phase. If you took the original in-person curriculum, the new online Beloved Conversations: Within is a restyled individual curriculum that will bring you something new and connect you with individuals across the country.

If Beloved Conversations is new to you, it is a program that “focuses on the internal work that each of us needs to do as we engage in deeper personal understanding, explorations of race and racism, extracting our souls and spirits from white supremacy culture, and work for racial justice.”

UCE has scholarships available for the Beloved Conversations: Within registration fee. Please complete an application here.

or contact or email Rev. Susan Frances.

The Giving House food donations are simplified! 

You can bring any of the following: pasta, rice, beans, cereal, soups, and/or canned fish or meat.

Now you don’t have to remember which item to bring for which month. We will accept any of these items any month any time. The Giving house is the wooden box/house in the lobby. It opens from the roof. Please place items in here any time during the week or on Sunday.

We are partnering with C&W Market & Ice Cream to distribute free foods to those in need.

Unitarian Church of Evanston

1330 Ridge Ave. Evanston, IL 60201

847-864-1330