In a four-part sermon, the Eden UU interns will share glimpses of their ideas around Beloved Community.

Eliot Chapel is serving as one of four teaching congregations to four UU students who are currently enrolled at Eden Theological Seminary. This initiative is launched in cooperation with three other UU congregations in Illinois and Missouri. Together, we provide opportunities in preaching, religious education, pastoral care, etc. Now, meet the students! 

Our service video will be available at 10:00 am at eliotchapel.org and will remain there all week. You can also find it directly on Eliot Chapel's YouTube channel.

We have a longstanding tradition at Eliot Chapel of sharing our Sunday offering with an organization in our community.In February, we will share the offering with Home Sweet Home, an organization that provides donated furniture and household items to clients transitioning out of homelessness. Home Sweet Home believes that establishing a first home stocked with the necessities for everyday life provides a sense of ownership and a source of stability at this crucial time.

To learn more about what donations they accept and how to get involved, visit their website at www.homesweethomestl.org.

The online Children’s Religious Education Meetup is not in session on Sunday, February 14. In honor of Valentine’s Day, we encourage parents & caregivers, along with their children, to explore the first family worship experience together in the February 2021 edition of Chalice Home, titled "Beloved Community–Open Your Heart." The resource will be shared with registered families via email on February 12. The children’s meetup will resume on Sunday, February 21 at 9:15 am.

For more information about activities for children and youth, please contact Scott Stewart at scott@eliotchapel.org or Christie Lee at christie@eliotchapel.org.

At 11:30 am, you are invited to “walk down the hall” and come to our Zoom Coffee Hour! We’ll take about 10 minutes or so to gather and let people settle in. We'll say a few words of welcome and then create break-out rooms – random groupings of 5 or 6 people. Everyone will likely make a new friend at Eliot from this exercise! You’ll have the chance to introduce yourself and then share your answers to a few questions, like “How has this week been for you?” and “What feelings has it brought up for you?” Each person has about 5 minutes to speak; you are welcome to pass if you like. In half an hour, everyone will return to the big group and we’ll say our goodbyes for the week. Please watch your email for "Eliot on Zoom" which will include a link to join the Zoom coffee hour. If you're not on our mailing list, sign up here.

Online Church Service – 10:00 am on Eliot Chapel website

Coffee Hour – 11:30 am via Zoom

Young Adult Group – 12:30 pm on Discord

Women's Alliance – 9:30 am via Zoom

Vigil for Hope & Healing – 5:00 pm online

Community of Hope video series – 7:00 pm via Zoom

Joys & Sorrows Evening Service – 7:00 pm via Zoom

Lunch with the Minister – 12:30 pm via Zoom

Eliot Connects: Setting Ourselves Up to Flourish – 7:00 pm via Zoom

Many groups at Eliot are meeting despite the distance between us all. Check with your group leader or get involved with a new group! Find contact information in our Getting Involved booklet.

Group leaders, have you set up an area for your group in Realm? You have a secure place to chat and share documents and photos. Contact Christie Lee to set up your group.

On Sunday, February 28, we’ll be joined by an organization doing truly wonderful work: Before Ferguson Beyond Ferguson, a racial equity storytelling project, and their 63106 Project. Their mission is to tell the story of local African-American families, who have struggled over generations in our area to gain their purchase on the American Dream. Their participation in our Sunday service will give us an opportunity to experience radical empathy. Learn more about the people and stories involved with this organization here.

Eliot Chapel gratefully acknowledges that we received a generous gift of $10,000 from the estate of Linda Polcyn, a longtime member who died in June 2019. If you would like to support Eliot Chapel as part of your legacy, click here to learn about planned giving. 

For more information, email David Rowan at nominating@eliotchapel.org or reach out to one of the committee members listed here.

This Saturday, February 13, from 12:00 to 2:00 pm, Eliot’s Nominating Committee is hosting a workshop on the topic “Leading Through Disruptive Change.” We will be discussing common reactions to change and offering suggestions and ideas for how each of us can navigate through difficult times, and how each of us can be a leader and a guide to help others make their way as well. We will examine the Kubler-Ross grief cycle, ambiguous loss, and consider what skills, mindsets and behaviors have supported adaptation, and personal and congregational growth. If you are interested in joining, please contact David Rowan, Nominating Committee Chair, at nominating@eliotchapel.org for more information and a link to the session. You may also see Realm for a link to the event. 

After overwhelming attendance at our January Immigration Justice team meeting, we are hard at work defining the focus and goals for this year’s work. Once that task is complete, an ad hoc subteam will draft objectives for reaching each goal, identify tasks for completing those objectives, and set a tentative timeline for completing them. That work will have the highest impact if you (yes, YOU!) are involved. We need two things from you. First, vote for three of the 14 items (listed here) that the team suggested at the January meeting. Choose only those you find worthy of your participation and support. Send those votes to immigration@eliotchapel.org by February 14.  

And if actually achieving these goals is important to you, add to your note that you would like to join the ad hoc planning committee. We hope to have some great accomplishments this year, but that depends upon your involvement. There will be opportunities of all types, all levels of intensity, and your voice will continue to be heard when you have a suggestion or decisions need to be made. We hope to hear from you soon!

The 2020 Contribution Statement reflects pledge payments and other contributions Eliot Chapel received between January 1 and December 31, 2020. Eliot Chapel's Fiscal Year does not follow a calendar year. Its Fiscal Year is from July to June. Only the pledge payments and contributions Eliot Chapel received between January 1 and December 31, 2020 will be reflected on your 2020 Contribution Statement. If you wish to receive a Pledge Statement to date, or a Contribution Statement if you do not meet the IRS requirements, please contact frontoffice@eliotchapel.org or admin@eliotchapel.org and request a Pledge Statement be USPS-mailed or personally emailed to you.

Our COVID team is here for you. If you are quarantining and need support having groceries and prescriptions picked up, please email pastoralcare@eliotchapel.org with your contact information. 

Donations to the Minister's Discretionary Fund are also welcome should we face an increased need because of the shutdown in our region. Please indicate “Minister's Discretionary Fund” in the memo line of your gift. You may also text ELIOT MDF to 73256 to give using your mobile device.

In an email letter to members and friends, Rev. Barbara outlined "How We Do Church Now" as Eliot Chapel suspended face-to-face meetings. As a guiding document, it was always open to changes as we found out what worked and what didn't in our response to this extraordinary situation. You can find this document on our website now. We will keep it updated as things change. We'll also try to let you know here of any changes. Changes to RE information were made this week.

All staff are working from home. The building and grounds are closed for general use. A staff person is checking on the building and grounds periodically throughout the week for any facilities or maintenance issues. If you need assistance or have any questions, please email the appropriate staff person.

Eliot Chapel offices will be closed on Monday, February 15 for Presidents Day. We will reopen on Tuesday.

The Eliot Chapel Women's Alliance will meet on Tuesday, February 16 on Zoom. Conversation begins at 9:30 am followed by a presentation by Eliot Member Ed Shew at 10:00. He will discuss his novel, Chinese Brothers, American Sons, which tells a story of Chinese workers on the Transcontinental Railroad. All Eliot women are welcome. Contact womensalliance@eliotchapel.org to get involved.

If you are unable to join in on Zoom, head over to the Eliot Unitarian Chapel Facebook page and you’ll be able to join us there. See you then!

On Tuesday, February 16 from 7:00 – 8:30 pm, Eliot Chapel’s Social Justice in Action Committee will be hold its second session of the Community of Hope video series exploring issues central to our core mission and values. That evening we will watch and discuss National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman’s The Hill We Climb that she read at the presidential inauguration in January. Ms. Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history and has been inspired by black poets including Maya Angelou, Audre Lord, and Tracy Smith as well as leaders such as Frederick Douglass, Winston Churchill, and Abraham Lincoln. Please mark your calendars to attend the Zoom session – see the "Eliot on Zoom" email for a link or find registration information on Realm. Be sure to print a copy of the poem before the event – you can find the poem here. We hope to see you there!

As the pandemic drags on, our spiritual need to stay connected and present to each other grows. Join our monthly evening service focused on sharing and connection on Wednesday, February 17 at 7:00 pm. There will be centering readings, prayer, silence, and a time for deep sharing of our joys and sorrows. The service will be live on Zoom. It will not be recorded or livestreamed because of the invitation for personal sharing. Families are welcome. The Zoom connection information will be shared via the weekly "Eliot on Zoom" email.

Revs. Barbara and Krista invite you to a weekly Lunch with the Minister every Thursday at 12:30 pm. Bring your lunch or just bring yourself! Depending on the size of the group, we will hang out together in the main room or go into breakout groups. The link to join this Zoom meeting will be in the weekly "Eliot on Zoom" email. Check it out and get together!

How do you know what you believe – about God, about human nature, about truth? Unitarian Universalists are given tremendous freedom to form our own beliefs, but we also need a guide and a roadmap from time to time. We also need a community to set out with. Here is an opportunity to explore some of the big questions together. The class is perfect for parents and grandparents looking to answer your children’s and grandchildren’s challenging questions – and for anyone who would like to know themselves better and share the spiritual journey with others.

Cost: Free.

Rev. Barbara will send out materials digitally as the course progresses.

Register here.

(Registration link is HERE)

(access Zoom link HERE, webinar ID: 869 0675 6365)

Many of us meet our spiritual forebears, the Transcendentalists, as writers. We read Emerson on “Self-Reliance” and Thoreau’s Walden and think of them as disaffiliates, individualists. Yet the Transcendentalists were religious reformers: Unitarians, activists for both individual freedom and for social equality. They set powerful, influential examples we can still learn from today. 

In Conflagration: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender and Social Justice (Beacon Press, 2020), Rev. John Buehrens shows how relevant even the now forgotten figures among the Transcendentalists are to present struggles.

Purchasing and reading the book in advance of the course is encouraged, but not required. You can access the book on the UUA bookstore site HERE or purchase from Beacon Press HERE.

If you are new to Eliot Chapel, new to Unitarian Universalism, or wanting to deepen your understanding of Unitarian Universalism, this is the class for you. This 3-part series, held Mondays beginning March 8, includes sessions on Unitarian Universalist history and theology, UU religious education and spiritual development, how we worship, take care of each other and serve our community, and what it means to be a member of this congregation. All sessions will be held on Zoom. Sign up here or on Realm now!

In part 2 of our series on the Transcendentalists, Rev. Barbara will share the stories of Louisa May Alcott and her most famous book, Little Women, which has shaped the lives of girls and women for generations. Why does this story matter today? How is it a Unitarian book?