Sunday Service February 23, 2025 at 10:30am 

As we enter the final weekend of the annual pledge drive let’s strive to create MORE love, peace, justice, and hope! We have reached 74% or $171,390.00 away from our pledge drive goal of $665,000.00, with 140 households submitting their pledge form as of February 19th. The Pledge Drive Support Team is doing follow-up calls this next week and team members are available at the back of the sanctuary during kinship time this Sunday. If you did not receive the email with your personalized pledge packet, and it did not land in your spam or junk box, please contact the pledge team by calling 847-864-1330, Ext. 111, or emailing pledgeinfo@ucevanston.org.

Budget Town Halls

We will have two opportunities for the congregation to learn and ask questions about our proposed 2025/2026 annual operating budget: March 9th after worship (12pm) in room 3; and March 12th at 7pm on Zoom.

UPDATES FROM DR. EMMA FARRELL

Dear Beloveds, 

I write to you from a place of deep reflection and inspiration. This week, I have the profound honor of attending the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, a national annual gathering dedicated to nurturing, sustaining, and mobilizing the African American faith community. It is a space of wisdom, courage, and collective power, where faith and justice meet in ways that challenge the mind, stir the soul, and call the body into action. 

I cannot fully describe the experience, but I will try. To be a guest—a minority in a cultural space—offers a broadening perspective. It is humbling. It compels me to listen more deeply, to step outside my own context, and to witness faith in a way that is embodied, urgent, and alive. There is a deep invitation here: an invitation to alterity, to step into another’s lived experiences with an open heart and an open mind. And when we do, we are transformed...

Our hats are off to Susan Carlton for leading the Congregational Connections Team, organizing chalice conversations with newer members and facilitating a new member short-term covenant group. Susan's gifts have contributed to strengthening our network of connections and helping newcomers to cultivate a sense of belonging and meaning making. Thank you for all you do, Susan!

Seed Planting

March 7th, 6:30-8pm

We’ll be learning about planting seeds to take home and watch grow.

Bring a snack to share.

Planning for End of Life - Better Now Than Never

This series of three programs is for adults of all ages to help prepare for the end of life. We don’t know when our time on earth will end, so why not do what we can now to make it easier for our loved ones?

You can participate in any or all of these sessions facilitated by Alison Issen:

February 26th at 7pm: Up Close and Personal: Growth and Opportunity In Facing Our Mortality

March 5th at 7pm: Putting Your Ducks In a Row

March 19th at 7pm: Harvesting the Wisdom of Your Life: Creating an Ethical Will

Register HERE

• NEW way to submit Newsletter requests! Please use our new Google Form found HERE to submit your articles and images.

• If you're viewing the newsletter in your email inbox, click on "View entire message" at the bottom of the email to read the full newsletter!

Retired (But Not Retiring!) Women: We will be meeting Tuesday, Feb. 25, 5-7, in the back of the Sanctuary. 

After our potluck, we will have a conversation related to "Hope". Since we no longer have our colleagues 

at work for talking about things, this is a great place to do just that!

For information, feel free to contact Margie Rogasner.

Meeting Our Interfaith Neighbors

March 4th at 7pm in Room 3 or on Zoom

We’ll begin our exploration of the Episcopal faith with our guest, Fr. Greg Millikan from St. Mark’s.

You can register here to be included on future emails.

MO Blues Band Dance Party!

Dive into a mesmerizing evening brimming with rhythm and soul, showcasing the incredible Alicia Hempfling and the MO Blues Band at this special celebration! With an impressive ten-year history of enchanting music enthusiasts, this event is set to be truly memorable. Enjoy complimentary snacks and beverages, including wine, beer and non-alcoholic beer. It's an all-ages event, perfect for families, and childcare services are also available. 6-8:30pm Friday, March 28th, $8 in advance, $10 at the door.

Link to purchase tickets is here

We know there are a lot of you out there who love thrifting. If that describes you, please consider being a department lead! We are currently looking for co-leads in the Treasures and Housewares departments. If interested, contact rummage@ucevanston.org to learn more.

In addition, an online signup for an array of volunteer opportunities will be published soon -- watch the newsletter for details. In the meantime, continue to set aside items to donate, being sure to encourage friends and neighbors to do the same! 

Once again, mark your calendars with these key dates:

• Sale Dates: Fri 5/2 – Sat 5/3
• Donation Dates: Sun 4/27 – Mon 4/28
• Setup Dates: Sun 4/27 – Thurs 5/1

Come Dream a Dream with Me

On March 2nd at noon, join Board Member Forrest Marie and Board President Elaine in Room 3 for a 75-minute discussion of the two multi-year big questions that arose from Rev. Dittmar’s World Cafe last summer! As we enter the newly chaotic and dangerous political reality, our unified efforts for the near future are more paramount than ever for our communities. What changes do we need to make so that UCE is more accessible in a variety of ways to all? How can we foster connections that go beyond our comfort zones at UCE and in the larger community? The future we all need can only be built by groups larger than today’s UCE congregation, and these two questions direct us to dream our futures together. This will be the first of four formal group opportunities to engage in these questions prior to the annual May meeting. One additional session will be held in person on April 11th 6:30 -7:45pm. Two sessions will be held on zoom, on March 22nd 10am - 11:15am, and April 22nd 7p-8:15p. Food will be provided at both in-person sessions. 

Register HERE

Sign Up Is Open for Winter Friendship Meals

Sign ups are open for Winter Friendship Meals! The online sign up sheet HERE contains meal details; browse the choices and select the one that works best. Ask questions or get sign-up help at the back of the sanctuary after worship on February 23rd. Or contact Lina Hilko (LHilko at aol dot com) or Margaret Koreman (Margaret.Koreman at gmail dot com).

 Winter session meals are:

● Sat, Mar 8th, 11AM in-home International Women’s Day brunch

● Sat, Mar 8th 6PM in-home chicken dinner

● Sun, Mar 9th 5PM in-home vegan tortilla soup dinner

● Wed, Mar 12th 12PM in-home gluten-free soup & salad lunch

● FULL Sat, Mar 15th 12:30PM in-home salads & dessert lunch

●FULL Sat, Mar 15th 6:30PM Mount Everest Restaurant family-style dinner

● FULL Sun, Mar 16th 5PM in-home Indian butter chicken dinner

● FULL Sun, Mar 16th 6PM in-home St. Patrick’s Day dinner

Celebration of Life for Marty Flint



Friday, March 7, at 2 pm, we will celebrate the life of our much beloved Marty Flint. Two Margarets (Shaklee & Talmage) are organizing hospitality. If it would please you to take on a small role or bring a favorite food to honor Marty click HERE to SignUP!

If you want to opt out of the technology, email Margaret Shaklee with your offer to help.

Many thanks!

Rhythm for Congregations Masterclass:

A workshop after worship on March 23rd



Whether you are a choir member or a non-chorister who simply who loves making music, join us for an energetic, fully participatory workshop designed to help choirs, and congregations better understand rhythm in the mind, body, and spirit. With Matt’s guidance, we’ll explore the theories and practices of West African, South Indian and European perspectives on rhythm. This is as much rhythm training as you can possibly fit into a 90-minute master class!

Matt Meyer, who’ll be our worship leader that Sunday, is a traveling musician and worship leader for UU congregations. He has a degree in hand drumming from Berklee College of Music, where he focused his studies on Cuban and Brazilian music. He's the drummer in the Sanctuary Boston worship band and has performed with a wide range of musicians and bands, including Ysaye Barnwell (of Sweet Honey in the Rock), Pete Seeger, Emma’s Revolution, Peter Mayer, Jim Scott, Nick Page, The Halalisa Singers, Samba Tremeterra, and Bloco de Afrobrazil.

*It's helpful to have at least some background in music, but anyone who's ever played an instrument at all or sung in any choir, will do fine.

What's in a Name: Do You Know What the Nellie Brough Society Is?

The Nellie Brough Society (NBS) is the group of people who have included the Unitarian Church of Evanston Endowment Fund in their wills and/or who have contributed $5,000 or more to the Endowment Fund. If you have done either or both, you are an NBS member.  

We’ve been thinking that most of the Congregation does not know what the Nellie Brough Society is, so maybe we should change the name. Maybe to something Congregants can more easily identify with the Endowment Fund. Something with the word “Endowment” in it.  

We do think that Nellie Brough, who is one of our important founders, should be prominently honored by the Unitarian Church of Evanston, but in another way.

What do you think? Feel free to let us know.  

Dana Deane dddeane847 at gmail dot com

Jean Butzen jeanbutzen at gmail dot com

Karen Courtright karencourtright at gmail dot com

A Chance to Dance!

From the UCE auction, you get the chance to take three beginner dance lessons at UCE. The lessons will help you enjoy partner dancing to a range of music. You can learn or improve your skills at leading and at responding. The classes are scheduled on Thursdays at 2pm: March 6, 15, 22. 

Pay for the lessons by using this link to buy through the auction website. Yes, you can invite friends too. The classes are for beginner but improvers can use the time and the instructor to learn new patterns too.



And Serendipitously, the UCE auction is offering you a Friday evening of dancing to live music on March 28! Buy those tickets at the website and put on some dancing shoes! ~ Shirley Adams

UCE Young Adult Group

Third Friday Faith Formation & Game Nights

Our next gathering is tonight! February 21st, 7-9pm



The Young Adult Group at UCE is a group for young adults (18-35) interested in exploring spiritual deepening in community. We meet on every 3rd Friday from 7-9pm in Room 3 to discuss monthly Soul Matters themes, check in with each other, eat snacks, and play games.

Contact Kiley Korey (kileyekorey at gmail dot com), Kevin Barrow (kbarrow13 at gmail dot com) or Kathy Underwood (kunderwood at ucevanston dot org) with any questions.

Want some support for achieving your Environmental goals?

Join the UCE Green Team after service, 12-1pm on Sunday Feb. 23 in room 3. We will be planning how to publicize and celebrate the new solar panels coming this year to our roof. 

Join us in person or online at this link and you can also help us plan how to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. 

UCE has a gardening team for our grounds, a forest preserve work team, a vegetable garden team, a wonderful recycling/compost program, a Bike the Ridge team, an emissions reduction task force and connections to numerous green organizations. There are so many ways to help UCE set and achieve our environmental goals. (You can also join these teams on REALM!)

Get Ready! UUA's General Assembly 2025 is Around the Corner

The 64th UUA General Assembly will be a multi-platform event June 18 - 22 with the main stage at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. If you've never attended GA, make this the year! This five-day event is full of opportunities to share space with other UUs, as we gather to worship, witness, learn, connect, and make policy decisions for the Association through a democratic process. Check out program highlights.

Early bird registration pricing is available until March 31. Multiplatform and Single-day In-person registration options are available. Take advantage of UUA's $100 discount for first time attendees. Or tap into the UCE Endowment Grant for GA scholarships or the UUA's financial support opportunities. Visit the UUA website for more GA information.

A number of UCE members are attending in-person. If you are interested in attending in-person or virtually, or want to serve as a UCE delegate, let us know via the GA sign-up form. Or contact a member of the Denominational Affairs Team: Peggy Boccard, Melanie Kitchner, Cheryl Mounts, Carla Williams. Our contact info is in Realm.

Our Shared Offering Program is one of the ways that we live into our mission statement "for a world made whole." Each Sunday, the funds collected during our worship service either via text donations or in the collection bowls (and not otherwise designated for a pledge or something else) are shared equally between our operating budget and the current Shared Offering Recipient.



The current Shared Offering Recipient is the Community Renewal Society which is a faith-based, community organizing and public policy organization that works with congregations in and around Chicago to address issues of racism and poverty.

Would you like to help out refugees & immigrants?

This Sunday–February 23rd during Kinship Time, stop by the Building Peaceful Bridges (BPB) table to learn about simple, straightforward volunteering options. Here are some options:

• Provide rides to soccer practice or other sports games/practices for young kids,
• Help organize and run events. Their Iftar dinner coming up in March is one example, but they need help with planning other events as well.
• Act as an academic tutors or ESL conversation tutors
• Help with a collection drive (toiletries, diapers, laundry detergent - items not covered by SNAP)
• Write grants

The Immigrant Solidarity Team met the team at BPB in 2021 when we began supporting the Afghan family. We had joint meetings for about a year and supported each other through many changes. BPB has also provided much-needed legal and financial advice and we’ve also learned about other Refugee groups operating in Chicago as well. We think there will be UCE members who might enjoy volunteering for such an exceptional group.

Greetings Friends,

Interfaith Action’s SNAPGap is collecting toothbrushes and toothpaste to be distributed at the March 11 Produce Mobile. Any type of toothbrush or toothpaste is welcome. You may purchase items online at at this link. Or drop off locally bought items at First United Methodist Church, 516 Church Street, Evanston. The church office is open from 10am-2pm, Monday through Friday.

Thank you for your participation! These necessities help individuals and families who are struggling to pay the rent, put food on the table, maintain their health, and live in dignity. Your participation and generosity are greatly appreciated by all. 

Finally, you may have heard news about upcoming transitions regarding the Produce Mobile. Please know that the program will continue as always through May. In the meantime, the Interfaith Action Board is researching and deliberating its options for the future. Thanks for your patience.

Warm regards,

SNAPGap Team

Questions? Text or call IAE delegate, Toni Rey

Are you called to bring a loving, UU presence inside your local jail or prison?

Please join the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of IL leaders for an "inside" jail and prison facilitation training, held Saturday, March 8, from 2pm to 5pm in Rm. 3 at the Unitarian Church of Evanston at 1330 Ridge Avenue. 

This small-group style facilitator training will serve as a foundation for going in to facilitate circles in jail or prison. We currently have active ministries in Cook County jail men's and women's sides as well as at Logan Women's prison, with potential expansion to Decatur Women's prison. We will cover skill-building for trauma-informed facilitation, grounding, self-care and cultural humility.

Register here

Please note: you cannot participate in IL Dept of Corrections programming (prison) if you are a pen pal with someone locked up in IDOC.

The next meeting of the UCE Fiction Book Group

is tonight! February 21st by ZOOM, 7-8pm

using our Recurring Zoom link

February 21:  Geraldine Brooks, Horse 

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism. Spanning a century and a half, the story begins with an enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal who forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. 

UCE Nonfiction Book Group

The group will meet on Zoom at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 23rd using our recurring ZOOM link.

The nonfiction group will discuss Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods.

The authors, a professor of evolutionary anthropology and a research scientist at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University, posit that what makes us evolutionarily fit is not physical strength, tactical brilliance and aggression but a remarkable kind of friendliness. An ability to coordinate and communicate with others has allowed Homo sapiens to thrive and to achieve cultural and technical marvels. But the same traits that make us tolerant can also make us cruel when we feel threatened by outsiders.

In March, our group will discuss Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society by Joseph Stiglitz.

ONGOING EVENTS:

(Click on the images to read more)

Unitarian Church of Evanston

1330 Ridge Ave. Evanston, IL 60201

847-864-1330