Nurturing the Human Spirit for a World Made Whole | |
Sunday Service November 19th at 10:30am | |
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Bread Communion & New Member Covenanting
We gather together to express gratitude for the abundance of life and commit ourselves to the life sustaining and transforming power of reciprocity in relationship. This Sunday, we welcome new members to our community and joyfully break bread together. Bring a loaf of bread from your family or cultural tradition along with a spread, cheese, or jam to go with it. Together we create and share abundance.
Children and youth will remain in worship for the Bread Communion.
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Faith Formation Hour this Sunday
Parent’s Perk – November 19 at 9:30a in room 13 – Whether you’re a parent or grandparent, you’re invited! Our topic will be “Bringing UUism to the Holidays”. We’ll share ways to connect our faith to the many holidays coming up. Bring your favorite morning beverage and enjoy some sweets and company!
Childcare (0-3 years) is available in room 11 from 9:15a-11:45a.
Chalice Children (pre/k), Hearts, and Hands (1st-6th), and Youth Group (7th-12th) will meet again on November 26.
Families can explore our new theme, The Gift of Generosity, at home and on their own timeframe with the Soulful Home packet. Send pictures to Kathy Underwood of your family as you explore the many ideas here!
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Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil | |
Transgender Day of Remembrance (#TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 honoring the memory of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.
Our service begins at 7pm in the Sanctuary and Live on YouTube.
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This year, we are hosting the annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Eve Service at 7:00 pm on November 22, 2023 and streamed Live on YouTube.
Our Music Director, Vickie Hellyer, is conducting a combined choir.
We are in need of 6 volunteers to create a smooth and welcoming environment for the service. If you are able to be a greeter, usher, or kitchen attendant, please click into SignUp.com, go to Wed, Nov 22, 2023, and select Greeters, Ushers, or Kitchen Attendants. Coffee and tea will be served after service.
Thank you for making UCE a place where all in our community are welcome!
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Ornament Sunday, December 3rd during Kinship Time
This is a fun way for all ages to get creative by making simple ornaments for home and for the UCE Christmas tree. If you’d like to host a craft or share a craft idea, sign up here.
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Would you like your child dedicated on Christmas Eve morning? Since Christmas Eve is a Sunday, we will have our usual 10:30 service and would like to offer the opportunity for families to have their children of any age dedicated to the UCE community that morning. Please contact Rev. Eileen as soon as possible if you would like to participate.
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Greetings from Rev. Susan | |
Dear Friends,
You are invited to stop by my office to see the amazing deep brick red color of the Maple tree leaves outside my windows. My office hours are now Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 4 pm. I continue to maintain Mondays and Saturdays as my days of rest. I hope you are finding ways to navigate your obligations to work, family, and volunteering, while also maintaining times for self-reflection and rejuvenation.
Our Engagement Fair on Sunday, November 5, during Kinship Time was joyful! Not only did folks join groups from the Garden Team to the Anti-Oppression Task Force, there was a lot of relationship building with engaged conversations around what people are doing, what is nurturing them, and how they are living their values in their everyday lives. I was fortunate to talk with some of you during the Fair and receive feedback from others. If you have ideas that arose during the Engagement Fair, please share them with me at sfrances@ucevanston.org.
One part of the Engagement Fair was the Realm Help Desk hosted by Adam Gough. We also had a station to take photos for your Realm profile. The photo is of me in front the tapestry at the back of the sanctuary. You are invited to take a photo in front of the tapestry on a Sunday morning and upload it into your Realm profile as part of our Membership Directory.
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This week we tip our hats to the marvelous hosts of our revived Friendship Meals. From November 4th through November 11th, Gillian Lawrence & Dan Lawrence, Connie Karduck, Janelle Brittain, Carolyn Laughlin, Renée Gatsis & Erlene Howard, and Ally Hunter hosted spaces for 8 people to gather either in their home or at a restaurant for good food and engaged conversations. All the seats were reserved, and the memorable stories range from meeting new people to reconnecting with old friends.
The Friendship Meals are a great way to get to know other members of our community in an informal, relaxed setting. Look for our Winter round of Friendship Meals after the new year. Thank you, Ally, Erlene, Renée, Carolyn, Janelle, Connie, Dan, and Gillian, for your generosity and loving care of our community.
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PLEASE NOTE: Requests to have articles in the 11/22 newsletter should be sent to newsletter@ucevanston.org by noon on TUESDAY, due to the Thanksgiving Holiday. | |
This Week's Events & Links | |
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Friday, November 17
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Fiction Bookclub, 7pm via Zoom
Saturday, November 18
- Virtual Pilates at 9:30am via Zoom
- Beginner Tai Chi, 9:45-:10:45am, Rm 6.
- Intermediate Tai Chi, 11-12pm, Rm 6
- Immigrant Solidarity Team, 4-5pm, via Zoom
- Serendipity Auction Celebration, 5-8:30pm. Childcare is provided, in Room 11.
Sunday, November 19
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Chris Isely Cancer Support Group at 9am in-person Rm 6 and via Zoom Link.
- Bread Communion Worship Service at 10:30am in the Sanctuary & on YouTube
- Kinship time Potluck, 11:30am
12:30-2pm, Rm 6.
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Non-fiction Book Club, 2pm, via Zoom
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Monday, November 20
- Food with Spirit Group, 5:30-6:30pm, via Zoom
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UCE Addictions & Recovery at 7pm via Zoom
- Transgender Day of Remembrance Service, 7-9pm, in the Sanctuary
Tuesday, November 21
- CLFF Council Mtg, 1pm, via Zoom
- Deepening the Spiritual Journey, 7-8pm, Rm 6
7-8:30pm, via Zoom
- First Women's Circle, 7-8pm, via Zoom
Wednesday, November 22
- Yoga via 8x8 Zoom, 9:30-10:30am
- Interfaith Thanksgiving Eve Worship Service, 7-8:30pm
Thursday, November 23 &
Friday, November 24th:
- No events scheduled.
- OFFICE CLOSED.
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45th Annual Serendipity Auction | |
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Auction Online Bidding Closes Saturday at 11am!
It is a big change, so we are saying this a lot - bidding for the Serendipity Auction closes Saturday 11/18 at 11am, BEFORE the Celebration Event that evening, when we will have so much to celebrate.
Come for an amazing meal from Soul & Smoke, tickets are still available. We will have a Chocolate Lottery, a Wine Pull and selected auction items will be available to purchase at a fixed price. Get your raffle tickets before the winner is selected at 7pm that evening. And stay for a spectacular dance thoughtfully designed for every ability, every age and every body. Don't forget to pick up your auction items before you leave that evening, they will also be available after service Sunday morning.
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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! | |
Congregational Connections | |
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UCE Members who have participated in Beloved Conversations are ready to begin the next phase which is Among. To be eligible to participate, we must document that at least 82 people at UCE have participated in a Beloved Conversations program, either their in-person or online curriculum. Thanks for helping us double check our records on this. CLICK HERE to answer.
In this second phase of our program, we take our learnings from Within and focus them on institutional, anti-racist systemic change in our congregations. In spite of our own, personal efforts to end racism, white supremacy culture still thrives in our congregational systems- in the way we make decisions, in the ways we worship, in our efforts towards social justice. What would it look like to build upon the work of our Anti-Oppression Task Force as we continue to dismantle systems of oppression in our own congregation and build communities that center liberation? We will explore this together in Among!
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TransParentsy Group - Sun Nov 17th from 12:30-2pm in Room 2
Parents and grandparents who have trans children of any age in their lives are welcome to share experiences and resources in a safe space.
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Cocoa, Carols, and Community – December 8 at 6-8pm – all ages are invited to help wrap gifts for the Mitten Tree and to enjoy some hot cocoa and sing holiday songs. Come at any time, and stay as long as you like!
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Christmas Pageant – December 17 during worship. All ages are invited to participate in this annual tradition of re-enacting the birth of Jesus from our UU viewpoint. Costumes provided or bring your own. Plenty of parts to choose from: people and animals! There are non-speaking and speaking parts. Sign up here to claim your favorite! | | | |
Look for this handy QR code, which will be available in the lobby slideshow. | |
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Mitten Tree is READY!
Mitten Tree gift sign-up is up and running. Gifts are due back at UCE for sorting and wrapping by SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3, so don’t delay in signing up! Don’t want to shop? You can donate money and the mitten tree elves will shop for you–you may Zelle or Venmo Sheila Holder, skholder8@gmail.com or 224-235-1621, or write a check to UCE with Mitten Tree in the memo, click VOLUNTEER HERE.
This longstanding tradition is a beautiful snapshot of our community’s shared values and a privilege to help organize.
Read on below about where your gifts will go this year. AND, MAY WHAT YOU GIVE BRING YOU JOY!
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CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO READ MORE: | |
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UCE Non-Fiction Book Group
Participants can choose to listen to this podcast or read the transcript:
The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Love the Free Market by Naomi Oreskes. July 14, 2023 podcast
Naomi Oreskes addresses what she calls a disastrous dogma, the “magic of the marketplace”, a myth created by American big business that has successfully persuaded many people that government regulation “distorts” the market and prevents it from doing its “magic”.
We’ll discuss the podcast but anyone who chooses to read the book is welcome to add to our discussion.
Zoom discussion Sunday, November 19th at 2 pm
Click here to join Zoom
12/17: Dark Waters videorecording. 2020. 127 min.
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UCE Fiction Book Group
We are reading Search by Michelle Huneven. A sharp and funny novel of a congregational search committee (UU), told as a memoir with recipes.
Dana Potowski is a restaurant critic and food writer and a longtime member of a progressive Unitarian Universalist congregation in Southern California. Under pressure to find her next book idea, she’s asked to join the church search committee for a new minister and agrees, resolving to secretly pen a memoir, with recipes, about the experience. That memoir, Search, follows the travails of the committee and their candidates—and becomes its own media sensation.
Zoom discussion Friday,
November 17, at 7pm
Click here to join Zoom
12/15: Good Night, Irene by Lius Alberto Urrea
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Unitarian Church of Evanston
1330 Ridge Ave. Evanston, IL 60201
847-864-1330
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