Nurturing the Human Spirit for a World Made Whole | |
Sunday Service July 28th at 10:30am | |
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"The Language of Belonging: Bridging Divides in Our Diverse Community"
This service explores the power of shared language in fostering a sense of belonging within our Unitarian Universalist community. We'll examine how our words can both unite and divide and discuss the paradox of belonging - that in creating a community, we may inadvertently exclude others. Through the lens of our UU values, we'll discover ways to overcome this paradox and build a more inclusive, welcoming congregation. Carla Williams will be our Worship Associate.
Our worship leader is Rev. Gianni Fogliano (they/them), the UUA’s Manager and Strategist for Equity, Belonging, and Change. Gianni has served at the UUA for over five years, first as project manager to the Commission on Institutional Change (CoIC), in the development of the 2020 report, Widening the Circle of Concern. At the completion of the CoIC work, they joined the Office of the President as Project Manager, managing key institutional priorities and administrative initiatives including CoIC Implementation and Mission Alignment Team and the Article II Study Commission.
Children and Youth will go to their faith formation programs after
Joys & Sorrows.
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Faith Formation Hour this Sunday | |
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Childcare (0-3 years) is available in room 11 from 10:15am-11:45am.
BlUUey (pre/K-6th) - Room 3 – We will watch the episode, “Octopus”, play some games, and talk about one of our new UU values, Pluralism. Parents should pick up youngster(s) at noon.
Picnics in the Park – August 4th at Penny Park, 12-1pm. Bring a picnic or snack and meet up with other UCE families! Questions - contact Lara LaPratt.
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Greetings from Rev. Susan Frances | |
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Dear Friends,
Now is the time to start talking with your friends and family about how democracy is one of your values and about what goes into your decisions to vote for candidates who also value democracy. In thinking about why democracy is one of my core values, I ended up looking up “value” in the Oxford English Dictionary. One meaning of value is “a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.”
Civil Liberties
I value the interconnected existence of humans within nature, so I vote for candidates who are willing to enact or uphold legislation that will promote renewable energy sources and phase out fossil fuels. And when I say “candidates,” I mean elected officials in our legislative, judicial, and executive branches from local elections to national elections. I value bodily autonomy, so I vote for candidates who are willing to enact or uphold legislation that grants abortion care to pregnant individuals. I value a society of people who think critically, so I vote for candidates who are willing to allow age-appropriate banned books in school and public libraries. I value being part of a democratic society, so I vote for candidates who are willing to guard my civil liberties.
I had the great honor of four of my nieces and nephews agreeing to walk with me in the Chicago Pride Parade on June 30th. We walked with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) contingent (see photo), which gave me the opportunity to talk with the youth and young adults of my family (ages 14, 16, 18, and 22) at dinner the night before the Parade about the importance of our civil liberties, which for me are the ideals of our democracy...
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Our hats are off to Carol Nielsen, Lynn Kendall, Karen Courtright, Alice Chrostowski, and Julie Lamberti for labeling our renovated kitchen. The kitchen renovations were completed while the building was closed in 2020. Since reopening after the pandemic lockdown, we have spent the last two years getting a feel for our new kitchen and have settled into it. In order to make the kitchen more user friendly as more groups start to have more activities at UCE, this group of volunteers spent Thursday with two label makers and steady hands to put labels on the kitchen cabinets and drawers. If you would like to join the Kitchen Hospitality Team, please let Rev. Susan know and save the date for the Hospitality Team Training from 12:30-2:00 pm on September 8, 2024.
Thank you, Carol, Lynn, Karen, Alice, and Julie for all the joy you share and care you provide by way of our kitchen.
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This Week's Events & Links | |
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Friday, July 26th
- Dance Lessons, 2:30-3:30pm, Rm 3
- Tarts & Vicars, Father Nathan Monk & Stormy Daniels Comedy Show, 7-9:30pm, Sanctuary
Saturday, July 27th:
- Virtual Pilates, 9:30-10:30am, via Zoom
- Writing Memoirs Group, 1-4pm, Rm 2
Sunday, July 28th:
- Chris Isely Cancer Support Group, 9am-10:30am, in-person Rm 6 and via Zoom Link.
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Sunday July 28th, continued
- Worship Service, 10:30am-11:30am, in the Sanctuary. Kinship 11:30am-12:30pm.
Monday, July 29th:
- UCE Addictions & Recovery, 7-9pm, via Zoom.
Tuesday, July 30th:
Wednesday, July 31st:
Thursday August 1st:
- Meditation Group, 5:30-7pm, via Zoom
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Congregational Connections | |
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YOU ARE INVITED TO LIGHTHOUSE PROXIMITY PARTNERS’ SUMMER GATHERINGS!
PICNIC & FILM Join Lighthouse PP for a picnic and a Starlight film! Bring your own food, or purchase food from the Soul & Smoke food truck Saturday, July 27 Mason Park at Church & Florence 6:00pm Picnic and chat 6:30 Soul & Smoke (credit cards only) starts serving 7:00 The Color Purple begins Look in the air for a floating balloon(s) when you arrive and you will find your Lighthouse PP! PLEASE RSVP to Mary Beth Roth (email in Realm) so we can save a good spot for you. If you forget to RSVP, come anyway!
GOTV POSTCARDS Meet old friends, welcome new ones, and snack on tasty heavy hors d’oeurves, while writing Get Out the Vote postcards for Lowndes County, GA with your Lighthouse Proximity Partners. They are to be mailed Sep 15-30th, so plan to take some home to complete if you wish! Tuesday, July 30th 6-7:30pm at Maggie and Dennis Wilson’s home in Evanston (address in Realm). PLEASE RSVP to Martha Holman (holman dot martha at gmail dot com) and she can also get you the Wilson's address. If you forget to RSVP, come anyway! Postcards will be provided by UUtheVOTE. You can provide the stamps, but we will also have some on hand!
We look forward to seeing many of you at these events!
Maggie Wilson, Martha Holman, and Mary Beth Roth
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Friday, August 23rd
6-9pm
Members, Friends, Young and Old, join us for a POTLUCK and PROGRAM with your Board of Trustees facilitated by Rev. Sharon Dittmar, our MidAmerica Regional Representative. There will engaging conversation, fun and meaningful activities for young people and, of course, delicious potluck food from all of us!
Please RSVP by selecting the Attending Potluck & Program spot. If you are able to help with set-up or clean-up, please also select one of those spots. If you have any questions about how to RSVP or volunteer, please contact Rev. Susan at sfrances@ucevanston.org.
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SAVE THE DATE:
August 11th after Sunday service, Room 3 at 12:00pm, for a Baby Shower for Naheya and Eric. More details posted next week, along with signup.
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Family Friday Nature Hike – August 16 at 6:30pm at
Emily Oaks Nature Center. CLICK HERE for more info!
All ages are invited to meet in front of the nature center at 6:30p for a nature hike and to hang out at the playground. There are picnic tables for those who wish to come early and enjoy a picnic supper before the hike.
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ALERT: GEORGIA IS EXPERIENCING SLOW MAIL DELIVERY! If you have postcards to mail to Georgia, you will need to mail your postcards earlier than the instructions direct.
PLEASE Mail Your Georgia postcards
September 15 to 30 (instead of Oct 15 to 30).
UCE partners with Reclaim Our Vote, a non-partisan voter engagement organization aimed at ensuring eligible voters, most likely aligned with UU values, at risk of disenfranchisement, have access to their ballots. UCE does not partner with parties nor candidates, because of our tax status.
While the UUtheVote team recognizes that many UCE friends and members are working with partisan groups, we will continue to provide the Reclaim Our Vote postcarding opportunity, each week, at our program table at the back of the sanctuary, through September.
Milwaukee Voter Registration Project
This opportunity continues at the Chase (Monday-Friday) and Mill Rd (Saturday only) DMV offices. The Chase population is largely Hispanic, so a proportion are not citizens and unable to register. Speaking a bit of Spanish is helpful. If you are trained, you can continue to participate through SignUp, here.
Join the UUtheVote Team
Want to join us as the election heats up? We’re fun, energetic, and we’d love to have you at our program table distributing postcards and talking with other election engaged UCE friends! Email or call Carolyn Laughlin (carolynblaughlin at gmail dot com).
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UCE Non-Fiction Book Group
The nonfiction book group will meet virtually on Zoom at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 28th using our recurring link to discuss an opinion piece by columnist David Brooks which appeared in the New York Times on August 10, 2023. In his article entitled "Hey America, Grow Up!", Brooks traces the decline of the American psyche since cultural changes that began after World War II. He says that therapy emphasized people's sense of self-worth and sometimes people depended on others to validate their own self-esteem. As time went on, we were in the middle of a mental health crisis, with rising depression and suicide rates.
To learn what David Brooks believes about how people build secure identities, read his article.
Zoom discussion on Sunday, July 28th at 2pm, using our recurring ZOOM link.
On Sunday, August 25th, we will gather on Zoom to decide what we will read or view and discuss in the coming months. Please send your recommendations to Jackie Seaman on REALM by August 22nd, so she can compose a list of suggested titles and distribute that list to participants before our August meeting.
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UCE Fiction Book Group
The UCE Fiction Book Group is reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. The 2008 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Oscar made the top ten on the New York Times’ list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. Oscar tells some of the history of the contemporary Dominican-American experience as one thread of the immigrant fabric of being American.
Friday, August 16 by ZOOM, 7-8pm using our recurring ZOOM link.
Future reads:
September 20: Eastbound, by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore (2023) A young Russian conscript and a French woman come together in a crowded compartment of the Trans-Siberian railroad, each of them fleeing to the east for their own reasons.
October 18: All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones (2007) Folks in the everyday Black community of Washington, D.C., thought the values of the South would sustain them in the North and find "that the cohesion born and nurtured in the south would be but memory in less than two generations.” E.P. Jones is the author of the 2004 Pulitzer-prize-winning The Known World.
November 15: Erasure, by Percival Everett (2011) Everett’s blistering, rollicking satire of the plight of the Black writer in the world of American publishing. Rejected by seventeen publishers for his latest manuscript, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison spins off a parody of “what the public wants,” My Pafology, which is, of course, a wild success.
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Tonight, Friday July 26th -
DOORS OPEN 6:30PM
UCE is excited to be the host of what should be a very interesting night of comedy and social commentary! This is a facility rental, with its own ticketing entry. Click the TICKETS button below for more information. One of our UUA colleagues posted an article Father Monk he wrote about his friendship with Stormy: Read More.
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CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO READ MORE: | |
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Unitarian Church of Evanston
1330 Ridge Ave. Evanston, IL 60201
847-864-1330
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