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In-Person & Virtual Worship Service

this Sunday, June 25th at 10:00 am

Faith Formation Hour this Sunday!

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

• Wisdom Tales & Wild Games will resume after the July 4th holiday. Helpers are needed too - sign up here!

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

Fair Trade Shoppers - Summer is arriving, and the Fair Trade Cart will be taking a vacation during July and August. It's time to stock up on coffee, chocolate, and other goodies. Don't wait too long; some items could run out before our last day this Sunday, June 25! 

Hats off to Tom Ticknor 

Our hats are off to Tom Ticknor, who is completing his 8th year on the Board of Trustees. Tom’s philosophy of generativity has enhanced our Board meetings and gifted us with a lasting concept of embodying innovation and growth.  

In his most recent term on the Board, Tom served as Trustee liaison to the Social Justice Council. Tom has served on the Shared Offering Program’s Evaluation Subcommittee for several years, including assisting with an evaluation and update of the criteria set forth in the Selection Process Description. The Shared Offering Program nominations are due June 30. 

Drawing up his previous experience as the Board Trustee liaison to the Endowment, Tom served on the Endowment Task Force, whose final recommendations were made to the Endowment Committee earlier this spring and then voted upon at our Special Congregational Meeting on June 11. 

Tom is also an avid advocate for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), having collaborated with Rev. Susan to provide us with a UUSC Justice Sunday worship service on March 26.  

Thank you, Tom, for your dedication to UCE and UUSC! 

Retired (but Never Retiring!) Women

Tuesday, June 27, 5:00 - 6:45pm at the back of the Sanctuary.

Come for a wonderful potluck dinner and for our summer beach-book exchange! If you bring a few books to give, you can get a few books to take! For more information, please contact Margie Rogasner.

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.

Looking ahead in Faith Formation...

Summer Concerts – June 28 at 7pm for Serendipity, a pop/rock band from the Chicago suburbs who are most notable for playing a combination of popular 60s, 70s, and 80s covers as well as current pop hits. Kristen Durning is our point person, so look for her and the UCE sign.



If you’d like to be our point person for the next concert on July 6 at Kamen Park in Evanston, email Kathy.

The Family Ministry Team is planning a beach day in July. More info coming soon!

You can see a working calendar here that includes multi-age events. As in life, things change, so you can refer to this calendar throughout the year for updates or read them in the newsletter.

Want to know more about Faith Formation this year? Read our brochure here.

UCE Non-Fiction Book Group: 

Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism by Nancy Palmer Jones and Karin Lin

The nonfiction book group will meet Sunday, June 25, 2023 at 2:00p.m. via Zoom.

In this year’s UUA Common Read, the authors share the experiences of five UU congregations across the U.S. as they take on the call for Beloved Community, to practice a radically inclusive and compassionate, anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and multicultural faith within their churches and to act powerfully in partnership and solidarity for justice and liberation beyond.  Rev. nancy and Ms. Lin hope that these stories of transformation will inspire readers to take the risks, make the mistakes, discover the creativity, and be enriched by the joys of multicultural, antiracist work.

UCE Fiction Book Group 

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

The Fiction book group will meet Friday, July 21, 2023 at 7 p.m. via Zoom.

Birnam Wood is a self-described guerrilla gardening collective that sometimes legally, and sometimes less so, cultivates wherever it can, “along verges and fence lines, beside motorway offramps, inside demolition sites and in junkyards filled with abandoned cars.”  Through “doing instead of talking,” these feisty idealists hope for widespread, lasting social change. They want people to see how much fertile land goes to waste.

Then the outlaws come to town. For an especially delicious spread of fertile land recently freed up by climate devastation, Birnam Wood is up against an American billionaire doomsteader intent on acquiring the land to support his end of the world bunker. For starters – the land is also, of course, rich in minerals. Environmentalists among us will be in their element in this rodeo!

Shared Offering Program Nominations Open

Nominations for the 2023-2024 Shared Offering Program are now being accepted by the Social Justice Council. If you have any questions about this Program, please contact Rev. Susan at sfrances@ucevanston.org.

Only a Few Days Left...

How to Help Refugees and Asylum Seekers Locally

Chicago-area organizations have responded quickly to assist immigrants to our region. UCE’s Immigrant Solidarity Team (IST) and other Evanston-based faith groups are working with the Sanctuary Working Group (SWG) of the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN) to help.

You can support the SWG of CRLN in three ways:

1. Donate Money: Your contribution helps purchase basic necessities such as toothbrushes, shoes, etc. To donate, click HERE.

2. Provide Short-Term Housing: Welcome an individual or family into your home for a night or two while they wait their turn to move into a shelter. To sign up, click HERE.

3. Provide Long-Term Housing: Share your home for several weeks or months with individuals or provide ongoing financial support to people who are moving into their own apartments. For more information, click HERE.

Separately from CRLN, people in Rogers Park, with the help of Ald. Maria Hadden, are organizing emergency overnight housing for people who are currently sleeping on the floor of the Rogers Park police station.

For more details, please contact Michelle Novak or Jim Strickler of the UCE IST through the Realm Membership Directory or at admin@ucevanston.org.

Get Invited to an Abortion Access Team House Meeting

The UCE Abortion Access Team is working with several UCE members to host informational and fundraising meetings to benefit the Chicago Abortion Fund, which provides support for people facing barriers to accessing abortion care. House meetings are scheduled from May 16 through June 25. If you have not yet been invited to attend a meeting but would like to hear more, please reach out to Jean Butzen or Jon Siegel through REALM or at admin@ucevanston.org and ask to be included in another upcoming event!!

Giving House Continues...

For the month of June, we are accepting donations of pasta in the Giving House.

The Giving House is a small wooden "house" that is located in the front lobby. We are partnering with C&W Market & Ice Cream to distribute free foods to those in need.