After the service this Sunday, November 20, an audiologist and Jon Siegel will meet with congregants who use the new hearing loop system to answers any questions they may have. Please look at the front of the sanctuary after service if you are interested in getting more information about "the loop".

Bud Brock Celebration of Life

Tomorrow, November 19 at 10:30am, we will celebrate the life of our much loved Bud Brock. 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 Bud (or Zeal), log in here make your selection and click Sign-up! 

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

The Mitten Tree Gift Giving

Happy Everything! Mitten Tree is BACK in full force! This winter holiday tradition of gift giving is a wonderful way to connect with organizations and neighbors outside the walls of UCE.

This year we are leaning into our SHARED MINISTRY all around. There will be opportunities for everyone to lend a hand and fill a mitten that speaks to them. Sign up HERE to fulfill gift requests.

This longstanding tradition is an overwhelmingly 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!

Hats Off to the Auction Team

Our hats are off to our Serendipity Auction core organizing team and department leads, Cathy Deamant, Mary Beth Roth, Meredith Haydon, Kathy Talmage, Lizzy Powers, Jean Durkin, Chris Allender, Alexa Avery, Chris Yoo, Ally Hunter, and Carla Williams. You and the many volunteers provided a FUNtabulous event. The week long auction and festive, entertaining evening raised needed funds for UCE and brought joy to so many of our members and friends. It was truly an intergenerational extravaganza. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!

Please plan to join us for our annual Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil on Sunday, November 20^th at 5:30pm.

In person or livestream here

INTERFAITH ACTION OF EVANSTON & FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF EVANSTON'S CHANCEL CHOIR 

INVITE YOU TO JOIN TOGETHER WITH US IN SONGS OF THANKSGIVING! 

If you would like to join the Interfaith Choir for this event, e-mail Hannah at hmcconnell@firstpresevanston.org for choir music and recordings in advance, or just join us that evening!  Choir Rehearsal is at 5:30 pm at First Presbyterian. 

Thank You!

A huge thank you from the entire auction team to all our Serendipity Auction bidders, donors and volunteers this year. Thanks to you (and our generous business donors), we netted $28,000! Most importantly, over 140 people attended our Celebration Evening and had a FUN time. Many thanks to Lizzy Powers for emceeing with Jean Durkin and for the beautiful hula dance demonstration.

Just a few items are left in the catalog, including a few seats at some great group events including 8th Principle Folk Concert with Kristin Lems, Uno Tournament, Jimmy Carrane Improv Workshop, GUUrls’ Night Out, Square Dancing, Virtual Japanese Movie and Dinner, Super Bowl Party, and more! Take a look here. All are set as “Buy It Now”, so items are first come, first served. If you have not collected your physical or gift certificate items yet, please come during church office hours, Mon-Fri from 10:30 am-4:30 pm to pick them up. Questions or suggestions for next year, send us an email at: auction@ucevanston.org.

How Are We Living Our Values?

Supporting spiritual growth and well-being

This month, we are looking for your input on our second value statement:

We support the spiritual growth and well-being of our congregational community, cultivating gratitude, joy, curiosity, wonder, and an openness to personal and relational transformation as we strive to build a better world. 

Please take a few minutes to complete this questionnaire on-line. If you prefer to submit your responses on paper, we'll be passing out paper questionnaires this Sunday to be collected after the service. We're looking for your feedback by December 2nd.

Thanks for your participation!

What does it mean to Practice Beloved Community?

an open Zoom conversation

With Rev. Eileen and the Committee on Shared Ministry

November 29 at 7pm

As mentioned in the worship service on October 23, our first value statement needs some unpacking. 

Let's gather to discuss what it means to practice Beloved Community. 

What does it look like? Who does it include? How do we know when we've arrived? 

*That last one is a trick question, to see if you've been paying attention 😉

Blue Holiday Service - December 7th at 5:30 pm 

December is not a joyful time of year for everyone. For many, the holidays are difficult, made even more so by the heightened expectation that everyone BE HAPPY. If you are looking for a space of comfort during the holiday season, please join our ‘blue’ holiday service. Together we will help hold, with tenderness, the sorrows that remain with us.  

Unitarian Men's Retreat Friday, January 27 to Sunday, January 29, 2023.

Join other UU men to explore Turning Points In Our Lives. Cabrini Retreat Center, 9430 Golf Road, DesPlaines 60016.

Cost of $200 includes private room for two nights, three meals Saturday and breakfast Sunday, plus pizza party on Friday night.

Scholarships available. We welcome all who identify as male. Our goal is to encourage each other to share, learn and support each other in looking into the meaning of our lives. Men from Unity Temple, UU Church of Evanston, and Countryside UU are already participating.

For the flyer, signup sheet and more information,

Contact Mark Johansen - markeric-j@hotmail.com

UCE builds Beloved Community and offers care to one another in several ways.

The Congregational Care and Support Team, or CCST, is the umbrella for the following teams:

· Caring Team - Meals: Members who bring meals to your home in difficult times 

· Pastoral Care Team: Works with the Ministers to provide spiritual and emotional support for the congregation

· Memorial Reception Team: Coordinates receptions following member memorial services

· Caring Team - Rides: Coordinates rides for members to church and for medical appointments 

The CCST is led by an Intake Coordinator, currently Ellie Feddersen. She forwards requests for care to the appropriate sub-team.

You can access support or offer support through the google form on the website: https://ucevanston.org/care-support-committee

You may also contact Ellie Feddersen at: elliefeddersen@gmail.com

We are a caring community. If you or a fellow member needs support with meals, rides or emotional/spiritual issues, please don’t hesitate to contact Ellie by filling in the form (preferrable) or emailing her.

To volunteer on one of the CCST teams, click here to Offer Care.

Ornament Sunday Returns on December 11!

Join us after worship for this fun tradition at UCE! We need people to staff a table of a simple ornament craft. Sign up here to help with the fun!

Christmas Pageant – December 18

Another annual tradition you can participate in! Choose to be an angel, a star, a shepherd, or an animal. We have a few speaking parts too. Sign up here to claim your spot!

Photo by Rick Oldland on Unsplash

UCE Non-Fiction Book Group: Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World by Jane Hirshfield

Join us this Sunday November, 20th as we explore this dazzling collection of ten essays by the master poet and essayist Jane Hirshfield on how the best poems work.

“Poetry,” Jane Hirshfield has said, “is language that foments revolutions of being.” In ten eloquent and highly original explorations, she unfolds some of the ways this is done–by the inclusion of hiddenness, paradox, and surprise; by a perennial awareness of the place of uncertainty in our lives; by language’s own acts of discovery; by the powers of image, statement, music, and feeling to enlarge in every direction.



Join the Zoom here!

BLUU HAVENS CHICAGO NOVEMBER GATHERING

SOS! Saving Ourselves

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19th 1:00-2:30 on Zoom

Join at 12:30 for Socializing or Just Hanging Out & Listening to Music!

The centuries of ongoing oppression in North America on black and brown bodies is a lot to bear. What are the ways we have always cultivated hope? Join BLUU Havens Chicago with guest Author & Artist Atena O. Danner as we save ourselves.

Part Black Panther, part preschool teacher, Atena O. Danner insists upon Black liberation and boundless curiosity. Her poems range from kitchen-table specificity to universal relatability, covering topics including neurodiversity, human connection, and collective liberation. Atena has published poems in 'Shelter in This Place: Meditations on 2020,' 'Struggle, Elevate, Celebrate: An Anthology of Women’s Voices' and in the inaugural issue of ‘understory quarterly' an independent online zine. She lives north of Chicago with her partner and 2 free Black children.

Thank You For Being Involved!

Thank you to everyone in our community who was engaged in this year’s midterm election cycle!

143 UCE members and friends were involved in getting out the vote this year! They reported to our UUtheVote team these 18,331 Points of Love or ways of being involved:

• 17,715 postcards were mailed.
• 295 handwritten letters were mailed.
• 154 conversations were had with our friends and family about voting.
• 99 calls, texts, and conversations were exchanged with people we didn’t know about voting.
• 60 people were provided information allowing them to register to vote.
• 8 poll locations were volunteered at on the day of the election.

Thank you for living out our values in the world

Save the Date: January 21st 

(Specific time TBD)

for an All-Congregation Workshop

sponsored by the Anti-Oppression Task Force,

the Board of Trustees, and

our Consultants with the YWCA Equity Institute

[Note: There was a mistake in the first email sent out about this event. You should save the date for Saturday, January 21, 2023, and not January 23rd.]



Come hear the results of the Anti-Oppression survey so many of you took part in this August. We will be exploring together where we’ve been, where we are now, and where we’re going on the journey of building Beloved Community. 

We'd like to make this as accessible to as many in our congregation as possible, so please let us know what times would work best for you here.

Join the REAL Team on Wednesday November 30th at 7:00 p.m.

As we celebrate National Native American Heritage Month through learning and anti-oppression work, the REAL Team invites you to discuss Common Misconceptions and Injustices Facing Indigenous Peoples Today on Wednesday November 30th from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. (Central Time) via Zoom.

Our Indigenous siblings encounter widespread racism, poverty, and environmental degradation on Indian reservations and in urban areas. This oppression makes it difficult to survive as a people and to live fully according to their traditions. Many do not have the necessary resources, financial support, time, and energy to sustain and teach their language and culture. Survival itself depends on keeping their families intact, surviving rampant gender violence, stopping the destruction of their land, and maintaining their language and distinctive ways of life.

Your Support Needed to Make Housing for Homeless Permanent at Margarita In

The process to renew the special use permit to house individuals experiencing homelessness at the Margarita Inn, located at 1566 Oak Ave, Evanston, IL 60201, is now officially underway.

The critical next step of a multi-step process is a presentation by Connections for the Homeless to the Land Use Commission (LUC) at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, November 30, 2022, in Council Chambers at 2100 Ridge, Evanston, IL 60201. The importance of having supporters present at this meeting cannot stressed enough. We know that the majority of Evanstonians support the Margarita Inn and its mission to end homelessness – now we need to fill that room and show it.

We are looking for folks who are comfortable making their presence known and also for people who are willing to speak during the public comment section of the evening. UCE Members can RSVP at this link.

We’re on our way to getting our permit renewed and ending homelessness in Evanston. Let’s keep the momentum going with a strong turnout on November 30!

UCE Native Communities Solidarity Team Forming

The creation of our

UCE Land Acknowledgment was the first step to learning how we might live in solidarity with local and national native communities. We have now formed a UCE Native Communities Solidarity Team. If you are interested in helping to lead UCE’s journey of education, relationship building, and acting in solidarity to engage with contemporary issues affecting Indigenous communities, join us! 

For more information or to become a member of the Native Communities Solidarity Team, please contact Sallie Eggers through Realm or at admin@ucevanston.org.  

Giving House Continues... November is FISH month

We are accepting donations of CANNED  FISH  (not just Tuna, but sardines, salmon, clams, crab etc.) in the giving house for the month of October.

The Giving house is a small wooden "house" that is located in the front lobby. We are partnering with a new free food supplier for the food insecure.

Clarence Weaver and his wife Beverly in March 2020 responded to the covid crisis by setting up a nonprofit organization and using 

their storefront (C&W Market & Ice Cream) to distribute free foods to those in need.

They provide fresh meat, vegetables and fruit along with nonperishable food items to seniors, District 65 families and those experiencing homelessness and food insecurity. They serve almost 50 people every other Saturday morning. They are continuing this service to our community

Since they have plenty of storage, we can support their generous work by providing nonperishable items. We will be collecting one type of non-perishable food each month. November is FISH month (Canned tuna, salmon, sardines etc.) 

 C&W Market & Ice Cream is a Black owned business on the corner of Dodge and Church. This is a prime location for food distribution.  You can also support this business by buying Ice Cream and/or other sundries there. Thanks for your donation.