Congregational Potluck Picnic

During Kinship Time on Sunday, October 9, 2022, in celebration of the upcoming National Coming Out Day, join us for a Rainbows, Rainbows, Rainbows Congregational Potluck Picnic! Hosted by our Rainbow Alliance.

Bring rainbow colored food!

Get your picture taken under our Rainbow arch!

Enjoy coloring with rainbow crayons and making rainbow buttons!

See you next week in Faith Formation!

Children and youth’s faith formation will not meet this week.

We resume on October 16!

Nursery will be open!

Rev. Eileen's Time Off

I will be away from the office on personal and study leave beginning Friday the 7^th through Thursday afternoon the 13th. 

Please reach out to Rev. Susan for immediate pastoral issues, 

Sandra Robinson for issues related to the building, 

or call the office with other concerns while I'm gone. 

Thank you.

Howard Levy and Chris Siebold Concert Tickets Now Available

Mark your calendars, line up your sitter and get ready for a spectacular evening of musical excitement. Howard Levy and Chris Siebold are coming to our very own sanctuary on OCTOBER 23^rd at 7:00 pm. The duo, who have performed to great acclaim in the US, Europe and South America, features Howard Levy’s virtuosic harmonica and piano playing & Chris Siebold’s masterful resonator guitar work.

For those of you who are unfamiliar his work, Levy is a widely acknowledged master of the diatonic harmonica, a superb pianist, innovative composer, recording artist, bandleader, teacher, producer, and Evanston resident. Over his 40-plus year career, he has been featured on more than 300 recordings, won two Grammys and composed the first concerto for the diatonic harmonica. He was a founding member of the bluegrass-fusion group Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, and a frequent guest musician on NPR’s popular radio broadcast A Prairie Home Companion.

This promises to be an exciting evening of music you will not soon forget, and as a bonus, is a fundraiser for our church. Get your tickets and tell your friends and neighbors! Prices are set at $35 in advance, or

$40 at the door the evening of the concert. 

Young Adult Game Night

October 21 at 7pm in Room 3

Bring a favorite game and/or snack to share!

Register here

Hats Off to The Family Ministry Team

The Family Ministry Team, comprised of Wendy Drake, Gillian Lawrence, Norell Liddell, and Janice Milanovich, has created a beautiful area in our sanctuary for children and families to gather for worship.

Over the summer they created a list of quiet manipulatives that could be enjoyed during worship services and arranged for them to be made or purchased. Items such as Wiki Sticks, stress balls, marble tubes, stuffed animals, sequin pillows, Magic Snake, and finger labyrinths have been sorted into several bins. Each Sunday, a new bin will be set out along with a bin full of worship props, such as tealights, hymnals, hand kites, and scarves. They also created a kid-friendly order of service so that youngsters can follow along as well as Listening Bingo sheets.

There are still some items they wish to add to the bins, such as geo boards, finger knitting, origami, God’s Eyes, and a Great Lakes tribes map. They welcome any ideas for ways to welcome families at UCE!

Join the Serendipity Auction FUN!

Volunteer! Volunteer! Volunteer!

Looking for a way to stay connected to UCE? Click here to sign up to volunteer to help with the Serendipity Auction, one of our largest fundraisers. Last year we netted over $30,000.

This year, our auction will kick-off on Sunday, November 6, 2022 at 11:30 am and online bidding begins through the UCE auction website and ends with a chance to see the auction items at our FUN Evening Celebration Party, Saturday November 12, 2022 from 5:00-8:00 pm, with dinner and entertainment.

This year, we will need a lot more volunteers, particularly for the evening celebration. If each of us pitches in to help cover a shift, we can all have a great, fun time together! A great way for new people to be a part of a UCE tradition.

Two New Member Engagement Teams Coming to UCE

The Membership Engagement Task Force has been hard at work for the past 18 months. After distilling and discerning the information gathered from focus groups and best practices research, the Task Force is launching two new teams that will sit on the Membership Engagement Council.

The new Congregation Connections Team is focused on helping visitors and members navigate how to get more connected, including fun socializing and making volunteer options clearer, so that you can form deeper connections within our community. If you believe making meaningful connections with others at UCE is essential to who we want to be as a Beloved Community, please consider joining the Congregation Connections Team!

The new Leadership Development Team is riveted on the role of lay leadership at UCE, including providing the congregation with a leadership model and roadmap to grow, develop, and support strong, positive lay leadership in our congregation. This team is seeking a few interested and energetic members to launch this endeavor!

If you are interested in joining either new team or interested in learning about the new teams, please click on the link below by October 27, 2022, and someone will be in touch with you. For questions, please reach out to Carolyn Laughlin via Realm or at admin@ucevanston.org or contact Rev. Susan.

Upcoming Endowment Grant Application Deadlines

Have a worthy project or community partner your team would like to nominate for an endowment grant? We have two remaining cycles for this year's funding and close to $40,000 in grant making capacity potentially available.

Application deadlines for the two cycles are October 31st and January 31st. Get all the information you need on Endowments home page or find us on the UCE homepage by clicking "ways to give". we highly recommend getting applications in early in order to ensure everything is in order. Questions? Contact us at: endowment@ucevanston.org

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.

Journey of Belonging Series

Our Journey of Belonging Series is a class for visitors and members. Get to know folks in our UCE community as we delve into UU History, our sources, and our values and principles. This series is great for all members and highly recommended for visitors and new members.

· Spiritual Journeys & Inspiration on October 11: Delve into our UU Sources and share your personal journey.

· Journeying in Covenant on October 18: Delve into our UU Principles and what it means to be in covenant.

· Journey Toward Membership on October 25: If you are a visitor interested in joining UCE, you are invited to a fourth class to learn about the rights and responsibilities of membership.

This series meets Tuesday's evenings in October from 7:00-8:00 pm via Zoom. Register here

UCE Fiction Book Group: The Netanyahus, by Joshua Cohen

The UCE Fiction Book group is reading Joshua Cohen, The Netanyahus: An account of a minor and ultimately even negligible episode in the history of a famous family

Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction -Corbin College, not quite upstate New York, winter 1959–1960: Ruben Blum, a Jewish historian—but not an historian of the Jews—is co-opted onto a hiring committee to review the application of an exiled Israeli scholar specializing in the Spanish Inquisition. When Benzion Netanyahu shows up for an interview, family unexpectedly in tow, Blum plays the reluctant host to guests who proceed to lay waste to his American complacencies.

Meeting Friday, October 21, at 7pm by ZOOM

UCE Non-Fiction Book Group: The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea

The nonfiction book group will meet via Zoom at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 23rd to discuss The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea.

In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the “Devil’s Highway.” Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a “book of the year” in multiple newspapers, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.

Join the Zoom here!

Movie Night TONIGHT!

...T'Challa, heir to the hidden but advanced kingdom of Wakanda, must step forward to lead his people into a new future and must confront a challenger from his country's past...

Please join us for a showing of 2018's Black Panther tonight,  October 7 at 6pm in the Sanctuary. This film celebrates Black Joy and Black Excellence. Bring some snacks and a picnic blanket or lawn chair and sit back for an enjoyable evening with friends and families. Black Panther runs 2 hours and 15 minutes, and is rated PG-13. Families are encouraged to attend - parents should decide if the film is age appropriate for your children. Afterwards, we will have a short discussion about the movie.

Demand Full Reproductive Rights Access! 

The call for Healthcare Access and Reproductive Justice is loud!  

In addition to all the excellent reproductive rights access work being done in Illinois, we must also be in the streets to make sure that politicians and the courts heed our demands, and to build power within our communities. We must take direct action to support people coming to Illinois to exercise their reproductive rights and support their efforts to restore those rights in their home states. 

Two local events in October are calling for action! One in Chicago on October 8^th (see button below) and one in Evanston on October 16^th (see flyer below). 

In Chicago, a broad group of 38 organizations, including Chicago Abortion Fund and Planned Parenthood, is organizing in solidarity with an Abortion & Full Reproductive Rights National Day of Action to defend – and expand – our access to safe and legal abortion and other reproductive rights. Join in on October 8, 2022, 12:00-3:00 pm, at Federal Plaza, 291 S. Dearborn, Chicago. 

GIVING HOUSE REOPENS - October is BEANS month. 

We are accepting donations of canned or dried beans in the Giving House for the month of October - which is a small wooden "house" that will be located in the front lobby. 

We are partnering with a new free food supplier for the food insecure - Clarence Weaver and his wife Beverly responded to the covid crisis in March 2020 by setting up a non profit 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. They serve almost 50 people every other Saturday morning and 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. October is BEANS (Canned or Dried) 

C&W Market & Ice Cream is a Black owned business on the corner of Dodge and Church and is a prime location for food distribution. 

Asylum Seekers Continue to Arrive in Chicago

Seeking Asylum is a Human Right! The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution in other countries. People seeking safety and refuge should be welcomed with dignity and compassion — not turned away.

In the first week of September, 99 asylum seekers arrived in Chicago on buses from Texas. They continue to arrive and 750 have come as of the date of this writing. This might be the start of more regular arrivals in our area.

Opportunities for Action: 

• To donate, the Interfaith Community for Detained Immigrants (ICDI) has set up this fund to help with cash assistance and created an amazon wishlist to help restock their supplies.  

• The main request of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) has been for Spanish translators able to stay at the shelters to help people get settled. It appears this need has been met, however, you may contact Rev. Scott Aaseng with the Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI) at scottaaseng@gmail.com, if you would like to volunteer.  

• A recent Block Club Chicago article lists additional ways to provide assistance to Chicago's new arrivals.  

The City of Chicago, Catholic Charities, ICDI, and ICIRR are coordinating efforts for this group. ~ UCE Immigrant Solidarity Team 

Harms Woods Work Outing

Harms Woods Seed Collection, October 23 1 pm - 4 pm

Come celebrate fall with a habitat restoration outing at beautiful Harms Woods in Glenview! We will be collecting wildflower seeds for using in reseeding areas cleared of invasive plants. It's an easy and interesting activity, and is always a lovely walk in the woods led by the very knowledgeable long-time stewards, John and Jane Balaban