Nurturing the Human Spirit for a World Made Whole |
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In-Person and Virtual Worship Service
this Sunday, September 19 at 10:15 am
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Mistakes, I've Made a Few
We know that we all make mistakes because no one is perfect. But making them, owning them, and repairing the harm is difficult for all of us. It may be the shame that gets in the way. What does accountability look like in a covenantal community? How do we embrace a culture of loving ourselves and each other through the inevitable mistakes we make and how do we learn from them well? This sermon was purchased by Ellie Feddersen at last year’s Serendipity Auction. Rev. Eileen Wiviott preaching.
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Important Info for this Sunday's Service |
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Please plan to arrive for worship at UCE no earlier than 9:45 am so Ministers & Staff can adequately prepare for the worship service in the Sanctuary. |
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From Rev. Susan Frances,
Assistant Minister for Congregational Life
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Dear Friends,
How will you engage this year? As we are transitioning back to being in-person while maintaining virtual options, I have been thinking about shared ministry and how we will continue to care for each other in our multiplatform world. What I know is that we will do it. We figured out how to shift from being almost exclusively in-person to being almost exclusively virtual, and now we will figure out how to shift again to being partially in-person, partially online.
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Save the Date - Animal Blessing! |
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On Sunday, October 3rd, we will bless our faithful animal companions virtually and in-person. Please send in your photos to Rev. Eileen at ewiviott@ucevanston.org. You may also plan to bring your pet to church that morning to share in our pet blessing service.
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"New" Kitchen Celebration - THIS SUNDAY, September 19 |
Just as Covid shut everything down last year, our totally renovated kitchen was completed, so we didn’t get a chance to celebrate all of the wonderful changes and upgrades. So on THIS Sunday, September 19, the Kitchen renovation will be celebrated! There will be a recognition in the worship service, followed by tours in the kitchen and outer area guided by Carol Nielsen and Sandra Robinson after the service. Coffee and cookies will be served outside only while we take turns getting a tour. Our kitchen has always been a warm and welcoming gathering place before, during and after events for our congregation and for our rentals. These improvements are due to your generosity during the Capital Campaign.
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The curious power of sticky dots. Who knew? The board used them during our retreat in August. Each member had some on hand in several cheerful colors. During open, creative, and intense discussions about UCE’s goals for the coming year, the dots were used to mark key themes and actions on long lists —indicating priorities and levels of support.
Dots colored green, red, blue, and yellow to show our shared commitment to social justice, dismantling white privilege, community building, finance. Details of which will come your way soon..
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Building an Even Stronger and More Vibrant Beloved Community |
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How wonderful to see folks in the sanctuary and throughout the building and grounds on Sunday! Having returned to our building, appreciating our community even more having been physically separated for 18 months, how do we work together to engage in more meaningful and richer ways with each other and with our mission? How do we build an even stronger and more vibrant community to “nurture the human spirit for a world made whole”?
The Membership Engagement Task Force has been meeting since February to learn more about what we do well in welcoming and engaging members and where we could improve our efforts to facilitate meaningful and satisfying participation in the life of UCE...
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Hats Off to Judy LeFevour! |
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Thank you to Judy LeFevour for her assistance after our Homecoming Sunday worship service. Judy was the last one out of the kitchen after gathering other impromptu volunteers to clean up the glasses and pitchers of water under the outside tent and to move all the tables and chairs back inside. Judy consistently shows up as someone who can be relied upon to handle whatever is needed in the moment. It is with great appreciation that we tip our hats to Judy this week.
Judy is also one of the co-leaders of our UU Prison Ministry Team and on the UCE Connections Coordinating Committee. Over the years, she has been a diligent volunteer with the Mitten Tree and with the rummage sale.
Thank you, Judy, for your steadfast commitment to our community within, among, and beyond our walls!
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If you have music to share in worship, we would love to add your to our list. We are looking for either live or recorded performances for Sunday mornings to enhance our worship. Reach out to Rev. Eileen or Vickie Hellyer.
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Wednesday Zoom Gatherings Continue on 2nd & 4th Wednesdays at 5:30 pm via Zoom.
Register today for Faith, Justice and Reparations in Evanston Virtual Workshop is September 19, 26, and
October 3. More info below.
Virtual Workshop: Carceral Systems and Siding with Love begins Sept 23. More info below.
Bike the Ridge is Sunday, September 26. More info below.
REAL meets on Wednesday, September 29 at 7 pm. More info below.
October is Fair Trade Month!
UCE's Annual Animal Blessing will be on October 3. More info above.
The Next Worship Planning Playdate is on Saturday, October 16 at 9 am to Noon. More info below.
Rev. Eileen Wiviott's installation is on Saturday, October 23 at 3 pm in the UCE Sanctuary or Zoom. More info below.
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This Week's Events & Links |
Friday, September 17
Saturday, September 18
Sunday, September 19
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Chris Isely Cancer Support Group at 8:45 am - Rm 6 or Zoom. Email Renee Hoff for details.
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Worship Service at 10:15 am IN-PERSON or via Youtube. Click here to join.
- Kitchen Celebration & Tours following the service.
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Forum at 11:30 am in Room 3 or via Zoom. Click here to join.
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Faith, Justice, and Reparations in Evanston Workshop at 4 pm via Zoom. Click here to register.
Monday, September 20
Tuesday, September 21
Wednesday, September 22
Thursday, September 24
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Virtual Meditation at 5:30 pm via Zoom. Email Lisa Solomon for the link.
- Choir Rehearsal at 7 pm in Room 3 or via Zoom.
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Carceral Systems & Siding with Love at 7 pm via Zoom. Click here to register.
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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!
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Congregational Connections |
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BLUU Havens Chicago September Gathering
Saturday, September 18 1-2 pm on Zoom
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Join at 12:30 for Socializing or Just Hanging Out & Listening to Music!
We welcome you to join us for our September Black Lives of Unitarian
Universalism BLUU Havens Chicago Gathering.
In honor of Fall and the harvest season, please join BLUU Havens Chicago on September 18th, 2021 for the first of a two part discussion on land, food justice, and the black freedom movement.
Food history in the US often describes Black people’s relationship to the land as one filled with danger, oppression, ignorance and subjection. There is another story however, filled with healing, resistance, and economic self-determination of our communities. How can we reclaim our connection to the land as a means of liberation in our lives? Join us and our guest JIM EMBRY, Sacred Earth Activist, after which there will be a question and answer session...
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Faith, Justice and Reparations in Evanston,
September 19, 26, and October 3
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Coming soon! A three-part workshop on Faith, Justice and Reparations in Evanston. On-line sessions will be held on Sunday afternoons September 19, 26, and October 3 from 4 to 5:30 pm. Register today to attend.
Over the summer, several members of the Racial Equity (REAL) and Peace and Justice teams have been working to develop a faith-based workshop series on Reparations. We will explore what “reparation” means, how Evanston’s history of exclusion and discrimination calls for repair, what is happening with the city’s current Reparations programs — and consider how we, as people of faith, are called to act at this significant moment in history.
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Forum - Sunday, September 19 |
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Join the Forum Discussion this Sunday, September 19 at 11:30 am during Faith Formation Hour in Room 3: “What is meant by Defund the Police?” Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and a representative from the UU Prison Ministry Team will present ideas from the City of Evanston, the UUA, and Defund CPD. Each speaker will present on the subject, then we will open up the floor for questions. Members can attend in person or virtually. This will be an exchange of ideas, not a debate. Among the topics we will explore are the role of police and whose safety is protected.
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Virtual Retreat: Trans and Non-Binary Inclusion
with featured speaker Alex Kapitan
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We are excited to announce a Virtual Retreat Event for Saturday, September 25th at 1 pm.
What does it mean to be a men's group, woman's group, community or congregation that affirms and embraces gender diversity? As Unitarians honor their commitment to practice "welcoming all," it's important to engage in what this practice calls on us to do. Alex Kapitan, a trans and non-binary UU leader, who has served as a consultant for Unity Temple on this topic, will lead us in learning and conversation about understanding gender expansively and what trans and non-binary inclusion would look like for our groups. As always there will be interactive discussions. To register and receive the virtual meeting link, please send your name & email address to markeric-j@hotmail.com.
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Membership Engagement Program Fair - Sunday, September 26 |
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Flexibility, creativity, and getting engaged are all part of our Membership Engagement Program Fair at 11:30 am on Sunday, September 26.
Have questions about REALM? Want to sign up for a covenant group? Did you join while the building was closed and have yet to sign the Membership Book? Are you wondering how to volunteer with the Serendipity Auction or get involved with the Membership Engagement Task Force? Then, wander through the tables at the Program Fair after the worship service on Sunday.
Come mingle with new and old friends. Come learn and connect.
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Bike the Ridge - Sunday, September 26 |
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Summer may be ending, but UCE members can look forward to Evanston’s fall event: Bike the Ridge. On Sunday, September 26th from 9:00am - 1:00pm, Ridge Avenue between Howard and Church will be closed to vehicular traffic for “Bike the Ridge.”
This event is an excellent community building opportunity for UCE. Hundreds of people will be biking by UCE’s doorstep; let’s give them a UCE welcome! We will have a tent set up on Ridge. Here UCE members can greet bikers, supply them with water, and provide information about the church. We need lots of friendly faces on Ridge to represent UCE!
Please consider biking to church that day. Having Ridge closed to vehicular traffic is an excellent opportunity to support environmental sustainability by biking to church...
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Register Now for a 6-Month Covenant Group |
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A Covenant Group is a small group of people who regularly meet to establish meaningful connections and further ground themselves in our community. Check out the Covenant Group webpage or contact Adam Gough at agough@ucevanston.org to learn more.
Register now for our 6-Month Covenant Groups that will meet monthly from October 2021 - March 2022.
Meeting time options are:
- 2nd Wednesdays from 6:00-8:00 pm
- 3rd Tuesdays from 7:00-9:00 pm
- 4th Sundays from 1:30-3:30 pm
More than 100 congregants have participated in Covenant Groups since 2002. You are invited to be our newest member!
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Next Worship Planning Playdate - October 16 |
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Our next Worship Planning Playdate is coming up October 16th from 9am – noon. All are welcome if you are interested in helping to shape the December – February worship services.
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You're Invited! Rev. Eileen Wiviott's Installation - Oct 23 |
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If you did not receive a Paperless Post Invitation, know that all members and friends are invited. Please RSVP by emailing the office at admin@ucevanston.org if you would like to attend and note whether you will be joining in-person or virtually.
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We've learned that items requested for the September Produce Mobile Snap Gap are needed year round, so you may continue to bring them on Sundays through Sept. 26. Please leave the items requested in the Giving House in the lobby. Here are the items requested:
- Fingernail clippers
- Bar Soap (preference is Dove)
- Shaving cream
- Disposable razors
- All-purpose cleaner
Please limit your generosity to the items requested.
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Carceral Systems and Siding with Love
Sept 23, Oct 7, Oct 21, Nov 4
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The REAL Team, UCE Prison Ministry Team, and UU Prison Ministry of Illinois invite you to join us for Carceral Systems and Siding with Love. How do we actively side with Love in the face of harmful carceral systems that especially target black and brown people? Join in one or all of these reflective, informative sessions to learn more about (1) Policing, (2) Prisons, (3) Family Separation and Surveillance, and (4) Basics of Restorative Justice. Registration is required and a short reading or video will be emailed to you one week before each session. This is a four-part series of 90-minute Zoom workshops spread over eight weeks, each two weeks apart. Please register here...
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Next REAL Team Meeting - Wednesday, September 29 |
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The REAL Team is focusing its efforts on doing transformational racial equity work. We strive to help you find your own power and shape your responses to the racial oppression we see or experience every day. Join us on Wednesday, September 29 at 7 pm via Zoom to discuss how you can use your power to dismantle racist systems. We will discuss “Power Hoarding” and “Only One Right Way to Do Things” as characteristics of white supremacy culture. Welcome to this journey toward equity, justice and liberation.
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Update: Syrian Refugee Family |
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Good news: we have raised $3000 of our $5000 goal. Please help us reach our goal!
Five years ago, UCE sponsored a Syrian refugee family—the Haj Khalafs. We learned recently that Fatoum (the mother) welcomed her sister Ghufran Bakir, to the U.S. on September 2 along with her three children Ryaan, 13; Hatty, 12; and Talib, 8. Ghufran, was widowed in the war, and has spent the last eight years in a refugee camp in Turkey. They are delighted to be reunited.
A few members of the congregation and the Immigrant Solidarity Team would like to help the new family. Our goal is to raise $5000 (or more) that will help them pay their rent for 4 or more months...
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What's Happening in Faith Formation this Fall? |
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Nursery Help Needed – We need one adult or teen to help Julia in the nursery each Sunday from 10 am-12:30 pm. You can help just once or as many Sundays as you want. Our littlest members are a joy to be with! Contact Kathy if you can help.
Volunteer Orientation Saturday at 10-11:30 am – All who are interested in volunteering for our new faith formation hour are invited to learn more at this virtual gathering. Click here to join the meeting.
Outdoor Game Days: If you enjoy being outside and playing games such as Sharks and Minnows (tag), Bum Volleyball, and Popcorn, then we need you! You don’t know those games? That’s okay! Looking for fun adults to help play games on October 3 and 17 with a group of young people from 10:45 am-12:15 pm. Contact Kathy if you can help.
Playscape Steppingstone Event – September 25 and October 2 - Families are invited to help make steppingstones. For more details and to register, click here.
Registration for Faith Formation begins! This year more than ever, it is important that parents register their young people, so that we can plan according to current guidelines. Please complete the form here for all young people, 0-18 years old.
A New Church Year, A New Theme – Embracing Possibility! Check out the new Soulful Home packet here! The packet is designed for families to explore the monthly theme at their own pace and interest.
Looking Ahead…Wednesday on the Lawn returns! October 27 at 5:30 pm – 7 pm. More details soon!
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Bridging Youth Hospitality Network |
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College-bound youth and young adults! A network to connect with UUs wherever you are! Join Rev. Byron Tyler Coles & Rev. Stevie K Carmody Eama for an information session about the recently launched Bridging Youth Hospitality Network!
- Thursday, October 7th, 7pm ET
Check the links below for Zoom registration and more information. Spread the survey to recently bridged youth and the communities that want to welcome them!
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UCE Fiction Book Group is reading My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Book 1, a graphic novel by Emil Ferris. Discussion meeting September 17, 7-8:30 pm via Zoom.
Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazine iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. When Karen’s investigation takes us back to Anka’s life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal, the political, the past, and the present converge.
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The nonfiction book group will meet via Zoom at 2 pm on Sunday, September 26th to discuss How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America.
The author, Heather Cox Richardson, writes about how the South was the ideological victor of the Civil War as expansion of the Western frontier allowed the hierarchies of the South to proliferate. The book has been called "a thought-provoking study of the centuries-spanning battle between oligarchy and equality in America."
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Unitarian Church of Evanston
1330 Ridge Ave. Evanston, IL 60201
847-864-1330
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