Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Evanston

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Sunday Service

• Children/Youth/Lifespan Faith Formation

• Staff Column

• Hats Off!

• This Week’s Events

• Congregational Connections

• Our Community Partnerships

• Ongoing UU Connections

• UUCE Resources

Hi friends, please take the time to review our busy and exciting Event Calendar for opportunities to put your FAITH IN ACTION

Sunday Service

October 4, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. 

  Instinctual Courage

Our animal kin can teach us so much including how to listen to the signals of our bodies, without getting hijacked, as well as calming our nervous systems to be responsive rather than reactive to the urge to fight, fly, or freeze. We bless our animal companions this Sunday. Feel free to bring your well-behaved and leashed (or as appropriate contained) pets to receive a blessing from the community. Rev. Eileen leads the service with Annette Wallace as our Worship Associate. Kristin Lems and Tom Hempfling offer music, including one original by Kristin Lems, and Gregory Shifrin will be on the piano.

Spiritual Practice Series



Join Rev. Eileen on the first Wednesday of the month for this series that helps participants develop regular disciplines of the spirit – practices that help us connect with the sacred. Spiritual Practice affirms religious diversity while seeking unity in our communal quest for meaning and wholeness. Each session offers a forum for learning, sharing, and growth that can enrich our personal faith journeys. Join us on October 7, 5:30-6:30p in Room 3. Here is the Spiritual Practice schedule:



10/7 - Defining and Finding Your Spiritual Practice 

11/4 - Keeping Sabbath

12/2 - Prayer

1/6 - Meditation

2/3 - Mindful Walking and Eating

3/3 - Worship and Ritual

4/7 - Discernment and Devotional Reading

5/5 - Hospitality and Belonging

6/2 - Work and Service

Register HERE

This Sunday…

Children and youth will go to their faith formation groups after Joys and Sorrows.

Childcare (0-3 years) is available in room 11 from 10:15am – 12:15pm. 

Chalice Children (Pre/K/1) in room 9 – our children will hear the story, Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mary Finch, and make leaves to decorate a fall tree.

Heads, Hearts, & Hands (2nd-5th) in room 8 – our young people will hear a story, create a paper garden or have a dance party, and play a game.

Middle School Youth (6th-8th) in room 10 – the youth will create a self-portrait and play some games.

High School Youth (9th-12th) in room 13 – the youth will either join the middle school group or learn about the Crossing Paths program that they will be using this year to explore world religions.

  Faith Formation Registration time is here!

Parents are asked to fill out a registration form, which helps with our 

yearly report to the UUA, so please be counted and fill it out today!

We’re looking for more 6 adults who can help 5-6 times this year

in our Faith Formation program for young people and youth.

Email Kathy Underwood for details.

FFUUN! Faith Formation UU Network

Join us on Zoom on October 12 at 7-8pm as

we continue making connections happen across the ages!

Our Whole Lives Sex Ed Program

Affectionately known as OWL, this year's program is for youth in 7th-9th grades.

Parents are required to attend an orientation to this fabulous program on

November 8, 12:30-2:30p in room 13.

Snacks and childcare provided.

Parent's Time Out Event

It's time again for a Parent's Time Out event!

October 10th from 4-7pm

Rev. Eileen, Grey Wiviott, and Martha and Erica Holman are excited to offer this time

for you to enjoy an evening out, time together as adults or simply to rest while we hang out and have fun with your littles!

Please register for the event here.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES ANNUAL MEETING

The UUCE Board of Trustees (BOT) gathered this past weekend to reflect on goals set for the past year and set new ones for 2026-27.

Friday evening Rev. Eileen borrowed from Peter Block’s book Community and reminded us that the role of the BOT is to provide a special kind of leadership — one that shifts emphasis away from the corporate model relying on laws, oversight, and systems to one that centers community, focuses on the members, and practices accountability. Leadership is a quality that resides in all of us, she reminded us.

Our hats are off to Susan Carlton for her care of our Covenant Groups! Covenant groups are designed to allow meaningful connections to develop among members of a group of around 10 people who meet on a regular basis to establish and further themselves in community. Click here to find out more about our UUCE Covenant Groups. 

During the pandemic lockdown, we did not run a short-term covenant group program, and as we returned from the lockdown, some of our long-term covenant groups stopped meeting or didn't have openings for newer members. There's been a clear longing to revitalize the short-term covenant group program, but it was not until Susan volunteered to join Rev. Susan as the co-coordinator of all our Covenant Groups, that we could offer short-term covenant groups again. Since the Fall of 2024, Susan has arranged the training of a dozen covenant group facilitators and coordinated short-term covenant groups during the last two congregational years. Short-term covenant groups are forming now and this is the last weekend to register for this year. Click here to go into the Short Term Covenant Group Sign-up form and submit it by October 4, 2026. 

In addition to her assistance with renewing our short term covenant group program, Susan has assisted members of the Membership Team with organizing a New Members Covenant Group and assisted our FFUUN (Faith Formation UU Network) with revitalizing our Parents Covenant Group and Young Adults Covenant Group. Thank you, Susan, for all you have done and continue to do to support this important small group ministry!

Friday, October 2:

• Young Adult Covenant Group, 7-9pm, Room 3

Saturday, October 3:

• Spiritual Retreat, 9am-2pm, Sanctuary, Kitchen, Rooms 5, 9, and 11
• Virtual Pilates, 9:30am, via Zoom

Sunday, October 4th:

• Chris Isley Cancer Support Group, 9-10:15am, Room 6 and Zoom
• Worship Service, 10:30-11:30am, Sanctuary
• Kinship Time, 11:30am-12:30pm, Back of Sanctuary
• Pledge Drive Brainstorming Team, 12:30-2pm, Room 3 and Zoom
• Respect Games, 2-4pm, Evanston Main Library
• Herried Covenant Group, 3:30-4:30pm, via Zoom

Monday, October 5th:

• UUCE Addictions and Recovery, 6:45-7:45pm, via Zoom
• Monday Night Covenant Group, 7-9pm, via Zoom

Tuesday, October 6th:

• Membership Team Meeting, 12:30-1:30pm, via Zoom
• Executive Committee Meeting, 5-5:45pm, via Zoom
• Caregiver Support Group, 7-8:30pm, via Zoom
• First Women's Circle, 7-8pm, via Zoom

Wednesday, October 7th:

• Yoga, 9:30-10:30am, via Google Meet
• Music Team, 4-5, via Zoom
• Endowment Fund Committee Meeting, 4:30-6:30pm, Room 6 and Zoom
• Spiritual Practice, 5:30-6:30pm, Room 3
• Congregational Connections Team, 7-8pm, via Zoom
• Meeting Our Interfaith Neighbors, 7-8:30pm, Room 3 and Zoom

Thursday, October 8th:

• Meditation Group, 5:30-6:30pm, via Zoom
• Beacons of Light, 6-6:30pm, Dempster and Ridge
• Choir Rehearsal, 7-8:45pm, Room 3

Have Something for the Newsletter?

Please submit your article and images using our Newsletter Request Form by noon on Wednesdays.

Share Your Gifts ♥ Build Belonging

Welcome to the 2026 Serendipity Fundraiser! 

Serendipity begins long before the bidding starts. We’re gathering the gifts, talents, experiences, and treasures that will become this year’s auction. Do you have a talent to share? A meal you could host? A skill you could teach? A project, adventure, or gathering that would bring people together? We’d love to hear your ideas and invite you to donate.

The magic of Serendipity comes from the generosity and imagination of our community. The auction is a collection of invitations to connect, play, learn, and celebrate.

And there’s Serendipity to enjoy! Raffle tickets are on sale now. Grab a ticket (or a few!) for your chance to win while supporting the fundraiser. The auction opens for browsing and bidding on Wednesday, October 28. Donate a gift. Buy a raffle ticket. Share an idea. Invite a friend.

Visit the Serendipity Fundraiser website or contact the Serendipity Fundraiser Team at auction@ucevanston.org with questions.

Sign-Up Is Open for Fall Friendship Meals

Sign-ups are open for Fall Friendship Meals! The online sign-up sheet (click here to access) 

contains meal details; browse the choices and select the one that works best. Ask questions or get sign-up help at the back of the sanctuary after worship on October 4th and 11th. Or contact Margaret Koreman (margaret.koreman at gmail dot com) or Mary Bell (marywbell53 at gmail dot com).

Fall Session meals are:

• Fri, Oct 23, 6:00PM, In-home chicken parmesan and vegetarian pasta dinner  
• Fri, Oct.23, 6:00PM, In-home Portuguese chorizo sausage kale soup dinner
• Sat, Oct 24, 5:00PM, Restaurant dinner at Trattoria DOC
• Sun, Oct 25, 6:00PM, In-home roasted salmon and rice pilaf dinner
• Sun, Nov 1, 4:30PM, In-home family-friendly pizza party
• Sun, Nov 1, 5:30PM, In-home grilled salmon, portobello, and farro pilaf dinner
• Sun, Nov 1, 5:00PM, In-home Sunday chicken potluck dinner
• Sat, Nov 14 12:30PM. In-home family-friendly vegan / vegetarian brunch

UUCE Young Adult Group



Please join us on 3rd Fridays for games, snacks, and connection among UUCE young adults (18-35). We gather for some spiritual grounding and then enjoy time for games. Bring a snack to share if you can and your favorite group games.

Reach out to Rev. Eileen at ewiviott@ucevanston.org or Kathy Underwood at kunderwood@ucevanston.org if you want to join or have questions

October is Endowment Month!

What is the Endowment Fund?



The Endowment Fund was created for the long-term security of our Congregation’s future. Congregants contribute to the Endowment Fund with gifts of cash, stock and property, and by including the UUCE Endowment Fund in their wills. Those funds are invested in perpetuity. Annually, grants are made out of the returns on the Fund’s investments, extending our UUCE values into our community.  

Should we contribute to the Endowment Fund if we already make an annual pledge?

Yes! Your annual pledge is spent during the pledge year to cover UUCE’s Operating Budget, including facilities, staff salaries, programming and music. The Endowment Fund provides a longer-term investment to ensure our Congregation is here for future generations.

For more information about the Endowment Fund, or to become an Endowment Visionary, go here: https://ucevanston.org/endowment/.

Meeting Our Interfaith Neighbors

Meeting Our Interfaith Neighbors: Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum

Adults and youth 12+ years old are invited to learn about local indigenous peoples' beliefs, rituals, and more from our guest, Josee Star, at 7pm on October 7. We will then gather on October 20 at 7pm to reflect and share our thoughts on what we learned. This will be in person and on Zoom. Please register HERE.

Mike Czarnik’s Celebration of Life

On Saturday, October 10, 2026 at 11:00 am, we will celebrate the life of Mike Czarnik, the father of member Lia Czarnik. The hospitality is being organized by Catherine Deamant. If it would please you to take on a small role or bring a favorite food to honor Mike click HERE to make your selection and click SignUP!

If you want to opt out of the technology, email Catherine Deamant (catherine.deamant at gmail dot com) with your offer to help.

Many thanks!

Get More Connected at UUCE – Join a Short-Term Covenant Group



If you’re looking for a way to foster connection and get to know some members of the congregation more deeply, consider joining a short-term covenant group this year.

Short-term covenant groups meet for 8 sessions – monthly or twice a month – for the purpose of building community here at UUCE. Groups meet for 2 hours and are composed of 8-10 members. The meeting’s format includes time for members to check-in and share the state of their spirit. A topic is introduced usually by a short reading on subjects such as Living with Intention, Forgiveness, and Saying Yes. Members then have an opportunity to reflect on their thoughts and reactions to the topic. Deep listening is an important practice used during the covenant group sessions.

Some comments from people who have attended short-term covenant groups:

• “I felt heard and listened to as an actual person.”
• “It’s one way to get to know more people in the congregation in a meaningful way and to feel part of a genuine sharing of ideas.”
• “It’s an easy, meaningful way to get to meet new people.”
• “Just being heard was powerful.”

UUCE will be offering four short-term covenant groups this year. Email Susan Carlton (susan.carlton at sbcglobal dot net)  to sign up. Available meeting dates/times are as follows:

• 1st and 3rd Mondays beginning in October and through January, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
• 4th Tuesday of the month beginning in October through June, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
• 3rd Sunday of the month beginning in October through June, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm - FULL
• FOR NEW MEMBERS: 2nd Monday of the month beginning in October through June, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
• ZOOM group - meeting day/time to be decided by participants
• 4th Sunday of the month beginning in October through June, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Movie Night at UUCE

Looking for a fun October spooky activity? Come join us for Movie Night as we watch Tim Burton’s classic: Beetlejuice! This will be hosted at UUCE on Friday, October 23rd, in Room 3, show time starts at 7:30 PM, rated PG with a run time of 1 hours and 30 minutes.

The film follows a sweet, newly deceased couple trying to scare an insufferably trendy family out of their home. Desperate, they recruit Beetlejuice, a chaotic "bio-exorcist," unleashing a masterclass in 1980s surrealism.

This movie is for ALL AGES and not just young adults so feel free to bring your friends and any snacks you wish to share!

Join the Mutual Aid Book Group

Explore how systems exploit us—and how we can work together to create change. Our first book is A People’s Guide to Capitalism by Hadas Thier.

October 11 at 12:15 p.m. in Room 3

Contact Nellie at neastman at gmail dot com to join or get help finding the book.

 The UUCE Fiction Reading Group is reading Carson McCullers' 1940 classic "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." A Southern Gothic Novel set in a Georgia mill town in the 1930’s. John Singer taps in to the spiritual isolation, racial tension, and also quiet beauty of character in a very small town American south.

Future Reads:

November 20: "What We Can Know" by Ian McEwan. One hundred years into the future, the year 2014 looks like an age of abundance. Those who survive nuclear holocaust are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost. How wild and full of risk their lives were, in retrospect human life at its zenith! McEwan, however, always finds the hope.

December 18: "Hag-Seed" by Margaret Atwood. Felix, an up and coming theater entrepreneur , is exiled by treachery to a job leading a group of prison inmates in staging "The Tempest." The take of these folks roughened by the world on Shakespeare’s gem is humorous, heart-warming and insightful.

Meeting Friday, October 16 at 7p.m. by ZOOM

The Nonfiction Book Group will meet Sunday, October 25th at 2 p.m. using our recurring Zoom link to discuss Bill Bryson's book Shakespeare: The World as Stage. Bryson examines centuries of myths, half-truths and downright lies and tries to make sense of Shakespeare's Life. This biography has been described as "vivid, unsentimental, witty, and fast-paced'". Join us as we share the pleasure of Bryson's storytelling.

On November 22nd, we will discuss Making the Best of What's Left: When We're Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered by Judith Viorst.

Picnics in the Park - October 4 and 18 at noon

Our Shared Offering Program

Our Shared Offering Program is one of the ways that we live into our mission statement "for a world made whole." Each Sunday, the funds collected during our worship service either via text donations or in the collection bowls (and not otherwise designated for something else) are shared equally between our operating budget and the current Shared Offering Program recipient.

This Sunday's offering will be shared with Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois or UUPMI, whose mission is to equip UU's in Illinois to ​transform institutions as well as partner with and support people harmed by the prison industrial complex.

Connections for the Homeless Milestone Celebration

Join us on Thursday, October 15th from 6-7 PM for a Connections for the Homeless Milestone Celebration. This program will celebrate and honor the recent accomplishments of program participants, volunteers, partners, advocates, and staff. The event is free, open to all ages, and a good way to support or learn more about Connections as an organization. To learn more and to RSVP, visit website: https://www.connect2home.org/milestone.

LOVE RESISTS

Postcard Party! Let's Win Michigan!

Gather Sunday, Oct. 11, 12-1:30 at UUCE to help WIN MICHIGAN! Postcards make a difference on the margins, and Michigan is key to amplifying UU VALUES in Washington.

Join your friends, write some cards, and bring some home to host your OWN party!

SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, October 17, 2026 national mobilization 

Details to follow for Evanston & Chicago.  Please join and bring others. “We the People” means all of us!  This is also a Vote Early campaign.  

In preparation for the marches, it’s time to make new signs. The Catalyst for Democracy team is hosting a sign-making event on Thursday, 10/15/26 from 5-6 PM in Room 5.  Bring your creative energy!  You can then join the Beacons of Light Vigil at 6 PM at Dempster and Ridge and try out your new signs!

Souls to the Polls Campaign



Join our Catalyst for Democracy Team in supporting the "Souls to the Polls" campaign organized by the Social Action Committee of the Evanston-North Shore Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. along with the Evanston Branch NAACP. 

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority members will be at the Early Voting site at the Robert Crown Community Center @ 1801 Main St, Evanston on these days:

• Sunday, October 25 at 2:00 p.m.

• Sunday, November 1 at 2:00 p.m.

Voters are requested to check in at the #SoulsToThePolls2026 Campaign table and provide the name of their faith community so their participation can be recorded. After the election, the faith community with the highest number of voters on these two days will receive special recognition from County Board Commissioner, Josita Morita, for its leadership in promoting civic engagement.  

ONGOING UU CONNECTIONS

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Evanston

1330 Ridge Ave. Evanston, IL 60201

847-864-1330