Services

At some point in life, the young and young at heart tend to grow out of light-hearted playfulness and into a world of stark reality. We grow older; we feel more pain and heartbreak; we lose our blissful ignorance. This ALL-AGES service invites us to leave reality at the door and, in Gene Wilder’s voice from the 1970s film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, “come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination.” Come explore every day, found objects (the what is) and consider reframing the notion of possibility and recreating a sense of wonder (the what if). Families with children are encouraged to bring found objects and to show ALL-AGES the power of imagination. As a community, any future is possible when we commit action together and use our collective imagination.

Found Object Request: In preparation for this hands-on service, we welcome any no-longer-needed items to be donated as part of the found objects (e.g., recyclable materials or those found in nature). Please only bring items you do not mind letting go for others to reimagine. You may reach out to Angie Urban or Cindy Ingold in advance for more details.

For online viewers, there will be a seperate Google Meet room for the service that includes an audio portion. Find that

Are your hopes merely “wishful thinking”? “Meaningful striving” turn dreams into action. Thoughts and prayers become real when they become words and deeds.

Rev. Daniel Charles Davis was ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister in 1995 and has served churches in Maryland, North Carolina and Indiana. He retired in May 2023. His wife Gail is a singer and they have recorded 5 CDs and developed curriculum to go with each one. The music will be available after service.

Our annual Music Sunday will inspire and move you! Come and celebrate the many talents of our UUCUC community, led by our choir director, M.R. Rowland.

Albert Einstein famously said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Imagination allows us to transcend our current realities and to create possibilities for mutual thriving. In the month of May, we'll flex our imagination muscles to dream of the better world we can create together beginning right here at UUCUC.

Join us for our Associate Minister Rev. Sally's final Sunday. 

On this Earth Day (and Easter) Sunday, come and celebrate the joys that are gifted to us by our "blue boat home" and explore the wisdom of the earth and of those fighting to protect it.

In our third annual "flipped" service, we'll explore how we find joy in where we turn our attention. And we'll get the opportunity to turn our attention to new places during Sunday's service. Adults will be invited to explore REE spaces while kids remain in the sanctuary to explore how we co-create worship.

In the face of the world’s tragedies and our personal griefs, the cynics among us might say that beauty and joy are frivolous. But our souls are fed by beauty and nourished by joy, and if we aren’t making room for joy in our spiritual practices, in our relationships, and in our activism, then what are we making room for? This month's message series invites us to notice the ordinary, everyday miracles all around us and to seek joy with our hearts wide open.

As we embark on spring, let us break bread together to reinforce strength in community and the power of love. We will reflect on the shared meal and its centrality in bringing people together. Gluten free alternatives will also be available.

When our trust in leaders and institutions fall, when we are faced with regressive and reactionary policies that put a lie to the idea of inevitable progress, where do we turn?   In times such as these, our trust in large institutions may fall, but we are called to keep trusting in our spiritual community and our UU values, called to center interdependence and love, and  to turn to each other, to our neighbors and immediate communities to build coaltions of justice and mutual care.

In turbulent times and political strife, it is all too easy to give in to despair and to believe we are powerless in the face of tyranny. And yet throughout time, people have borne witness to extraordinary - and ordinary - acts of resistance. There are many such stories and today, we'll focus on one - the story of Esther from Hebrew Scriptures, who demanded justice from a vindictive king. Come and be inspired by Esther's story - or be inspired in the all-ages REE classrooms to take action against food insecurity.

As we celebrate our generosity campaign, we consider how the seeds planted in our past bear fruit today, and engage in the practice of trust that what we do now to live our mission, shapes the future we wish to create. In this all-ages service led by Rev. Sally, we'll engage in multiple activities to help us consider and celebrate our collective community.

Researcher and writer Dr. Brene Brown wrote: “Trust is not built in big, sweeping moments. It’s built in tiny moments every day.” What are the “tiny moments” that help us practice and build trust, for ourselves and our community? In these days when trust in our institutions, our democracy, and our neighbors is eroded, building trust, especially in our spiritual homes, creates capacity for curiosity, creativity, and the inevitable mistakes that enable thriving. As we begin the Month of March and continue our generosity campaign, Rev Beth will lead us in a service to explore how we can build our capacity to trust each other.

The nation has come a long way with the 34 year history of ADA legislation and the University of Illinois has been a pioneer in this area. UUCUC has been slow in adapting our physical space and our culture to be truly open and accessible. We know that cultural change is slow and often seems to move in circles, with laws and actions pushing our collective thinking forward, and sometimes sharp changes in thought moving us to action. How do we create a culture of radical accessibility here in our congregation? Drawing on the wisdom of EqUUal Access and theologian Julia Watts Besler, we'll beign to answer these questions together.

When UU youth groups make their covenants and guidelines of how to behave toward one another, one odd phrase became strangely popular across many different congregations a few years ago: "Be a croissant, not a donut."

This strange promise isn't a statement about the relative popularity of sweet treats, but is instead a reminder to always keep our circle open, leave a space for someone to join, and avoid becoming another closed-off donut shaped social group always focused inward on those who are already members.

Join us this Sunday for a sweet, warm, pastry-inspire service, reflecting on how we can live our best open-hearted lives, amid all the forces tempting us to close our circles and stop risking connection. Fittingly, we will also be celebrating our newest members in a welcoming ceremony during the service. 

On February 15, 2025, at 1:00 p.m., the congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign will install the Reverend Beth Monhollen as our settled minister.

The celebration will begin with the Installation service in the sanctuary, which will be followed by a reception in Fellowship Hall. Hors d’oeuvres and desserts will be served. Childcare will be available. 

All Ages Service; We kick off our annual generosity campaign this week with an all ages service that invites to consider the deep roots we plant today and how to nurture them to flourish for years to come. 

Today, we begin a new message series asking us to consider what inclusion actually means to us in practice as people of faith. How can we together, especially in the current climate, do the slow steady work of moving immovable mountains of fear and oppression? 

Do you find yourself struggling to make sense of current events, or knowing what actions to take in the face of this overwhelming present moment? Join us this Sunday to be reminded of the strength that exists within our selves and our communities. Rev. Sally will revisit the story of a historical figure whose quiet courageous disobedience to fascism still inspires today. We are not the first to face truly daunting circumstances, to wonder what the right thing to do is, or to feel conflicted or confused about how to move forward. In telling and retelling stories of resistance, we remind ourselves what we are capable of, and we gather the strength we will need to write the next chapter. 

In our broader American culture, we are often exhorted to embrace objectivity and to seek "middle ground" but what of those ideas are just stories and myths we have created? As we continue to explore our monthly theme of Story: up From the Depths, this service on the eve of the Inauguration and on Martin Luther King Day, asks us to consider what stories are obscured by an insistence on a mythic middle ground.

Join members of the Worship Committee for an all-ages service filled with the frosty joys of a winter poetry reading. Members and friends will share some of their favorite poems and inspire the warmth of community on this chilly January day.

How do our individual and collective stories and myths shape and re-shape us in community? We'll share stories of our own church's history and explore how stories help us create new ways of being together.

In this all ages service we'll reflect on the year that is ending and consider what we need to carry together into the new year.  Can we let go of unrealistic expectations and resolutions and center instead an intention to be present for each other in all the ways we might need?

Two All-ages Services filled with story-telling and music and candlelit singing at 4:00pm and 6:30 with a cookie exchange in Fellowship Hall between the two services. There will be childcare available at both services. 

Two All-ages Services filled with story-telling and music and candlelit singing at 4:00pm and 6:30 with a cookie exchange in Fellowship Hall between the two services. There will be childcare available at both services. 

In this winter solstice service, Rev. Beth invites us to consider the gifts that can be found when we honor the cycles of life. While our culture often uses darkness as a metaphor for all that is bad, midwinter and the longest night of the year call us to remember that darkness offers us much needed renewal and rest. It is in the literal dark of night that we can see the stars and in the dark soil of the earth, new life is continually reborn. 

Growing up in the nominally Christian west, and particularly in the United States, we are forced to develop some kind of relationship with the holiday music that takes over the culture for two months every year.  A form that already emphasizes nostalgia, it becomes inextricably intertwined with your own experience of the holiday, whether good or bad and whether or not you actually celebrate Christmas.  Naturally, your preference for specific holiday tunes will reflect who you are now and your evolving relationship with Christmas.  In today’s service, led by Chris Hannauer and Sam Beshers,  we will examine our relationships with holiday music, helped along by speakers who will share their perspectives and talk about their own favorite songs and performances.

Join us this Sunday for an all-ages service led by Rev. Sally and Kelly Skinner, our Director of Faith Development. Wear your comfiest clothes and be ready to practice letting go of the demanding noise of everyday life, and sinking into a genuinely restful spiritual practice. Inspired and guided by the writings of Tricia Hersey, "The Nap Bishop," Sally and Kelly will lead us in reflecting on the life-giving practice of simply being present. There will be blankets, pillows, music, and a chance to unpack some of the anxiety and frenetic pressure that keep us from honoring our bodies’ and spirits’ need for rest. 

As we move closer to midwinter and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, let us pause and reflect on the gifts of the present moment.

The Worship Committee will lead service this week,  led by member Julia Cronin as she calls on indigenous practices and wisdom that can guide us deeper into mutuality and repair. It is not enough to decry our current systems – we must learn and make real alternative ways of living.

Rev Sally lead’s this week’s service by examining how we already have shining examples of people coming together to support each other and thrive in extraordinary circumstances. With examples from Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built in Hell, we’ll explore how to change our apocalyptic stories.

Rev Beth continues our exploration of repair in this post-election service, featuring meditation, reflection, and music from our guest musician and member Emily McKown. There’s much work to do to repair the broken world, but first we must attend to our broken hearts.

In last year’s UUA common read book, Rabbi Danya Rutenberg explores religious and cultural practices of repentance and repair. We’ll examine key lessons from her work and ask how we might understand our personal and collective actions to create repair in our fractured world on the eve of the US elections.

In our annual remembrance service, we’ll honor members and loved ones who have died past year. Holding space for and listening tenderly to grief is communal practice that deepens our spiritual connections

Educator and Quaker writer Parker Palmer has written beautifully about creating practices that help us to hear the wisdom of our inner teacher and to live whole authentic lives. This often means balancing the needs for silence and solitude with the needs for speaking up in community. How are we called to listen deeply to our own conscience and how do we discern the words to say – and not to say – on our path to wholeness?

This Sunday, in honor of the October birthday of St. Francis, we will be blessing the animals! You are invited to bring your pets (and companion animals of any species) into the Sanctuary to enjoy this all-ages service, which will include a chance to bring each animal forward to be blessed. 

All animals need to be either leashed, crated, or caged, and we trust you to use your best judgement about whether their attendance would be more stressful than fun for your companion animals. If it’s easier, you can bring a picture of your animal or a stuffed animal for the blessing instead. And remember, you are also an animal and are welcome to be a part of the blessing!

Listening, a skill we humans already struggle to master, is even more challenging it seems in our 21st century context with so much noise pulling at our attention wherever we go. Cultivating mindfulness and slowing down are two practices that help us develop deeper listening so we may be more fully present for each other.

Phillip Schug, our local Unitarian church’s first humanist minister, helped bring “McCollum v Champaign County Board of Education” to the Supreme Court, resulting in forced prayer in public school being declared unconstitutional. This coming spring will the the 80th anniversary of Vashti McCollum first filing suit in this case. This service lifts up this story, as part of our story, honoring the ways we still fight to make space for diversity of belief and practice.

Poet Robert Frost wrote eloquently of two roads diverging and how choosing one made all the difference. What moments in your life have been crossroads, inviting you to make choices that you knew would change your life and heart? And what spiritual practices sustain you on your journey?

In her powerful book, Transforming Conflict, Rev Dr. Terasa Cooley invites us to consider how conflict can be the force of transformations that our relationships and organizations need to flourish. We’ll explore how to accept the invitations that conflict offer to us.

For this All Ages Service, we’ll explore playful spiritual practices and how they invite us into deeper connection with others and with our own souls.

On this Labor Day weekend, let’s take time to honor our ancestors in the Labor Movement and to consider the work we are called to do now to create collective liberation in the face of rising authoritarianism.

Welcome back to the official start of the church year with our annual water “communion.” Bring water from places you visited this summer, from places that are special to you, and from the places of your everyday life and we will bless the waters together in shared community.

One of our core values as UU's is interdependence. The produce that we all eat is a physical manifestation of our dependence on each other and on the living systems that sustain us. Some of us experience this connection hands on through gardening, but during this service all are invited to give and receive a vegetable as a tangible reminder of our interconnectedness.

Our annual Blessing of the Backpacks will include honoring the work of our Immigration Justice Team and blessing all of the students in our midst who are heading back to school. 

Join Pip for a time-traveling adventure in which we will intentionally generate hope for the future by imagining a positive future in great detail.

Pip Paris is a student at Meadville Lombard Theological School, in the dual-degree program, studying leadership and divinity. He is a trans man with a 16-year old disabled nonbinary artist kiddo, and two cats. He is a Pagan UU but completed his parish internship at a Methodist Church, and is a member of Second Unitarian Church of Chicago. 

Join us for a summer service full of music! We will sing some of your favorite hymns, and perhaps we might also hum a few that sound familiar but we don’t quite recall the melody. The UUCUC Horn Band will also perform for some easy listening and good tunes. Bring your best vocal “chords” and let’s get in the spirit of life together to fill the sanctuary with beautiful sounds. 

“Faith development is all that we do. Unitarian Universalism is all that we teach. The congregation is the curriculum.” Connie Goodbread

Our UUCUC vision calls us to build community, seek inspiration, promote justice, and find peace. We support one another in our religious, spiritual, and personal development so that we can transform the world. That means that a primary reason we gather in this religious community is to engage in our own growth and self-actualization. Religious education, or faith development, is more than what we teach our children. It’s how we learn and grow as Unitarian Universalists – it is what we teach during all different ages and stages of life in everything we do together in our congregation.

People interested in becoming members of a Unitarian Universalist church often attend a session in which they get an introduction to UU history and theology.  But what comes next, after they join and have been attending for a year, or many years?  Some other faiths offer rigorous practices and programs of study to guide a person’s spiritual development; we do not.  This week I will examine the idea of spiritual growth and the pathways available to us.

In 1961, physicist Richard Feynman asked a group of undergraduate students: “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence was passed on to the next generation, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words?” 

Join us this Sunday to reflect on this question in a few variations. Rev. Sally will lead us in considering our own individual and communal “cataclysm sentences”, and reflecting on what our various answers might say about us, our beliefs, and what we most value. 

Educator and writer belle hooks wrote this when asked about queer means to her: :”queer is about the self that is at odds with everything around it and that has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.” During this Pride month, we’ll celebrate the ways that queerness invites us all, and especially all of us UUs, into creating futures in which everyone thrives. As part of this service, we’ll hold a ritual to honor the newest members of our thriving community!

Each of us will make a mark on this world in our lifetime.  What will be your legacy?  How will this world- this community- this faith- be different because you were a part of it?  Join us on Sunday as we explore these questions with guest minister Rev. Rebecca Gant.

Rev. Rebecca Gant is the minister at the Bloomington-Normal, Illinois UU church.   She grew up in south-central, Kansas, and moved to Lawrence, KS to go to college and stayed.  There she married Joe in 1991 and raised two fabulous, kind, smart daughters.  She began her journey to become a UU minister in 2017 after feeling the pull for more than a decade.  She loves her calling to parish ministry where she can help things like people, love, and justice grow.  In her free time, she enjoys laughing with friends, hiking in the woods, making things from yarn or paper, and hosting impromptu patio parties.

Join us for our annual Flower Ceremony where we honor the diversity and beauty we each contribute to our thriving spiritual community. This special Sunday will also feature a ritual to honor our REE volunteers and a time to honor our youth who are bridging into adulthood!

At this year’s UU General Assembly, the annual gathering of UUs from across the country, we will vote on new language for how we articulate our principles and values. Let’s explore a little of our UU history, and imagine the future we are creating, and the legacy we at UUCUC are forging right here in our community.

Join us this Sunday to reflect on what meaning we might make from the singing of this year’s cicadas. Rev. Sally will lead us in a thoughtful exploration of how we deal with disgust, find awe, and get inspired by nature’s lessons on collective power, patience, and making joyful noise together. 

This Sunday will be our Music Sunday service. Join the choir, and many other volunteer musicians from the congregation, as they explore the poetry of Sara Teasdale through music. The music will provide the message for the day, with hopes of coming through the darkness to remind us all, “If I can sing, I still am free.”

NO LIVESTREAM DUE TO TECHNICALLY DIFICULTIES

Join us for a very special all-ages service which will include a child dedication ceremony and active leadership for our young REE participants.

How are we “allowed” to resist/protest? The expectation of being the perfect or “model” victim of oppression. Taking a hard look at how we judge/condemn people who protest “the wrong way.” Palestine, BLM, Standing Rock, Black Panthers. Leonard Peltier is up for parole this July.

On this kick off to Reproductive Justice Week here in C-U, we’ll examine the notion that all freedom begins with body autonomy. If we do not have control over our own bodies then liberation is not possible on any other front. As UUs who center the inherent dignity and worthiness of all in our spiritual quest to create justice and love, working for reproductive justice is part of our spiritual work.

As a faith movement that centers love and justice, how do we hold the tension of being rooted in our own values and reaching out acorss differences? How do we discern when we need to be the bridge, when we need ot cross a bridge, or when we need to stay rooted on our side of a bridge?

Join us this Sunday for a multigenerational service on all the ways we rely on one another! A collaboration between Rev. Sally and our UUCUC Care Core volunteers, this engaging all-ages Sunday we involve singing, playing, leftover Easter candy, and shared reflections on the deep spiritual practice of giving and receiving help. If you sometimes struggle to ask for the help you need, or to know how to help those who are going through hardships, this service is for you! 

The first Sunday of every month is multigenerational, which means kids stay upstairs in the sanctuary for the entire service. Regular Religious Exploration and Engagement classes will resume April 14th. 

The UUCUC Racial Justice Team is exploring work with the Reparations Coalition of Champaign County and is honored to host Rev Thomas as part of that work.

Rev. Terrance L. Thomas, our guest preacher this coming Sunday, has been minister of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Champaign since 2019. He holds a Master of Divinity degree with a focus on African American Church Leadership and Spiritual Care from Garrett-Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, IL, and is pursuing a Doctor of Divinity degree in Pastoral Leadership and Community Engagement from Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, OH. Rev. Thomas describes himself as unapologetically Christian, a socialist with left of center politics, and a

believer in liberation and humanist theology. “I believe God is on the side of the oppressed and has given us the power to free ourselves and change the world with the help of the Holy Spirit. I center Black people (all Black people) in everything I do.”

He grew up on the southside of Chicago, the 4 th of 6 children. His father was a veteran of the Chicago Police Department and his mother a palliative care nurse. He has 5 children (4 boys and 1 girl) and two

dogs, named Nat Turner and Maya Angelou. He is engaged to be married on April 20! 

The Racial Justice Team approached Rev. Thomas to be our guest preacher because he is a notable community and religious spokesperson on racial justice issues such as reparations and liberation theology.

We as Unitarian Universalists are free to believe as we choose.  This freedom is part of what draws us together, and the diversity of our beliefs and personal journeys is one of our strengths.  Yet we do not often get to engage with one another’s personal beliefs.

Join us for some reflections on what we believe, how we live our lives in accordance with UU principles, how our spiritual lives reflect the principles, and what are some of the challenges of living up to these ideals.

Unitarian Universalists have historically grappled with change and uncertainty in a variety of ways. We tend to center process-oriented theolgies that emphasize our ongoing transformations. Our work is never compelte and perfection is never the goal. Let’s examine three key historical moments that may inspire us to embrace the future of our faith.

Join us for an exciting all-ages service as we celebrate new members and affirm our commitments to this community on this Pledge Sunday!

How does our understanding and appreciation of all the ministries here shift when we shine light in a new way? In our second annual “flipped service” everyone has the opportunity to experience Sunday monring from a new perspective. Adults will explore the REE wing while children and youth claim the Sanctuary.

UUCUC has a long history in our community. Let’s reflect on highlights of our past as we dream of possibilities for our future.

Join us for the kick-off of our annual Generosity campaign, Prism of Possibilities. We’ll reflect on the wonders of reflected and refracted light, and begin to imagine the possibilities we create together in community.

Join us this Sunday for a chance to reflect on the truths and myths of generational types and stereotypes. From the Silent Generation all the way to Gen Alpha, our church community stretches across nearly a century of life, and there is a lot we can learn from each other, if we take the time to ask. Rev. Sally will lead us in a multigenerational service meant to illuminate the commonalities and the differences across generational experiences, and help us all appreciate the wisdom of new (and old!) perspectives. 

This service will also include a celebration of Rev. Sally’s ministerial milestone – being granted “Full Fellowship” by the national Unitarian Universalist Association – and will be followed with cake, music, and more celebration in Fellowship Hall.

Continuing to explore our theme of “Liberating Love”, we’ll ask what do we owe to this world and how can we individually and collectively pay a debt of love.

Join us this Sunday in celebrating our congregation’s recent accessibility wins, and reflecting on the deeper spiritual dimensions of disability justice. Rev. Sally will lead us in a lively and thoughtful service, inspired by Amy Kenny’s “My Body is Not a Prayer Request,” and together we will sing, share, and meditate on our relationship to our own ever-changing bodies and the assumptions we make about healing and wholeness. 

It’s new year’s eve and we often set resolutions for the new year. For 2024, let’s collectively resolve to commit to rest so we may rise to the needs that the new year brings.

Join us either at 10:15 for a shorter, more reflective Christmas morning message or at 5pm fo ran all-ages, music filled candle-light service.

Join us either at 10:15 for a shorter, more reflective Christmas morning message or at 5pm fo ran all-ages, music filled candle-light service.

Feeling overwhelmed? Whether with personal struggles, current events, or holiday expectations, your overwhelm is welcome at UUCUC this Sunday, where Rev. Sally will be lifting up heartening stories from right here in our community, and reminding us of the small, practical miracles that shine even when the world’s troubles are larger than life. Together we will find warmth, comfort, and the strength we need to keep on doing the good work of this season. Our choir will sing, and our kids will enjoy their last Religious Exploration classes before the new year!  

Ring the bells & celebrate the arrival of the Yuletide – and, in today’s service, let us reflect on the contributions made by an earlier generation of American Unitarians who transformed an unruly season into the familiar family-orientated holiday that we enjoy today.

In a world full of chaos constant change, looking for “right” answers is tempting. But our faith calls us to be open to wonder and transformation. Let’s explore the “what if” questions that can lead us to deeper connections in te midst of uncertainty. This intergenerational service will also feature a “Wonder Box” so be ready to submit your “what does this mean?” and “why do we do this?” kinds of questions.

As we go deeper into the holiday season, we encounter traditions, expectations, and their impact. How shall we conduct ourselves knowing that we will be ancestors in our own right? How do the people of the future understand us?

Reverend Jennifer Innis joins us from Peoria, IL where she enjoys life with her spouse the Reverend Patrick Price and their children, Nate and Abby. She is happy to be the minister with the Universalist Unitarian Church of Peoria. She also is the Director of Spirit Play, a story-based program for young children in Unitarian Universalism. Rev. Innis is thrilled to offer worship with this beloved community while Rev. Monhollen is doing the same in Peoria.

Join Worship Committee members, led by Julia Cronin, in this exploration of our complicated relationship with the Native peoples and lands on which we all now reside, here in central Illinois. Using a lively mix of music, narratives, and history, Julia explores the narratives we have told and those we have hidden or misunderstood.

Generosity and abundance aren’t about our literal physical means, but a spirit that we nurture in each other. In today’s service, we’ll hear more about our international partner church program and consider practices to nurture a spirit of abundance that deepen our mutuality. 

Join us this Sunday for our All Souls service honoring those we have lost this year, and all those who have come before us. Bring a photo or memento of loved ones whose memory you would like to honor. We will build an altar and light candles in their memory. 

ALL AGES are welcome – this service is a chance to gather across generations to meditate, celebrate, and share the stories that keep us all together. The service will be interactive and lovingly centered on the ways life, death, and the power of ongoing change affect us all.

Contemporary American culture is steeped in capitalist notions of productivity and “earning” our worth. Commitments to flourishing and to honoring our inherent worthiness are radical acts that our Unitarian Universalist faith tradition calls us to do. Let’s explore lessons from Disney’s Encanto that illustrate how we can be the magic and miracle for each other in this work.

The picture Joni Mitchell paints in her 1966 song “Circle Game”, shows people passing inexorably through life-changing stages, in each stage forming dreams for the next, which may or may not become fully realized. To help us bring needed fullness and reality to Joni’s simple

picture, three congregation members will give us their own stories of life-changing bends in their ’roads’.

October 11th is National Coming Out Day, and we’re inviting everyone at UUCUC to come out from whatever closets are keeping you down, and join in celebrating the inherent holiness of our human variety. Have you ever been told by a religious authority that you are broken, unworthy, or bad? Have legislators tried to paint your existence as a threat, or dismiss your deepest truths as confusion or illness? This Sunday we remind ourselves that all those lies we’ve been told are just that – lies. We will tell stories, meditate, sing, stomp, and gather our strength for living in the world as our whole, holy, selves. Whether you are LGBTQ, love someone who is LGBTQ, or simply want to be reminded of the glorious beauty and worth of all people, this service is for you!

Amidst life’s constant uncertainty, committing to our covenantal relationships can help us to navigate the changes the world demands.

The Soul Matters theme for October is “Heritage”and we will begin by exploring our heritage as Unitarian Universalists and lifting up one of our beloved Unitarian ancestors, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Harper was one of the most widely published and read poets of the 19th century, and a life-long activist, fighting for abolition, suffrage, workers rights, and more. Her words and work inspired countless people in her day and can continue to inspire us.

In Unitarian Universalism, we affirm the inherent worthiness of all people and strive to be radically inclusive communities. And yet we know that our desire to be welcoming to new comers and to new ways of being is sometimes in tension with our desire for stability and for things to be “the way they used to be.” Let’s explore how hold this tension with compassion and grace.

This week marks the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, as well as the approach of the Autumnal Equinox. Join us on Sunday to consider how we humans mark beginnings, endings, and the time in between. Is time a circle, a straight line, or something else altogether? Is it something that exists outside of us, or do we have the power to shape it? Rev. Sally will lead us in considering our own beliefs about the nature of time, and also in marking this new year with a touch of sweetness and community. 

As Unitarian Universalists, we covenant to be in community together, even we experience and render harm. We can commit to choosing healthy relationships with each other and will explore the ancient story of Ruth as an example for us to follow.

Writer Nicola Jane Hobbs recently wrote, “Instead of asking, ‘Have I worked hard enough to deserve rest?’ I’ve started asking, ‘Have I rested enough to do my most loving, meaningful work?”  On this Labor Day weekend, we’ll take time to reflect on the role of work and rest in our lives.

Remember to bring water to church this Sunday, from a body of water that is meaningful to you (or just symbolically from a significant place), and we will all have the chance to contribute our separate waters into one shared and communal container.

Whether or not you’ve seen the recent “Barbie” movie, directed by the acclaimed (raised-UU) Greta Gerwig, this service will have a little something for everyone! From Pygmalion to the Velveteen Rabbit, we humans love telling stories about what it means to “become real,” and this summer, Barbie added her own unique voice to the chorus. Join Rev. Sally for this all-ages service, and we will sing, play, and reflect together about our own journeys of becoming, and what makes us feel most real.

Rev. Sally will be wearing her most pink outfit, and you are invited to do the same, OR wear whatever makes you feel fabulous!

School starts this week!  Whether you’re a student in school or just a student of life, this Sunday is an opportunity to freshen up and set intentions. Bring your backpack, briefcase, purse, fanny pack, saddlebag, etc, to be blessed for the year ahead. We will have a special gift for everyone who comes!

We will also be helping the Immigration Justice Team to put together backpacks to be donated to unaccompanied minors in our community who are going to middle school and high school. 

In our part of the world, this is the time of year that plants are giving freely of themselves in great abundance. We will hear from the director of Sola Gratia Farm, an organization whose mission is to bring fresh, locally grown produce to our community. To celebrate the generosity of both plants and people, we will exchange produce during the service. If you are willing and able, please bring a vegetable to share. All produce left at the end of the service will be donated through Sola Gratia Farm.

Many of life’s greatest rewards require that we confront feelings of fear, anxiety, and inadequacy. My reflection will explore this theme against the backdrop of a recent backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail.

Time again for a summer service full of singing! Join us to sing your

favorite hymns, or even some you might prefer not to sing but you’ll

get in the spirit of life and join in anyway. 

Join us on Sunday, July 16 for a chance to reflect on Unitarian Universalism’s long-standing commitment to providing comprehensive sex education to all ages in our congregations. In our current environment, sacred sexuality education grounded in Self-Worth, Responsibility, Sexual Health, and Justice and Inclusivity is life-affirming and life-saving work. We will hear from facilitators of our own Our Whole Lives (OWL) program, get first-hand experience of some class activities, and have a chance to consider more deeply how religion, bodies, and sexuality are interrelated. Whether you’re well versed in OWL, or this is your first time hearing about it, this service is bound to be a joyful and illuminating experience for all!

Join us this Sunday for a service centered on the spiritual and theological meanings held within practices of tattooing and body art. Rev. Sally will lead us in reflecting on identity, expression, permanence, and what it can mean to view body art as a spiritual practice. Are you curious about what kinds of tattoos UU ministers get? Rev. Sally will share with us some of the stories and art of her colleagues, who have offered up their own diverse perspectives on what the practice means. We will sing together, meditate, share our joys and sorrows, and get creative about what our own “UU tattoos” might look like. 

Join us this Sunday to watch the streamed service from our national Unitarian Universalist General Assembly. This gathering of thousands of UUs from around the country will feature voices from all over the country, and a sermon from Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti, senior minister of the First UU Congregation of Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

The pandemic has wrought change and created uncertainty for institutions, like our Unitarian Universalist congregations, and our wider world.  Who and what are we becoming, individually and collectively?  Our GA Sunday service explores these themes as we gather in community to celebrate the best of who we UUs are.

We here at UUCUC will gather in our Fellowship Hall to watch this service together, with coffee and fellowship to follow. 

In the UUA revision of article 2, transformation was one of the proposed values. Creative expression through the arts can transform the human spirit and generate new perspectives. In this interactive service, congregants will have an opportunity to engage in hands-on expressive arts accessible for all ages and abilities as an act of creative transformation. We encourage children and children at heart to join us.

Join us this Sunday to celebrate the spirit of volunteerism. We will recognize members who are prone to say “yes” when asked to help, along with those who jump into the work headfirst when they see work that needs to be done. What leads persons to do the “holy work of showing up” and how does volunteering open paths to live our values? This will be our first Sunday meeting in Fellowship Hall in air-conditioned comfort. 

Join us this Sunday for a celebration of LGBTQ pride, joy, and resilience. This service will involve many voices and many identities from within our congregation, honoring the beauty and depth of our different experiences. There’s fear and stress aplenty in the daily headlines, so on this Pride Sunday, you can bring your cup here to be refilled with joy, and be reminded of your own wholeness and holiness. We will sing, reflect, create, and uplift the delight, beauty, and power inherent in every queer and trans life.  

This Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of the first ever UU Flower Celebration! This springtime tradition, first introduced by Czech Unitarian ministers Maja and Norbert Câpek, is a celebration of nature’s bounty and the rich beauty and variation within our faith community. Everyone brings a flower to share – whether from their own garden, a shop, or the side of the road – and we all leave with a different flower, adding a little joy and color to our separate journeys. This service will be musical, bright, and engaging for all ages, with a chance for everyone to participate directly. Because it is the first Sunday of the month, children will stay upstairs in the Sanctuary the entire time. 

This Sunday, we honor the youth from our congregation who are graduating from high school. It is a UU tradition to lift up our teens as they step out of youth group activities, and into young adulthood. This service will feature reflections from our bridging senior, and a ritual to mark this moment as a meaningful chance for all of us to reflect on how we have grown through the various stages of our lives. Our one “Bridger” this year is Anya Troyer. There will be a celebration immediately following the service in Fellowship Hall.

In 1942, Aaron Copland wrote “Fanfare for the Common Man”, in response to the US entry into World War II, and inspired in part by an address in which vice president Henry A. Wallace proclaimed the dawning of the “Century of the Common Man”.  Wallace’s themes were freedom, the empowerment and dignity of the common person, and the responsibilities of the individual to the community.  He also declared that no nation or group of people is inherently superior to any other.  This service will highlight Copland’s “Fanfare” and examine what the idea of the “common person” means today, in our country and in our faith.

This Sunday the Transition Team looks back at the year of transition and ahead to the coming years with our new minister Beth Monhollen.  We will examine some of the strengths of our congregation that have helped us make it through times of change, and that we can build on in the times to come.

Join the choir for our musical journey Onward this week!  We will use music to move through the darkness, to soothe a soul, to rise and to soar, and to honor the many journeys we will travel through our lives. M.R. and Juan will lead the choir through the World Premiere of Onward: Cinquain and Sonnet which was commissioned for the choir at UUCUC by a fellow UU composer from Colorado Springs, Amanda Udis-Kessler. The text reminds us to powerfully and courageously accept the invitation for change. Dreaming, daring, hoping. Onward!

We have each inherited legacies and traditions from our families and religions of origin. Some of those lessons serve us well, but we know many of us carry wounds and scars that cry out for healing. Unlearning lessons and embracing new ones is part of our work in progressive, spiritual communities where healing, justice and love are centered.

In our culture that so prioritizes the individual, coming together in community can be revolutionary. Let’s explore the power and purpose of our spiritual communities as we lift up examples from the world of competitive running and civil rights activism.

Most Sundays at UUCUC, the grownups stay in the pews and the kids go downstairs to their Religious Exploration classrooms. This week, you’re invited to join us for an engaging and illuminating service that might just give you a new perspective on what we do here at church. Rev. Sally and Kelly Skinner are collaborating to bridge the generational divide, and remind us that pews aren’t the only place holiness happens!

All faiths have different ways of thinking about the cycles of death and rebirth, the constant movement of loss and renewal at work at every level of life.  Death and rebirth is a natural part of life, for us humans and for the entire world. But often we fear death and turn away from it. Which limits the opportunities for transformation and hope. Easter is a time for us to celebrate the miracle that happens when we embrace death and create space to allow ourselves to be transformed in heart, mind, spirit, or body.

Join us this Sunday for a multigenerational celebration of outcasts, tricksters, and everyone who makes us see the world differently or question conformity. We will sing, meditate, and think about how we can break out of stifling categories and be the “holy fool” in our own lives. This service is designed to be welcoming and engaging for all ages – kids will stay upstairs in the sanctuary with the adults.

“It is easy to hold up a light and declare that everyone is welcome. It’s harder to build a place where everyone is truly at home. ”  Rev Susan Frederick-Gray, UUA President

“A religion that would truly offer hope to the disabled would have much less to do with promising a future where tears will be no more… than with promising the physical space where we, the disabled can limp or wheel up to or lie at the table without encountering a gauntlet of impediments or the alienating social gaze, because all bodies present have metabolized their own mortality and the welcome is truly and deeply grounded in actuality; that is, they have learned to hold the body deeply and humbly in mind.”

Disabled theologian Sharon Betcher, Spirit and the Politics of Disablement, revised 

Please join us on Sunday March 26 at 10:15 am for Reverend Karen Bush’s last sermon with us as our Interim Lead Minister when Rev KB will be joined by Wendy Graves, Beth Simpson and Paul Kaiser as together they will offer our congregation challenge and inspiration for our lives And for cross roads in our future… waiting around the bend.

NO LIVE STREAM DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Change is in the air!  Spring has come early and we are ready to shake things up. 

In this service we will explore connections, renewal, and the interdependent web of existence through music and shared activities. The service will be held in Fellowship Hall.

Join us Sunday, March 12 to celebrate and reflect on the value of a lifelong commitment. Change and evolution are central to our UU faith, but so too are the unchanging values and commitments that hold steady at our core. We’ll come together this Sunday to honor our longest term members at UUCUC, and ask ourselves what makes a person stay committed to a single church for decades, or for a lifetime. Rev. Sally will lead us in celebrating the deep foundations and stalwart caretakers of our community, and in reflecting on what we can all learn from those who stick around longterm within our ever-changing faith.  

What is Church?

What does Church connote for you?

Do you seek a spiritual safe haven with like minded others whose values and priorities about “the worth and dignity of every person” resonate with yours?

Or perhaps do you hope to be intellectually challenged and informed from perspectives and viewpoints different from your own out of “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning”?

How can we navigate the tension caused between these and other seemingly juxtapositional expectations of Church?

The Interim time is a time to ask such questions.

On Sunday March 5th at our 10:15 am service our interim lead minister Reverend Karen Bush will both encourage and challenge us as together we take a closer look at this ongoing conundrum.

Where do I belong? The wanderings of our lives that have lead us to a common path.

We have all come to UUCUC from different paths. Some from being raised as a Unitarian Universalist….Some from very different religious backgrounds…..Some with no experience in religion….Some from a spiritual place.

No matter how we got here, we have sought a place of comfort, a sense of “fitting in”, or perhaps values or beliefs that fit with Unitarian Universalism. Join us on February 26 as we explore this theme further.

This Sunday, Rev. Sally tackles a topic suggested by our UUCUC youth: the humble bathroom, and what it can teach us about our faith, our connection to each other, and our place in the universe. This Sunday falls just before the revelry of Mardi Gras and the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, and together we’ll honor both the irreverent fun and reflective potential of this time. We’ll sing, meditate, learn, and with the inspiration of our teens and tweens, see our lives’ various rooms for rest, and restrooms, through new eyes.

On Sunday February 12th Reverend Karen Bush will share about how a deep calling to compassion and justice work inspired by the church of her childhood interwove through the dreams of a little farm girl growing up under the prairie skies.

Come join us this Generosity Kick Off Sunday as together we name and reclaim for our own the dreams of our UUCUC fore bearers who call out to us to dare to leap into a higher, more noble future then what we have known before…

A better world that, together, we, along with our church’s children, as co creators, help design.

We hope you will join us!

A Million Dreams

by Justin Paul Nobel

“I close my eyes and I can see

The world that’s waiting up for me

That I call my own.

Through the dark, through the door

Through where no one’s been before

But it feels like home.

They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy.

They can say, they can say I’ve lost my mind.

I don’t care, I don’t care, so call me crazy.

We can live in a world that we design.

‘Cause every night I lie in bed

The brightest colors fill my head

A million dreams are keeping me awake.

I think of what the world could be

A vision of the one I see

A million dreams is all it’s gonna take.

Oh a million dreams for the world we’re gonna make.”

Join us this Sunday for an interactive multigenerational service focused on living our love for the world in our actions. Rev. KB and Rev. Sally will together guide us through fun and hands-on ways we can all reach out beyond our congregation. All ages are invited to join together in singing, reflecting, and taking action!

Whether you know and love the Eight Principles and Six Sources of Unitarian Universalism, or you can’t name a single one, this Sunday has something for you! Join us for a service that will grapple with the big changes being proposed by UUs at a national level, including a re-writing of the Principles and Sources. If you were to start from a blank page and try to articulate the shared values of our unique and ever-changing faith, what would you start with? This Sunday, we propose that we start with love!

We learn to sort, sift, and categorize from the time we are children. When we too quickly make categorical judgments about persons, this tendency may lead toward unfair discrimination and exclusivity. In November, the UUA sponsored Beyond Categorical Thinking (BCT), a workshop designed to explore these topics, which are especially crucial as the congregation searches for a new minister. Forty of our members filled out questionnaires beforehand to convey their knowledge of identity categories before discussing case studies of discriminatory episodes presented by the facilitators, Gil Guerrero and Reverend Donna Dolham. This morning’s service extends this conversation. Jerry Carden, who is also a recognized BCT facilitator, will lead us in considering how categorical thinking can perpetuate harmful stereotypes and how we can move toward practices of radical hospitality within our church community and beyond.

Unitarian Universalism came together as a merged denomination in 1961, the same year the first Freedom Rides bussed through the American south, and just two years before Martin Luther King Jr’s march on Washington and his much-quoted “I have a dream” speech. Our nation honors King’s legacy with this holiday each year, and today we at UUCUC will take the opportunity to reflect more deeply on where our tradition’s unique story intersects with that of Dr. King. Where were the UUs during Rev. Dr. King’s push for Black civil rights? And what lessons can our justice efforts today take from that unique history? Rev. Sally will lead us in reflecting on historical moments of connection and mutual support between Dr. King and UU communities, as well as missed opportunities we can still learn from. Together we will sing, pray, and meditate deeply on the ongoing impact of our shared histories.

This is the time of the year when Kwanzaa comes, followed closely by the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The message spoken quietly in many African American homes at Kwanzaa is shouted to the world two weeks later at the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whether or not we are African American, there is so much that the candles of Kwanzaa have to teach us and challenge us in our thinking and in our lives.

On Sunday January 8 at our 10:15 am service Reverend Karen Bush will lead us with the help of UUCUC members and friends of all ages, as together, we are challenged to work and live for justice by the seven candles of Kwanzaa… from wherever we each are in our history and our lives. 

Change is important but rarely easy. As we enter the new year we are also continuing on our path of transition to a new minister and a post-Covid church. All are brimming with hope and new possibilities, and we cannot yet know what any of them will look like. At this critical time we choose to light a candle rather than to curse the darkness. This week we feature a sermon from UUA President Susan Frederick-Gray, nestled within a prerecorded service created here at UUCUC.

7:00 PM service, led by Rev. KB, will be a quiet and contemplative space with beautiful carol singing throughout. This service will include candlelit singing of Silent night, and a magical poetic reflection that brings together our UU faith and the Christmas story that will inspires each of us to pause and reflect on the sacred “Still Points” in our lives. 

5:00 PM service, led by Rev. Sally Fritsche, will be a lively and intentionally family-friendly experience which will kick off with a rich time of carol singing followed by a ton of fun for all ages. This service will include candlelit singing of Silent night, and a telling of the biblical Christmas story with a wonderful message exploring what is “Holy Unexpected”. 

Join us this Sunday to honor the beginning of Hanukkah and the coming of the longest night of the year, the winter Solstice. Together we will sing, tell stories from a variety of traditions, and reflect on the balance of dark with light, cold with warmth, and tradition with innovation. These winter holiday traditions remind us of the value of gathering around a shared flame during life’s coldest and darkest seasons.

Join us this Sunday for a multigenerational Sunday service welcoming some of our COVID-era babies and celebrating the joy and wonder of new life. If you’ve never been part of a UU baby dedication, this is your chance! It will be a truly multigenerational chance to recognize and welcome our community’s youngest members, and to promise our support as they grow and change. The choir will sing, we’ll share joys and sorrows, and Rev. Sally will lead us in reflecting on what it means to see the world through new eyes. 

Join us this Sunday for a service inspired by the work of indigenous author and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer. Rev Sally will lead us in reflecting on humanity’s role in our environment, challenging narratives that frame humans as a purely destructive force. Together we will sing, meditate, and find both humility and hope in opening ourselves to the revolutionary perspectives of the indigenous peoples and practices of this land.

We have a Congregational Covenant that lays out the ideals for how we live and work together, in our church community and beyond.  These ideals include respectful interactions, welcoming diversity and being able to hold diverse and possibly conflicting views.  This is easier said than done.  There are many ways in which we can feel, or make others feel, less than full members of the community.  We will explore some of these challenges and how we can address them, to build a more welcoming and vibrant community.

Join us this Sunday for our All Souls service honoring those we have lost this year, and all those who have come before us. Bring a photo or memento of loved ones whose memory you would like to honor. We will build an altar and light candles in their memory. 

ALL AGES are welcome – this service is a chance to gather across generations to meditate, celebrate, and share the stories that keep us all together. The service will be interactive and joyfully centered on the ways life, death, and the power of ongoing change affect us all. 

You’ve heard we used to be apes.  Mammals.  Reptiles, and fish… a while back. With our big brains with their amazing inventions and ideas, it seems we’ve forgotten that we are still mammals. The triune brain (see graphic), which science and many psychological theorists and therapy practitioners accept as reality, lets us know that we humans very much retain our instincts.  These instincts include emotional defensive and aggressive responses to threat.  While our many technologies may have kept us away from most physical threats,  our big brains and social realities provide us different types of threat.  Examples:  fear of  failure, “hurt feelings,” thoughts of potential future dangers, chronic isolation, triggering stimuli.

Many people are often quite uncomfortable with these more difficult “instinctual” emotions and can be at a loss what to do as well as how to communicate about them.  This discomfort and uncertainty can lead individuals to repress these emotions until they build to a point of explosion Or to seek a release valve through triangulation through back room murmuring and complaint Or to, sadly, disconnect completely.  This is true both in families And in communities/ congregations like ours.  

 The path of direct clear communication with those most directly involved can seem impossibly awkward .. even frightening and best avoided.

 On Sunday October 30 UUCUC member David Wolf and  our interim lead minister Reverend Karen Bush will invite us to reflect on how this human challenge impacts us both personally and in our congregational life together as we consider more healthy and effective alternatives. We hope you will join us!

Join us this Sunday for a service centered on forgiveness, abundance, and the ancient religious practice of “Jubilee.”  

Who deserves forgiveness? Who can grant it? What do we ultimately owe to one another and to ourselves? Together we will sing, reflect, meditate, and draw a connecting line between the abstract theological concept of forgiveness, and our practical this-world commitments. Rev. Sally will lead this service, and kids age birth-18 will start upstairs in the Sanctuary before being invited to participate in Religious Exploration and Engagement downstairs with their age-mates. 

On October 16 the Transition Team will flesh out the goals and tasks of this transition time, to pave the way for our church to call a new settled minister.  The sadness of Rev. Florence’s resignation and the COVID disruption in the ways we function have resulted in stress and concern.  But we can take heart from the knowledge that our church has been through other ministerial transitions and other times of stress, conflict, and worry.  It will take our individual and collective courage to learn from our past and to acknowledge how our community may need to change, but our past resilience is cause for future hope.  

Can we remember and learn from our past resilience, while recognizing what we may need to change in our church community?  This transition period is a time to reflect on where we have been, what we do well, what we wish to improve, and where we want to be in the future. 

Wellness is both a fad and a personal quest. What does it mean to be well, or to be whole? While Americans pursue numerous ideals of fitness and wellness, do these pursuits actually make us feel well and whole, or somehow inadequate because we fall short of the ideal? These are questions we will explore in this service.

The first Sunday of each month will be a multigenerational worship experience focused on themes that resonate with our childrens’ REE programs and our small group ministries for the rest of the month. October’s theme is “Courage,” and this Sunday falls on our local LGBTQ PrideFest weekend!

 Rev. Sally will lead us in reflecting on the meaning of courage, and celebrating the lives and loves of LGBTQ activists today and throughout history.

“Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice they send forth a tiny ripple of hope…” – Robert Kennedy

The middle sections of our mission statement should be familiar: ‘Seek Inspiration / Promote Justice.’ But how do I get inspired to work toward improving the world around us? Some have been inspired to help with organized initiatives through UUCUC. Others volunteer in a variety of other places. As we awaken from the pandemic how can we search into ourselves individually and collectively on the middle section of our mission? Join us on Sunday to hear how members of the congregation found their inspiration to get involved.  

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”       – Anne Frank.

Action:  Are you involved with any of our organized groups, such as the Immigration Task Force, or the Racial Justice Initiative, or do you do your own thing and volunteer with other groups? Consider providing a brief statement about your inspiration to get into action as part of our service. Send Jerry Carden an email: jacarden23@gmail.com

The Ongoing Evolution of the ‘Beloved Community’: Hype or Real Change – Each spring break for over thirty years Rev Bush was privileged to lead UIUC and Parkland students into the US deep south for a weeklong immersive experience with racially and economically marginalized communities in our country. These communities included: the Houma Indians (this community’s preferred name of reference) in the most southern tip of Louisiana, Gullah communities of the South Carolina Sea Islands, Central Americans on the Texas Mexican border (in sanctuary, in the INS prison and family camps) and predominantly African American communities in Jackson, Mississippi, New Orleans, Louisiana (multiple trips both before and after Katrina) and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Her goal of each trip was the same each year: to seek to break the hearts and radically open the minds of young people as they witnessed with their own eyes and ears to both the violence of systemic racism and the impact of poverty in America And the profound courage, compassion and integrity of individuals working for survival and for change in each of these communities.

Over the years she observed a powerful and important common denominator that ran through the stories of so many of the individuals they met in each community— over and over… a denominator unfortunately found seemingly comparably scarce in predominately white, relatively affluent communities in our country.

On Sunday September 18 Reverend Karen Bush will offer a message of challenge and hope about the Unitarian Universalist Eighth Principle and how this principle plays an essential role in our own integrity and future welfare as a congregation who dares to claim it seeks to strive to live into our faith’s sacred vision of “Beloved Community”.

The Eighth Principle of UUism:

“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”

We hope you will join us!

This message is Part II in Rev Bush’s Fall sermon series on the theme of “ Waking Up!”.

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Living our values together, we are not alone. As UUs, we are unified by our shared search for spiritual growth, and we are guided by a living tradition. With your collective thumbs up, the Board of Trustees appointed seven members to begin the search for a new minister to join our community. The process for selecting a minister depends upon creating a compelling portrait of our strengths, commitments, and visions of the entire congregation, but it also depends on all of us doing the hard work together to better understand what we really want for our future. In this service, the search team will invite the involvement of the UUCUC community as we launch these shared efforts. We will also mark the anniversary of 9/11 and reflect on the gravity of this tragic day in our memories.

The first Sunday of each month this year will be a multigenerational worship experience focused on themes that resonate with our children’s REE program and our small group ministries for the rest of the month. September’s theme is “Belonging,” and you’re invited to bring your most comfy and casual self to this Sunday’s service, where Rev. Sally will be leading us in her slippers and cozy robe. 

Finally! A Sunday when you don’t have to choose between watching from home in your PJs or showing up at the church building to see all your UUCUC friends.

Together we will join in song, storytelling, and deep reflection about the difference between fitting in and finding true belonging… and we’ll be doing it all in our pajamas. See you on Sunday!

Paying Attention to Paying Attention: How to Break the Spell – Part One

Who seeks to control your mind… your thoughts… your emotions… your sense of reality? There are those who profit in the billions from keeping you a prisoner of fear and anxiety. These are those who want you to stay disconnected, mistrustful and looking to them to tell you what is real. These entities have well honed efforts to target, seduce and keep you addicted. They are compelled to aggressively seek to tell you who you are, what you want and what you need… even down to your values and outlooks in life.

This is not new in our world. Not by a long shot.

What is new is the ease of access these who are determined to control you now have to you… almost every moment of every hour of every day… where ever you are (almost) on the planet.

Across the religions and through out human history spiritual teachers continue to spend great energy warning us and helping us to take back our focus… to free our minds.

On Sunday August 21 you are invited to come join us for the magic of live dueling banjo music along with our wonderful choir (led by our new choir director M.R.) who will all help us take delight and to celebrate life.

In her message our interim lead minister, Reverend Karen Bush will challenge us to embrace a centuries old life saving/life giving “antidote” as together we pull back the curtain to further bring to light the contenders in this war for our attention.

In this week’s message will be the first in a series of sermons by Reverend KB through this fall on one of the greatest spiritual challenges of being human: “How to wake up!”

This Sunday we are bringing back an old favorite, the summer Hymn Sing.  The service will consist entirely of singing favorite hymns from our own hymnals.  Come enjoy a morning of singing!  If you have a hymn you would particularly like to sing, or hear sung, please send your suggestion to Sam Beshers (beshers(at)illinois.edu) by August 7.  We will sing as many as we can fit in!

Summer is a time of abundance. In this service, we will take inspiration from the flower communion tradition to share and celebrate the abundance around us. We will take a moment to be grateful for the plants that feed us. (Bringing produce to share is encouraged but we will have extra.)

Our service this morning engages the meaningfulness and importance of the concept of “secular scriptures.” In most religious contexts – likely including our own – these two words centrally inhabit two different spheres of meaning and action. The secular embodies our day- to-day lives – our work, our play, our friends and family, our celebrations, our hardships, our special times of action (think camping by a beautiful lake), and more. The concept of scripture invokes the multi-faceted domains and traditions of many diverse religious faiths and beliefs.

Scriptures are sacred texts in many religions, as they provide direction and meaning to human life and action. When followed faithfully, scriptures also provide entry into the peaceful kingdom of the afterlife.

In the service this morning, members of our congregation share their own engagement with this faith-based construct of “secular scriptures” and invite us all to explore this construct for ourselves.

Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit: An Online Field Trip to UU First Parish in Needham MA

This service will be offered in an online only format.

Join us this Sunday to travel back in time and halfway across the country, on a virtual field trip to the UU congregation in Needham, MA in the weeks following the January 6th insurrection in 2021.

On that historic occasion in our nation’s history, Rev. Jenna Crawford of First Parish Needham preached a sermon in dialogue with a cherished book by Quaker educator and activist Parker Palmer, “Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit.”

This week we’ll pause to look back and reflect on the relationship of our UU faith to our political lives, historically and today. Join us for music, meditation, and imagining together what it will take to heal the heart of our democracy and live out our 5th principle boldly and intentionally.

We were inspired to do this service by the glittering clouds of fireflies that carpet the prairies on June evenings. Unfortunately, by the time of the service their lights will have gone out.  Still moved by the importance of light in life and metaphor, this service will be meditation, music, and ritual on light, dark, and the impermanence of life. Come together in light, leave one another in dark, and hope for some insight in between.

As we wrap up the three part series on addressing climate change, based on the book All We Can Save, we reflect on what consciousness created this crisis and what consciousness will change it. Gus Speth, environmental attorney and advocate who co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council, has stated, “I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.” Join us on July 10 to hear from two of our own congregants, who have been engaged in activism to bring about cultural and spiritual transformation at the local, state, and national level in order to positively address climate change. Our hope is that the sharing of their experiences will activate you to find your unique gift to offer our community in the face of climate crisis.

And now for something completely different… Join us this Sunday to experience a “circle worship” inspired by UU youth practices, and led by Rev. Sally. Our circle worship will be a chance to create and experience a more egalitarian and intimate sacred space, something closer to a campfire than a lecture hall. Bring your joys, sorrows, and singing voice, and take part in what will be a meaningful and memorable Sunday morning.  

Our June 26 service will be a live stream of the Sunday morning worship service from the UUA General Assembly. These services are always powerful and moving, and after years of waiting, we get to hear one live.

Due to time zone differences, the service will start streaming at 11:30 and will run until 1:00. Accordingly, we will have our traditional* “GA Divine Doughnuts Fellowship Hour” starting at 10:30.

“The Deal on Those Days”

The last few years have not been easy, including in our local congregations. Whole swaths of members have simply stopped coming; COVID is confusing, and polarizing; many ministers have joined the great resignation; and Pew studies and friends alike have pronounced the end of the local church.

In this moment, when so many of us might be wondering if we should just give up, and relent, now’s the time instead to double down on our commitment to the local church – this unique community that saves us and also breaks our hearts – often much more of the latter than we’d like to admit. In the midst of our culture of death, the church is a place of life. Or it is, as long as we are willing to bring our own lives to it. Join us for a morning of celebration, witness, and future-visioning for the already and not yet power of the local Unitarian Universalist church.

Leading us in worship will be Rev. Gretchen Haley, Rev. Shari Halliday-Quan, Rev. Sean Neil-Barron, Lea Morris, Adam Podd, Joseph and Aimee Santos-Lyons, and Allison King with the GA Choir.

*beginning this year

On this Sunday just before the Summer Solstice, join us for a service that holds all the highest highs and lowest lows of our shared year in one sacred container. We will sing in celebration of the bright and sunny season, meditate on the healing and griefwork we all still need, and come together to ask what it means to be connected to the rhythms and cycles of the Earth.

Join us this Sunday for a Pride month service celebrating the resilience, history, and future of the LGBTQ community. Rev. Sally will be joined in the pulpit by UUCUC member Jerry Carden, who will help lead us in looking back at the human impact of the AIDS pandemic, reflecting on how we memorialize one another, and deepening our faith community’s joy and commitment to being truly welcoming.

This service will build on the previous day’s all-congregation panel discussion and field trip to the Spurlock Center’s “Sewn in Memory” display of local AIDS quilt panels. Saturday June 11, 1:30pm.

On Sunday, May 29, 2022 we will honor the youth from our congregation who are graduating from high school this year. We honor that immense transition through a special service, where we join our youth as they step across the bridge to young adulthood. This service will feature reflections from the bridging seniors, and a ritual to mark this moment as a bridge into adulthood which is full of possibility and discovery. Our three “Bridgers” this year are Celia Barbieri, Rowan Trilling-Hansen, and Demitrius Urban. There will be a celebration immediately following the service in Fellowship Hall.

We invite all ages to attend, as this service is made richer and more meaningful by the participation of the congregation. Young adults are specifically asked to come and welcome the newest generation! We hope you can join us!

Join us this Sunday for a service all about facing the end of life with open eyes and open hearts. UUs hold a variety of beliefs about death, but too often, fear and taboos keep us from directly thinking about our own life’s final stages. Together, we can create a space for open conversation and spiritual practice around death and dying. If you’re worried this topic will be too much of a “downer,” rest assured there will be music, laughter, stories, and a deep celebration of everything that makes us human! 

All ages are welcome, and kids will be invited to follow teachers downstairs for mixed-age Religious Exploration partway through the service, if they choose.

Join us this Sunday to feed your inner child and revive your playful spirit. Play is all about freedom, imagination, and collective joy, but we too often rush to leave it behind for the seriousness of adulthood. This Sunday we will sing, laugh, meditate, and remember the sacred part of ourselves that is fed by the freedom and joy of playing together.

Sunday May 8 is officially recognized as Mother’s Day.

Some of us greet this day with great joy.  And this is a true blessing.

But some of us encounter this day with more sorrow than joy and it can be a day that triggers a deep sense of sadness.  Of pain. 

For those of us who have lost a child, lost our mother, are estranged or disconnected from the person we define as  “mother” or a number of other life circumstances, this day can be a tough day to get through.

On Sunday May 8th, on “Mother’s Day” Rev Karen Bush (KB) will lead us as we pause wherever we are on this day to consider the mothering we have been given… and also the mothering/nurturing we have given in our lives. What ever our gender identity or life circumstances.

No matter where you are on life’s journey or what feelings this day evokes for you, we hope you will join us and find a deep and safe space here.

On May 1 we will celebrate the return of making and listening to music together in person after two years away from our Sanctuary. Join us for a celebration of song, featuring performances by the UUCUC Choir, Treble CrUUners, UU Horn Band, and a number of guest musicians. Let’s lift our voices up together in celebration!

Given that this Sunday is our celebration of music and all things sound, we do want to recognize that for some, this service may feel overwhelming at times. If that is the case, we want to make sure you feel comfortable taking care of you – if you need to step out into Fellowship Hall where you can continue to see and hear the service, or bring earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones to wear, please feel free to do so.

Join us this Sunday for a vibrant celebration of new life, resurrection, and rebirth! This Easter service will be uniquely UU, as we will be celebrating our “Flower Communion,” a tradition dating back to the 1940s, honoring the beauty of nature, the hope of rebirth, and the diversity of our human family. Bring a flower to share (rose, dandelion, or otherwise), and be ready for singing and celebration with our beautiful community.

This service will also include our chance to formally release Rev Florence from her call as our lead minister, and will be followed by a dessert picnic catered by Red Herring and a chance to say our loving goodbyes.

You will mostly likely have heard the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child”. 

As a congregation we at UUCUC form our own “village” in a very real way.   Our parents, busy about the life work of raising children, form a  sacred and essential part of who we are as a community…. of our village.

As someone whose own two children are young adults now I have often wondered and worried about … parents… and children… having to cope with the realities of the lockdown due to Covid.

On Sunday April 3rd the service will lift up the lockdown stories of parents and their lives the past two years led by our Consulting DRE and mother of 3 children Adrienne Summerlot supplemented by the learnings and inspirations of UUCUC parent Debbie Sperry. What ever your life circumstances we dearly hope you will join us, whether in person or on line. The goal of the morning will be to help all of us have a better understanding of and appreciation for what our beloved parents and families with children at home have been going through, what they have learned, and what has helped them  along the way.  

Our wonderful UUCUC choir will also be singing LIVE in the Sanctuary with “Prayer for Ukraine” by Mykola Lysenko, arr. Benjamin Hanson.

Join us in the sanctuary or online this Sunday, for a healing message and music coming to us from the UU Service Committee, an organization within our faith tradition that has truly lived into global interconnectedness since their founding during World War II. The UUSC has recently been a connecting thread guiding us in how to best help Ukrainians in the past weeks, but their work goes beyond any one crisis. Wars, catastrophes, and refugees are not new and are not limited to any one region. Join us and the UUSC this Sunday to be reminded of all the good work being done by grassroots organizers throughout our interconnected global community. 

Rev. Karen Bush will lead us from the sanctuary on Green St. and will help us welcome virtual guest speakers from all over the world on this vibrant and healing Sunday. 

As UUs, we want to make the world a better place, and fulfill the vision of “beloved community”. We focus mainly on the people and activities of our own church, and hope to attract new members and have greater impact on our local community. But many people who are not UU share our same core values. In this service, I suggest that we take a much broader view of who “we” are, and who is part of “us”.

On Sunday March 6 we will be opening the doors of the Sanctuary and of Fellowship Hall for our 10:15 am service while also providing our usual live stream on our YouTube page to welcome our UUCUC members and friends for our first hybrid Sunday.

Whether you join us in-person or online our Pledge Sunday service will be filled with:

• Live music, including our wonderful pipe organ and (masked) hymn singing of some of our favorites,
• A participatory and colorful Time For All Ages,
• A line up of the faces of our amazing BoT members as our worship associates,
• A colorful dancing (in place) celebration of our pledge campaign,
• An inspiring message from Reverend Karen Bush on “The Mission of Our Faith as Unitarian Universalists” 
• Fellowship Hour: Barring rain or lightning or extremely cold temperatures there will be coffee and treats awaiting you on the front lawn immediately following the service as well as a special gift from our truly amazing and hardworking Generosity team.

All this in our beloved church building which will be filled in celebration with colors of the rainbow!

We will be offering Three Spaces of Participation for you and your household to choose from:

• In the Sanctuary where our ushers will guide congregants to make themselves comfortable in every other pew leaving two arm’s length between households. Those in the Sanctuary will hear  and see everything – both live And recorded elements of the service . Reserve your spot in the Sanctuary online ! The reservation form will close at 4:00pm on Saturday, March 5th.
• In the Fellowship Hall where congregants may enjoy the flexible seating awaiting them in the small groupings of chairs for households 6 feet plus apart provided throughout the room for those who would appreciate the flexibility and an added sense of social distancing. No reservation needed to attend the service in Fellowship Hall! We hope to have a projector screen in place to provide a full visual and sound experience of our YouTube live stream as together you can enjoy worship with other UUCUC members who also make this choice.
• Online: In your comfy chair at home with your coffee in hand as you relax and enjoy sharing in the service either live as it happens or later as meets your needs. 

Mask up please

We will require masks at all times for anyone in the church building. Disposable N 95 masks will be available at the church entrance for anyone who would like to take one.

Feeling a bit under the weather?

We respectfully request anyone who has either been exposed to or has any symptoms of Covid to stay home and join in the celebration online this time.

Wear your rainbow!

Everyone is invited to dress in bright colors (whether in person or at home) to help us CELEBRATE and add to the fun and joy!! Colorful streamers will also be handed out as you come in.

Remember you can make your pledge online or by mail before March 6 if possible (though All pledges are very welcome!). We will recognize the spirit of generosity that keeps our congregation and our missions running strong and smoothly in the coming year and for years to come! Thank you!!!

Join us this Sunday to hear Rev. Sally share her personal story of growing up in Unitarian Universalism, leaving, coming back, and eventually realizing her call to ministry. Every Unitarian Universalist has their own unique journey, and we are committed to building sacred spaces that can hold all our different stories. This service will give you a chance to reflect on your own journey, and the communities that have nurtured you along the way. What path brought you here, and who might be moving along a similar path beside you?

On Sunday February 20th Reverend Karen Bush will be joined by UUCUC Board of Trustee’s chair Becky Densmore and REE chair Jenny Hunt as together we explore the magic that is throughout our covenantal life here at UUCUC.

This will be the second Sunday in our Generosity campaign as a congregation. We hope you will join us!

            The Covenant Hymn - Revised 

            by Rory Cooney and Gary Daigle

Wherever we are, you are welcome, Wherever we live is your home.

Though days be of blessing or sorrow, though house be of canvas or stone,

Though Eden be lost to the past, though mountains before us be vast,

Wherever we are, you are welcome, You never will be all alone.

Whatever you dream, we are with you, when stars call your name in the night. Though shadows and mist cloud the future, together we bear there a light. Joining together we stand,

with only a promise in hand. But lead where you dream: we will follow. To dream with you is our delight.

And though you should fall, we will find you, when no other home can you claim,

when foes beat you down or betray you, and others desert you in shame.

When home and dreams aren’t enough, and you are apart from our love,

We’ll raise you from where you have fallen and carry you till you are whole.

Whenever you die, we will be here, to sing you to sleep with a song,

to soothe you with tales of our journey, your fears and your doubts we will calm.

Wherever we are, you are welcome, Wherever we live is your home.

Though days be of blessing or sorrow, though church be of canvas or stone,

Wherever we are, you are welcome. Behold! The horizon shines clear.

The possible gleams like a city: together we’ve nothing to fear.

So speak with words bold and true our message together rings through.

You won’t be alone, we have promised. Wherever you are, we are here.

Join us this Sunday for a warm and hearty reminder of all we are capable of when we join together. This service will will feed our spirits with stone soup, poetic dumplings, and holy loaves & fishes.

Together we will lift up our proud legacy as a giving and growing community, and will reflect on what comes next in this season for renewal.

With indications that Roe v Wade may be overturned, and knowing that abortion and reproductive care have long been inaccessible to many communities, our faith compels us to take action for reproductive rights, health, and justice. In commemoration of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the ongoing fight for reproductive justice, join us on Sunday, January 30th, as we join Unitarian Universalist congregations across the country for a Sunday of solidarity, support, and reflection.

What help is a stairway to heaven if you use a walker or a wheelchair? Join us this Sunday to reflect on questions of accessibility, welcome, and disability at UUCUC. In this auction-purchased topic, Rev. Sally will share the pulpit with UUCUC members, inviting us all to view our bodies and surroundings through new eyes, and to expand our imaginings of our shared future.

Sometimes I find myself feeling depleted … exhausted… drained… from all that is reality in these weeks… months… now years… under the dark shadow of Covid.

Nothing is as it was.

Almost none of my favorite familiar places and spaces I used to love to go to can I make easy assumptions about safety. I just can’t. So I mostly just don’t go for I know it is just not safe.

But I know this Will resolve…one day New vaccinations, eventual herd immunity and more will one day bring us into a new norm where the world feels safe again. One day children will be able to play without masks and cuddles and hugs will be smiled about rather than shunned once again.

But in the meantime, it Is exhausting to be on constant high alert in our lives.

Over the decades as a campus minister I journeyed with people from all over the world. Students of just about every origin, ethnicity, creed, color and identity.

Of all the stories I was entrusted with few were as heart wrenching or disturbing than those of my students of color. Particularly African American.

Of what it was like for them to be a black American.

Of what it was like for them to be a black UIUC student.

To literally Never know Every day… as they walk out their door… what be their risk factor of being accosted by the presence of the poisonous impact of white supremacist ideology and systemic racism which is deeply imbedded in the world around them.

To sense the very real danger they are in from the brain washing that is deeply imbedded in the thinking and attitudes (conscious or unconscious) of a majority of white individuals they will meet just about every place they go.

They spoke of a depletion… an exhaustion .. of never feeling Truly safe south of I 80.

For some? Never outside their home neighborhood.

For others? Never feeling truly safe. Ever. Always on high alert for the dangers in the world around due to the violence of racist thinking, attitudes and actions.

Attacks of mind, body and soul… by individuals and systems.

On Sunday January 16 UUCUC will be seeking to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday with a poignant discussion between UUCUC member Joe Omo-Osagie and Reverend Karen Bush (KB) on “America’s Original Sin: Confronting the Racist Within”.

We sincerely hope you will join us as Joe shares about personal stories, struggles and hopes as a father of black young men in today’s world.

We will close with some essential thoughts on what can We do as Joe offers an ultimate challenge to each and every one of us.

We hope that together we will find new clarity and understanding of our power for impact as we seek next steps for awakening and evolvement…. for ourselves, for our congregation and for the world around us.

As part of our service this Sunday Rev KB will walk with us through a check list on white privilege offered by author Paul Kivel. It’s purpose is to help many of us who identify or are identified as European descent (white) to take a closer look into our own family history and how we and our family have benefited over time from systems supporting white supremacy ideology and racist laws and practices in this country.

We greet the new year by casting aside the trials and tribulations of the old while looking ahead with a light heart. Inspired by Liz James of the UU Hysterical Society, the Worship Committee ponders the question: “What gives you a sense of awe and reverence?” We suspect that the answers might come from sources both expected and unexpected—the beautiful, the delightful, the humorous, even the weird. We invite you to respond to this question by sending us photos, quotes, or one-minute videos to be included in a digital review of our favorite awe-inspiring moments. 

Join us this Sunday for a post-Christmas reflection on practicing gratitude, led by our denomination’s president, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray. We will also joyfully welcome a benediction and blessing from our own Rev. Florence to close this service.  

4:00pm – Open Carol Singing Begins || 4:15pm – Christmas Eve Service

Join us IN-PERSON for an outdoor “Lessons & Carols” service on Christmas Eve. Rev. Sally and choir director Benjamin Hansen will lead us through beloved Christmas readings and hymns, culminating with our collective candlelit rendition of Silent Night.

This brief and joyous service is for ALL AGES, so bring the whole family, dress for the weather, wear your mask, and feel free to bring a chair from home if standing will be a challenge. If you are planning to attend, consider parking on the street upon arrival, as we are not certain how many will need space in our limited lot.

If you are interested in serving in a volunteer role for this gathering, please contact Peggy Patten at mspeggypatten@gmail.com.

Christmas Eve service will begin at 4:15pm Friday 12/24 on the south lawn at UUCUC, with open carol singing beginning at 4 as folks arrive. The entire service will be livestreamed on our YouTube page for those who aren’t able to be there in person.

Holy Dark, Holy Light

Join us this Sunday to honor the longest night of the year, and to celebrate our annual turn back toward the sun. Rev. Sally will lead us in meditation on the balance of light and dark, in this nature-centered Solstice service.

During this service, we will have space in our sanctuary for 40 “backstage passes.” That is, you and your family can sign up to attend in-person, with the understanding that there will be some cords and cameras cluttering up the view, some pre-recorded online elements you’ll miss out on, and some overall tangles still being worked out.

Seasons of Life

As many of you may have seen in her letter sent on Wednesday, our Lead Minister, Rev. Florence Caplow, will be resigning from UUCUC for health reasons in early January. She will be speaking this Sunday on the ways she has seen that just as in nature there are summer seasons of growth and abundance and winter seasons of quiescence and healing, so too in a human life. Rev. Karen Bush will offer readings and pastoral prayer.

Join us this Sunday to reflect on how we make difficult decisions, and whether taking the road less traveled truly does make all the difference.

Rev Sally will lead us in finding a new perspective on the classic Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken,” and together we’ll search for clarity and boldness on the difficult choices we face in our own lives. 

It’s Not My Problem, Or Is It? Our Part in the Immigration Story

On Sunday, November 28th, the Immigration Justice Task Force will host a service of music, poetry, serious reflection and … more music. We’ll dig deeper into the issue of immigration, including the past and present forces causing people to flee their homelands; the hazardous journeys immigrants take to reach the U.S.; and how our story and — that of the immigrant — are often intertwined.

We’ll be joined by singers, songwriters and social justice activists Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow, better known professionally as Emma’s Revolution. Juan Camancho will offer two extraordinary pieces from the heart of Latin America, and Benjamin Hanson will team up with Jim Hannum to bring us a new arrangement of “Welcome,” by activist, songwriter Jon Fromer. This service is guaranteed to be educational, thought-provoking, and leave you singing for justice!

Join us this Sunday for a joyful celebration of all the ways we can grow beyond either/or thinking. Rev. Sally will be joined by other voices in our congregation in lifting up the stories and identities of those who live beyond the gender binary, and together we will reflect on the Holy refusal to conform to categorization. 

There are different kinds of battles in this life.

The presence of veterans among us reminds us to remember those who served our country at a tremendous cost to themselves  Many paid a high price that has profoundly impacted them in mind, body, and spirit.  Too many others paid the ultimate price.

Yes. There are different kinds of battles in this life.

For many of us the Covid- 19 pandemic has pushed us near a breaking point at times.  

It has created unrelenting stressors: the illness and possible death of loved ones, fear about getting sick ourselves, prolonged isolation and disconnection, fear of job loss, shifting childcare needs, family demands, and more. 

Those of us who already had been struggling to recover from past traumas may find ourselves  triggered in new ways.

Consequentially, many of us are taking our stresses and our frustrations out on the nearest and easiest target….our selves.  

In our isolation and disconnection we have become captives in a never ending stream of negative self talk.

On Sunday November 14 Rev KB, with the help of Anne Newman and her puppet friends, invites you to join them as they creatively share with us about pathways toward recovery, following the understanding that in order to better love others, we first must love ourselves.

Our sincere gratitude to veterans Walt McMahon, Kathleen Robbins, and Gail Tittle, and to puppeteer, Anne Newman, UUCUC members, for their personal contributions to this worship service.

Join us IN PERSON for our All Souls Sunday service honoring all those who have come before us, at the Large Pavilion at Crystal Lake Park, 10:15 am November 7th. Wear your mask, and bring a photo or memento of any loved ones whose memory you would like to honor.

ALL AGES are welcome – this service is a chance to gather in person, meditate, celebrate, hum along to some familiar hymns, and share the stories that keep us all together. Barring a spike in COVID numbers, our choir will be singing at this service!!

You are invited to bring your own blanket or lawn chair to facilitate greater social distancing, and dress for the elements, including protecting against snow or light drizzle, as we will only cancel in extreme weather.

For those who are not able to gather in person, the service will be recorded and will “premiere” on our YouTube page at 3pm Sunday afternoon.

Samhain, the holiday that Witches mark on October 31, is a time when the veil between the worlds is thin and you have a chance to communicate with those who have left this world for the next. Join Pagan Priestess Ginny Brubaker to learn more about Paganism and how it fits together with Unitarian Universalism. We will have a bit of history, a bit about what Witches do in ritual, a sense of the Pagan Wheel of the Year, and some suggestions about bringing some Pagan elements into your own celebrations.

If its detractors are to be believed, something called “critical race theory” (CRT) is threatening to destroy America as we know it! But what the heck is critical race theory, anyway? Join us this Sunday for a clarifying conversation on this much-discussed sociological theory and its relationship to Unitarian Universalism.

Rev. Sally will lead us in reflecting on our own identities, perspectives, and how we might continue to work toward more meaningful conversations and actions when it comes to race and racism. 

Reproductive rights are in the news, and our UU faith compels us to be part of this conversation. Abortion is more than a political football or an abstract moral conundrum, it is a lived reality and a visceral question of bodily autonomy for anyone capable of becoming pregnant. Join us this Sunday to hear reflections on the religious, historical, and lived realities behind the too often simplified “abortion debate.” Rev. Sally will be joined in the pulpit by UUCUC members Julie Laut and Celia Barbieri. This service will lift up the importance of choice, trust, and listening to the voices of those most closely affected by the policies and norms we uphold. 

We are only here but the blink of an eye in this life…on this water planet called earth, my friends.

Literally every one of the world’s major religions was born out of the passionate pleas of a single person crying out to those around them to do one thing. And it was Not what you might be thinking.

In the message this coming Sunday I will tell you a bit of what I surmise about this one thing. Some of what I learned has come from my own exploration that of others of a cross section of the world religions over the years.

Some comes from being the sole student of an Australian Shaman for four years. A mind blowing, difficult, intense and profound experience.

And some has come out of my own experience as a human being on a life long quest since childhood seeking to understand what I am… what we all are… and why we are here on this planet. 

I truly hope you will join us. 

Rev KB

Do you have a spiritual practice? You might have one without even realizing it! Join us this Sunday to hear Rev. Sally make the case for why everyone, even atheists, should have a spiritual practice to call their own. This Sunday will also include an introduction to our new consulting minister, Rev. Karen Bush, with a chance to hear about her own spiritual practice and her life as a United Church of Christ minister. 

As the centerpiece of our worship services during the summer, the Worship Committee crafted a Wellspring series that honored the connections that members of our congregation have to other religious traditions. Interspiritual Reverend Theresa Benson was scheduled to share how an Interspiritual Interfaith approach has developed and become a wellspring in her life during the month of August but was unable. She will offer the interspiritual perspective as part of this mornings service. With this series, we invite all to reflect on the spiritual traditions and practices that enrich your own lives.

Labor Day is celebrated this week in honor of the US labor movement, which brought us the 8 hour workday, the weekend, workplace safety standards, and more. Join us this Sunday, led by Rev. Sally, to reflect on that legacy, learn from the wisdom of “Nap Ministry,” and challenge modern notions of “grind culture” and the supposed importance of efficiency. Together we will rest, rebel, and regather the strength we need to live into a purpose beyond productivity.

Join us IN PERSON for our ingathering water celebration at the Large Pavilion at Crystal Lake Park, 10:15 am August 29th. Wear your mask, and bring a small container of water to represent your sacred places and separate journeys over this past year. 

You are invited to bring your own blanket or lawn chair to facilitate greater social distancing, and though we aren’t having an official church picnic, you may choose to bring food and enjoy a picnic with your own pod after the service. Dress for the weather, including protecting against sunburn and bug bites. 

ALL AGES are welcome – this service is a chance to gather in person, meditate, celebrate, hum along to some familiar hymns, and share the stories that keep us all together. 

For those who are not able to gather in person, the service will be recorded and will “premiere” on our YouTube page at 3pm Sunday afternoon. 

Many of us have followed the courageous journey of US gymnast Simone Biles at the Tokyo Olympics, and learned a new word from the gymnastic world: “twisties”, when a gymnast loses all sense of up or down in mid-air. Well, not many of us are Olympic gymnasts, but most of us have had the twisties, when life throws such a big surprise at us that we hardly know up from down. What do we do then? Rev. Florence and Rev. Sally will each offer reflections (inspired by Simone Biles) on how to re-find our balance when we have the twisties. This will be Rev. Florence’s last sermon for a while, since she will be going on three months of medical leave starting in September.

As the centerpiece of our worship services this summer, our UU Church Worship Committee has crafted a Wellspring series that features other religious traditions and their connections to UU faith traditions. We view this series as educational and constructive; uplifting and inspirational. To continue this series, Virginia Brubaker will share how Paganism has been wellsprings in her life.

As the centerpiece of our worship services this summer, the Worship Committee has crafted a Wellspring series that honors the connections that members of our congregation have to other religious traditions. To continue with the series, Interspiritual Reverend Theresa Benson shares how an Interspiritual Interfaith approach has developed and become a wellspring in her life. With this series, we invite all to reflect on the spiritual traditions and practices that enrich your own lives.

As the centerpiece of our worship services this summer, our UU Church Worship Committee has crafted a Wellspring series that features other religious traditions and their connections to UU faith traditions. We view this series as educational and constructive; uplifting and inspirational. To continue this series, Julie Laut and Celia Barbieri share how atheism and humanism have been wellsprings in their lives.

Join us this Sunday for a conversation between our Rev. Sally and Jewish UU minister Rev. Joanna Lubkin. Music, meditation, and reflection will invite us all to consider how Jewish practice and identity can intertwine with Unitarian Universalism, and what strength and wisdom each wellspring might offer to each other.

As the centerpiece of our worship services this summer, our UU Church Worship Committee has crafted a Wellspring series that features other religious traditions and their connections to UU faith traditions. We view this series as educational and constructive; uplifting and inspirational. Today’s service engages the spiritual histories and reflections of UUCUC members Lane Schwartz and Janet Revell Barrett and the ways that Christian perspectives have guided their pathways as Unitarian Universalists.

As the centerpiece of our worship services this summer, the Worship Committee has crafted a Wellspring series that honors the connections that members of our congregation have to other religious traditions. To begin this series, lifelong UUs share how Unitarian Universalism has been a wellspring in their lives. We invite all to reflect on the spiritual traditions and practices that enrich your own lives.

On June 27, we bring you the Sunday morning service from this year’s (virtual) GA. The Sunday worship service is the capstone of GA, and one of the largest worship gatherings of our denomination. This year the UUA selected the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis to serve as worship leaders for the Sunday Morning Service.

First Universalist has been a model of shared ministry and what it means to put the work of dismantling white supremacy and building anti-racist, anti-oppressive practices at the center of their ministry. They have been on the front lines in support of the Movement for Black Lives in Minneapolis, bringing spiritual care and moral leadership in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police and the important uprisings for justice that followed. Children and families are a vital part of their ministry, and they have been using creative approaches to engage all ages in worship during the pandemic. Their leadership exemplifies some of the best practices for the creativity, spiritual depth, and moral leadership that is possible when we embrace the work of shared ministry rooted in love and justice. Music will be offered through collaboration with 2021 GA Choir Director Susan Mashiyama, the GA virtual choir, and musicians from First Universalist.

Our world frames perfection as a quality to which we should all aspire. Yet, it is possible that our quest for perfection squelches our self-esteem, creativity, and ability to fully relate to others? Join us for this worship service where we will explore our addiction to perfection and the possible opportunities that are before us when we alter our quest for perfection for a quest for authentic living.

Music is connection. Music is communication. Music is worship. On May 30th the choirs will perform, instrumentalists will play, and we will have guest performances from members of the congregation. On this day we take the time to acknowledge the unique role that music plays in our lives.

“Bridging” is a UU tradition, honoring high school graduating seniors. We will reflect on the power of the many kinds of bridges and thresholds in our lives. Thomas Joseph Negromo-Osagie will be bridging this year! Join us in congratulating him!

Join us this Mother’s Day Sunday to lift up and honor the many ways mothers and motherhood have driven the fight for human rights and greater justice in the world.

Are you a mom or have a mom close by? Come by the church Saturday or Sunday to pick up a “Rad Mom” button for yourself or for her, custom made by Emil Cobb. Look for a box by the parking lot door.

And for kids and others, write your special message to your mom on this jamboard; it will be read aloud in the service! 

Join us this Sunday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Unitarian Universalism’s beginning, born in the merging of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, and to hear some of the all-too-human stories of how our faith got its start. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a lifelong UU, Rev. Sally invites you to tune in to learn (or re-learn) a little about us, meditate on the principles we claim, and celebrate the UU tradition of continually reshaping the living, changing faith that brings us together.

Emily McKown, Youth Coordinator, explores questions on youth and young adult ministry. Grounded in our faith tradition’s history, both locally and continentally, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment. When so many young people are raised U.U.–never to be seen again–how do we reframe our approach to ministry for young people to make meaningful and lasting connections? How do we help our young people to thrive in beloved community?

When you imagine pathways to personal, social and ecological healing and regeneration, what do you see? Who is with you on your journey? What transforms and gives way to new beginnings? Who and/or what are you accountable to along the way? Join UU Ministry for Earth and The Reverend Yadenee Hailu for a special Earth Sunday worship service exploring these questions in a collective journey on the pathways to healing and regeneration. Rev. Florence Caplow from our church will offer the Call to Worship.

Are we so fragile that our loyalty is lost when we find out that someone we have respected or idolized has made mistakes? Why is it nearly impossible for us to accept that someone we have disliked, even despised, is capable of humanity? How much of our UU First Principle (“the inherent worth and dignity of every person…”) do we really believe and practice?

The Reverend Lynnda White recently retired from her position as Associate Minister of the UU Church of Peoria, Illinois. She is a member of InterNátional Initiative for Transformative Collaboration (INITC), a council of Original Peoples, People of Color, and other Indigenous Peoples. INITC has worked with the UUA regarding colonialism and the environment. 

NOTE: Because she will be referring to a difficult time in her life, Reverend Lynnda feels it is important to share that her son Chase, a Deputy United States Marshal, was killed in the line of duty on November 29, 2018.

After a long, hard, isolated year, this Easter we see glimmerings of renewal: the daffodils blooming in front yards, the first hugs between grandchildren and grandparents, the first tentative forays from our households. In this service, we will celebrate this renewal, in the natural world and in our lives. The UUCUC Virtual Choir will be singing. If you have spring photos to share, or signs of renewal you are grateful for, please send them to sunday-services-materials@uucuc.org.

And join Rev. Florence Caplow for a sunrise walk at Meadowbrook Park on Easter morning. Meet at the Race Street parking lot at 6:10 am.

Each year for our UUCUC auction one of the items is the privilege of choosing a topic for a sermon. Last year Kathleen Robbins had the winning bid, and this topic, on inequality, is her chosen one. We all know that inequality is increasing in our nation and around the world. What does it mean for us? How can we respond? What are the ethical and moral dimensions of inequality? Come watch Rev. Caplow wrestle with these thorny questions.

Do you want her to speak on a particular topic next year? Make a bid at our April auction!