Posts from December 2020
2020 Will Be Remembered
May you all have a raucous (or contemplative) New Year’s Eve observance, and a Happier (and eventually COVID-free) New Year! The year 2020 will be remembered as long as we live, and beyond, as the time cruel plague threatened our lives, and cruel authoritarianism threatened our 250-year-old democracy. The worse-than-inept handling of the pandemic helped end this latest attack on our founding principles. Bill Moyers, in his Essay on Watergate. concluded “They (Nixon and his enablers) almost succeeded.” I think we can…
Community Crisis Center
This month’s Share the Plate recipient is: The Gretchen S. Vapnar Community Crisis Center Located in Elgin, Illinois, the center was founded in 1975 by a group of dedicated volunteers to meet the needs of individuals and families in crisis. Employees provide comprehensive services to individuals and families suffering due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or economic/ financial difficulties. The Crisis Center is one of the oldest domestic violence shelters in the state and was instrumental in organizing both the…
PADS Lunch January Signup
Following is the link to the January signup schedule for PADS lunches. There are 4 Mondays in January. Visit our PADS Lunches page for more information. Thanks in advance for your help. Also be aware that when you deliver food on Mondays, there may be other people delivering food for dinners. This is because PADS has reduced staff at this point and are only answering the door around lunchtime.
This and That
An Advertisement The idea of advertising in the monthly, Bravo, was Bob Jackson’s idea. We began work on it early in 2020, I believe. We also had Dotty’s artwork months before now, but then were frustrated by COVID and the fact that we thought we shouldn’t advertise at all because we couldn’t welcome visitors to our physical church. But when Bravo announced it would be suspending publication, I went ahead and reserved the full back page of the last edition, because if…
Pledges
This is a gentle reminder from the Finance Committee to please send in your pledges. Thank you.
Scrip for the Holidays Deadline Monday Dec 14, 10am
Friends, The Holiday Season is upon us. Due to social distancing, many of us are choosing gift cards over gifts because we are not gathering with our family and friends. Let’s save some money, save some time, and help the church all at the same time! If you are planning to purchase gift cards, please check shopwithscrip.com for the computer or the RaiseRight app for your smart device first. Why use Scrip instead? I’m glad you asked! -You don’t have to go…
Hearts Beating As One
The former Ellen Page the actress (Juno, The Umbrella Academy) came out as gay in 2014, and in 2018 married dancer Emma Portner, and last week announced that he is now Elliot Page, and is transgender, non-binary. Non-binary gender means not all one or the other. In this case, it means Elliot has a primary identity as male but retains some identity as female. Despite the gender identity change, Ms. Portner loves and is staying married to Elliot, formerly her wife, now her husband.…
This Long Cold Lonely Winter
Robert Redfield, M.D., the head of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), said something yesterday that made me and other people, perhaps you, gentle reader, sit up and get more serious than ever. He said that given winter’s arrival, and the holidays become super-spreader events, and no prospect of mass vaccinations for months still, that the United States is facing “the worst public health crisis in its history.” (!) This is a frightening prospect, but at least we’re getting straight talk…
Welcome to the New Website
Welcome to our brand new website! Want to know how we got here? We’ll answer those questions! Want some tips for using the website? They’re here too!
PADS of Elgin
This month’s Share the Plate recipient is: PADS of Elgin UUCE has been supporting their lunch program for over a year. You can learn more about this on our Justice Projects page. For this month’s Share the Plate, we’ll be supporting their “Housing First” initiative. With the convergence of the pandemic and economic crises, we are facing a significant increase in homelessness in the United States. PADS is on the verge of finding a new site for their facility and…