Posts from December 2022

Hygge Hangout

The Revitalization Team will be hosting a Hygge Hangout in Fellowship Hall on Friday, January 13, from 6:30 – 9:30 pm.  More information on what “hygge” is can be found in the last paragraph taken from a sermon that Stephen Day gave around this time last year.  In the spirit of hygge, we are keeping this simple.  We will provide warm lighting, tea and hot cocoa, and a few hygge activities such as small coloring or crafting materials.  Please feel…

“It’s a Wonderful Church”

Letters from Leadership As 2022 winds down and we approach the mid-point of our fiscal church year, it is a perfect time to step back and take pride in all we’ve accomplished. In her December 1st letter from the Board of Trustees, Krista Wagner shares a poem from Donna Ashworth. “…take a moment to acknowledge what you already are. All that you already are. Because it’s a lot. You’re a lot. And you deserve to be seen. For catching the…

PADS Thank You Letter and January Link

This past year has brought many challenges to the Elgin PADS shelter’s staff and guests, and I’d like to thank our UUCE volunteers for stepping up. The following friends and members have prepared and delivered (and sometimes served) lunch on one or more Mondays throughout the year: Mike MoutrieKathy & Dan HislipTom & Ruth DurkinDiana HeizerHeike SpayneCarol NelsonKrista WagnerSusan GoldbergGladys MachletSusan SwingMichele RamseyKathie WachholderDoug Elwell Thank you also to the unnamed donors who have furnished paper supplies and other items…

PADS Signup for January and Needs

Dear Friends, Thank you to all our December volunteers! You’re awesome! We have begun serving lunches as well as furnishing them on Mondays. This is very gratifying plus we get to bond with other volunteers. Some have offered to provide one meal course instead of the entire meal, and this is encouraged as well. Select any of the slots you prefer on the Signup Genius site for January:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f054aaba82ca4fc1-pads18#/ The needs this week are: powdered coffee creamer, coffee pods and…

Habits Are Hard: Hard to form and hard to break

I’ve rarely had to think about whether or not I was going to church on Sunday.  From the time I first started coming to UUCE as a 21-year-old newlywed eager to find friends in a new community there has always been a compelling reason to show up.  Through years of playing various roles in the church that required my presence before, during and after the Sunday service, church attendance was a habit that was not hard to form.  But the…

Bulletin Board Email List  

Did you know we have a Bulletin Board Email list? Participation in the UUCE’s e-mail list, also known as the Bulletin Board email list, bb@uuce.org is used for things such as event communications, recommendations for finding contractors, restaurants etc… the list is a privilege and not a right.  The UUCE Executive Team reserves the right to suspend participants from lists who violate the below standards and rules.  These rules will be communicated to all participants by the List Manager.  Participants…

Ethnic Eating January’s Selection

As I’ve already related, Albania was fun.  January promises more of the same. Either Caribbean seafood is really popular or the fact that January’s restaurant selection is in Elgin accounts for the fact that we’ve already had 21 folks sign up for January’s selection of Mariscos El Church on McLean Boulevard on Saturday, January 14th at 5 pm. I’ve called and they’ve confirmed they can handle a large group so if you are of a mind to join us, please…

Important Dates to Note

We hope you can join us Saturday, December 24th for our Christmas Eve Service at 5pm. This will be our last service of the year – we will be taking off Christmas Day and New Year’s Day to allow our staff and volunteers time to spend with their families. We’ll be back together January 8th with our annual Fire Communion to welcome the new year.

From the Revitalization Team

The Church Has Left the Building by Margaret Weis The church is not a place; it is a people. The church is not only a steeple above the treeline, streets, and cars.Rather, it is a people proclaiming to the world thatwe are here for the work of healing and of justice. The church is not walls built stone upon stone, held together by mortarbut rather person, linked with person, linked with person:all ages and genders and abilities—a community built on the…

New Name Tags

Paul Higgenbotham graciously offered to design new names tags for the church. His plan was to incorporate our new website design while bringing a refreshed updated look and offer pronoun choices. Paul sent several samples to the Executive Team; the ET discussed the choices and picked one. Personally, I love them and am very thankful Paul not only made the suggestion but did the design work. Thank you, Paul! If you would like one of the new name tags, please…

PADS Shelter Needs

Dear Friends, This week the PADS shelter needs: toilet paper, napkins, paper bowls, Kleenex, and powdered drink mix. You may place these donations in the basket marked PADS inside the front doors at church.Thank you! Dotty Carringi

Ethnic Eating December and January Restaurant Choices (and group photo)

Last Saturday, 12 hearty adventurers braved the wintry weather to sample the cuisine of Albania including various versions of the burek and other delicacies of the Balkan peninsula. A great time was had by all!  For January, we will be visiting another island country of the Caribbean – Antigua and Barbuda. And we won’t have to go far. We’ll sample the dishes of the sea at Marisco El Charco at 302 S. McLean Blvd, Suite G, Elgin, IL at 5 pm on…