Welcoming Congregation
Pride in Action
This June, you have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on federal policy, opposing this administration’s efforts to enact a proposed Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rule that would strip safety protections from federally funded shelters for transgender, nonbinary, two-spirit, and intersex people. Make your voice heard by submitting a public comment in opposition to the proposed HUD rule. Want to learn more and take action with a group? Join the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s virtual Trans Liberation Action Hour on…
July & August Share the Plate: The Progressive Turnout Project 2026
Postcards to Swing States started in a volunteer’s garage. In just four years, their volunteers in all 50 states, D.C. and U.S. territories have sent more than 99 million handwritten messages to voters – more than any other organization. In 2024 The Progressive Turnout’s postcards added an estimated 200,000 votes. Keep in mind that the presidential election in 2020 was decided by fewer than 43,000 votes – so your postcards are making a difference! The UUCE Social Justice Team has…
Save the Date: Elgin Pride!
Save the Date — and your Saturday! UUCE is marching in Elgin’s 4th Annual Pride Parade and Festival on Saturday, June 6th from 11AM–5PM — and we need YOU to make it happen. In June of 1970, activists marched through New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Over 50 years later, Pride is a global celebration — and showing up still matters. We’re looking for volunteers to walk with us in the parade…
Stevie’s Safe Spaces T-Shirt Orders
In honor of International Trans Day of Visibility, our Welcoming Congregation Team is organizing a group order of “You will have to go through me” — also known as the David Tennant Shirt — from Stevie’s Safe Spaces, in Ontario, Canada. Stevie is an advocate and educator for trans rights, and this tee is one way to show support and stand up for marginalized communities. Shirts will be “somewhere between $25 to 30 U.S. dollars” (pending shipping costs from Ontario). Please reach out to Jen…
Welcoming Conversations
Starting this Sunday, you’re invited to partake in a new and thought-provoking activity during Fellowship Hour, brought to you by our Welcoming Congregation Team. In an effort to ensure our church is a safe and welcoming space for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, the team created “Welcoming Conversations” — an activity to inspire dialog about inclusivity, belonging, and the diversity of truths that exist within our communities. You’ll find these conversation-starting topics on the tables in Fellowship…
What Does It Mean to be a UU Welcoming Congregation?
Seven of our UUCE members gathered online in early November to continue charting our path to UU Welcoming Congregation certification. This accreditation formally affirms our congregation’s commitment to radical inclusion—by ensuring our church is a space where LGBTQIA+ people are comfortable being full members and participants of our faith community. As UUs, we honor the full diversity of individuals as a spiritual gift. Our Welcoming Congregation Team seeks to ensure diversity of gender and sexuality is honored as well. This…
Transgender Day of Remembrance
We Keep Each Other Alive: Lessons from Grief and Love By Kimi Floyd Reisch The first person I loved who died was someone no one remembers. Nettie was my adopted godmother, a neighbor who claimed me as her spirit child when I was still in diapers. Nettie taught me how to see dandelions as food, how to see ants as helpers, and how to speak gently to the land to help the plants grow. When she died, I was twelve. If…