May 13, 2012
Rev. Gary James
9:15 and 11:15 am
Mother's Day Sunday
Today is a time to reflect and celebrate mothers.
May 6, 2012
Rev. Gary James
9:15 am and 11:15 am
Strap Those Wings On and Learn to Fly
Alternative Music Sundays celebrate modern music and instruments. Today we recognized new members, seniors who graduated from high school this year, and our dedicated and talented religious education teachers.
April 29, 2012
Marguerite McClelland
10:00am
Art Fair Sunday
On Art Fair Sunday, NSUC traditionally holds only 1 service at 10 am. This service will be brief, as all who attend are eager to see the beautiful artwork in our building.
April 22, 2012
Eric Hansen
9:15 and 11:15 am
Our Ferocious Love of Life vs. Catastrophic Climate Change
Humans, both as individuals and societies, have confronted towering crises before. What lessons and hope can we draw from those experiences? How do humans perceive that a crisis is at hand – and an immediate change in course is wise? Eric Hansen is an award-winning conservation essayist and public radio commentator, lifelong Unitarian, and frequent pulpit guest.
April 15, 2012
9:15 and 11:15 am
Music Sunday
The NSUC Choir and guests will present the annual Music Sunday on April 15 at the 9:15 and 11:15 services. Director Wayland Rogers will conduct selections ranging from Russian Liturgical music by Rachmaninoff to spirituals and gospel, opera, and an Irish hymn. You will hear the Chicago-land premiere of Wayland’s “The Golden Rule,” written in an Afro-Cuban style. Guest instrumentalists from our church will also be featured: Hannah Andersen (our new Junior Choir director) on Harp, Andrew Carpenter on Saxophone, Polly Hansen on Flute, John Diaz on Percussion and Gregg Rodriguez on Bass. The Sunday offering benefits the NSUC Music Program.
April 8, 2012
Rev. Gary James
9:15 and 11:15 am
Easter Sunday: Full Intergenerational Service
The service will be appropriate for all ages and will include Easter Communion. The Easter Communion is in celebration of Spring, recognizing that out of death comes life, out of Winter comes Spring. Our Easter Communion service is also in memory of a life infused with a trust in the ultimate triumph of love over hate and compassion over greed. The sharing of wine [grape juice] and unleavened bread is in the healing and redemptive spirit that Jesus made present through his life and death.
April 1, 2012
Rev. Gary James
9:15 and 11:15 am
Palm Sunday & Child Dedication Beginning the Journey to Jerusalem
Jesus didn’t want to start a religion about Jesus. He was not looking for a fan club. Jesus was issuing a summons to follow and learn what the heart had to teach. He was calling us to begin a journey of simply putting one foot in front of the other and begin moving toward the world’s pain and hunger, buoyed by a creative and transforming spirit with whom we form a partnership in revisioning and changing the course of human history. We are the architects of the Beloved Community, disciples of the Free Church and the Church Universal, walking after Jesus, who is but the first of many prophets who come from simple folks to free us from bondage, to restore our minds to wisdom, and make known the holy life, the way that leads through love and justice to the peace crowned days.
March 25, 2012
Rev. Gary James
9:15 and 11:15 am
To Inhabit a Place
To inhabit a place - one’s home, one’s church – according to the Oxford English Dictionary, means literally to have made it a habit, to have made it the custom and ordinary practice of our lives. To truly live somewhere is to have learned how to wear a place like a familiar garment, like the garments of sanctity that nuns once wore. The word habit, in its now dim original form meant, to own. We own places not because we possess the deeds to them, but because they have entered our lives. What is strange to us – unfamiliar – can never become home. To inhabit a place is to marry oneself to creation by knowing and cherishing a particular place, just as we join ourselves to the human family by marrying a particular man or woman. Wherever you are is home and the earth is paradise. Wherever you set your feet is holy land . . . You don’t have to live off it like a parasite. You live in it, and it in you, or you don’t survive. And that is the only worship of God there is.
March 18, 2012
Rev. Gary James
9:15 and 11:15 am
The Promise of Fidelity
Sermons advocating monogamy are usually delivered by those who are disturbed by changing patterns of sexual behavior and eager to call the world to the standards of the past. I came of age during the sexual revolution and embraced its liberating message. I have moved through it and beyond. I discovered the importance of sexual fidelity. Intimacy and commitment enrich our lives. The powerful physical tempest that is sexual desire is connected to heart and soul. When sexuality is reduced to casual encounters it will injure the capacity for ultimate sexual happiness that can exist only within the full development of true intimacy. Some marriages collapse and divorce can be a blessing, but any marriage, be it the 1st 2nd or 3rd is grounded in an intimacy that arises as fidelity which is established when a promise is kept. Fidelity and devotion is also what sustains lasting generous caring friendships. All lasting relationships are built on a commitment, a faithfulness that makes intimacy possible. It is through our faithfulness to one another that we create an abiding love and a growing intimacy for which we have been searching all our lives.
March 11, 2012
Guest, Rev. Karen Hutt
9:15 and 11:15 am
All That My Yearning Spirit Craves
Rev. Hutt will explore this history, contributions and challenges of African American women who were and are Unitarian Universalists.
March 4, 2012
Rev. Gary James
9:15 and 11:15 am
In Praise of Radicals, Mavericks, Gadflies, Rebels and Dissidents
The courage and capacity to take a stand is a commitment to living and thinking, right now, in a society not as it is but as it might be. To many people today succumb to the lazy consensus of going-along-to-get-along, preferring to seek approval and security rather than passionate disagreement with the powers that be. The practice of critical thinking is in decline and with it goes personal integrity, informed discussion, true progress and democracy itself. We make progress by conflict and in mental life by argument and disputation. Where people are invited to speak truthfully, which is the fundamental principle of the Free Church, there must be confrontation and opposition. Our experiences do not have to be harmonized or spiritualized. Balance, integration and wholeness are oftentimes ways in which we abandon the creative tension that would stretch our heart and expand our imagination.
February 26, 2012
Guest Speaker Aidan McCormack
Universalism: A New Kind of Superhero
9:15 and 11:15 am
Able to leap tall troubles in a single bound?
Faster than a speeding doubt?
More powerful than hellfire and damnation?
Can Universalism save the world?
It's a superhero that works through us!
February 19, 2012
Rev. Gary James
Building the Free Church – New Member Recognition
9:15 and 11:15 am
In biblical scripture it is written that God created the natural universe and then created man and woman in the image of God. The implication is that we – incredibly free and powerful - are called on to create the social universe in such a way that it too is ordered and rule-governed as are the planets and the stars. This is our great challenge: to build a free religious community, a place of integrated diversity where in honest difference we order our lives together. This Sunday we welcome into membership who have chosen to join us in our common quest.
February 12, 2012
Rev. Gary James
Come Sing a Song With Me - Growing the Beloved Community with Music
9:15 and 11:15 am
Full Intergenerational Child Friendly Worship Service – No Religious Education
We have the joy of welcoming the 30 member Children’s Choir of the Maywood Fine Arts Association, co-directed by Katie Calcamuggio [NSUC quartet] and Becky Wilson. Our NSUC Junior Choir will also perform. The Maywood choir will be joined by our children’s choir in one song and the NSUC adult choir for another. Singing together is a wonderful way to make new friends – reaching across boundaries with the natural grace and spirit of a child. Come as a family or individually. Come one-and-all and sing a more joyful world alive!
February 5, 2012
Rev. Gary James
Super Bowl Sunday -Team NSUC
9:15 and 11:15 am
Sports fans have some important things to teach us. On Super Bowl Sunday and the beginning of our Canvass Kick-Off we are invited to become faithful fans and enthusiastically identify with our favorite team: NSUC. 1) Unitarian Universalists are not fanatics. But like true sports fans we are loyal! We don’t betray our team. We are its faithful supporters. Once you become a true fan of a certain team, the bond is for life - if you are a true fan. 2) Another truth about the sport fan we could emulate is their reputation for investing money in support of their team – think college bowl game tickets, travel expenses, hotel accommodations. Or maybe if the Bears or Packers were to be conference winners, Super Bowl tickets. Fans are spenders. They don’t withhold! 3) Sports fans are tireless. They don’t rest! They are emotionally attached to their team and the goal of being a contender season after season. 4) Sports fans are passionate. They don’t give up! They never stop believing in their team no matter what the circumstances. Become a true and faithful NSUC fan. Come celebrate our Beloved Community and the big canvass kick-off.
January 29, 2012
Guest Speaker Jim Parrish
9:15 and 11:15 am
Jim Parrish gave a sermon on the development of the Principles through our U and U and UU history, liberating our spirits from dogmas and creeds, hence building the building the basis for our beloved community.
January 22, 2012
Guest Speaker Aidan McCormack
The Spirit and Social Change
9:15 and 11:15 am
During this month we rightly turn to how to make a difference in our nation and our world when it comes to issues of racial equality and oppression. We hear a lot about how to act outwardly, but what about inwardly? How to we prepare our inward selves to act justly in the world? And what might this look like as Unitarian Universalists?
January 15, 2012
Guest Speaker Pam Rumancik
Guest Singer Calesta Day
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday
Updating the Dream
9:15 and 11:15 am
Pam Rumancik is a recent graduate of Meadville Lombard Theological School and has recently received prelimary fellowship from the MFC in December. She is working this year at Elmhurst Memorial HealthCare serving a chaplain residency.
The service will feature an abundance of music from the African-American tradition including spirituals and gospel songs performed by the NSUC Choir, directed by Wayland Rogers and the guest singer, Calesta Day.
Calesta A. Day, from Atlanta, Georgia, made her University of Kentucky Opera Theatre debut in February 2011 as Lily Holmes in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. She has also appeared as Fiordiligi in Mozart's Cosí Fan Tutte with Miami University Opera. In Cincinnati Opera’s premier performance of Margaret Garner, she was seen as a Slave Chorister. Her operatic roles also include Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro with Miami University and Bowling Green State University Opera, Third Spirit in Cendrillon with Bowling Green State University Opera and she premiered the role of Alice in The Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Sinclair Community College Theatre.
Ms. Day currently serves as Music director and church pianist at East Maple Street Christian Church in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Ms. Day holds an Associate of Arts in Voice Performance from Sinclair Community College, Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Bowling Green State University, Master of Arts degree in Education with a Music Concentration from the University of Dayton, and the Master of Music degree in Voice Performance from Miami University. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Voice Performance at the University of Kentucky under the supervision of Dr. Everett McCorvey. Calesta's doctoral project is "Exploring The Role Of African American Opera Singers In The Establishment Of The Spiritual As A Musicial Art Form From 1900 To 1960".
January 8, 2012
Guest Speaker Ashley Horan
I Call That Church Free
9:15 and 11:15 am
When we talk about Unitarian Universalism, we often speak of ourselves as a 'free church'--one that has no creeds or hierarchy. Such a church may not impose restrictions on individual freedoms, but can it do the work of freeing people in mind, body and spirit? Ashley Horan will graduate from Meadville Lombard Theological School this spring, and was recently granted Preliminary Fellowship by the Ministerial Fellowship Committee in Boston. She served as the Intern Minister in Davis, CA, last year. Ashley lives in Hyde Park with her partner, Rev. Karen Hutt; their very feisty eleven-year-old, Lisa; and two terribly misbehaved cats.
January 1, 2012
Guest Speaker Deborah Rostorfer
Evolutionary Resolutions
11:15 am only
December 18, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Unto Us a Child Is Born [Child Dedication]
9:15 and 11:15 am
In Genesis, the Creator proclaims, Let us make humanity in our image, after our likeness: so God created them in the divine image; male and female God created them.
In the birth of each new life, the ancient cry of hope and joy is here again. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son or daughter is given and the future of the world shall be on their shoulders . . . Their name shall be called wonderful . . . “Yet if nothing else, each time a child is born there is a possibility of reprieve. Each new child is a new being, a potential prophet, a new spiritual prince (or princess), a new spark of light precipitated into the darkness.” [R.D. Laing]
December 11, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Looking For Love in the Cold and the Darkness
9:15 and 11:15 am
At Christmas the summons to love calls us. Love is the foundation of that which is highest in civilization. The human community is realized in its capacity to love. Christmas reminds us of a love that reaches beyond our small circle of family. We must have a love that stretches us, a love beyond sweetness and tenderness. The kind of love the Christmas story points to would require of us that we serve others through justice, courage and humility. We Unitarian Universalists try so hard to think and talk our way to wholeness. We put our religious eggs in the basket of consciousness and end up knowing a great deal about love and yet rarely do we know love in its demanding depth and commanding integrity.
December 4, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Waiting Patiently in Expectation
9:15 and 11:15 am
“Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of spiritual life,” said the French Christian mystic, Simone Weil. Waiting, alert to the world, expecting and looking out to what wants to address us is what the spiritual life is all about. To use a more traditional language, Waiting patiently in expectation - is to pray and meditate without ceasing. It is when we stay alert to grace and love and mystery and holiness that we are able survive the turmoil and contentiousness of the world. By learning to wait with patient expectation we gain the capacity to stand with courage in the midst of that which causes fear. This waiting attitude allows us to be a people of faith and hope and love in an often suffering and chaotic world. O spirit of Advent and Christmas past, prepare in us an expectant heart. . . .
November 27, 2011
Guest Speaker: Debra Rostorfer
Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Action
9:15 and 11:15 am
How do we show our thankfulness? Is gratitude found in our actions as well as our words? If so, what does it look like? These questions and more will be explored by Deb Rostorfer student minister at Olympia Brown UU Church in Racine, WI.
November 20, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Harvest Communion
9:15 and 11:15 am
November 13, 2011
Rev. Gary James
The Sweetness of Ripening
9:15 and 11:15 am
There is a further journey that begins in the second half of one’s life. We are familiar with the first journey, the goal of which is establishing one’s identity, seeking security and engaging in a life project, such as raising a family and establishing a career. But these goals are the warming up act and the starting gate for the next journey. They are the raft and not the shore. Our soul’s discovery is utterly crucial, momentous, and of pressing importance. The discovery is usually realized by way of our falling apart causing the many achievements of the first half of life to appear wanting. The second journey is begun with one’s inner blueprint in hand, which is a good description of our soul, and returning it humbly to the world and to God. This is the fulfillment of our life’s purpose. We are here to give back fully and freely what was first given to us – but now writ personally – by us! This second journey is not for the spiritually lazy who are inclined to stay on the same old path, even when its going nowhere.
November 6, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Prophets of the Strangeness of God
9:15 and 11:15 am
Can we know the nature of God? There are so many competing claims to religious certainty or fundamentalism, including some forms of atheism and humanism. In contrast to this certainty there is the acceptance of radical uncertainty that is religious liberalism. Fundamentalism tends toward the domestication of God. It claims that the nature and will of God are not only knowable but known. The alternative, religious liberalism, is the acceptance of the uncertainty and living with the questions. The strangeness of God is a threatening image, challenging our limited conception of life, threatening conventional piety with its narrow, domesticated God, as well as the attempts to dismiss or evade the question of the reality of the divine altogether. I like to think of God as a great iconoclast, continually smashing every concept we construct to capture ultimate reality. I think in many respects we Unitarian Universalists are prophets of the strangeness of God.
Sunday October 30, 2011
Rev. Gary James
March of the Goblins: Facing Evil
9:15 and 11:15 am
The famous psychologist C. G. Jung wrote: The sad truth is that man’s real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites – day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain. Life is a battleground. It always has been, and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.
The 17th century English Unitarian and poet, John Milton, author of Paradise Lost wrote this thoughtful epigram regarding evil: It was from out of the rind of one apple tasted, that the knowledge of good and evil, as two twins cleaving together, leaped forth into the world. And perhaps this is that doom which Adam fell into of knowing good and evil: that is to say, of knowing good by evil. And therefore the state of man now is; what wisdom can there be to choose, what continence to forbear, without the knowledge of evil?
The Book of Genesis, the creation story for Judaism and Christianity teaches us that if we are to know goodness and do good, we must first become conscious of evil. It is only by understanding evil, including the evil within ourselves, that we can prevent its destructive manifestations.
My friend and colleague, Earl Holt is critical of Unitarian Universalism. Liberal theology, if it can be said to have an overriding weakness, tends toward a sometimes unrealistic optimism; hope is its central virtue. But essential as hope is, it must be grounded in something deeper. A potent religion must address the darkness, inner and outer. The darkness is real.
The famous British radical psychologist, R. D. Laing, offers this wise insight: The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.
October 23, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Why Am I Alive?
9:15 and 11:15 am
There are some who argue we are nothing more than genes and environment. But I have known since childhood that I am more than what science alone can reveal. We are all more than the physical reality that we presently perceive. The meaning of our lives is invisible, however this does not mean it is not real or does not exist. The visible itself has an invisible inner structure and the in-visible is the secret counterpart to the visible. In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody, and if we do not embody that, life is wasted. How do we recover a sense of personal calling and a feeling of destiny. What is your answer to the question: Why am I alive?
Bill Schulz President of UUSC
The 8th Deadly Sin
9:15 and 11:15 am
How many of the seven deadly sins can you name? How many have you not committed? Bill Schulz, President of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), will offer an eighth-one he contends is the worst of them all and one of which we all have been guilty at one time or another. But hosannah! He'll also describe how UUSC is working to vanquish this preeminent sin and, in the process, save your souls. Dr. William Schulz,has been in our pulpit several times in the past and has always inspired us to more fully live our UU values. After Bill Schulz's 11:15 service on Oct. 16, there will be a workshop "Human Rights and the UUSC Difference." This will give everyone an opportunity to learn more about human rights in the world and how the UUSC approach is so valuable and useful. It will explain all the new programs the UUSC is undertaking- and what makes the UUSC unique and successful. Do plan to attend. Sandwiches will be available for purchase.
October 9, 2011
Rev. Gary James
High Holy Day Sunday
9:15 and 11:15 am
Come to High Holy Day Sunday, our Unitarian Universalist Day of At-one-ment. We recognize that our Unitarian Universalist roots go back over two thousand years and begin in ancient Judaism and so we celebrate High Holy Day Sunday in the tradition of Yom Kippur. This very special service drawing on the liturgy of the Day of Atonement will be lead by Reverend Gary James. Wayland Rogers will lead the choir and soloists in music specific to the holiday. Many of the members of our congregation and their extended families consider this service to be the most beautiful and moving of all of our worship services in the church year.
October 3, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Annual Association Sunday: Celebrating Excellence in Ministries
9:15 and 11:15 am
This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Unitarian Universalist Association. As we begin the next 50 years of our Association, the Unitarian Universalist Association is joining with our professional organizations and congregations to raise funds for outstanding continuing education and professional development for all of our religious professionals. The UUA will partner with the Unitarian Universalist Minister’s Association [UUMA], the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network [UUMA], the Liberal Religious Educators Association [LAREDA], and other professional organizations to celebrate Association Sunday on October 3, 2011. Proceeds from this service will be distributed as grants to support scholarships, continuing education, an assessment for our ministries and other projects that help religious professionals get the ongoing training they need to support thriving ministries. Thank you for growing our faith in one another and our way in religion. We are better together!
September 25, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Building the Free Church – To Liberate the Spirit – To Create the Beloved Community
9:15 and 11:15am
Unitarian Universalism is much more than a radical commitment to a personal search for truth and meaning. We are not an individualistic religion, but rather a communal spiritual journey. The growth of our own souls is not the work we do individually, but as a community. Our independent wills are intended to serve the interdependent web.
It was American philosopher, Josiah Royce (1855-1916)who first used the term beloved community to refer to the aim of organized religion on earth. If the creation of the beloved community is our goal, then our task is to invent and apply those arts which shall win all over to unity, overcoming our separateness by the gracious love, not of mere individuality but of communities – the Spirit of Love incarnate in human fellowship. The core of our faith and the purpose of our lives is the Beloved Community, a community in which individuals do not seek private and selfish security for their souls, but join in a new adventure, a spontaneous fellowship of dedicated men and women seeking a new world.
September 18, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Finding a Wisdom for Dispelling the Plague of Anger that Consumes Us and Our World
9:15 and 11:15 am
Anger plagues all of us on a personal, national, and international level. Yet there are people who have faced circumstances far worse than those many of us have faced and do not succumb to anger, or rage, or seek revenge. How do they do it? All of us can learn to live with greater tolerance, love and forgiveness. Learning to handle our anger is one of the great challenges in living an emotionally intelligent life. If you carry grudges, and criticize people . Have trouble sleeping? Fly into fits of rage. This sermon is for you. We will study a Buddhist approach to bringing harmony to yourself and your relationships.
September 11, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Welcoming Sunday - Let It Be a Dance (Intergenerational)
9:15 and 11:15 am
In music, song and liturgical dance we will celebrate our gathering together as a sacred community for the beginning of a new church year.
We clasp the hands of those that go before us, and the hands of those who come after us. We enter the little circle of each other’s arms and the larger circle of lovers, whose hands are joined in a dance. And the larger circle of all creatures, passing in and out of life, who move also in a dance, to a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it except in fragments. So writes Kentucky poet, Wendell Berry.
As is found in ancient cultures around the world, we need to approach and respond to life with the attitude of a dancer. Willing to connect and interact with all the music and rhythms we encounter, and engaging as full participants. We UUs tend get lost in mental concepts and word constructs and lose touch with the rhythmic singing in the blood. Our ancestors viewed dance as sacred. The protective whirl of dance keeps opposing forces in dynamic balance, a sacred partnership of give and take, leader and led. And then, following the service, we can dance out into the sunshine and join in the festivities of our all church picnic.
September 4, 2011
Aidan McCormack
Promises, Promises
10:00 am
Join frequent guest to the Rock, and Director of Youth Ministry, Aidan McCormack, as he explores covenant and how we can live into our deepest loyalties and loves with one another. How could something as dry as covenant and polity bring, and maybe most importantly, retain young people within Unitarian Universalism?
August 28, 2011
Ashley Horan
Expecting Abundance
10:00 am
Our culture encourages us to believe in scarcity, fearing that there are not enough resources, time, money, jobs or love to go around. As a result, we see each other as the competition, and operate defensively and independently. What would life be like if, instead, we acted like we believed in an abundant universe that contained enough to meet every person's needs?
Ashley Horan, a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, is entering her final year at Seminary at Meadville Lombard Theological School. Ashley is grateful to be back in Chicago after a fabulous "year abroad" in California, where she served last year as the Intern & Campus Minister at the UU Church of Davis, CA.
August 21, 2011
Bill Hansen
There's a Reason for the World You and I
10:00 am
It is often said that people come into our lives for a reason. What are these reasons; why are they important, and why do we need to embrace these challenges and opportunities? Our relationships with others play a significant role in our evolution as spiritual beings. Through song, stories, and personal reflections, we will explore the spiritual nature of our human transactions and come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of life's full meaning. Bill Hansen is a social worker and currently serves as Vice President of Program Operations for Chicago Youth Centers. He has been a member of NSUC since 1991, along with his wife Polly and two children, Ian and Kelsey.
August 14, 2011
Guns, Grief & Grace
Janet Fitch
10:00 am
Janet Fitch creates films that engage diverse communities to expand critical thinking on complex societal problems. Her award winning documentary series, Guns, Grief & Grace in America, reframes the current debate on gun violence to a non-polarized public health focus on prevention. Urban, suburban, small town and rural lenses broaden collective thinking as they explore suicide, homicide, domestic violence, mass and accidental shootings ‐ to highlight the need for prevention strategies.
August 7, 2011
Balancing the Moral Budget
The Reverend Jean Darling
10:00 am
Every budget is a moral document, said Jim Wallis of Sojourners (among many others!). If we value education, self development, science and art, and caring for those who are most vulnerable, and want these values to be expressed in public policy, we're going to need to do a lot more organizing ‐ and a lot more praying. Rev. Jean Siegfried Darling, a life‐long UU, serves the Peoples Church of Chicago in Uptown.
July 31, 2011
Queer and Undocumented—Stories of Courage and Hope
Tania Unzueta and Ireri Carrasco
10:00 am
“Coming out” for most people, means acknowledging their homosexuality. What if you had to decide about coming out, not just about that but also about being undocumented? Ourguests, Tania Unzueta and Ireri Carrasco, both members of the Chicago Immigrant Youth Justice League, will share their personal journeys and, more importantly, why we as UUs should care and support their work.
July 24, 2011
Laughter as Ministry
Karen Topham
10:00 am
Mark Twain famously said, "Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand." In difficult times such as these, when many of us are facing life‐altering circumstances and worries about the future, laughter does not come easy. But it has a healing power that we seldom recognize. It is the one perfect, unstoppable weapon in the arsenal against despair. Through jokes and music and joy‐filled moments, Karen will bring her Ministry of Laughter to NSUC. Karen Topham has been a member at NSUC since 1999 and has served in many capacities including Council Chair.
July 17, 2011
Dangerous Power of Addiction, Loving Power of Spirituality
John Corso
10:00 am
This presentation will portray addiction as an inability to refrain from any behavior that has negative consequences, not just drugs and alcohol. AA’s 12 Step Model, which focuses on spirituality, stresses the importance of a spiritual community structure and invokes the help of a higher power in keeping addiction at bay. John Corso is a LCSW, who works in a psychiatric nursing home.
July 10, 2011
Promises, Promises
Aidan McCormack
10:00 am
Join frequent guest to the Rock, and Director of Youth Ministry, Aidan McCormack, as he explores covenant and how we can live into our deepest loyalties and loves with one another. How could something as dry as covenant and polity bring, and maybe most importantly, retain young people within Unitarian Universalism?
July 3, 2011
America, My Adopted Country
Marguerite McClelland
10:00 am
As a first generation immigrant, NSUC member Marguerite McClelland will share her thoughts and observations about her adopted country, and why you should be proud of it. Marguerite serves on the Worship Arts Committee and writes a column for NSUC’s Environmental Task Force.
June 26, 2011
Living the Seven Principles: guide for a Spiritual Life
Polly Hansen
10:00 am
Our current U.U. Seven Principles, adopted in 1984, are founded on ancient wisdom and teachings from other religions, as well as insights from our own U.U. point of view. How much do they impact our lives? How often do you think about them? Can you even name them all? Delve into the deep meaning of each principle and you may find a wealth of untapped wisdom and profound spiritual guidance. Polly Hansen, our music coordinator for summer services, has been a member of NSUC since 1991. This is her fifth sermon at the rock.
June 19, 2011
Lost in Translation
Reverend Matthew Doyle
10:00 am
Have you ever thought you knew what someone meant, but you didn't? Even when speaking the same language, our words can mean very different things to each of us. Over the last 15 years, Rev. Doyle's work on anti‐racism, GLBT equality, reproductive rights, and ministry in general, Rev. Doyle has found that sometimes we get lost in translation. Rev. Doyle's coalition work for justice and understanding depends on learning to listen with more depth and compassion. So too, do our personal lives and our growing identity as an interfaith religious home. Rev. Matthew Doyle has been the senior minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Rockford, since 2008.
June 12, 2011
WWMD? What Would Muhammed Do?
Rev. Dick Weston-Jones
10:00 am
Lots of people speak for and against him, but most don't understand him. This is an appreciation of the man, one of the most significant religious leaders of our heritage. Rev. Weston-Jones will also speak about American Muslims, the relationship of their heritage to our own, how difficult their religious task is today and our role as Unitarian Universalists in that. A UU minister for 47 years, Dick is Minister Emeritus of the UU Church of Ventura, California. He served NSUC from 1981-88. He also directed WhaleCoast Alaska, a program co-sponsored by five UU fellowships in Alaska taking UU's from "Outside" (meaning the lower 48 states) to explore Alaska between 1994 and 2007 and founded "La Vida Mexicana," an intercultural program apprenticing UU's to Mexican villagers in the 1970's. Dick now lives in Chapel Hill where he built his home in 1994.
June 5, 2011
Finding the Courage to Live Life Deep and Live It Whole
Rev. Gary James
10:00 am
Courage is a powerful word. The original use of the word courage means to stand by one’s core. Courage also means heart. I believe if we learn how to find our way to our core, to stand by our core, and then sustain the practice of living from our core we will be able to face whatever life has to offer. This is also a fundamental teaching of many wisdom traditions. My last sermon before departing for the summer will address the question: What are the ways of living and being that makes bravery possible, not just as an event, but as an approach to life, as a way of life?
