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.

Please send your joys or sorrows to joysandsorrows@uucuc.org any time before the Joys and Sorrows portion of the service. They will be read aloud.

Join our online Zoom Fellowship Hour after the service on Sundays (immediately following the service).

Join us at 11:30 (or immediately following the service) for an in-person fellowship with coffee, beverages, and treats in Fellowship Hall. Food and drink are now allowed within the church building, and masks are still encouraged when not eating or drinking.

Your contributions and support allow us to continue to respond with love and resources to the needs in our congregation and the wider community. We couldn’t do it without your support and we are grateful to each of you.

Bookmark our UUCUC Events and UUCUC Calendar webpage for future reference.

You are invited to join your fellow UUCUC-ers on the first Saturday in May for some outdoor gardening fun! If you want to be involved with year-round grounds upkeep, contact Jerry Carden about our Adopt-a-Plot program. We're also looking for folks that are knowledgeable about the butterfly garden to help clean it up, and to determine plants to add using a gift card to Prairie Gardens that Rev. Florence gave to the congregation to buy plants that attract butterflies.

Please consider donating to the Little Free Pantries run by Julie Laut (Urbana) and AJ Herzog (Champaign), which they have maintained year-round since March 2020. Their Amazon wish list has been updated to include unique summer items. The wishlist can be sorted to identify high priority items. All orders sent through Amazon are delivered to Julie's house and split between the two pantries. You are also welcome to drop off items in person at both locations. Questions? Contact Julie (jlaut@hushmail.com) or AJ (zogs92@gmail.com).

JOYS AND SORROWS sent to joysandsorrows@uucuc.org for last Sunday, May 1, 2022.

From Chris Hannauer: Joy for the fun, generous members and friends of this congregation who helped us raise over $21,000 at last night’s service auction!

From Deborah Rugg: Kathy Robinson is now living at home getting treatment locally. She is very pleased she was accepted into a new clinical trial that permits her this comfort

From Marilyn Ryan: Great joy for Umeeta as she teaches her final classes at Parkland College this week. Your passion has made such a difference!

From Umeeta Sadarangani: Many, many thanks to all those who made the service auction possible yesterday! It was a real joy to gather in person with others in fellowship hall after two years. Much gratitude for all the work and creativity!

Please send your joys or sorrows to joysandsorrows@uucuc.org any time before the Joys and Sorrows portion of the service. They will be read aloud.

UUCUC Social Action Offering. Each month a selected organization is chosen to receive offerings from our congregation. You may donate to the social action offering for the month in one of the following ways:

The Lakota Law Project was started in 2004 when a group of Lakota grandmothers asked for an investigation of South Dakota Social Services, which was removing large numbers of Lakota children from their homes. The Lakota Child Rescue Project found that social services had a pattern of drugging and removing native children from their families, and subjecting them to mental and physical abuses in foster care, leading to high levels of youth suicides. This first project continues today, along with several others.

Please read this letter from Madonna Thunder Hawk, one of the founders of the Lakota People’s Law Project, to our congregation.

During the month of March, our shared offering was able to raise $2,273.00 in March for WIN Recovery.

WIN Recovery is a local nonprofit founded to support women and those who identify as women as they return to our community after experiencing incarceration. The number of women incarcerated in IL and nationwide has exploded in the past few decades, growing by 700%. Many of the women are sent to prison as part of sweeps of their drug-dealing boyfriends or husbands, even if they had no knowledge of the activity. Tragically, they often get longer sentences than the drug-dealing boyfriend as they do not have information to trade for a reduced sentence. Understandably, incarceration severely interrupts family lives for those who have children

Read our policy on publications for details.

Please send your submittals to pubs@uucuc.org and not to the admin email.

Closed until further notice

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