Hello UUCUC! We wanted to start out this week by thanking the 90-or-so participants in our recent cottage meetings. We found these honest and heartfelt conversations to be so powerful and inspiring; you have really solidified our understanding of where we are and where we want to go with our next settled minister. We will be conducting focus group discussions in the coming two weeks, and then the next (and last) congregational ask that we have: attending the “Beyond Categorical Thinking” workshop on Friday, November 18th (7:00 – 8:30 PM) and Saturday, November 19th (10:00 – 11:30 AM). Please plan to attend this important seminar, details of which are below. It will be held on Zoom so you can go from wherever you are comfortable (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSelX4a84xsXg8QHRrPLfJxs8NIIQxDwMrbDSiQX7UkDugIWVQ/viewform).

If you have any questions about Beyond Categorical Thinking, feel free to reach out to us at search@uucuc.org. As an added bonus, we have in our midst a trained leader of these workshops who would be happy to talk to you as well: Jerry Carden! Feel free to reach out to him as well.

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.

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.

Join our online Zoom Fellowship Hour after the service this Sunday

Join us at 11:30 (or immediately following the service) for an in-person fellowship with coffee, beverages, treats, and good conversation in UUCUC's Fellowship Hall.

As of November 3, 2022, the COVID-19 transmission level in Champaign County is MEDIUM. That means masks continue to be required during services (both in the Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall) as well as in all RE&E program activities. Masks are welcomed (but not required) in UUCUC’s building for non-RE&E activities before and after the service. Food and beverages are also permitted in the building when transmission levels are medium or low. Please visit this link for UUCUC’s current COVID Safety Guidelines.

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

The ministers and Worship Committee are in the process of planning for this year’s in-person Christmas Eve service. To assist them with the preparations and deciding on whether to offer more than one service, they’d like to know how many of our congregants are expecting to attend the service this year. Please follow the link and complete the poll.

There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes and we are ready to share an important update. With the help of the Board, the Operations Council, the Personnel Committee, our ministers, other church staff, and many others, our church has posted a job description for a REE Manager to help coordinate our children and youth programming. We hope to be able to fill this position by early November.

Please consider donating to the Little Free Pantries run by AJ Herzog (Champaign) and UUCUC (Urbana). Their Amazon wish list has been updated to include the most high priority items. All orders sent through Amazon are split between the two pantries. You are also welcome to drop off items in person at both locations. Questions? Contact AJ (zogs92(at)gmail.com) or Penne Beckett (penne.beckett(at)uucuc.org).

JOYS AND SORROWS sent to joysandsorrows@uucuc.org for last Sunday, October 30, 2022.

From Marsha Clinard: We want to express thanks to our many friends, mostly UUs, who have assisted us in the past ten days as I recover from back surgery and Covid, followed by Charlie’s positive Covid test a few days ago. We have received flowers, get well wishes and food from so many which is making the recovery much easier.

From Rev. Sally Fritsche: Send good vibes toward Denver today where my sister is due to go into labor with a baby girl any minute!

From Gail Hueting: I'm so glad to be here after four days in the hospital and glad to be dealing with the problems that turned up.

From Margaret Lovell: Joy: Sheila is healing well from shoulder surgery. Sorrow: she has to go back to work tomorrow.

From Mimi: Remembering my father with love. He passed away one year ago.

From Tim Temple: Remembering my mother's B.D. Oct 30, 1926. Miss her daily.

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:

November's Shared Offering recipient is the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW). SOAW was founded in 1990 to denounce the massacre of religious leaders in El Salvador by graduates of the U.S. Army's School of the Americas. The U.S. school made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon, under intense pressure, released instruction manuals used to train Latin American soldiers to torture, extort and execute political dissidents. Among the list of graduates from the SOA are some of the worst violators of human rights in the continent, including nearly a dozen Latin American dictators. Among those targets by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred, or forced into refuge by those trained at the School of Americas.

Over the past 30 years, SOA Watch has grown to become the largest grassroots Latin American solidarity organization in the United States. In 2016 SOA Watch moved to Nogales Arizona/Sonora to call attention to US foreign policy as an important root cause of migration, as well as to the devastating impact US security and immigration policies have on refugees, asylum seekers and immigrant families all over the continent.

The training at the School of the Americas (now called Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) is among the root causes of migration that forces people to flee their countries in Latin America. SOA/WHINSEC-trained soldiers are the military muscle that keeps in place a system guaranteeing profits for the elites - and exploitation for the poor. Many immigrants to the United States are victims of U.S.-sponsored military training and atrocities in Latin America.

SOAW continues to provide education and advocacy supporting the closure of the School of the Americas, exposing the corruption, human rights violations and culture of racism and violence characterizing the border Patrol and joins in solidarity with organizations and movements seeking justice and peace throughout the Americas.

Read our policy on publications for details.

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

9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Monday - Thursday

By appointment on Friday

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Sunday REE Coordinator sundayree@uucuc.org

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Director of Business Administration admin@uucuc.org

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