What does Finding Our Center mean? Click HERE to find out.
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Sunday Service
In-person and Online
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January 8, 2023 @ 10:30am
A Center that Evolves: Our Changing and Ever-Growing Principles
By Steve Cooper, Director of Religious Education
The theme of the month is Finding Our Center. We will explore the changing landscape of our Principles and Sources, and how UU’s everywhere have been invited to share ideas about what values are at the center of our faith. This is an opportunity to explore how "our center" as a faith is something that changes over time rather than being something that is fixed and forever. Since life changes, so do our passions and commitments.
This is a service for all ages.
January 15, 2023 @ 10:30am
Lift Every Voice and Sing by rev. mandi huizenga
January 22, 2023 @ 10:30am
Rooting Our Compass: Finding Our True North by rev. mandi huizenga
January 29, 2023 @ 10:30am
Rooting Our Compass: Embodied Grounding by rev. mandi huizenga
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Join us January 15: Creating the Community You Crave
In response to your responses during the Congregational Conversations in November, your leadership team is taking seriously the way congregational size dynamics can create opportunity or, alternately, hinder our vision for the church. You're invited to learn more about this shift in size - and how it aligns with the hopes and dreams you shared for this beloved community - on January 15. Join rev. mandi and Board President Ann Arellano in the Learning Center at 11:45 for a quick lunch, informative insight, and Q&A.
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Membership Class
Sunday, January 22, 2023
12:30pm - 4:30pm
Want to learn more about Unitarian Universalism? Thinking about becoming a member of DuPage UU Church? Already a member but want a refresher?
rev. mandi invites you to join her in learning more about our faith and our religious community. This class will be held in person at DuPage UU Church.
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Congregational Feedback Needed on Memorial Garden
Our church hosts a small memorial garden in the backyard. This garden was a project of the DUUC Women’s Association. In 2014 they purchased the bench that graces the area and installed landscaping. While considering plans to update the landscape recently, it was noted that there is interest at DUUC to formalize administrative policies and procedures for the use of the garden, and to enhance it as a place of reflection for remembering loved ones, and for the internment of their ashes.
The Board approved a Mandate in December to examine the issue and to study the range of questions and issues associated with establishing and managing the space(s). These may include, but are not limited to: legality; eligibility; fees; administrative process; recordkeeping; internment process; markers (if any); current and/or future space needs; and design the of space.
An initial Task Force has been formed, comprised of Susan Camasta and Carl Nash. We would like your thoughts, ideas and opinions. Your input is invited at small meetings that will be held at the church. You may also contact us at any time. Susan, at sfc1939@comcast.net, and Carl, at nash.carltont@gmail.com, are eager to hear your views.
Other UU churches have memorial gardens with specific policies detailing accepted use and particular procedures. Learn a bit about these other gardens, and help us determine what is appropriate for the DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church.
With input from the congregation and church leadership, the Task Force will develop options for consideration and then finalize policies and procedures for DUUC.
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January 2023 Special Offering
The January special offering will benefit DUUC’s SMILE project. The SMILE project
was designed to provide mentoring and work experience to high school students who
are not the top of their class, nor in the bottom quarter, but those who could use
encouragement and help to prepare for entering the workforce after high school. We are
also attempting to offer our congregation a means to help reduce racism in our
community by creating opportunities for business people in our community to create
relationships between themselves and young people of color. We have mentored 36
students, impacted 18 business groups, including two police departments. In addition
family members from each student have felt the effects of these experiences as have
the leaders of the four high schools which the students have attended.
All funds collected from any source will be used to fund the program. The November
special offering raised $1726.71 for Literacy DuPage. Thank you for your generosity.
To make a donation, please click HERE.
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Special Offering Updates
To rev. mandi and all of our friends at DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church:
On behalf of all of us at DuPagePads, thank you so much for your church’s gift to help those who are staying with us right now. Your kindness is helping 309 people—including 132 children—sleep safe and warm tonight.
Here is a picture of two of our guests whose lives you have made better, safer and brighter. Since they’ve been with us, they and their moms are doing so much better, and they’ve been able to have stability and get to school.
So grateful to you, and wishing you the happiest of holidays,
April Redzic
President and CEO
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Tom Galloway Scholarship Fund Update
Charlene Mitchell is the 2022 recipient of the Tom Galloway Scholarship Fund at College of DuPage. She is 26 years old, and has a passion for taking care of others, and following an injury and surgery realized that working in the healthcare field would be the right career. Here is Charlene’s thank you note. Your generosity has had a great impact on her life.
Dear members of DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church, I was so happy to learn that I was a recipient of the Tom Galloway Memorial Scholarship. I am writing to thank you for your generous financial support towards my higher education. I am currently majoring in Health Science, and plan on pursuing a career in the medical field so that I can help make a difference in people’s lives. Being raised by a single mother who struggled to make ends meet, she also thanks you for this contribution. She is very grateful, and her heart as well as mine, overflows with joy.
Thank you,
Charlene Mitchell
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Nominations for Special Offerings
Each year our Special Offerings team solicits, reviews, and chooses nominees for a yearly lineup of not-for-profit organizations as monthly special offering recipients. These nominations come from our own Church members and often represent organizations that have been founded by or at which our members have volunteered for many years. They may be organizations that have impacted the life of your family. From mental health to senior support, immigrant literacy to prison ministry, our action provides a lifeline to organizations without deep pockets but providing essential services to so many living in our surrounding communities.
We are now beginning the process for 2023-2024. We currently have two standing recipients: the Tom Galloway scholarship at College of DuPage and Riverwalk Adult Day Services. It is now time to think about organizations that you volunteer with, use their services, or just know they do good works. You can find information on the criteria we use to make decisions on our nomination form.
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From the DUUC Library and Book Store |
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DUUC Library Monthly Book Recommendations
This year the DUUC Library will have monthly book recommendations based upon a monthly holiday or historical significance. Information about these featured DUUC Library books will be available on a book list in the Library Alcove area in Kreves Hall. For January 2023, International Holocaust Remembrance Day will be commemorated.
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2022-2023 UU Common Read
The 2022-2023 UU Common Read, Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism by Nancy Palmer Jones and Karin Lin, is available for borrowing from the DUUC Library and is on display in the Library alcove area in Kreves Hall. The UU Common Read builds community in UU congregations by giving diverse people a shared platform for reflection and a shared focus for action. A user guide is available at https://www.uua.org/read/mistakes-and-miracles/using-guide. For more information about, Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism, Nancy Palmer Jones and Karin Lin, and the UU Common Read, visit: https://www.uua.org/read
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Accessibility during Sunday Services
Happy New Year from the Accessibility and Inclusion Ministry Team at DUUC! Our New Year’s resolution is to highlight some of the accessibility features available during Sunday Services.
- Our sanctuary has a Hearing Loop assistive listening system, so audio will go directly to your hearing device via its T-coil. If you do not have a device with T-coil capability, you may ask an usher for a receiver and earphone.
- Large print hymnals and large print orders of service are available from the ushers.
- Seating is flexible. Chairs may be moved to accommodate strollers, walkers, and wheelchairs. If you need assistance with seating, please see an usher. Chairs with arms are available at the ends of some rows for those who need them.
- Auto generated closed captioning (CC) is available during the livestream and on archived recordings of Sunday Services.
For more information about AIM and accessibility accommodations at DUUC, please
The DUUC Accessibility and Inclusion Ministry Team strives to increase awareness of
issues surrounding disability and disability rights and to help make all church programs
and spaces as accessible and inclusive as possible. If you have questions about AIM at
DUUC, have accessibility or inclusion questions, suggestions, or concerns at church,
and/or would like to join the DUUC AIM Team, please email us at
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From your Green Sanctuary Committee
2023: A Year for Better Choices
The DUUC Green Sanctuary Committee has been conversing lately about how to make sense of the constant stream of information on living more sustainably and recycling our waste. Some of the info is contradictory, and some seems to change daily, e.g., Polypropylene, plastic #5, is no longer locally recyclable. Some claims of “green” are just greenwashing. We try to make choices and decisions with the environment in mind, but our information is incomplete and may be outdated. Look for upcoming articles from our group titled “A Better Choice.” We will try to help sort out the information as we resolve to make better choices.
In our first offering, it’s January, so let’s talk about ice melt products for our driveways and walks.
The Chemistry: Traditional ice melts contain sodium chloride, calcium chloride, and/or magnesium chloride. When wet, these ionic compounds break up into charged particles that prevent water molecules from bonding together to form ice—they depress the freezing point of water—so the water remains liquid.
The Problem: All these chemicals are considered salts, and can damage concrete, kill vegetation, and irritate your pup’s paws! The residual salts eventually run-off and accumulate on land and in nearby wetlands, causing significant damage to wildlife and plant communities.
- Remove snow before applying a deicer.
- Use just enough ice melt to reduce safety hazard. More salt doesn’t mean more melting.
- Sweep up and safely store any salt that remains for reuse.
- Use alternative methods, like beet juice extracts, or other DIY mixtures (see below)
- Share your knowledge about the impacts chlorides have on our local waterways.
Bob Vila suggests that Magnesium Chloride is the best choice if you are going to use salts, but also lists a DIY mix of alcohol and water. Some folks suggest adding dish soap Sweep them up and reuse if possible.
Some municipalities have been using a salt-beet juice mixture on roads, that is more effective at lower temps, and reduces detrimental effects on the environment. From Canadian cities to Chicago, the mixture “beets” salt alone! For home use, this is not so easy to find! Snow Joe’s MELT Beet Ice Melter gets good reviews. It contains beet extract with a mixture of salts. Home Depot, Walmart and Amazon carry it, though it was out of stock as of this January writing.
Here is more information from the EPA .
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We are kind and generous people
Thanks very much to all who chose a tag (or more) from the tree and donated cans and dry goods for the DUU-gooders holiday food drive. We dropped off 297.5 pounds of food to the West Suburban Community Pantry to help families put meals on their tables this holiday season. The pantry staff was grateful for the 22 boxes of pasta, 28 cans of beans, 38 cans of tuna/chicken/fish, 34 cans of fruit, 15 jars of peanut butter, 4 large bags of rice, 2 boxes of cornbread, 58 cans of soup/stew/chili, 11 jars of pasta sauce, 37 cans of vegetables, and 1 large tin of butter pecan holiday cookies!
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Joys and Concerns
Share a joy or concern with our DuPage UU Church community during regular Sunday services by sending a note to our minister. You can also let us know what is happening in your life through The Joys and Concerns Facebook Page which is available to members. This is a private page that has been successful in providing instant response from our community. You can post your joy or worry, or you can show your support to others. To join the private page, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/DUUCJoysConcerns on Facebook and request access. PMA and our Minister serve as administrators of the page.
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Mindfulness Meditation
Mondays 7:00pm - 8:45pm
This mindfulness meditation group is open to anyone who has interest in meditation from beginners to more advanced. Our time together consists of sitting meditation, walking meditation (when we meet in person), a short teaching and responsive group sharing.
For more information, go to our website:
We are meeting Hybrid in the DUUC Learning Center and on Zoom.
Meeting ID: 885 7102 1238
Passcode: 512058
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On January 15th at noon, Science Sunday will have a free-form discussion about “Awe, Wonder, and Science”. If you are present at DUUC for the discussion, your thoughts and comments will be much appreciated. If you watch this forum on line, we will monitor the youtube channel and respond to your insightful comments. Please come for what promises to be an enlightening probe into the powers and limitations that the practice of Scientific Thought bring to our lives!
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Sunday Flowers Needed
Celebrate a person or event by providing flowers for a Sunday service. Flowers are needed throughout the church year. You may request to have Sunday Flowers order a $35 standard arrangement for you from Phillip’s Flowers. Or, if you are planning to attend the service in person, you may choose to bring in your own arrangement from your garden or favorite flower shop. The arrangement should be brought to the sanctuary by 10:20 a.m. Your dedication will be printed in the email with the link to the on-line version of the Order of Service as well as in the printed Order of Service. The flowers are yours to take home after the service. If you are not attending service, you may pick up your flowers either on Sunday 11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m., or contact Sheri, office@dupageuuchurch.org or (630) 505-9408, to make arrangements for a contactless pick-up during office hours. Remember, masks are required to enter the church. Payment may be made by sending a check made out to DUUC for $35 to the church office (write “flowers” on the memo line), through the DUUC Payment Portal (select “other” under donation, and write in “flowers”), or VANCO (select “flowers fund”). Contact Kristen Tang at flowers@dupageuuchurch.org or (630) 305-7771 for more information and/or to request a date. Thank you!
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The deadline for submissions for the FEBRUARY newsletter is MONDAY, January 23, 2023 @ 9am. Please email your submissions to Sheri at office@dupageuuchurch.org. |
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Click HERE to read the latest COVID protocols at
DuPage UU Church.
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In the Wider Unitarian Universalist World |
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Unitarian Men's Retreat
Friday, January 27 to Sunday, January 29, 2023
Join other UU men to explore Turning Points In Our Lives. Cabrini Retreat Center, 9430 Golf Road, Des Plaines 60016.
Cost of $200 includes private room for two nights, three meals Saturday and breakfast Sunday, plus pizza party on Friday night.
Scholarships available. We welcome all who identify as male. Our goal is to encourage each other to share, learn and support each other in looking into the meaning of our lives. Men from Unity Temple, UU Church of Evanston, and Countryside UU are already participating.
Click HERE for the flyer, signup sheet and more information.
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Registration is now open! Pease click here to register.
General Assembly is the annual gathering of Unitarian Universalists, where we conduct business of the Association, explore the theological underpinnings of our faith, and lean fully into our mission and principles. Please join us Wednesday, June 21 through Sunday, June 25, 2023 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and/or online for this 5-day immersive experience where we participate in inspirational worship services and informative workshops, reconvene with friends and colleagues, and explore our bustling exhibit hall. GA is an unforgettable experience for the thousands of UUs who attend. Meet us online or in Pittsburgh and you’ll leave with renewed energy and innovative ideas to share with your congregation and community-at-large!
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Please consider making a donation to support
DuPage UU Church and all of its programs ~
thank you!
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DuPage UU Church
630-505-9408
office@dupageuuchurch.org
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See what's happening on our social sites: |
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