This week your Settled Minister Search Team had a meeting with the two facilitators for this weekend’s Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop; we’re very excited about the workshop and hope that it will help us as well as the many church members and friends who signed up to broaden our understanding of what a successful minister for us can be.

Once the workshop is complete the Search Team will go into a state of relative seclusion as we put the finishing touches on our “Congregational Record”, the document we will present to potential ministers as our introduction. We will be synthesizing all of the great feedback we received from the survey earlier this fall, as well as the cottage meetings and focus groups that we held. The goal will be to give prospective ministers honest insight into our church – its many and wonderful strengths, but also those areas where we might need some help or clarity. Though we have heard from many congregants, it is not too late for your thoughts to become part of the Congregational Record; you can send us your thoughts, hopes, or worries through the end of the month. We will happily take your input at any time, of course, and use it to guide us as we search for a candidate. Please let us know what you’re thinking at search@uucuc.org.

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 17, 2022, the COVID-19 transmission level in Champaign County is LOW. 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.

This “round table” style prayer service will consist of a handful of poems, readings, familiar hymns sung a cappella, and some UU prayers of gratitude and abundance. If you’re looking for a way to mark the day together with community, we hope you’ll join us. Corn muffins with honey, hot coffee, and cold cider will be provided, but if you have a cornbread recipe of your own you’d like to share, feel free to bring it along! No need to sign up in advance.

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, November 13, 2022.

From Sam Beshers: Joy for the visit from my cousin Hugh this weekend, who came from Washington DC to see what life is like in the Midwest.

From Erik Chapman: My grandfather passed away this week at the age of 98. A WWII veteran, he did it his way 'till the end. Please keep positive thoughts of Dale Chapman and family.

From Marsha Clinard: Our grandson, Wade Schacht, is again the Area Golfer of the Year, and is featured in this morning’s News Gazette. He has been golfer of the year for three years, as well as State champion. We are so very proud of our boy.

From Priscilla Kron: Last month, Jerry and I learned that I have breast cancer. Treatment will begin with surgery in a couple of weeks. We're optimistic that all will go well.

From Julie Laut: Thank you to the team at UUCUC, including Penne, Tom, and Pat, for transitioning the little free pantry from my home to the church this week. It has been a joy to maintain this project over the last 2 1/2 years, but with changes in my life, it was time to hand it over. As always, I could count on UUCUC to help! I am grateful that this heavily utilized resource will remain in the downtown Urbana area.

From Pat McClard: Joy for the 16 nominations we have for next year's shared offering. Voting this afternoon at 1pm!

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

(she/her)

(she/they)

(she/her)

Sunday REE Coordinator sundayree@uucuc.org

(he/him)

Director of Business Administration admin@uucuc.org

(she/her)

(she/her)

(they/them)

(she/they)