7:00 - 9:00pm
Doors open at 6:30
$10 admission at the door

The evening will be divided into 2 sets: the first will be comprised of members of 2U and the 2nd will be Brett Rowe's band,  HiJazz (middle eastern latin jazz). Two of the songs being performed were written by 2U members.

HiJazz  -- traditional Middle-Eastern melodies; Arabic, Armenian, and Turkish, blended with modern Latin jazz and instrumentation.  Arrangements are performed by the six members of HiJazz: Kinan Abou Afash, cello and oud; Robert Artinian, clarinet and sax; Brett Rowe, piano; Patrick William, bass; Heitor Garcia, drums; Omar Al Musfi, percussion.

Lakeview Pantry is thrilled to partner with Second Unitarian Church in an effort to raise much needed food resources to support our agency's mission. Thank you so much for your service in this event.  We hope to continue partnering with Second Unitarian in the future to eliminate poverty in the Lakeview community.

If you are interested in volunteering, please select from the following dates:

Sunday April 5th: Bag Distribution to Neighborhood
Monday April 6th - Friday April 10th: LVP Van Shifts for Drop off
Saturday April 11th: Bag Pickup
Sunday April 12th: Food Drop off at Second Unitarian Church

Let us know when you can help! Contact Lisa Todd at 773-549-0260, ext 11 or secondunitarian@att.net.

THANK YOU to those who assembled bags on March 29.  Thirty-one people turned out to help!

We want to hear from you!

This year we've been talking about changing our church covenant to better reflect what love does in our lives.  Our church covenant is what guides us as a church.  It is highlighted in the teaching from the pulpit and we build skills in living our covenant in our small groups.  All of our ministries and programming are aimed at supporting us as we grow in our ability to live out the covenant in our daily lives.  "We covenant to build a community that challenges us to grow and empowers us to honor the truth within ourselves.  We will be generous in our gifts and honest in our communication, holding faithful to a love that embraces both diversity and conflict.  Called by our living tradition we will nurture spirituality within a vision of the eternal, living out our inner convictions through struggles for justice and acts of compassion."  This is the way our covenant reads today.

Last summer Rev. Owen-O'Quill confessed she believes love can do more than "embraces both diversity and conflict" and suggested we change the phrase to read: "embraces diversity and transforms conflict."  For her, this captures the larger sense of what love can do.  Love can unite us in common purpose.  When love is present in a conflict forgiveness is possible, understanding and compassion can enter the picture, and we can get one step closer to reconciliation.  

As we prepare for our annual meeting, we want to know what you think.  Do you support the change?  Do you want to keep the words as is?  We look forward to hearing from you and we thank you for helping us figure out the next step in the process. 
 
In faith,
Matthew Weinstock, Board Chair
Rev. Jennifer Owen-O'Quill
and your Board of Trustees
 
Which option do you prefer?

Thursday April 9th, 6:00 p.m. at a members home near the church. Requested donation: $5 per person, $10 per family.  Space is limited. RSVP to Gabrielle Parra at faithdev_2u@att.net.

 

Volunteers meet at church between 5 and 5:30pm to cook. The Night Ministry staff will meet you at the church at 7pm to talk about the goals of the Youth Outreach Team, youth homelessness, and the plan for the evening. Together, you'll head over to the distribution point (near the corner of Belmont and Halsted just a few blocks from the church) to serve the meal until a little after 10:30pm. Coming for just part of that time is fine.  For more information, visit our website.

Dates to serve in April: Thursday, April 9 and Thursday April 30.

Friday April 10, 6:00 PM

Bring your food for the Lakeview Pantry.  Bring your friends.  Bring a dish to share.  On Sunday, April 12 we will celebrate Easter with the culmination of our food drive for the Lakeview Pantry.  After the services we will have volunteers loading up the donated food and driving to deliver the food to the Pantry (1-3pm).  We will have a community potluck dinner at 5pm at the church.  We hope that all the volunteers will be able to celebrate our success with good fellowship and great food.  You are welcome to stay at the church, relax and play games while we wait for dinner to be ready.   Please RSVP to Lisa Todd, secondunitarian@att.net if you plan to attend and what you will bring.

 

a free seminar series

Sundays 1:00-2:00pm

April 19: Making your dollars work better
April 26: Staying on budget
May 3: Scaling back
May 10: Debt management

The Young Adult Ministry is geared towards people aged 18-35.  As a welcoming outreach ministry, we aim to bring young people together in fellowship and help everyone feel at home in our congregation.  We encourage spiritual formation, social justice work and involvement in the larger church community.  For more information, please contact the church at secondunitarian@att.net.

Upcoming Events:

April 19: Potluck Lunch & Worship.  The Young Adult Ministry holds a potluck lunch followed by a worship service one Sunday a month from 12:30-2:30 pm in the Loft.  This is a great way get to know each other on a deeper level by engaging in meaningful conversations and sharing a community meal.  Our next Potluck Lunch & Worship is on the topic of world hunger. Please note, this is a date change to the THIRD Sunday for April.

Saturday April 25, 8:45am - 1:00pm, lunch provided

Come help us vision the next generation of intergenerational worship at Second Unitarian Church.  This visioning, goal-setting workshop is an all church event, so please join us.

The workshop will be led by Gabrielle Parra, Director of Faith Development, and Katie Norris, Intern Minister.

Please RSVP to Gabrielle Parra at 773-549-0260, ext. 12 or faithdev_2u@att.net.

Rev. Rudra Dundzila
 
I have been invited to participate in the Illinois equal marriage/civil union legislative action coordinating task force, led by Rep. Greg Harris. The group is composed of leaders from organizations lobbying for equal marriage/civil unions in Illinois. I was recognized for my leadership of the Illinois Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry, founded by Rev. Jennifer Owen-O'Quill. The coalition has 75 clergy and congregations statewide in support of same-sex marriage, with an additional network of 200 BGLT-friendly congregations.
 
April will be lobbying month for the Civil Unions bill. Efforts are focused on select key districts across the state. The bill is currently waiting for a vote in the state legislature. 2U is not in one of these areas: our representatives and senators support the bill.
 
April 4th will be Civil Unions Action Day. There will be political action training, calling, and canvassing initiatives at several locations statewide, including at the Center on Halsted. April 11 & 18 will be canvassing days. Please contact Caroline Staerk of Equality Illinois (773-477-7173; cstaerk@eqil.org) if you want to participate.
 
April 29 will be lobby day in Springfield.
 
Congregations in the key districts are asked to participate with petition/post card/letter writing drives; personal phone calls to legislators, and visits to their legislators in person.
 
The message is very, very simple, "AS A PERSON OF FAITH, please vote yes on Civil Unions." This counters the rhetoric of the religious right. By the way, the Catholic and Mormon churches are mounting state-wide campaigns against Civil Unions.
 
We need your help. We need volunteers for the next month or two to reach out to select congregations and help them with their lobbying efforts. Expect a 2-4 hour per week commitment through the month. Please contact me to help out: rdundzila@uuma.org, 773-593-7500. THANK YOU!

Register April 12, 19, 26 at church, or online.

The Spring Small Groups will meet weekly for 8 weeks, May 1 - June 30.  For more information about Small Group Ministry, please contact Lisa Todd at 773-549-0260, ext. 11 or secondunitarian@att.net, or visit our website.

We are very excited to announce the launching of a Families with Children Small Group Ministry. We get so little time to spend with our families in this fast paced, busy society. Second Unitarian Church wants to create a space for your family to be able to spend quality time together talking about what is most important to you.

In this small group, families will be taking time to talk about how they want to live in relationship with each other and the larger world around them. Through age appropriate activities for all ages we will be exploring our family values. A typical meeting will look like this: first the families will all gather together for food and fellowship, then they will have some time for conversation, next comes individual family activity time (we will be journaling, painting, making pictures and much more) and then everyone will come back together to share with the group what they feel comfortable sharing.

This is a whole family activity where the whole household must be present. Why? Because we will be talking about what you all value the most and we want the whole family to be able to be a part of learning about each other, deciding how they want to live in the world, and coming closer together.

The small group will meet for four weeks in a row on Sunday May 31, Sunday June 7, Sunday June 14, and Saturday June 20 in Loft from 12pm - 2 pm which includes lunch/fellowship time. Please note that our last meeting is on Saturday instead of Sunday like the first three sessions. Questions? Please contact Gabrielle Parra, Director of Faith Development at faithdev_2u@att.net or Lisa Todd, Membership Coordinator at secondunitarian@att.net. Sign up at church April 12, 19, 26 or on our website.  Space is limited. We look forward to entering into this new ministry with you and your family.