Come, Speak, Retrieve a Photo: Pet Celebration

Calling all pet-lovers! The Worship Committee service on June 22^nd titled “Celebration of Pets” is centered on honoring the furry (or scaly!) friends in our lives. We’re looking for speakers to say a few words (in five minutes or less) about what their pet has taught them or a gift their pet has given them.

If you’re interested, please e-mail Amanda Ramey at amanda.m.ramey@gmail.com by Wednesday, June 11th. Only the first five volunteers will get to speak. We will also decorate the table with photos of pets, so bring your favorite pic that morning!

RE at UUCUC Presents... Dr. Seuss Camp!

Every day there is FUN: Stories, crafts, exercise, journal time, experiment time, and cool down time! The Dr. Seuss stories are fun and exciting. They also teach us something about our environment and we will be personally reacting to the lesson taught. We will play hard and cool down. Writing in our journals every day will help us remember what we learned and give us an opportunity to look at each day through our own private eyes. There will be times for group sharing as we become Dr. Seuss fans and environmental specialists. We will play games and make crafts that recall the theme of each day. It will be week of fun, learning and more!

Camp will be held at the church from 9 a.m. to noon daily June 23rd through June 27th. The deadline for registration is Friday, June 13th and space is limited to 20 students. If you are interested in securing your child's spot in camp, please access the registration by clicking here or contact Religious Education Director Cindy Wakeland at re-director@uucuc.org. Hope to see you there!

Summer Service Reminder

Please remember the church has transitioned to its summer schedule featuring one Sunday service at 10:00 a.m. This schedule will continue throughout August 31^st. Starting on June 15^th, service will be held in Fellowship Hall, which is air conditioned. If you have additional questions, please contact the Office Administrator at admin@uucuc.org. Thank you.

UNITER Dog Days of Summer Schedule

There is just one more regularly scheduled Uniter publication to go before the church enters its summer schedule. After the next Uniter is published on May 28^th, the newsletter switches to a three-week schedule instead of its usual two. This means the next Uniter will include all announcements and events from May 28^th through June 18^th. Please keep this in mind as you plan your submissions.

As a reminder, the next deadline for Uniter submissions is Thursday, May 22^nd.

Here are the dates for Uniter publications through summer:

• May 28 (switch to summer schedule)
• June 18
• July 9
• July 30
• August 20
• September 3 (return to regular schedule)

Mulch Ado About Nothing

The Playground mUUlching event will take place on Saturday, June 14^th. Able-bodied helpers will make it a quick and fun event. Proposed starting time is 9:00 a.m., but help for any period of time that morning will be welcome! Our Mr. mUUlch is Jared Lofrano, so contact him at jared.lofrano@gmail.com to offer your services so he knows how many volunteers to expect. 

Summer Service Questionnaire

It’s time to plan our eight lay-led services that will be held this summer during July and August. Included in this week’s Order of Service is a slip you may use to have a say in the planning process. The questionnaire is available as a Word Doc under the "Quick Links" on the home page of the church’s web site. Feel free to type in your responses and e-mail the form as an attachment to Beth Cobb at bethac54@comcast.net. If you'd rather print it and drop it off at the Sunday service, access a PDF copy here. If you do not like filling out questionnaires, please feel free to contact Beth in another way.

Thanks to CROP Hunger Walk Participants

The C-U CROP Hunger Walk on April 6^th was kind of amazing in that it was the first beautiful, warm, sunny day of the year, so it was perfect for the walk. Although we had about half as many walkers as last year, we brought in more than two-thirds as much in donations. The walkers, in alphabetical order, were: Vevi Brannon, Nancy Dietrich, Sandy Hannum, Hassinger /Davis family, Herzog family, Lynn Kelly, Lei Lv, Patricia Molnar, Karen Retzer, Lisa Sechler, Pat Shaw, and Pablo Torres.

Our total in donations was $2,235, which was sixth highest of all groups. We can be pleased with that! Also, our amount will be enhanced by matching funds from the Feinstein Foundation, for which we are most grateful. Thank you to all who donated in support of this effort!

The total for the entire event was $27,185, not including the matching funds. As you may recall, 75% of the funds will be sent overseas to be used for projects such as clean water systems and seeds. The remaining 25% will be used locally for the Daily Bead Soup Kitchen, the Eastern Illinois Food Bank, The TIMES Center, and the Wesley Evening Food Pantry.

– Sandy Hannum

New Two-Year Initiative

Immigrant Justice and Assistance is the theme of our new church-wide social action initiative for the next two years. There are many things we can all do to help, including a variety of activities already going on at ECIRMAC, right here in our church building. You can attend an English conversation group for practicing language skills, assist with DACA training and drivers’ license application, plan events for immigrant justice month with an interfaith alliance group, or collect donations of goods for ECIRMAC distribution to new immigrants. Or perhaps you want to assist with activities at the Rantoul Multicultural Center. These are only a few ideas. The opportunities are endless!

Very soon a task force will be formed to guide the work of the initiative. Everyone in the congregation can contribute suggestions for activities and participate in large or small ways. We certainly hope you will.

We really appreciate all the enthusiasm that has been shown for the concept of the two-year initiative. Several people put in quite a bit of work on proposals, and I know everyone thought about these a great deal before voting. The final vote was incredibly difficult because both immigrant justice and prison justice are so important and urgent. There is a good deal of overlap in these two areas, and in any case, all good works by the Anti-Racism Chalice Circle and others continue! As Pat Nolan pointed out, nobody should live in fear of a knock on the door in the middle of the night.

– Sandy Hannum

From Your Membership Coordinator

Hello! Sam Shore, your Membership Coordinator, here. I've been employed at the church for four months now and one thing I'd like to do before any more time slips by is... get to know each of you a little bit better!

It’s the time of year when the church invites friends and members to provide their feedback. The upcoming Annual Meeting will be an opportunity for voting members to meet the candidates for various elected positions, and the congregation will decide which two-year Social Action initiative to undertake.

In addition to these items, I request that you take a look at the survey included as an insert in this week's Uniter or available on the web here. This is a project of mine to aid in the process of connecting members with each other and opportunities for engagement in the church.

I hope you’ll find “An Interview with yoUU” helpful and will send your responses to me as soon as possible. I’m enjoying reading the few returned already and am excited for the opportunity to hear from more of you.

“A Day at Stateville” Presentation

The Changing Minds Campaign presents “A Day at Stateville.” This play was written by Stateville Correctional Center prisoners and is performed by former Stateville prisoners.

Learn what’s wrong with Illinois’s broken prison system and how it can be fixed. Talk with the men who have been there.

This event will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 9^th in the Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall. Admission is free, and refreshments will be provided. Everyone is welcome!

This event is co-sponsored by: Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign, U-C Friends Meeting, Education Justice Project, C-U Citizens for Peace and Justice, Channing-Murray Foundation, First Mennonite Church, and the Central Illinois Jobs with Justice.

May’s Shared Offering: Children’s Advocacy Center

The Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) is the first point of contact for children and youth who have been sexually abused. We help the child, and their non-offending parent, begin to heal while working to hold offenders accountable. We do this by providing a comfortable setting for the initial law enforcement interview, by providing counseling and case management services to the family for as long as they need us, and by coordinating the multidisciplinary investigation.

Each year, over 200 child victims are interviewed at the CAC regarding allegations of sexual or severe physical abuse. For the child, on what is often the worst day of their young lives, the CAC provides understanding, a promise to listen and believe, and help as they take the first steps towards healing.