Winter Solstice

Each year at our church, we honor earth-centered traditions as we celebrate the Winter solstice, the longest night of the year, December 21st.   We celebrate the stillness of the season and the hope of the return of the light.  Now darkness triumphs; and yet, gives way and changes into light. We are awake in the dark.  We call the sun from the womb of the night.  As we celebrate the solstice, we join across time and space all the festivals of light emerging from the dark. May all the yule fires, the Hanukkah candles, the Christmas lights – and all the lights we are about to kindle on the Winter solstice – not only brighten the darkness of winter but also brighten the darkness of our hearts.  May all these lights – set ablaze by people of good will across the globe – assure that spring will follow winter, hope will triumph over despair, peace will eclipse war, and love will outlast hate.

 

 

Consider the words of Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous.

 

Actually, who are you not to be?

 

You are a child of the Universe.

You playing small doesn't serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to manifest the glory of creation that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone!

 

And as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

 

As we are liberated from our own fears,

our presence automatically liberates others!

Unitarian Universalists find meaning in the traditions that honor the interconnected web of which we are a part.  We acknowledge nature's role in our beginnings and endings, and connect through voice, movement, quiet contemplation, readings, and sharing our hopes for the coming return of the light.  All ages attend this moving service, and enjoy the chanting and music performed by members.  After the service, we feast! Wassail and cookies help warm our hearts as we gather in joy and welcome our new season of light.

Celebration of Light! Winter Solstice 2013

Each year at our church, we honor earth-centered traditions as we celebrate the Winter solstice, the longest night of the year, December 21st.   We celebrate the stillness of the season and the hope of the return of the light.  Now darkness triumphs; and yet, gives way and changes into light. We are awake in the dark.  We call the sun from the womb of the night.  As we celebrate the solstice we join across time and space all the festivals of light emerging from the dark. May all the yule fires, the Hanukkah candles, the Christmas lights – and all the lights we are about to kindle on the Winter solstice – not only brighten the darkness of winter but also brighten the darkness of our hearts.  May all these lights – set ablaze by people of good will across the globe – assure that spring will follow winter, hope will triumph over despair, peace will eclipse war, and love will outlast hate.

photo courtesy stockfreeimages.com

Consider the words of Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of the Universe.

You’re playing small doesn't serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking

So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to manifest

The glory of creation that is within us

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone!

And as we let our own light shine,

We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same

As we are liberated from our own fears,

Our presence automatically liberates others!

  

Unitarian Universalists find meaning in the traditions that honor the interconnected web of which we are a part.  We acknowledge nature's role in our beginnings and endings, and connect through voice, movement, quiet contemplation, readings, and sharing our hopes for the coming return of the light.  All ages attend this moving service, and enjoy the chanting and music performed by members.  After the service, we feast! Wassail and cookies help warm our hearts as we gather in joy and welcome our new season of light.

Mural

       Last week, my children and I spread out our project: a giant mural -- one representing the state of Illinois.  For weeks, we have focused a portion of our learning time to understanding the roots and history of Illinois, along with the requisite state flower, tree, animal, and various sports teams.  The three of us sat side by side, exchanging colored pencils as we worked to complete what felt like an endless task: six feet of paper waiting to be filled in with color and given life.  

        On November 20th 2013, pen and paper were used to give new life and color to the state of Illinois.  At 3:30pm, Illinois State Governor Pat Quinn signed Senate Bill 10 -- the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.  With the swipe of his pen, Governor Quinn put into law the marriage equality many congregants of the DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church and our allies have been fighting for.   In our 2005 Statement of Conscience (our public position statement), we proclaimed that civil marriage between any two consenting adults is a civil right.  Since that time (and even before), we have worked as individuals, as a church, and as a community to strive for justice and equality for our LGBTQ family.

You can read about some of our journey here: and here.

You can view the signing and read more about the movement here:  equality.illinois.gov.

       We are the 16th state to recognize marriage equality. A celebration is in order -- but there is more work to be done.  The mural of our country still needs us, side by side working together to make the picture complete.

       To join us as we move forward, please feel free to visit our congregation any Sunday at 

9:30 or 11:15 or contact our social justice committee members.  

     Today my children and I will work to finish our Illinois state mural.  We will add one new image to our mural and celebrate a new chapter in Illinois history.

Peace, love, and happy coloring! 

Shelly -- congregant at DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church

Sanctuary of Ash

by Pat Clancy

Nodding Onion - Wildflowers on property of DuPage UU Church
Photo by Pat Clancy

     The long-planned building of a new sanctuary at DuPage UU church posed a dilemma for our congregation.  We desperately needed the space and longed for an architecturally inspiring worship space; but a we proceeded with the plans, it became increasingly clear that to achieve this goal meant the sacrifice of our beloved wood lot where children ran along the paths and teenagers gathered in their teepee.  A wildflower garden in memory of Marge Lobik nestled at the bottom of a small slope amid the trees with their own under-story of native plants.  We were all saddened at the prospect of losing this treasure we had enjoyed for many years.  

Removal of Green Ash Trees
Photo by Steve Cooper

We desperately needed and longed for an architecturally inspiring worship space; but to achieve this goal meant the sacrifice of our beloved wood lot where children ran along the paths and teenagers gathered in their teepee.  

     

      An inventory was performed to assess what we had and what could be saved.  The results showed that 70 of our trees were green ash, which coincidentally were under threat from the Emerald Ash Borer making its hungry way across the Midwest.  The Morton Arboretum held an exhibit of furniture and sculpture made from ash wood and instituted a program to assist property owners in the salvaging of this valuable lumber.  ­­­This inspired our Green Sanctuary committee to investigate the possibility of incorporating our own ash trees in the new building.  The architect, Bill Sturm, was consulted and was agreeable to working this into the design – perhaps a wall, perhaps a screen, but something.­­­­­

     As the time came to clear the lot, the committee got serious and took action.  With assistance from Arboretum staff, we researched local millers and asked for a visit from Gary Carstens, who measured and marked the trees that were large enough (16” dbh) to be milled.  When felling the trees, Zrout Tree Services took special care and set those logs aside in the parking lot, where they were later milled on site by Carstens and then taken to his facility for drying and storage.

Milling Logs
Photo by Pat Clancy

Boards ready for storage
Photo by Pat Clancy

     All this took money, of course, so we had to think of a way­­­­­ to raise funds.  In the spring of 2011, when our former woods was a bare-looking field, we began to notice Virginia bluebells, then Trillium, then Mayapple and Solomon’s seal, followed by Celandine Poppy and Jack-in-the-Pulpit, each emerging on schedule as though still in the shelter of trees.  We realized we had to save them from the bulldozers and that this was the answer to our fundraiser.  Each Sunday during coffee hour, for about six weeks, we sold wildflowers dug by our committee members from the church grounds and raised $1000 toward the ash-to-lumber fund.

Photo by Steve Cooper

Our greatest pleasure, however, comes from the knowledge that a part of our beloved woods will live on in the new sanctuary, sharing our journey into the future.

    
 Now that we actually had the boards in storage and knew how much was there, the architect decided that it would be used as flooring on the dais in the new sanctuary.  Green Sanctuary committee paid the modest storage fee for a year until the building was completed and the flooring could be installed.   We are proud of our accomplishment, which took creativity and persistence.  Our greatest pleasure, however, comes from the knowledge that a part of our beloved woods will live on in the new sanctuary, sharing our journey into the future.

Green Sanctuary Committee Members:  Susan Camasta, Susan Birk, Pat Clancy, Bill Dawe, Kate LaGory, Ruth Schoenfel, Dik Claus.

Grow With Us--Members Share Experiences

We are DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church, a growing congregation of more than 300 members who honor many belief systems and are united by shared values of justice, freedom of thought, and peace between all.   Three members share what growing at our church means for them, and you.

Grow in Wisdom—

Karen Peck

     Fourteen years ago I came to DuPage UU Church with my family: my husband George, and our two boys, Andrew who at the time was a year old and Alec, who was five years old.  At five, Alec was asking questions—the kinds that make you squirm--oh, he knew where babies came from.  I'm talking about the "G" question. And, after a little girl told him about angels up in the sky in heaven, he told her that he was in an airplane and he was above the clouds and didn't see any angels up there. No surprise that he is studying physics at college now is it?

     My point is that I didn't have easy answers for questions about the BIG (capital B) stuff before coming to our church.  So,

George and I decided we had better get aligned with a religious community so that our children would have something to reject later in life.   

     Thankfully, that didn't happen, but from that first big G discussion, I realized I didn't have the language to solidify and share my beliefs about important questions and meaning in life.  I knew what I didn't believe, but had a hard time articulating what I did believe, what my moral and ethical stance was, or what I would do with it once I figured it out.  Our church provides us with an avenue for discussion, listening, learning, and action.  

     One of the first things we did—and this was before the wonderful classes we have now for new members—was attend an orientation-type gathering.  Some people you may know were in that group.  One has since become our DRE.  We started talking about our beliefs, what we thought we knew for sure, what our questions were.  In sharing and listening, you learn more about yourself.  That dialog helped me critically analyze what I believed and why.  Our orienteer, who was the late Ed Clark, was gentle, yet pointed in getting us to find our inner wisdom.  It was wonderful!  I had a guide, yet I was in charge of where to go! 

 Photo Credit: Roger Easley

     I decided I liked “growing my wisdom.”  Then I went to more classes, like Welcoming Congregation, and Spiritual Parenting with Bill La fountain, and talked, but listened more.  I went to sermons on Sunday.  I started teaching RE.  Nothing is more humbling than teaching RE and having a four year old ask you whether or not you think god is in rocks, and you realize you don't know how to answer that.   By the way, ours is a church where it is perfectly okay, and probably wise to say, "I don't know?  What do you think?"

     I have been attending the Spirit in Practice Workshops going on this winter.  They have been a place for learning, sharing, and growth that enrich not only our relationships, but our faith journeys. 

     You may find wisdom as you work beside others here at church and see a new perspective that rings true for you.  Committees, you ask?  Yes, really.  Committee work can be spiritual.  I have held positions on a number of committees and now sit on the Board of Trustees.  We have a lot of tasks to accomplish, but as you get more involved in the work of the church, you also get more involved in the faith of our religion, and in living our principles and beliefs. 

Committees aren't for everyone.  You can attend a forum, or perhaps host a forum; to teach something you have to really know it, and to share it you become wiser.  Or, you can offer to write for our blog or speak at a Sunday Service.

     Growth in wisdom in our church means we can view our lives, our beliefs, and our values from the perspective of reflection and choice.  Our growth in Wisdom comes from knowledge we acquire and experiences we share in our open and free search which allows us to enrich our spiritual lives.  We do so with the help and respect of others, and the safety to be ourselves.  Ultimately we first define, and then transform our wisdom and character and put our moral choices into action.  

     How grateful I am to grow in wisdom each week and each year in this wonderful community, with you. How grateful I am to find meaning with others that I, too, can encourage.  And how very, very grateful I am that my children have learned to think for themselves while gaining the wisdom to allow others to do the same.

Grow in Strength—

Jill Wallace & Zac Cooper

Jill:

My name is Jill Wallace and I have been coming to this church for 12 years and I’ve been a member for 10 years.

Zac:

And I am Zac Cooper, I have been coming to this church since I was three years old and have been a member for two years.

Jill:

The strength of any church community is its people. Without its people, a church dies. Now, people go to a church for different reasons. Some people go out of habit. Some go out of guilt. Some go out of moral responsibility.

My experience at this church is that people don’t “go” to church as much as “come” to church. People come to learn something. People come for stimulating conversation. People come to reflect and meditate. People come to take a stand, to march, and to declare. And, people come to feel.

Zac:

A church requires the young and the old, the ideas and the knowledge, the developing and the historical. To me what makes this church unique is its focus on people of all ages. The elders are as much of an important piece as its youth. It is amazing to me that I have found a home here where Jill’s voice is heard, Jean McCollum’s voice is heard, and my voice is heard. We are all heard because we all contribute. We contribute our time, our energy, our talents, our thoughts, our ideas, and our resources. We all have a voice.

Jill:

My experience here has been focused in youth programs and programming. I started facilitating high school youth group, I taught, I served on the Youth RE Committee, I sang in the choir and now I mentor, I host, and I attend various auction and committee activities, and serve as Vice President of Spirituality.

Photo Credit: Ruth Elliott

                                                          Zac and Jill              

Zac:

I grew up attending religious education classes. I currently participate in the high school youth group, Summer Assembly, Midwest Youth Leadership School, and Interfaith Service Training through the UUA with Eboo Patel’s Interfaith Youth Core. I am now a senior youth caucus leader at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly.

Jill:

Everyone’s experience is unique. Some people only attend the forum and some only the service. Some avoid both like the plague and choose to volunteer with the children. Some people’s attendance is dependent upon the weekly topic listed in the newsletter, whereas others come every Sunday to enjoy the music.

Photo Credit: Ruth Elliott
DuPage UU Church Choir

Zac:

Some come to participate in outreach work, to eat popcorn and enjoy a Friday Flick, or just to hang with friends. Some attend classes, support groups, or discuss books over coffee. Some come for the Art Show, to the Auction, to Chalice Circles, and on weeks when there are brownies for sale.

Jill:

Some purposely avoid all-ages services, which, if you ask me, is a huge mistake. The all-ages services are like watching Finding Nemo or The Incredibles, they may be aimed at kids, but are planned, written, and executed for adults.

Zac:

Whereas others specifically attend transition services, such as the Transition, Affirmation and Graduation service for high school juniors and seniors, the middle school Coming of Age service, New Member Inductions, and Dedication services.

Photo Credit: Ruth Elliott
Annie Doyle

                                     

Jill:

This is a healthy congregation.

Zac:

We have young and old. We think, we share, we care, and we evolve, as evidenced by our ability to revisit everything. We revisit our belief statements, our mission and vision statements, our Sunday morning rituals, and our own elevator speeches.

Jill:

Whatever your reason for attending is, each one of you personally, is the most important resource we have. Your time, your energy, your talents, your thoughts, your ideas and your resources are the most valuable thing you can contribute to this church. Please keep coming and please keep contributing.

Grow in Action—

Kat Gelder

     Good morning! My name is Kat Gelder, and I am going to tell you about one of my earliest memories of being a member at DUUC. Long, long ago--back in 2009.

It was late February or early March, and I was loving my new church family. I had found a community that affirmed my values  and welcomed my deeply spiritual Humanist beliefs. Not only that--I was having fun! People at my new church were cool to hang with! They played Scrabble and did Henna tattoos and talked about their time in the Peace Corps! I was pumped!

     So, things were great. And then one Sunday morning, I walked into church and saw this by the front door:

     I asked someone about it, and they told me that Cardboard City was a project to raise money for local groups that work to end homelessness. People—particularly youths--agreed to sleep outside in a sleeping bag and a cardboard box and to raise pledge money for doing so.

Of course, I was ecstatic. I loved that DUUC wasn’t afraid to have a big cardboard box sitting on their front lawn, that social action was that important to us, that we were encouraging our youth to become involved in the struggle for a better world.

Now, I love social action—I was a student leader of the Gay Straight Alliance in high school, and after college I taught in rural Arkansas with Teach for America. So I hear that my new church has this Cardboard City program? This is awesome, I thought. Of COURSE I would live in Cardboard city! YES!

     Later, I would remember how cold it got at night in March and I would think through this adventure more carefully. Oddly, though, I became more and more committed to it every time I told one of my friends what I was doing. “You’re going to sleep outside?” they exclaimed. “In March?” Every time, my “Yes!” became more resolutely cheerful.

     However, the experience of sleeping out in Cardboard City gave me a depth of reflection that I hadn’t achieved before. The night was cold and the ground was hard. I woke up to find myself covered in cold dew and aching in muscles I didn’t know I had. I was still glad I had slept out, but I was feeling it.

     I went inside to get some breakfast; the meal was simple, arranged cafeteria style like at the PADS homeless shelter. I watched a man helping his son, five years old, mix his oatmeal in a mug. The boy was stirring earnestly. He looked a little tired. All of a sudden, it was all too real. I was overcome by a terrifying awareness of how vulnerable we all are.  And not just me—my whole church family, the people I had come to love so much.

Since then, I have come to think of social action as a spiritual practice, like praying or meditating. Not just something taxing that I do for the sake of duty, but an intentional action that I perform regularly because it puts me in touch with the deeper truths of the world around me.

     What I love about our church is the many ways that we engage in social action as spiritual practice. We make sure that the coffee we drink comes from farms where workers earn fair wages. We choose to recycle and compost to help keep our Earth healthy. We stand in solidarity with people of all genders to declare that we all have a right to reproductive justice. When our church does these things, we are acting in a way that recognizes that life is full of both injustice AND hope for the future.

     

Photo Credit: Ruth ElliottKat Gelder (right) 
with husband Chris Brown

And what excites me most about our future is the commitment our church has made to becoming a PADS-ready facility. When we finish the basement portion of our new building, we will be able to house people in our community who need a safe, warm place to spend the night. And here is the message that our action will send to our community: We love you. And we cannot feel truly at peace while anyone in this community lives in need. Please, let us walk with you.

Text from speeches originally presented at Celebration Sunday,
March 10^th, 2013

Get Ready for The DUUC COFFEE SMACK DOWN!

Coffee, our final frontier. These are the voyages of the Dupage UU Church.. Its Saturday mission: to explore strange new brews, to seek out new blends, and new percolations, 
to boldly go where no coffee has gone before........

**cue music** 

ON SATURDAY, MAY 4th  

9:30am

AT DUUC 

there will be a 

Coffee

SMACKDOWN!

All are Welcome! 

We have a New Sanctuary!

We have New Water!

and soon we're going to have....

NEW COFFEE!!

Come to DUUC and for a mere $10 you can decide the bold (or mild, or in-between)  New Future of DUUC coffee!! (Organic Fair Trade Coffee, as always)Spend your morning in the most meaningful way --
Perfecting. The. NEW. Blend. Of. Coffee. That. We. Will. Boldly. Bring. Into. Our. New. Sanctuary! (Thank you William Shatner)

Questions? Brilliant insights? contact our "Bold Barista in Charge" Jill Wallace

It's so Easy Being Green

Peppers, Peppers! Get your Delicious Peppers here!

To eat, and what to eat: that is question

Whether 'tis nobler in the cart to suffer

The cost and charges of outrageous prices,

Or to take savings with a bunch of imports,

And by purchasing, eat them? To buy: to save;

Non local; and by saving to say we add

Our dependence and the thousand natural shocks

Cheap food is heir to, 'tis a consumption

Devoutly to be shunned. To buy, to chew;

To eat: perchance digest: ay, there's the rub;

Ye Gods! I'm an apple.

For in that cart of foods what fruit may come

When we have shuffled out this grocery store,

Must give us pause: there’s the respect

That makes calamity of such low prices;

For who could bear the costs from wages over time,

The oppressor’s wrong, the proud one’s taunting,

The pangs of despised poultry, the pig’s dismay,

The insolence of aisles and the insults

That the coupons make of thoughtful shoppers

When he himself might his ethics face

And bear his heart with burdens hear

The grunt and sweat under a weary life,

The undiscover’d country from whose bourn

The ill paid worker labours, puzzles the mind

And makes us rather eat the cheap ills we have

Than find the organics that we know not of

Thus Conscience could still make cowards of us all

Just what am I on about now? Food! Glorious Food! No, I will not do a Dickens parody (although I am tempted). I'm here to tell A Tale of Two Greenies. Okay, a tale of one Greenie, a really excellent, organic, sustainable and educational greenie,  namely the Green Earth Institute. 

We are very fortunate in North America, our dilemma isn't obtaining food, our dilemma is choosing food. 

And, there’s the rub.

Delicious Organic Tomatoes

So how do we choose? Do we get the 99 cents/pound tomatoes that have been grown thousands of miles away, sprayed with chemicals, harvested by poorly paid workers and transported in trucks, *big breath* OR do we put in the extra dollars to get locally grown, organic tomatoes? And, yes, that is a bias you're detecting, you've been warned, read on at your own risk.

An Appealing Eggplant

If you're still reading - excellent choice! - I'm going to assume you are leaning more to the organic, and locally grown food options, so I'm going to tell you about Naperville's own Green Earth Institute. 









Located at 10S404 Knock Knolls Road in Naperville, on The Conservation Foundation's McDonald Farm, the Green Earth Institute is in its 11th year of organic vegetable farming and educational programming for children and adults. It is a non-profit educational organization established in 2002 to promote environmental sustainability and nutritional health. The centrepiece of the organization is the organic vegetable farm that also serves as an outdoor classroom.

So, what can the Green Earth Institute do for you and your family? Let me 'splain... no, is too much, let me sum up....

It can:

• Supply your family with seasonal, organic, locally grown vegetables and herbs through community-supported agriculture, or CSA. In this program, participants purchase a share of the harvest and then pick up a box of freshly harvested vegetables weekly or biweekly at the farm in Naperville, or in Batavia, Lombard, Western Springs, or Winfield.
• Educate your children through nature discovery programs at the farm each summer. Elementary age children explore the farm and learn how to garden during week long summer camp sessions of Nature Rangers. 

• Educate your whole family with fun and educational adventures on Saturday mornings and Friday overnights. 
• Host school and Scout groups from the suburbs and the inner-city, providing tours of the farm and showing kids where food comes from and how it is grown - yes carrots do come from underground! 

but wait! there's more!

Green Earth Fair 

  Sunday, May 5th

Be Green in '13!! The annual Earth Day Celebration and Education Event is on the first Sunday in May, and can draw some 2,000 people! There are Speakers, Exhibits, Children's activities, Food, Music, Tours of the Farm, Culinary demonstrations, Plant sales and MORE!! Fun for the Entire Family!

WHAT - HOW - HOW - HOW - WHERE??

WHAT are these Fresh, Locally Grown, Certified Organic Vegetables and Herbs?

Beets, Bok Choi, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Celeriac, Chinese Cabbage, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Fennel, Garlic, Garlic Scapes, Hot Peppers, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leeks, Lettuce, Onions, Parsnips, Peas, Potatoes, Radicchio, Radishes, Rutabaga, Scallions, Spinach, Sweet Peppers, Swiss Chard, Summer squash, Tomatoes, Turnips, Watermelons (wait! that's a fruit!), Winter squash, Zucchini, and herbs, Basil, Cilantro, Parsley, Sage and Thyme!

I am a Handsome Cabbage

Need Recipes?  Click here!

HOW many for dinner?

One share is generally good for 2 veggie enthusiasts, or a family of 2 adults and 2 children. You can also purchase 1/2 a share, or split  a full share with a friend.

HOW much each week?

One share is about 3/4 bushel each week, which is about the same as 1 1/2 regular paper grocery bags. Typically there are about 10 different crops each week that change with the harvest.

HOT peppers!

HOW long is the harvest season?

The Main Season runs from June 18th - November 1st, about 20 weeks

Spring Shares run for 4 weeks from May 21st-June 1st 

Late Fall Shares run for 4 weeks from November 5th-27th.

Sign me up! Click here!

WHERE can I get more information?

Artsy Garlic

Green Earth Institute
10S404 Knoch Knolls Road
Naperville, IL 60565
630-664-5681

Email: CSA@GreenEarthInstitute.org  Website: www.GreenEarthInstitute.org
Blog: Green Earth Education
Facebook: Green Earth Institute 
Twitter: Green Earth Institute

Lettuce show you how!

Want to Help??

Shareholders and others are invited to visit the farm and help with farm work, such as planting, weeding, and harvesting. Bet you never thought you could do THAT in Naperville. Get connected with nature!! Sign up on our website.