We are celebrating our freedom and right to be who we are and our mission to celebrate diversity. Join us Sunday morning, June 15th at Woodstock Pride Fest. We will meet next to the Tree of Life UU float as we line up for the parade for a short but meaningful service to remind us that … Continue reading Freedom to Celebrate
Memorial Day was created originally to honor Union soldiers killed during the Civil War. The observance was eventually expanded to include all U.S. soldiers who have died in service. Rabbi Gordon will speak about what is missing, who is missing in this observance. Rabbi Maralee Gordon serves McHenry County Jewish Congregation when she is not … Continue reading What We Get Wrong About Memorial Day
If you missed this service, you can watch the entire General Assembly version here. We are gathering for worship online to create building access for our TOL housemates, the McHenry County Jewish Congregation. While we’ll be meeting from our homes, we will still celebrate the willingness of our faith and our community to become the … Continue reading Ever Willing: Becoming the People Our World Needs
Our Sunday worship service will include our annual celebration of Flower Communion, a practice in Unitarian Universalist Churches throughout the world, to embrace the beauty in our diversity and uniqueness. As part of the ceremony, each person is invited to bring a flower with them, whether it is a wildflower from a field, a flower … Continue reading Inspired Gifts: A Celebration of Flower Communion and of our Community
Letting go doesn’t mean relying on the idea that life will just get better. Letting go requires deep insight into universal truths, and learning to keep those at the front of our understanding. Join us as Bhante Sujatha recounts tales from his own life experiences, and how these hard-won lessons when viewed with mindful awareness … Continue reading The Journey to Letting Go
Join Rev Allison Farnum and Keith Talley of UUPMI (Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois) as they invite us to organize ourselves to be a presence to those in IL jails and prisons, remembering our power as a humanizing, caring presence. Keith Talley (he/him/his) is the Prisoner Solidarity Specialist at the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry … Continue reading Refusing to Abandon
In a confluence of holidays and holy days, April 2025 brings together Passover (April 12-April 20) Easter (April 20) and Earth Day (April 22) Each of these celebrations carry within them life lessons and messages of renewal and restoration, collective liberation and freedom, and of deep, abiding love. Join our Prairie Circle and Tree of … Continue reading This Ancient Love: A Celebration of Earthrise and Eastertide
An old and very beautiful Irish proverb states, “It is in the shelter of each other that people live.” In this day and age, how is that we lie in the shelter of each other? As we face the challenges of our time, it can be so easy to lose sight of our connection and … Continue reading In the Shelter of Each Other
Does it matter where you spend your time? Are we impacted by the ways we engage with ourselves and our world? Taking care of the earth, our church community, and one another is one of the joys and responsibilities of living. How we wrestle to ensure our beliefs are lived out in our deep connection … Continue reading Why Church, Why Liberal?
For some, the word virtue sounds a little too much like Protestant Puritanism – dour and strict. Rather, let’s consider a virtue as something more like a personal asset, a state of mind, an outlook and attitude where practicing a virtue is a special sort of ‘power’ enabling us to experience a deeper level of … Continue reading Happiness Gardening
