First Unitarian Church of Chicago

Welcome to our Summer Sermon Series! Every week this summer we are happy to invite a preacher from the Chicago area and beyond to our pulpit. This week we welcome Rev. Darrick Jackson preaching his sermon "Yes, And."

Improvisation is more than a source of entertainment. It can be a way of being in the world, a practice of living mindfully. This service will explore ways to embody an improv spirituality.

The Rev. Darrick Jackson is the Director of Ministries for Lifelong Learning of UU Ministers Association and an Affiliated Community Minister with Second Unitarian Church. He is one of the authors in the book “Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity and Power in Ministry.” Darrick is active in DRUUMM (the UU ministry for people of color). He is also the treasurer and Workshop Leader for Healing Moments (a ministry for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s). In his free time, Darrick likes to knit and to be involved in theatre. He is married to James Olson, a United Church of Christ minister and lives with their two cats, Merlin and Morgana.

Welcome to our Summer Sermon Series! Every week this summer we are happy to invite a preacher from the Chicago area and beyond to our pulpit. This week we welcome the Rev. Chip Roush preaching his sermon "Our Tower of Babel" -- how some other interpretations of the biblical "Tower of Babel" story might guide us in these interesting times.

The Rev. Chip Roush serves the First Unitarian Church of South Bend. He is the co-author (with Leslie Takahashi and Leon Spencer) of "The Arc of the Universe is Long: Unitarian Universalists, Anti-Racism, and the Journey from Calgary." He has chaired the General Assembly Planning Committee, and participated in the UUA Moderator Search Committee. He is a "Beloved Conversations" Retreat Leader, and the Chair of the LGBTQ Center Board in South Bend. He uses he/they pronouns.

During the course of the pandemic, we have given great thought and care to what businesses are essential to the core functions of our society. Now, as more businesses open up, each day we must consider what is "essential" to us given the risks. This week, we have lost over 120,000 American lives lost to COVID. This month, we have witnessed uprisings for racial justice in the wake of even more police brutality and murders. The scope of death and suffering is vast and we are surrounded by it right now. Yet, it's this very heartbreak that might show us the most essential business of all.

Our annual flower ceremony service is transformed by quarantine. Our service unfolds against an uprising across the nation demanding justice, demanding that the reality of America at last live up to the dream of America. The Unitarian who created the flower ceremony, Norberk Capek, was murdered in Dachau by Nazis for his commitment to liberty and liberation. This year, the flowers growing around the city and around the country are signs of protest, of love, and of justice.

In the face of more tragedy and violence against Black lives, we as Unitarian Universalists are called to act. In the face of systemic oppression, sharing our stories as a community allow us to be supported in our work against injustice. This Sunday we experience how listening and sharing our stories can foster bravery, resilience, and hope in times such as these with the stories of First U members. Schug Ministry Intern Monica Kling-Garcia leads the service. We're delighted to welcome members Jean Hester, Barbara Randolph, Jim Proctor, Sophia Watson, Sarah Phillips, and Amos Biggers to share their stories.

A service in response to the murder of George Floyd, and the widening protest of state violence against people of color. Co-ministers Rev. David and Rev. Teri Schwartz.

Rev. David preaches on Breakfast, Legos, and Reinforced Concrete: How do we stay solidly grounded as people when the world feels volatile and uncertain? A service to tend to our foundations -- paying attention to and strengthening the spiritual grounding of our living.

Rev. David and Rev. Teri offer this chalice lighting for the May 17th Commencement at Meadville Lombard Theological School. For many decades, this church has hosted the commencement in person. This year, for the first time, Meadville held a virtual commencement.

Our minds can be like the water of a pond--sometimes clear, and sometimes cloudy with the mud and muck from the pond bottom. There has been much in our world and lives that continues to unsettle the mud. Practices of mindfulness can bring us a bit more clarity in our interior landscape. When our minds are less clouded, we can then see our world more clearly, if even by a bit.

Schug Ministerial Intern Monica Kling-Garcia at our April 26th Sunday Service.  Social Distancing in this time has forced us to find connection in new "virtual" ways. Not being able to be physically together with our people as we once were begs the question - what does it truly mean to be in community? Being physically distant highlights what we have known all along: the importance of caring for each other and letting ourselves be cared for. Join us this Sunday as we explore this idea of being an interconnected and caring community, even when we are apart.