On Sunday we continued our sermon series 'Share the Love' with Student Pastor Alexa inviting us to consider how spreading a good word can *actually* be good. Many times when we think about sharing our faith we imagine a history, themes and moments that don't feel liberating. But sharing and inviting should be liberating for all involved! Pastor Alexa encourages us to consider how sharing about our faith can embody good news as a way of enacting social change.

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We all need love... Love for ourselves, love for one another, and the love that comes for us & through us in God. But sometimes, it’s hard to find. It’s also hard to share! All this month we'll be exploring the love, joy, silliness & celebration that Jesus invites us to and ask how we can share it with the world. 

In worship, Pastor Emily explored how the Samaritan Woman who speaks with Jesus shares a liberating word with her community after hearing a new truth - and invites us to do the same.

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Candace Coleman is a black disabled woman from the South Side of Chicago. She works closely with disabled people affected by the justice system to organize around racial justice and disability. This includes anti-bullying, the school-to-prison pipeline, restorative justice, police brutality, and deinstitutionalization. She is dedicated to teaching disabled people of color to take pride in all aspects of their identities so they can become leaders themselves.

Full bio: https://www.accessliving.org/newsroom/teammember/candace-coleman/ 

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We hope you enjoy guest speakers, like Candace, who’ve committed to sharing throughout our sermon series ‘Disabled Jesus, Disabled Love.’ Disabled leaders, thinkers, and advocates have always been at the heart of Christian communities. In the US, one in four people live with a disability. Yet our faith has a long history of teaching about our bodies & needs in ways that hurt, limit and erase. Join us as we learn from and consider the experiences of disabled leaders in our communities to better understand how we might begin to create access for one another, build community, and live into the belovedness of our bodies

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We hope you enjoy guest preachers, like Edgwater member Sara, who’ve committed to sharing throughout our sermon series ‘Disabled Jesus, Disabled Love.’ Disabled leaders, thinkers, and advocates have always been at the heart of Christian communities. In the US, one in four people live with a disability. Yet our faith has a long history of teaching about our bodies & needs in ways that hurt, limit and erase. Join us as we learn from and consider the experiences of disabled leaders in our communities to better understand how we might begin to create access for one another, build community, and live into the belovedness of our bodies

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CONTENT WARNING: mature language is used. A script of Sara’s testimony is below.

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Water into Wine, by Sara Miller

It’s buried deep in my DNA, so deep no one knows where,

Less like sunken treasure and more like the loch ness monster 

Every morning I wake to learn I’ve lost in an altercation with my sheets

The pain is excruciating 

As my joints slide and creek

A body that's held together by dollar store white glue

Every thought trudges through jello

Only for words to get lost in the fog

My heart murmurs a daily marathon

Running from a bear that’s not there

A wave pool in my stomach

And a strong aversion to gravity.

All that’s left is fatigue, a fancy name for the tired that lives in my bones

My body is trying to kill me and keep me alive

It’s killing me to stay alive 

But that’s just on the inside

Invisible

Hidden behind a river of smiles

And an overflowing well of “fine”

And a deluge of “normal”

In the waiting room

An elderly man looks up at me to say

You’re too young to be here

And all the eyes in the room on me seem to agree

I am invisible

More offices, ERs, and lab draws 

But doctors don’t learn about me in medical school

So it must be all in my head 

Or this magic catch-all cup they call anxiety

Except the real anxiety comes when they don’t know how to help

And send me away

Unseen

You don’t *look* disabled

I’m going to need proof

So I fill out all the forms

And send all the files 

To make sure my medical history is listed with the court cases

As an easy to access public record 

Defending my existence 

Drowning consent just to simply show up as me

Cue visibility 

I’m rolling down the hallway in my wheelchair, all eyes are on me

They move out of my way, a parting of the Red Sea

Not like I’m a celebrity but as if to flee a plague of disease

They stare ready to investigate 

What part of me is broken

Sometimes they speak,                   

I hate it when they speak

What happened to your legs? 

What’s wrong with you?

You’re such an inspiration

Here let me “help” you

But then, I stand up, and I’ve walked on water

It’s a miracle the self-appointed saviors say

And suddenly, I’m invisible again 

Except nothing really changed from that moment to the last

Or from this moment to the next

When the pandemic hits and they decide that I’m expendable 

I thought a minute ago I was a miracle 

I guess I’m not the miracle they wanted 

People always talk about coming out like its a one-time thing

As if it’s not a revolving door of ocean waves in a storm

Knocking you down again and again and again before you can catch your breath

Swallowing gulps of saltwater and everyone’s opinions

About how I should be both seen and unseen

Some days I want to be invisible

No matter how much it might cost

Not having to field all the questions

Or to stare down the barrel of pity

Or answer to the face of confusion

Yet, the trickle of doubt about my own existence 

Has become a roaring river of reminders 

That my body doesn’t belong here

I don’t want to be that miracle, attaching God’s name 

Only when I’m socially acceptable 

To imagine my body with inspirational value

Only because you can’t imagine living in it

But, 

I am a miracle 

A miracle

Of water into wine

Gallons of drunken and delicious

Fermented, prohibited, liberated

Full-bodied, embodied

Filled to the brim of vessel of being

Obscene oceans coursing through me

Where the last shall be first and the first shall be last 

Raise a toast

What a miracle my body is

For showing up just the way it is

What a miracle my body is 

To fight through the bullshit and win

What a miracle my body is 

Without producing something to call worth it

I belong in my body

In the moments I love it 

And the moments I don’t 

And in all the moments in between

I belong in my body 

In the moments it looks the part 

And in the moments it says screw the fucking part

I belong in my body 

In the moments it keeps me alive 

And in the moments it tries to kill me

I belong in places that I am seen and unseen

Because I,  am a miracle

Zoie is a fourth-year medical student, staff member for UVC’s partner young adult ministry, the Inclusive Collective, and a disability activist and consultant. They work with various organizations across the city — particularly in healthcare and faith spaces — to increase accessibility and support communities in unlearning harmful beliefs about disability. Zoie is a member of UVC Wicker Park. 

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We hope you enjoy guest preachers, like Zoie, who’ve committed to sharing throughout our sermon series ‘Disabled Jesus, Disabled Love.’ Disabled leaders, thinkers, and advocates have always been at the heart of Christian communities. In the US, one in four people live with a disability. Yet our faith has a long history of teaching about our bodies & needs in ways that hurt, limit and erase. Join us as we learn from and consider the experiences of disabled leaders in our communities to better understand how we might begin to create access for one another, build community, and live into the belovedness of our bodies

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This Sunday closes out our sermon series ‘Disabled Jesus, Disabled Love’ with guest preacher Vincent Tufano. Vincent has been an active UVC member at our Wicker Park site since the summer of 2019 and is currently finishing their teaching degree at Northeastern Illinois University while remaining engaged in their community and family. In our passage from John, post-resurrection Jesus shows up wounded - and celebrates his body before the disciples, but there is still doubt. Vincent explores this doubt while offering new lenses to label and support disability. 

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UVC openly celebrates how we are “perfectly imperfect.” Still, disability is often framed as something in need of healing. In our panel discussion facilitated by Pastor D'Angelo, we discuss how disability is not only a journey of acceptance, but a journey of deeply recognizing all of our emotions. The panelists discuss how faith expands our human capacity, not restricts it, and still, we have much work to do to dismantle all the ways access is restricted.

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Panelist Bios:

Ailsa Lipscombe, PhD, is a queer, disabled, and chronically ill academic working at the intersections of disability and music. Her work explores how who we are as individuals shapes how we listen to and within diverse environments. She is from Aotearoa, New Zealand, and lives in Chicago with her wife, Emily, and her service dog, Connie. 

Emma Trevor (she/her) has been a member of UVC for 7 years, since spring of 2015. She worshiped at the Wicker Park location until 2020. Emma has now made her "home site" the online worship space since the pandemic, and continues to worship from home as she prioritizes her health. Emma holds degrees in women's and gender studies, as well as interfaith dialogue and religious studies. She loves musicals, podcasts, her cat Twixie, and sending mail when the mood strikes. She identifies as both chronically ill and disabled. She uses a bright blue cane to support her mobility. Emma lives with a trio of inte-rrelated diagnoses called "the trifecta": consisting of POTS, hEDS, and MCAS. She will speak more about these in the panel today.

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Due to recording difficulties, parts of conversation are difficult to hear. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to address the issue. 

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Disabled leaders, thinkers, and advocates have always been at the heart of Christian communities. In the US, one in four people live with a disability. Yet our faith has a long history of teaching about our bodies & needs in ways that hurt, limit and erase. 

In worship, Pastor Hannah - in conversation with disabled leaders and advocates - encourages us to consider the experiences of every person in our communities and better understand how we can create access for one another, build community together, and live into the belovedness of our bodies in such a time as this

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Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! On Sunday Pastor D’Angelo reminded us that we are resurrection people. Our faith calls us to remember and tell the resurrection stories in our own lives. Like Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others who arrive at the the tomb and became the first to know Jesus the Christ was alive again, what happens when our faith reveals to us a truth that is hard to accept? Let’s explore this question together and celebrate that resurrection is possible.

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On Sunday we celebrated Palm Sunday looking at Luke's version of this occasion. One verse that particularly grabbed Pastor Christian was when the Pharisees ask Jesus to order the disciples to stop celebrating (Lk 19:39). The religious authorities weren't thrilled with all of the rejoicing and proclaiming -but Jesus responds that even if he told them to stop, the stones would cry out! In those times when we've been told to stop doing something God is calling us to do,  what compels us to continue? As we explore this passage and question together, we listen to a testimony from chelseascharity.com 

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Due to technical streaming difficulties, there are some pauses and skips during the recording. We apologize for the inconvenience

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Sign up to receive our eNews and stay in the know! (link to sign up is at the bottom of our webpage). Follow us online, get involved, and support our bold, inclusive, and relevant ministries!