Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington-Normal

Order of Service!

A Father's Day Prayer
-Amy Jones

Today is Father’s Day, so we take this moment to hold space for all that may mean to us.

We hold love for those who have lost fathers, and for those fathers who have lost children.

We acknowledge and hold non-binary, transgender, and cisgender dads in families made of two dads, foster and adoptive dads, and single dads.

We hold and work to lift up all fathers of color, and those fathers raising children of color. We hold fathers kept apart from their children by borders and war.

We hold fathers and children who have lost connection, children who have been disowned or abandoned by their fathers, and the father-figures who step in.

We hold those longing to become fathers.

We hold those who may be full of questions about their biological fathers.

Most importantly we hold and thank the dads, the papas, the daddies, and all who show up everyday to give their all to the children who need them.

Human relations are complicated. These days of recognition are complex. Please take a moment to breathe in what serves you... and breathe out that which does not.

Order of Service for Sunday!

Pride month also provides an opportunity for community service. We are happy to once again sponsor a pride month blood drive with our friends at American Red Cross of Illinois. FDA regulations have been updated so that more people in the LGBTQ+ community can donate...so please consider signing up and helping us meet our goal!

You can signup at https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=PRIDE

The June read for our First Sunday Non-Fiction Book Club was Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans & Nonbinary People and Their Families; interviews by Peggy Gillespie.

The book, developed in collaboration with PFLAG National and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, was published by UUA's publishing imprint, Skinner House Books. Skinner House Books publishes spiritual, religious, and theological books that sit at the intersection of progressive values and life’s biggest questions.

Groundbreaking in its depictions of joy and community, Authentic Selves celebrates trans and nonbinary people and their families in stunning photographs and their own words.

So often trans and nonbinary people’s stories are told only through the lens of their struggles and challenges, including their political battles for legal rights, but trans and nonbinary people live rich and fulfilling lives full of joy and community too. Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families is a sweeping compilation of life stories and portraits of trans and nonbinary people, as well as their partners, parents, children, siblings, and chosen family members.

The compelling stories in Authentic Selves provide a glimpse into the real lives, both the challenges and the triumphs, of these remarkable people and their families—people like Senator Sarah McBride, disability justice advocate Parker Glick, drag entertainer TAYLOR ALXNDR, September 11th first responder Jozeppi Angelo Morelli, model Lana Patel, youth activist Elliott Bertrand, and so many others—all of whom are working to create a more just, diverse, and compassionate world.

Featured onTransgender School Podcast: part one August 1 and part two September 5.

Featured on The Q***r News Podcast: Episode July 31st “New Book! Authentic Selves.”

Featured on The Q***r Family Podcast with Jamie Kelton: Episode July 24th S 13. E. 2 “Celebrating what DeSantis Fears.”

Purchase the book from Bobzbay or online at uuabookstore.org.

https://www.uua.org/pressroom/press-releases/authentic-selves-highlights-joy

Authentic Selves Highlights Joy and Community Among Trans and Nonbinary Families The UUA is proud of the contributors to this book, and of Skinner House Books for being a part of telling their stories.

Join us Sunday, June 9th, from 8-9 PM Eastern for our UU Vigil for Gaza: For the Buried and the Unearthed. A continuation of our vigils led by Muslim and Jewish heritage lay and religious professionals. Open to all. 🕯️

Your presence is a blessing, and your voice is essential in our journey towards a more just world. 🌍

Register at druumm.org/events

Beloveds, in these times of heartbreak, of strain and the not-right-ness that characterizes life in the face of oppression, I need the reminder from Audre Lorde—a self-described black, le***an, mother, warrior, poet:

“So it is better to speak / remembering / we were never meant to survive.”

How many of us are still here in the name of those who made a way for us, and to make a way for those coming alongside and after us who bring new wisdom? How many of us struggle to answer a calling that is born of a theology of radical justice, wholeness, and inclusion but get caught up thinking that unless our individual labor saves this movement, we will have failed?

The most important thing I want to offer is that collective salvation not only means that our liberation is bound up in one another, it also means that everyone is responsible for the work. Hold fast to your spiritual hygiene, Beloveds. Protect your spirit and your energy and lean on your ancestral practices to clear both regularly.

This is long haul work, and I need every one of us to survive.

Summer is here! These fun activities offered by Prairie Pride Coalition, PFLAG Bloomington/Normal, Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington-Normal, Red Raccoon Games, Inside Out: Accessible Art, and other organizations will help ensure our LGBTQIA+ youth feel empowered and supported. Full details on these events can be found on our calendar at https://ppc-il.org/get-involved/events/

Kick off Pride Month with a tasty treat and support for the Gender Expansive Resource Center! Downtown Bloomington until noon.

On a Holy Night in 1969
-Rev. Otto O’Connor

On a holy night
In 1969,
In an Inn, also known as a bar,
Called the Stonewall Inn,
A basement—
which had no running running water,
Nor safe fire exits—
Q***r people, of many colors and kinds,
Danced together,
For it was the only place
Where they were allowed to dance,
At least, permitted to, by the mafia who ran the Inn.

In those days,
It was common for the police to frequent this Inn,
No to join in the dance, the underground celebration,
But to send the dancers home and make arrests.
When they would arrive,
The lights would go on,
The people would be lined up,
And then
All those in drag,
All those who were trans,
All those without proper identification:
They were arrested and taken into custody.

But on this holy night,
That early morning of June 28,
The people said “not tonight.”
As they called to them to line up,
The transwomen refused to go.
And as they police began to beat and arrest them,
And as the people spilled out from the bar on to the street,
Christopher St,
A crowd grew to watch.
And then,
As transwomen, le***ans, and gay men were getting arrested,
A yell came from the crowd: “Gay Power.”
And as a transwoman was shoved,
She shoved back and the crowd began throwing bottles at the wagon,
And suddenly it erupted.
For once the people didn’t line up;
For once the people said “no more; we've had enough.”
It was almost as if, that night,
being pulled out of the darkness of the underground at Stonewall Inn
One too many times,
They said, “I’m ready to be seen.”

On this holy night, when the power of the oppressed rippled through the streets of New York,
When q***r people said, No more
Our world would never be the same.

Fifty years ago,
It was illegal to be gay, to be trans, to dance and to love and to celebrate.
And now, only fifty years later,
Here we are celebrating at a church.
Gay and straight together?
Q***r and straight together?
Trans and cis together?
All in this together.

And so as we hear these stories of life and love and defiance and celebration,
Let us also remember and pay tribute to our movement ancestors,
Many of them transwomen of color who led the first rebellion that night.
You see, Pride is a celebration of that anniversary:
the anniversary of that riot, at the Stonewall Inn in New York city. A holy night.

So Happy Pride.
Welcome to this joyful celebration,
Bring your whole selves
Your gay
Le***an
Bisexual
Transgender
Q***r selves
Your drag queen
Butch and femme
Cross-dressing
Nail-painting
Tutu-wearing
Selves
Your
Genderq***r
Genderfluid
Agender
Pansexual
QUILTBAG selves
And all the other identities
That are and will be
And let’s have a celebration,
Because joy is a rebellion, too.
And this church is Q***r;
Q***r and fabulous.
Amen?

Let us begin!

We have a bake sale tent at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers' Market tomorrow morning! We’re raising funds for the Gender Expansive Resource Center we host in partnership with Prairie Pride Coalition! Come say hi and buy some treats for a good cause!

Happy Friday! The vendor list is here. 🌷 See you at the Farmers' Market tomorrow from 7:30 am to 12 pm! Click the link below for an interactive market map to find your favorite vendors:
https://www.downtownbloomington.org/farmers-market/interactive-farmer-s-market-map

Sunday, June 2, 10:00am

All Ages Flower Communion & Child Dedication

Bring a flower for Flower Communion (we’ll also have a few extras!).

The Flower Communion tradition began in 1923 with Rev. Norbert Capek in Czechoslovakia. The tradition was brought to the United States in 1940 by Rev. Capek's wife, Maja V. Capek. On Flower Communion Sunday, each person adds a flower from their garden (or the store! or a friend!) to large bouquets in the sanctuary. At the end of the service, everyone exchanges flowers and has a flower to take home. The bouquet is representative of our shared community, just like the different flowers gathering together in a beautiful bouquet, we gather with all our differences of life experience.

A potluck brunch follows the service.

It's time for the 2024 Reader's Choice Awards! You can nominate the church for Best Place of Worship under Services. If you start typing Unitarian Universalist, the church name will autofill.

The 5 places with the most nominations in that category advance to the voting round on July 10.

Click here to get started: https://pantagraph.com/exclusive/readerschoice/ballot-2024/

Click Here: https://uubn.org/wp/newsletter/

Bloomington Public Library, Illinois Location:
205 E. Olive St.
Bloomington, IL, 61701

Phone:
309.828.6091

Hours:
Mon - Thurs:
9:00 am -

We, the 253 undersigned organizations, stand in solidarity with the students nationwide and globally who are bravely protesting in encampments and otherwise to condemn Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza–actions which human rights organizations, a federal U.S. court, and the International Court of Justice have said “plausibly” constitute genocide.

We commend the students who are exercising their right to protest peacefully despite an overwhelming atmosphere of pressure, intimidation and retaliation, to raise awareness about Israel's assault on Gaza – with U.S. weapons and funding. These students have come forth with clear demands that their universities divest from corporations profiting from Israeli occupation, and demanding safe environments for Palestinians across their campuses. The students’ courage and determination in the face of adversity inspire us all to take action and speak out against injustice wherever it occurs. As they risk everything right now, it is critical that all of us do everything we can to support them.

We join them in calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire and an end to the U.S. government's and institutions' role in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

As we stand in solidarity with the students protesting in encampments across the country, we reaffirm our commitment to amplifying their voices, condemn the university administration officials' violent response to their activism, and demand that universities remove the presence of police and other militarized forces from their campuses.

In solidarity,

Unitarian Universalist Association

Unitarian Universalist Church of the Larger Fellowship

Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice

Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of North Carolina

Unitarian Universalist Mass Action

Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association

Unitarian Universalist Peace Ministry Network

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

Unitarian Universalist Young Adults for Climate Justice (UUYACJ)

Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle EastUnitarian

Gaza Student Protests MPower Change stands in solidarity with the students nationwide and globally who are bravely protesting in encampments and otherwise to condemn Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza. Read our statement here.

In need of some spiritual sustenance? Join our Side with Love Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad next Thursday, May 23 at 4:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET for our live hour of spiritual sustenance and grounding featuring music, meditation, play, and prayer. We end with a Connection Cafe for those who wish to talk together.

Come as you are, bring whatever is in your heart, and join with your camera on or off as you need. This gathering happens monthly on the 4th Thursday of the month at 4:30pm PT / 5:30pm MT / 6:30pm CT / 7:30pm ET.

Register: https://bit.ly/4aXuVou

[Image description: A brown and orange watercolor easel and painting supplies on a purple watercolor background with the Side With Love logo at the bottom. Blue, brown, and black text reads, "Faithful Grounding. An hour of spiritual sustenance & grounding with others organizing on the side of love. Thursday, May 23. 4:30 PT / 5:30 MT / 6:30 CT / 7:30 ET."]

It is meaningful when a community of people known for diverse and divergent beliefs builds consensus on something that impacts our understanding of ourselves. Love is what we express as our highest value. Every time. Larger than life. Right at the center of our living tradition. Our pressing task now is to ask ourselves and each other how this understanding calls us forward, individually and collectively.

A common question that UUs often face is how we can be a religion if we do not lay claim to one clearly delineated theological truth. The answer is love. Our inherited theological tradition places its faith in love. Given everything our world faces today, having faith in love is no small thing.

*Excerpted from my preface as editor of Love at the Center: Unitarian Universalist Theologies, now available as an ebook wherever ebooks are sold.

Our Unitarian Universalist values call on every generation to listen with care and compassion to the prophetic witness of young people across the globe who are protesting the ongoing assault in Gaza and to offer faithful solidarity.

We call on university administrations and public officials to remove police from campuses, end the militarized response to student activism, and come to the table in good-faith negotiations with student demands. We call on our community to show up in solidarity. We welcome all, in this pivotal movement, to Side With Love.

Read our full statement and add your signature at https://bit.ly/UUYA-StudentSolidarity

[Image description: Graphic with a quote in black text on a light yellow background with a large yellow quotation mark and the logos for Side With Love and Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice. Text reads, "Our values call on every generation to listen with care and compassion to the prophetic witness of these courageous students and offer faithful solidarity. We, too, must rise to meet the highest aspirations of our faith, which rejects the disposability of any human being and proclaims all are worthy of love and belonging."]

Click Here for More Information: https://uubn.org/wp/newsletter/

Those Who Gave Us Life
-Rev. Linda Hart

From where have we come,
this breath,
these fingers,
a heart that opens and closes,
opens and closes?
What is it that has made this body,
feet and legs
hair and teeth?

We come into consciousness
in the middle of the story,
the world and its vast life
reaches far before we knew
and grasps at the future
that we cannot see.

And here we are
living these days
for better or for worse.

Whatever acts of chance
occurred to bring us to birth,
whatever happenstance
laid this particular path for our lives,
in these moments
of calm and stillness
let our hearts open in gratitude
for the gifts that can be found along the way:
for love given sweet and free,
for the peace of the morning,
and the warm colours of the sunset,
for the grace of companions
and moments of ongoing birth,
as our hearts are renewed
and for those who have
offered us the gift of
mothering,
no matter their age or gender:
those who have
tended and cared,
who have offered support and comfort,
who have companioned us
those who have given us life,
by birth,
or by their presence in our lives.

Recognizing the grief that often comes
with such memories,
let us open in compassion for
our broken hearts for
lost mothers,
mothers who could not love
us as we needed,
mothers who abandoned us
and especially for those whose longing
for children was never met.

In the stillness of these moments,
I invite you to speak aloud the names
of those who have given you life,
who have companioned you,
who are held in your heart
this day.

📷 Photo by Bob Brewer on Unsplash

Today (Saturday) at 1:00! All are welcome.

Children’s Opera Tour Heads up, Land of Melodia! Count Sticky Fingers is planning to steal all your notes and feed them into the Music Munching Machine! And those notes include the magic Star Notes that must be hung and sung in the palace courtyard each night as the moon rises. That ritual is the only protection Melodian...

[With appreciation for the feedback on yesterday's graphic, we are re-sharing the post in a different color.]

Long before Mother’s Day was celebrated with brunches and flower bouquets, Unitarian Julia Ward Howe wrote her Mother’s Day Proclamation, calling for peace. https://bit.ly/3JVlxX4