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Spiritual Imagination
July 31, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. Online and in-person
Rev. Darrick Jackson Our imagination is a powerful tool. It can drive our creativity, fuel our hope, and deepen our faith. What if we engaged imagination as a spiritual practice?
The Rev. Darrick Jackson (he/him) is the Director of Ministries for Lifelong Learning of UU Ministers Association and an Affiliated Community Minister with Second Unitarian Church of Chicago. He is one of the authors in the book “Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity and Power in Ministry.” Rev. Darrick is active in DRUUMM (the UU ministry for people of color, and is the treasurer for Healing Moments (a ministry for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s). He is also the Managing Director of the Chicago Playback Theatre Ensemble and is an avid knitter. Rev. Darrick and his husband, Rev. James Olson, live with their two cats, Merlin and Morgana.
We will Share the Plate with UUMA This is why we exist. In the day to day, we devote our time and resources to promoting lifelong growth and learning in ministry, supporting ministers in all stages and settings and working to dismantle systems and structures of racism and oppression. We provide spiritual, theological, and religious leadership throughout Unitarian Universalism and we maintain Guidelines for the practice of ministry. We do our work and conduct our operations in alignment with our values which include: integrity, accountability, justice, faithfulness, leadership and transparency. Click here to learn more about the why, what and how of the UUMA. Click Here to Donate
Happy Birthday to: David Lawson (07/26), Susan Tyler (07/26), Rhonda McAllister (07/26), Joshua Moore (07/26), Joshua Smith (07/26), Scott Aaseng (07/27), Paul Runestad (07/28), Laura Patterson (07/28), David Zinn (07/29), Shiraz Tata (07/29), Sonia Vogl (07/31), & Tim Anderson (07/31)!
Volunteers for Sunday, July 31
Ushers: We Need 2 Volunteers
Greeters: We Need 2 Volunteers
Guest Table: We Need 2 Volunteers
Coffee Hosts: We Need 2 Volunteers
Please note that if you volunteer for coffee host you will need to clean up afterward and run the cups through the sanitizer.
Summer is often a good time to do some fun reading. (Though, in the Midwest, winter is also a great time to read). I’d love to know what’s on your reading list. Here’s what I’m reading.
My study group, which meets in November, has selected Theologies of the Climate Crisis as their topic. So I am reading many books on this topic, including “The Uninhabitable Earth,” “Meaningful Flesh”, “Earth Emotions,” “As Long as the Grass Grows,” “Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul,” Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet,” and “What We’re Fighting, For Now, is Each Other.” (These are just some of the titles.). I will be on Study leave for the rest of this week so that I can dive into these books; I have a lot of reading to do.
For fun, I enjoy science fiction books that help me imagine new ways of thinking. I have just completed “The Dreaming Stars” by Tim Pratt; this is the second in a trilogy (“The Wrong Stars” and “The Forbidden Stars” are 1 and 3) about a plucky group of humans who encounter the artifacts of an ancient and powerful species of beings out in space. It’s fun, and the main character is a delight.
Earlier this year, I loved the Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty. These books are “The City of Brass,” “The Kingdom of Copper,” and “The Empire of Gold.” They tell the story of an Egyptian girl and her encounter with the civilization of Jinns. It’s rich, hilarious, romantic, tragic, and mythologically fascinating.
I love stories that take me to another place and time and help me see the world we live in as if from a distance. These stories fascinate me and draw me in. They are different enough from the world we live to be a bit of an escape, but not so far away that I can’t connect with the story or learn something.
What are you reading and loving?
In faith,
Matthew
Board Update
The Board reviewed the year-end financials, set plans for our retreat, signed the conflict of interest policy, and corrected a budget error.
Stretching from floor to ceiling in the sanctuary, and greeting each spring, is the triptych we call the “Linda Banners.”
The Weissbard family chose local artist Virginia Noerr to design and create a memorial to Linda Weissbard, Dave’s wife who succumbed to cancer in 1987.
These hand-printed fabric panels of unique and wonderfully colorful design are the striking result of that selection. Dedication of this cherished artwork took place in early 1990. While Dave Weissbard was our Senior Minister; he is currently Minister Emeritus.
Prairie State Legal Servies Volunteers Receive LSC Pro Bono Service Awards
The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) Board of Directors met last week in Chicago and during the event presented Pro Bono Service Awards to David Black for his volunteer work in PSLS’ Rockford office. Attorney Butler has helped 165 PSLS clients over his three years of volunteering with PSLS. Attorney Black is a retired attorney who was an active pro bono volunteer and PSLS board member during his 35-year law career and in his retirement continues to take on pro bono cases. He has closed more than 800 criminal record sealing and expungement cases on behalf of PSLS clients. Thank you, David!
UUA Common Read Members of the Racial and Economic Justice Team invite you to join us in reading (and later discussing) the book Defund Fear: Safety Without Policing, Prisons, and Punishment by Zach Norris (Beacon Press 2021). The cover price is $16.00. Our bulk discount allows us to offer the book to you for only $15.00, including sales taxes and shipping to UU Rockford. Reserve your copy with an email to Li M Blacker:BlackLiM@gmail.com; please put “UUA Rockford – Defund Fear” in the subject line. If you are able and willing, consider paying $16; the extra funds we collect will go toward a copy (or more) for our library, for those who aren’t in a position to purchase the book. Discussion date to be determined.
The Library Team
The Library Team is pleased to announce the addition of “Transgender Warriors” by Leslie Feinberg to our collection. It is on display in the library and available to be borrowed and returned.
Anyone possessing other library books in the “available to be returned” category is welcome to do so when you are finished with them. As always, everyone is invited to come in and see what gems you might find hiding on our shelves.
Book Discussion Thursday July 28, 2022 6:00 p.m.
Join us by zoom for a discussion of Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart by Alicia Garza: This book is About Black Lives Matter and how it started with a “love letter to Black people” on Facebook. Garza had spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning hard lessons about organizing. She reflects on how making room amongst the woke for those who are still awakening can inspire and activate more people to fight for the world we all deserve.
Please read the book on your own and we will discuss it.
Book discussions are presented in partnership with Rockford Public Library.
Film Discussion
Friday August 12, 2022
6-8:30 p.m.
I Am Not Your Negro: Based on James Baldwin’s uncompleted manuscript of his personal account of the lives & assassination of three of his close friends-Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and MLK & connects the past to the present of Black Lives Matter.
Join Zoom Meeting here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81211275487
The film discussions are presented in partnership with The Baha’i Community of the Rockford Area and Rockford Public Library.
The Board of Trustees:
President: Judy Gustafson
Clerk: Bob Spelman
Vice-President: Spitty Tata
Treasurer: Steve Blomgren
Trustees: Shoko Chien, Sarah Greer, Jami Edmonds
The Unitarian Universalist Church, Rockford, IL | 4848 Turner St., Rockford, IL 61107 | 815-398-6322 | uurockford.org |
