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 From Our Interim Minister
Reminders, Updates, Personal News
Hello Countryside:
Congregational life is getting busier and that is a good problem to have. Please try to get announcements in ahead of time for the e-news and to put on social media. Please, let others know what you are planning and have it on the calendar. Email Laurie for any of those things.
You can help yourself feel calm and help services on Sunday flow well by arriving early. Announcements start at 9:55am. Please be seated by 9:50am. I want you to have time to talk to your friends and meet new people. It is ok to come early. If the church is empty when announcements start, people tend to feel like they need to delay, which delays the whole service. Months of planning, practice, and research goes into each service. Janice plays beautiful music BEFORE announcements. We want to hear her selections and give ourselves time to settle in. I really appreciate you helping one another to have the spiritual or religious experience you desire.
I will be gone on vacation March 23-31. As some of you know, I had a big birthday, and I planned a trip with friends and family a long time ago. I won’t be reachable as I am traveling to a place with poor internet and amazing nature. Rev. Scot Giles, our community minister, will be preaching in my absence. Ken Bobbe will field any lay ministry needs. As always, our competent staff will know what to do while I am away.
On April 2, the Living the Pledge to End Racism Team is kicking off their work. I highly encourage you to sign up for those classes, which will be held...Please sign up early. There are only 16 spots....
Read Rev. Denise's full post here
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 Transitions
4th Thursdays ~ March 23 at 10 am
Our mission is to provide a forum for mature adults to explore life transitions with a supportive community during daytime hours. Our monthly gatherings begin with a pre-program coffee hour and finishes with a convivial post-program potluck lunch.
Please join us this month for a program on Meditation and the Buddhist practice of loving kindness. A Buddhist monk from the Blue Lotus Temple in Woodstock will come to talk to us about their Buddhist beliefs. CCUU member Juli Cicarelli has been going to their meditation at the Arlington Heights Senior Center and finds they have a unique perspective on life.
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 Feminine Divine Women’s Group
Last Saturdays ~ March 25 at 9:30 am
Join us in classroom 6 as we continue our discussion of Waking the Witch by Pam Grossman. We will be discussing Chapter 6, a most educational chapter on women artists. New women are always welcome. For more info, contact Barbara Griggs.
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 Summer Worship Proposals Now Being Accepted
The Worship Council and Rev. Denise want to help you have an amazing Summer of Worship. July and August are a time we often hear from YOU about what you want to present in a worship service. Consider that worship is different from “speeches” or “lectures;” it is a time of reflection, spiritual practice, and reverence. If you as an individual or a team or a group want to sponsor a service, please fill out this form. The team will review the proposals and notify worship leaders by early May. Even if you have done one many times, this will help all of us to keep track of the ideas and get them scheduled. Consider topics like:
- Summer Solstice - pagan and Earth based traditions
- Atheism and Agnosticism - what’s the difference?
- Humanism and it’s Three Manifestos
- Saving Our Earth - What can you do?
- Poetry and You
- Creative Growing
- Journeying into Buddhism
You think about what your topic is and send us a proposal by April 15. These are just suggestions. We can’t wait to hear from you! Not sure or have questions? Email WorshipCouncil@ccuu.org
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 You are Invited to our 2023 CCCU Time and Talent Auction celebration, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”
Your donations of unique items and events needed - Deadline is April 16
The unique items and events donated by our members are what makes the auction our biggest fundraiser of the year, every year. Click here for donation ideas, and to submit donations, click here.
This annual auction supports our Church and our three service partners: Partners for our Communities (POC), Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants (ICDI/Chalice House), and Faith in Place, local organizations that serve the needs of our neighbors and support environmental justice.
Our Hybrid Auction begins online at noon on Sunday, May 7 and culminates in a Live Auction and Caribbean Dinner Party on Saturday, May 13 at 5:00 PM in Atherton Hall. We especially look forward to seeing everyone in person this year!
Questions? Email ccuuauction@gmail.com or reach out to Nancy Dempsey, Nancy Frenk, or Mari Van Meter
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 Help CCUU Provide Dinner for PADS Shelter on April 12
Our congregation provides dinner to the PADS shelter at St John United Church of Christ in Arlington Heights once/month. If you would like to help by providing part of the meal, please sign up online. If you need additional information, please contact Wendy Braun. Thank you so much for your support!
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From Our Grounds Working Group
 Thank You
I would like to thank everyone who came out on a cold, snowy February Saturday to help prune our trees and shrubs. Check out the picture of Tony Pretto having fun using an extendable chain saw. This allowed up to reach higher branches and remove large limbs more easily. The church members who came were: me, Peggy Simonsen, Mike Calwas, Tony Pretto, Vicki Byrd, Bill Huber, and Gary LaBedz. This was a very good turn out. We have this event each year prior to the annual Palatine brush pickup. Plan to join us next year in early February. Thanks, Siri Laurin
Plant Sale Here at Church
It is long past the time for our hostas, daylilies, ornamental grass, and spirea shrubs to be divided or just removed from an area. Is there interest in any of these plants? Now is the right time to do this! It's not really a sale, but donations would be accepted. Please contact Siri Laurin if you need any of these plants.
The Grounds Working Group Needs HELP!
Join our group. We don't have meetings! We have productive work time. We are in our cleanup and replant phase now. And we have not removed all the original ornamental plants that now are considered invasive.
Contact Siri Laurin to help or with questions.
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 Green News
Our Green News columns can be found on the website, under Service: https://ccuu.org/green-news/
The Wheel of the Year
The Wheel of the Year is a cycle of eight festivals that move through the solar and seasonal changes of the earth. For modern Pagans, this creates a sacred narrative based on the solar cycle of solstices and equinoxes and on the seasonal cycle of changes in light, growth, life, and warmth. For non-Pagans, this cycle is a way to recognize the continuing cycles of seasonal change and a connection to these cycles. For both, The Wheel of the Year can provide a spiritual or scientific foundation for environmental action.
The festivals alternate between one festival dedicated to solar-based events and one festival dedicated to earth-centered events, which usually draw on ancient traditions, primarily from northern Europe and whose celebrations are less fixed, but held on conventionally recognized dates.
These festivals for Wiccans, the largest group of Pagans in the US, are Imbolc (2 February), Ostara (Spring Equinox), Beltane (1 May), Litha/Midsummer (Summer Solstice), Lammas/Lughnasad (1 August), Mabon (Autumn Equinox), Samhain (31 October), and Yule/ Midwinter (Winter Solstice). Druids have different names for these festivals while Norse Paganism has a slightly different calendar with different names.
This week, we celebrate the Spring Equinox, known as Ostara to Wiccans and Alban Eilir to Druids. The Wiccan name comes from the goddess Ôstara or Ëostre which also is the basis for the name Easter. Astronomically, this is a time of balance, moving toward an increase in daylight that signals plants to start sprouting or reviving. It is also the peak of the energy of growth, fertility, and creativity; a celebration of new beginnings and a continuation of the emergence from the cold and dark of Winter that began at Imbolc.
~ Leslie Peet
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 Sunday Worship at 10 am
March 26: And Lead Us INTO Temptation
Young people begin in the Sanctuary with their family and will be sung out to their Religious Exploration classes.
Organized Religion is big on the theme of temptation. Certainly, one of the easiest ways to gather a following is to tell people they are blameworthy because they did something they wanted to do you have convinced them is wrong. It isn’t fun to feel guilty, so people are attracted to anything that promises to relieve that feeling of guilt. But is temptation really bad? This will be Dr. Giles’s tempting topic for this sermon.
Join us in the Sanctuary for this service, or to join the live-stream: go to https://bit.ly/CCUUworshipSvc OR to listen via phone, call 1-312-626-6799 and use meeting id 412 124 873, passcode 1025.
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 Sunday Religious Exploration (RE) for Children & Youth
Preschool through Grade 8 classes are offered on Sunday Morning, and our Senior High Youth Group meets on Sunday evenings. We offer grade cohorts identical to those offered last year, led by our experienced, caring, and capable coordinators and teachers:
- Preschool (Chalice Children)
- Kindergarten-Grade 2 (Spirit Play)
- Grades 3-5 (Nature & Spirit)
- Junior High/Grades 6-8 (In the Middle)
- Senior High Youth Group meets Sunday evenings at 7 pm
For more information on our programs, go to https://ccuu.org/religious-exploration/. If you have not yet registered your child or youth, please complete an RE registration form. Contact our volunteer RE Assistants, Linda Berry and Debbie Lee, with questions, RE.Assistant@ccuu.org.
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 Open Forum Discussion
Sundays at 9 am
Please join us to discuss “the issues of the day” while respectfully welcoming different perspectives. Our topic on March 26 will be Can Aging Be Reversed? And if So, What Will This Imply? A gently recommended resource for viewing in advance of the discussion is available here.
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 Composting Program Info Table
March 26, during coffee hour
Looking for a way to reduce the family carbon footprint and replenish the earth that nourishes us? Join Dan Huntsha and the Green Sanctuary Committee in Atherton Hall on Sunday, March 26 at 11am for details on a subscription to Countryside Community Composting. This pilot project launches in April 2023 for a limited number of participants, so come see us this Sunday! Questions to dan@faithinplace.org
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 Children's Choir
Sundays following RE Classes
Young people in grades 1 - 8 are invited to meet in the choir room following RE classes to sing! For more info, contact Alison Vernon, music.director@ccuu.org.
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C eltic, Folk, & World Music Concert with
Four Shillings Short
March 26, 3-5 pm,
at Countryside Church UU
Invite your friends and neighbors to join you at this concert in our very own sanctuary! Four Shillings Short play traditional music from the Celtic Lands, Europe, Asia, and the Americas on a fantastic collection of world instruments: Indian sitar, dulcimers, mandolins, Renaissance woodwinds, bouzouki, recorders, tinwhistles, banjo, guitar, charango, percussion, & psaltery. Share this flyer with your friends.
$20 advance tickets online at https://4shillingsshort.com/uu_concert.
$20-40 suggested donation at the door.
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Next Week ~ March 27 - April 1
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 Last Mondays Book Discussion
March 27, 7 pm
Join us in the Stokes Conference Room at church to discuss The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams.
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 Monthly Newsletter Deadline
March 29
Email Articles for publication on April 4 to Office@ccuu.org.
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Sunday Worship at 10 am
April 2 ~ Living the Pledge to End Racism
Young people begin in the sanctuary with their families and will be sung out to their religious exploration classes.
Join us in the Sanctuary for this service, or to join the live-stream: go to https://bit.ly/CCUUworshipSvc OR to listen via phone, call 1-312-626-6799 and use meeting id 412 124 873, passcode 1025.
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Sunday Religious Exploration (RE) for Children & Youth
Preschool through Grade 8 classes are offered on Sunday Morning, and our Senior High Youth Group meets on Sunday evenings. We offer grade cohorts identical to those offered last year, led by our experienced, caring, and capable coordinators and teachers:
- Preschool (Chalice Children)
- Kindergarten-Grade 2 (Spirit Play)
- Grades 3-5 (Nature & Spirit)
- Junior High/Grades 6-8 (In the Middle)
- Senior High Youth Group meets Sunday evenings at 7 pm
For more information on our programs, go to https://ccuu.org/religious-exploration/. If you have not yet registered your child or youth, please complete an RE registration form. Contact our volunteer RE Assistants, Linda Berry and Debbie Lee, with questions, RE.Assistant@ccuu.org.
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 Open Forum Discussion
April 2 ~ online & in person
Our discussion topic on April 2 will be Why the U.K. Is the Only Major Economy Set to Shrink in 2023. Gently recommended resource available here.
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 Intro to CCUU
1st Sundays ~ April 2 at 11:15 am
Newcomers are invited to attend this brief orientation to Countryside Church and Unitarian Universalism which is offered the first Sunday of each month and hosted by a longtime CCUU member & lifelong UU.
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Green News: Recycling Opportunities
 Reuse & Recycle Rally on April 2, 1 - 4 pm
at North Shore Unitarian Church (NSUC) in Bannockburn IL
This recycle rally, sponsored by NSUC and SWALCO, takes items that are not always collected at events such as this. collected items will be reused, recycled, & donated. Get all the details on this flyer.
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- April 4: Local Elections ~ be prepared to vote
- April 6: Online Journaling Circle
- April 14: Earth Rhythms Drum Circle
- April 16: Book Circle ~ The Road to Character by David Brooks
- April 27-30: UU Buddhist Fellowship Convocation ~ in-person in Racine and online; more info & register by April 12
- April 29: UUA Presidential Forum at Unitarian Church of Evanston
- April 29: Circle Suppers ~ Spend a delicious evening getting to know other Countryside folks! Sign up in Atherton Hall on Sunday or email your name, address and best contact info to CircleSuppers@ccuu.org to let us know if you can attend or host
- May 13: Time & Talent Auction
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 Learn more about becoming a General Assembly Delegate
Congregations select delegates to represent them at GA in June, both virtually and on-site in Pittsburgh. If you're curious about what it means to be a delegate and how to become one, watch this video to learn more about what to expect as a delegate and how to approach the possibility.
Register to Attend UUA General Assembly
Our annual gathering of Unitarian Universalists – General Assembly – will once again be a multiplatform event, to be held in Pittsburgh, PA and online. In addition to inspiring speakers, workshops and opportunities for worship with thousands of fellow UUs, delegates can vote for the next UUA President at GA in June. Join us as together we embody the democratic process that is foundational to our beloved faith tradition. Register for GA
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 Online UUA Presidential Forums
April 29 in Evanston IL
It is an exciting time in Unitarian Universalism as we prepare to elect a new president of our Association. The UUA President is the primary public and spiritual leader of Unitarian Universalism, as well as the UUA’s Chief Executive Officer. They help to lead UUs on a path to Beloved Community, in which people of diverse backgrounds, identities, and theological beliefs can thrive. Voting will open in early June, and presidential forums begin this weekend.
Each UUA Presidential Forum will be a multiplatform event, taking place in person and online. Registration is required to attend these events. Meet the candidate for UUA President! More specific information for each location is available in the links below.
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