Worship Services
Worship Schedule
Each month’s plans for our 10:30 a.m. Sunday worship services appear here. Details about the worship service for the upcoming Sunday also appear on our Home Page. Childcare is always provided without reservations for Worship, Mindfulness Meditation and Forum.
April 5, 2026 – “They Didn’t Know That We Were Seeds” – Easter Sunday – Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon
What if resurrection were less a supernatural faith claim and more a prophetic witness – that love wins amid the violence of empire, and life overcomes the agents of death? Join us for a very UU take on Easter, as we ask ourselves: How will we plant the seeds of divine love in our own lives and time?
NOTE: There will be NO FIRST SUNDAY POTLUCK on Easter Sunday. Instead our high school youth group will be offering their annual Easter Brunch after worship.
April 12, 2026 – “No Ends, All Seeds” – Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon
We are steeped in a dominant western culture that sees time as a straight line with a beginning and an end. We are living on an earth (and amid indigenous cultures) of life and death in never-ending cycles. What happens when we let go of the end and opt in to the cycle?
April 19, 2026 – “From Destruction, Creation” – Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon
I recently heard an artist I admire declare: The only answer to all this destruction is creation. And of course the earth shows us that new life is always being born from death and rot. What are we creating, in the shadow of the collapse of empire?
April 26, 2026 – All-Ages Earth Day Service – Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon
Join us for our annual All-Ages Earth Day service, as we celebrate the beauty and possibility we find all around us on this gorgeous green and blue planet.
The Zoom address for our 10:30 a.m. Sunday worship is
https://zoom.us/j/380411489
You can also join by phone: 312-626 6799
Webinar ID: 380 411 489
Services are also streamed live to Facebook
Description of Worship Services
We offer a worship service every Sunday at 10:30 a.m.. The current month’s schedule appears above. Services last about one hour.
Children are present for about the first 15 minutes, which includes a stones of joy and sorrow ritual. The children then leave for their religious education classes. Nursery care and our full religious education program for preschool through junior high school are offered at this time.
Although each of our services is unique, services usually begin with a welcome from a member of our Board of Trustees and occasional special announcements.
Interspersed with a variety of music and hymn singing, the typical service also includes the lighting of the chalice, one or more inspirational readings, a sermon or homily, an offertory, an opportunity to express joys and sorrows, and a closing benediction.
After the service we gather for fellowship, conversation and coffee.
Members of the Worship Associates assist in planning worship services and also participate in conducting services.
Lay-Led Worship Services
Our lay-led services honor our commitment to lay involvement in church leadership and our church’s history. We began in 1951 as a lay-led fellowship, and thus all services were lay led until we called our first minister in 1980.
From September through May, we have occasional lay-led services, and many of the services are lay led during the summer. The Worship Associates organize the lay-led services. These services are often non-traditional and unique and allow individuals to speak to a topic of interest or lead the congregation in exploring a variety of activities related to the many facets of worship and spirituality.
2025-26 Worship Arc
This year’s worship arc is “Survival Is a Garden.” To develop the themes for our year, the Worship Associates, the Writing for Spiritual Sustenance Group and Rev. Molly took inspiration from a poem by Kyle Tran Myhre called “When It Really Is Just the Wind and Not a Furious Vexation.” In it, the poet reflects that all the post-apocalyptic images of hard-core guys with machetes on motorcycles are false visions of survival. Instead, he realizes, “…in every universe in which / I am alive, it is because of other people.” He lays out a vision of thriving where we all survive because we know we need each other, and then he lays down these two beautiful couplets that have inspired our year:
Survival is not a fortress. It is a garden.
Survival is not a siren. It is a symphony.
In this moment when fascists are trying to sell us a bleak wasteland of survival, built on violent control and betrayal of one another, it is time for us to remember what real, collective survival is… and what it isn’t.
Together with your Worship Associates and Writing for Spiritual Sustenance Group, and some of Rev. Molly’s beloved colleagues, a huge list of things that survival is and isn’t was generated. Nine of them became our themes for the year. They are all worthy of our reflection, and we invite you to bring us even more!
One way we survive is with art, and there will be many ways to creatively engage in collective art and creative prompts around the themes this year, including our new first Friday offering – “Guidebook to the Garden,” when we will explore the theme together in more creative ways.
What is our collective survival, and what is it not? Join us all year to deepen our understanding together.
| Month | Theme | Translation |
| September | Survival is not a fortress. It is a garden. | Abundance. Care. |
| October | Survival is not a siren. It is a symphony. | Collaboration. Harmony. |
| November | Survival is not a promise. It is a memory. | Ancestry. Wisdom. |
| December | Survival is not a sprint. It is a breath. | Patience. Rest. |
| January | Survival is not a prison. It is a candle. | Freedom. Hope. |
| February | Survival is not a factory. It is a poem. | Creativity. Beauty. |
| March | Survival is not a tank. It is a potluck. | Community. Nourishment. |
| April | Survival is not the end. It is a seed. | Possibility. Future. |
| May | Survival is not a wasteland. It is a dance party. | Joy. Thriving. |