I will be away from Evanston the next two weekends. It always makes me sad when I’m not at church on Sunday — but there is work out there in the world to be done, and I will return home soon.
BOSTON
I’m currently in Boston with our Journeys Class. I cherish these few days spent with our UU youth every few years, having led several of these pilgrimages. I will be preaching on the experience when I return. Over the years I have noticed that these trips cement my relationship with our youth group in a way that carries through their high school years. I cannot spend a lot of time with the youth group week in and week out, so this concentrated time is something that is valuable and precious for all of us. Thank you for sharing me with our youth every couple of years in this way.
CABARET CHURCH
Next week, on May 31st, I will be participating in an experiment creating spontaneous church community based on art, revery, and celebration. Since our theme in June is “what does it mean to be a people of revery,” it will be another worthwhile preaching topic that I hope to bring back.
I also want to invite you to join me in McHenry on May 31st at noon. You could attend the first service here at UCE, and then drive out to Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation to join in the afternoon festivities. You can learn more about Cabaret Church here: http://www.cabaretchurch.org
Says Cabaret Church creator Rev. Sean Parker Dennison: “I will be a secret agent in this world… quietly instigating a revolution to destroy the machine that is trying to make us all the same. I will leverage every bit of my respectability to help create a world that is more loving, more creative and more beautiful. I will spend my life creating communities where all of us are encouraged to be ourselves and no one else. And when we do, we will unlock this crazy deep well of joy that will make us laugh and cry and scream and dance and be in love with being alive, even when it is excruciating. And I will find comrades, partners, lovers, friends and I will tell them: Your only mission is authenticity. Your only job is to be yourself. Your only vocation is to look inside your soul and see what’s there and bring your amazing, wonderful, beautiful gifts into this world. Bring yourself to life!”
There will be musicians, a circus tent, circus performers, maybe even a petting zoo. I still am not exactly sure what my role will be in this mad experiment that Rev. Sean has cooked up (except that I am bringing a costumed brass band to the party). I know that I am going to be a secret agent out there, taking notes and making connections so that, perhaps next year, Cabaret Church will come to Evanston.