This past Sunday we had a team visit from Groupon who helped to liven up some of our children's education wing. They painted quotes in the library, hung up bulletin boards and posters, gave fresh, new coats of paint to the stairway and blue room, organized our resource room, and more. Thanks to their help, our children's education wing is now a much more friendly place!

Change for Change

During the season of Lent we are challenging people to join our "Change for Change" project. We encourage you to save all of your change and then after Easter count it up. Send a check to the church at 1545 W Morse Ave, Chicago, IL 60626 or donate online the amount that you've saved. Through a little bit of change we can make big changes in our neighborhood!

2nd Floor Renovations

The last month has been a busy one for the second floor and children's ministries of the United Church of Rogers Park. If you haven't been upstairs to see changes that have occurred, please take some time to visit and see the transformation.

While working on a mission trip at UCRP with her youth group from Downers Grove First United Methodist, Jenny felt called to do something more than her week of service. She decided that she wanted to help create a children's library for the children's ministries at UCRP as a part of her project for her Gold Award in Girl Scouting. But, sometimes God has a bigger vision than we can see and soon the project grew from creating a library to helping to renovate the entire second floor of the church. Jenny was able to raise over $3,000 and acquire donations of computers, tables, and children's books.

Through Jenny's project, new flooring was bought for the blue room, the floors in the classrooms were stripped and refinished, a new computer was purchased, and she cataloged and organized hundreds of books for the children's library.

This all means that the second floor of the church now houses a children's library, an education resource room, a computer lab, a multipurpose meeting room, a large open

space, a classroom and a nursery. These rooms are already being put to use and will continue to offer space for children's ministries, meetings, and other uses.

We would like to thank Jenny and the youth from Downers Grove First United Methodist church for all their hard work.

Holiday Cheer for All

Christmas cheer flowed throughout the building at the United Church of Rogers Park on December 22. 40 families gathered together for the 2009 Holiday Cheer program. Mark Bowman and his family cooked a delicious vegetarian meal, and church members mingled and served the food. After dinner, everyone came together to sing Christmas carols and make Christmas cards. At the end of the night, 86 children received gifts that were generously donated from the angel tree at United Church of Rogers Park and Trinity United Methodist in Willmette. Each family also received a gift card for groceries thanks to donations from The Glenwood, Davis-Miller Design in Winnetka, and generous church members.

This Summer at United Church...

Weeks of preparation, interns raising funds to be here, mission teams and groups coming to support us, and 75 children from the Rogers Park neighborhood, have come together to fulfill a need in this community.

Jesus taught in Matthew 19: 13-15, that the little Children were to be brought to him to be blessed, and further goes on to discuss that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the children.

Is it not outstanding that the Kingdom of Heaven is being realized right here at United Church of Rogers Park. The goal of our summer camp is to bring children to a place like Jesus described, a place where safety and education happen, a place where love abounds, and hospitality is shown to all children who walk through our doors; truly the Kingdom of Heaven, realized! It is with this attitude we come to work and inspire those who come to work with us, in awesome and empowering ways.

With hopes, dreams, and powerful messages, we help the children to realize that the Church, is a safe environment for them to cling to in their time of need and in their time of greatness.

Safe Summer and Peace Walk

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and TV news crews came to our community’s United Church of Rogers Park for a Safe Summer Rally and Peace March today (6-10-09). The event, featured on WLS-TV 7 News, was attended by over 100 church members, community residents and activists, and civic leaders supporting Chicago’s citywide campaign to stop gun and gang violence.

Our Pastor Catiana McKay, speaking at the event at our church at 1545 W. Morse Ave, addressed the anti-violence theme powerfully. Pastor McKay noted, “When we begin to make peace as the way that we live and we claim a neighborhood for peace, our communities change. I would like to see peace poles all over this community to claim that there is no space for violence here. We are here to transform that.”

The high incidence of violence in Rogers Park, including the December, 2008 stabbing murder of 16-year-old Isaiah Stroud outside the Jarvis CTA station, and other city neighborhoods with an even higher crime rate were noted in the television station’s story (copied below). A key factor in how we combat crime is how we address the needs of youth. Our Deacon Wesley Dorr outlined the year-round and summer youth programs delivered at United Church, and also spoke to the need for more programs and activities to serve Rogers Park’s youth.

Other participants at today’s event at United Church included the Rev. Jesse Jackson (who called our city’s murder rate “a state of emergency”), Sarita Villareal of Save A Life, The Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Cease Fire and the Chicago Police Department.

As chairman of our church board of trustees, I join Pastor McKay in “claiming our neighborhood for peace.” I’m also proud that our congregation continues to be proactive on critical issues facing our community and that we are working to help unite our neighbors in common cause.
Information on United Church of Rogers Park and the work we do is available at our web site at http://www.ucrogerspark.org/index.htm or by calling us at (773) 761-2500.

Peace,
Michael J. Harrington
Chair of United Church Board of Trustees