


UU Auction 2025
IT IS TIME FOR THE UU AUCTION! Saturday, March 22nd @ 5:30 in Fellowship Hall Listed below are all the ways to be involved! 1. The Online Auction is now live! Use the button below to check out all the online items and start bidding! This will run until the end...
Trust Us?
Sunday, Mar 16, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: In a time when so many of us may not want to be part of a religious community, how do we create this church together?Join Reverend Jennifer in Fellowship Hall after the service to celebrate...
A Tender Repair
Sunday, Mar 9, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: Trust is the delicate stuff that knits up the world. What happens when it is frayed and torn? Coffee Hour Afterwards & Offering...
Trust Yourself
Sunday, Mar 2, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not in the branch but in her own wings.” This month’s theme is the Practice of Trust. The Financial...
Faith
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Mar 30, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Charlie Davis Overview: What do we trust when all hope is gone? What gives us strength to survive? What gives us courage to move forward? Coffee Hour Afterwards & Offering...
Buddhist Practices for Tough Times
Sunday, Feb 23, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Florence Caplow Overview: As we enter into a time of uncertainty and turmoil in our national life, finding our own personal grounding and clarity is essential, not just for our well-being but for our capacity to...
To Include
Sunday, Feb 16, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview:We invite. We welcome. We host. This month’s theme is inclusion. What happens when we include? Coffee Hour Afterwards & Offering...
Only the Lonely
Sunday, Feb 9, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: “Only connect” says E.M. Forster. We have so many ways to find each other and yet we miss each other all the time. How might we treat the epidemic of loneliness? Coffee Hour Afterwards &...
We Have What We Need: Mutuality and Our Earth
Sunday, Feb 2, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Patrick Price Overview: As we begin the monthly theme of Inclusion, we turn to our commitments to climate justice and ask, “How might we be in right relationship with the Earth in this time?” Coffee Hour...
The Story for Today: An Emergent People
Sunday, Jan 26, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: Each of us has a part in the story of our nation. Coffee Hour Afterwards & Offering...
Our Story: A Church and a Voice
Sunday, Jan 19, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: Since its founding in 1843, this congregation has seen the conflicts and movements of the nation. What is our story as a religious community? What lives on with us? Coffee Hour Afterwards...
Now Let Us Sing
Sunday, Jan 12, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: Join us for a chance to sing and share in the language of music. Stay after the service for aconversation about music in worship. Coffee Hour Afterwards & Offering...
Authors of Our Lives
Sunday, Jan 5, 2025 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: What stories shaped our early lives? What are we creating today? See Reverend Jennifer if you would like to share a brief story. Coffee Hour Afterwards & Offering...
Releasing the Year Behind Us: A Burning Bowl Ceremony
Sunday, Dec 29, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Jill Thomas and the Worship Committee Overview: On the last Sunday of the year, join us for a ritual to bid farewell to the old year and gather our spirits for the year to come. Coffee Hour Afterwards & Offering...
Lessons and Carols for Christmas Eve
Tuesday, Dec 24, 2024 @ 7:00 pm Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: For Christmas Eve, we share the message of Jesus’ birth through ancient and modern texts and beautiful music. This service will feature violin music from EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks and piano and...
The Best Gift
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Dec 22, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: In this season, we are pulled by our love of the world and our heartbreak for it. What boundaries need to be in place for us to be in our integrity and live...
Revolutionary Mary
Sunday, Dec 15, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Rebecca Gant Overview: The ancient story of the night Jesus was born is often portrayed as a serene affair with Mary and Joseph, gazing adoringly at their new baby while a star lights up the sky. But the Mary of the...
A Christmas Pageant
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Dec 8, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: This year’s interactive pageant will focus on the radical story of an immigrant baby who was born to an unwed mom and grew up to fight the empire. Everyone is...
The Work of a Generation: World AIDS Day
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Dec 1, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: This service focuses on World AIDS Day. Reverend Jennifer would like to hear your stories about AIDS and its impact. Email her at revjennifer@peoriauuchurch.org....
Brave New Worlds
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Nov 24, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: Join us for a deeper exploration of how our stories shape our lives. This service follows on the theme of speculative fiction from the “What If…?” service of...
Repair in Human Religion
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Nov 17, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: What do a few of our world religions say about our monthly theme of Repair?Fall Congregational Meeting is after the service. Coffee Hour Afterwards &...
Orientation
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Nov 10, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: On this Sunday after the election, we get our bearings for the work of our time.Soup Lunch to benefit Pleasant Valley Middle School after service. Coffee Hour...
The Practice of Democracy
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Nov 3, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: On this Sunday before the November election, we return to our highest ideals. How shall wemeet this moment with care and commitment? Coffee Hour Afterwards &...
What If…?
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Oct 20, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview:One of our human superpowers is wondering. We wonder and then craft stories, draft machines, and make meaning. What stories do we need today? Bonus: All are...
We Are Built for Joy
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, October 13th @ 10:30 am Speaker: Babs Allen Climate change, systemic oppression, war, genocide, contentious politics…it can feel never ending and overwhelming. Would it feel different if we approached things from a place of love...
Returning
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Oct 6, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: As part of our exploration of spiritual practices, we honor Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. With this service, we will begin to work with our monthly theme...
Haunted Forest 2024
Haunted Forest Saturday, October 19th 7-8:30 PM Great Grove & Fellowship Hall Haunted Woods, Tricks & Treats, Campfire, Samhain Ritual, Witches Dance, & Tarot Readings too! Dare to enter the trail through the haunted forest where ghouls and goblins...
Loved and Lost: A Service of Remembrance
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Oct 27, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis, Jesi Laughlin, and the Congregation Overview: At this time of year, many cultures and faiths set aside time for when the veil between the living and the dead grows thin....
For the Love of This Earth
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Sep 29, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: Addressing climate crisis and climate justice are massive, daunting tasks. What if we returned to love? See how congregations across the country respond at...
Toward a Theology of Pastoral Care
Sunday, Sep 22, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: In recent years, we have rediscovered the value of compassion. We also recognize the many forms of our “love languages.” What does pastoral care mean to you? How do we serve one another?...
Feeding the Soul
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Sep 15, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: All human beings carry a hunger. This may be a literal hunger, or it might be for something challenging to name and impossible to satisfy. What do you hunger...
Ingathering Water Communion: Deep Sources, A Deeper Love
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Sep 8, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: This Ingathering marks the start of the church year. We offer our commitments to one another and celebrate being part of community that is called to create more...
Our Work and Our Liberation
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Sep 1, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: On Labor Day Sunday, Reverend Jennifer returns to her occasional series on democracy. Given the ever-shifting dynamics of our politics, how do we speak for...
The Question Is the Answer 2024
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Aug 25, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: For our end of summer Question Box Sermon, we are part of creating the message along with Reverend Jennifer. Send her your questions ahead of time or in person...
Blessing of the Animals 2024
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Aug 18, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview: Join us for our Blessing of the Animals! Beloved animals are welcome to join us on site or in a photo. In person pets must be leashed or in a kennel or carrier....
Regenerative Agriculture
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Aug 11, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Sarah Allen Overview: Regenerative agriculture focuses on improving the health of soil, which has been degraded by the use of heavy machinery, fertilizers, and pesticides in...
The Time (Travels) of our Lives
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Aug 4, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Brad Keefauver Overview:For those of us born in the nineteen hundreds, the future world of 2024 might not have turned out exactly like we thought it would. Time travel at the pace of a well-lived...
Gender and Its Intersections
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Jul 28, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Kai Wiest Overview: Kai Wiest, a transgender man from Central Illinois and a U of I graduate, has been able to find a welcoming community in the UU church. He will present his perspective on...
Rummage Sale 2024
Come check out our annual rummage sale this year on July 26-27! This sale is huge! Why spend time going from garage sale to garage sale in the summer heat when you can be here with everything under one air-conditioned roof! Friday 8am-5pm and Saturday 8am-3pm....
T-Shirt Theology
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Jul 21, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Jill Thomas & the Congregation Overview: It has been said, “You are what you wear.” A message on a t-shirt can tell us a lot about the person wearing it. During this service, members of the...
Dementia
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Jul 14, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Mike Jongerius Overview: Dr. Mike Jongerius is a family physician who recently retired after 30+ years of practice in the Peoria area. As he ‘aged’ with his patients, he developed a special...
The Little Prince
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Jul 7, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Bill Ordaz Overview: Mystical and enchanting, this small book has fascinated both children and adults for decades. Join us as we explore the many messages still pertinent to our lives today....
Our History: The Sunday Evening Lectures
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Jun 30, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Kathy Carter Overview:In the 1920s and early 1930s, the First Universalist Church brought nationally and internationally known speakers to Peoria. Learn how these Sunday Evening Lectures began...
Litha: A Ritual to Mark the Summer Solstice
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Jun 23, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Keepers of the Great Grove: CUUPs Overview: This longest day of the year is the perfect time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we are going. This service will be for all ages and include...
I’m Not That Kind of Girl
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Jun 16, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Jill Thomas Overview: After 30+ years as a UU, I have really changed. Coffee Hour Afterwards & Offering...
Cherish the Moment – Recognition and Church Picnic at the Herm Farm
ZOOM is UNAVAILABLE for this service, please join us in person Sunday, Sun Jun 9, 2024Picnic Starts @ 9:30 am (NOTE THE TIME CHANGE)Service Starts @ 10:45 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis and a Cast of Thousands Overview:Join us at the Herm Farm for our annual...
Let There Be Brightness: The Flower Communion
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, Jun 2, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis & Jesi Laughlin, DLRE Overview: Join us for a celebration of story and the abundance of life as we honor our ritual of the Flower Communion. All are invited to bring...
Stories of Witness and Action
Join the 10:30am Service Zoom Sunday, May 26, 2024 @ 10:30 am Speaker(s): Reverend Jennifer Innis Overview:On Memorial Day weekend, we return to the ongoing theme of democracy and being a citizen. How do we show up and act in this time? Note: due to a technical error,...