Author: David Lewis

As members and attenders of Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting (Quakers), we join with Northside Friends Meeting in Chicago in inviting everyone to hold this Memorial Day as a day of mourning also for the losses suffered by all people, locally and around the world, during the pandemic. We invite you to join with us and with your loved ones and communities to mourn together the world’s losses and sorrows.  We also invite you to join us in holding a moment of silence at sundown on Memorial Day, when we will light a candle and step outside, and grieve, and remember others who are grieving.

Since March 13,2020. due to COVID-19,  the Friends Meeting House has been closed and all onsite activities cancelled until further notice. The grounds can be visited with appropriate social distancing.

We continue to hold–by Zoom–Meeting for Worship on Sundays at 10:30 and check-ins Wednesday night at 7pm. Email the clerk for information on how to join these gatherings.

Friends would like to thank Chuck for the lovely children’s chairs he made from the limbs of the hackberry tree, chairs that now grace our playscape and Commons Room.

“During this election season, I ask that members of this Meeting and of our greater community refrain from automatically rejecting the opportunity to vote due to the obvious rottenness of our political system. Abstaining from voting, though with its history, will always be complicated on account of it simply being the physically easier, less taxing decision. I ask that all look inward, consider motivations and pessimisms before making a decision. Whatever you conclude will be respected and supported by this Meeting, in accordance with our manner, as the Quaker faith trusts you and your personal examinations of God’s indwelling in your heart. Your conscience, when fully embraced, will not be overridden by a desire to stay in on the rainy day that stands between you and the ballot. Similarly, it will not force your participation.” – Ian