Bethany UCC

Pastor Alaina received a standing ovation for her final sermon at Bethany UCC. Give it a listen here!

Bethany Member and University of Chicago Divinity Student Xander King preaches our final sermon for October, finishing out our theme of Apocalypse Now.

On Sunday, Rev. Vince delivered this sermon centering New Revelations, being present in the current moment and exploring endings. Give it a listen here...

Kate Leeman was preaching last Sunday, thinking about awe and wonder. About all that is bigger, and stranger, and more beautiful than we can take in. Which is what worship is about. Whether you’re already in that awe-filled place, or coming off of an awful week, you’re welcome here. We hope you will find a little of what you need here.

Pastor Alaina preached this last Sunday, in partnership with the Lighthouse Foundation, they were asking CARE churches to partner alongside them and preach a sermon on the importance of Workforce Development for Black LGBTQ+ folx and how accomplices can participate in that work. Here is an interpretation of the Parables of the Talents.

Pastor Alaina gave the sermon this past Sunday on how animals bless us by participating in our spiritual care. Listen now.

Rev. Vince is preaching the sermon about making believe we are God! Taking a God’s eye view of others and of ourselves. Continuing the Make Believe theme, we're thinking about seeing ourselves as God sees us.

We welcome you to listen to our Rev. Pastor Vince Amlin speak on from Sunday, September 10th on our Make Believe theme with the focus on eye contact, seeing from the marginalized perspective, All the people Jesus chooses to see, to make eye contact with. Imagining ourselves as the ones who are seen. Imagining ourselves as the ones looking away.

From this past Sunday, we welcome guest Virginia Gilbert as she preaches the sermon this week speaking on seeing the light, trusting our experiences, experiences of understanding, recognition, being understood and recognized.

Pastor Alaina preached about our new series - Make Believe!

Rev. Vince Amlin preaches about the idea of "Desperation Pie", how the humblest foods become the favorites, desperation becomes pie.

Pastor Alaina gave a sermon this past Sunday on spiritual comfort food as part of our August sermon series on “Family Recipes.”

Rev. Vince is back to talk about ruminating on marinating on tradition, slow cooking, and how so many family recipes are based on taking time. Listen now!

Pastor Alaina is preaching about this month's theme: Family Recipe. Sometimes we add too much to a recipe over time and lose what a recipe is supposed to really taste like. Christianity can have a lot of filler added that dramatically impacts flavor. What is it supposed to taste like? Love.

Rev. Rebecca Anderson gives her last sermon before she leaves on a 3 month Sabbatical. How can Bethany UCC learn to sing together? Let's come together, understand other perspectives and sing. Listen now.

Our sabbatical pastor Alaina continued our "Living in Harmony" series with a sermon on conflict. How do we fight and fight well while living in harmony? As well as some commentary on the abuse of various scripture, listen for a sermon on harmonious conflict.

Rev. Rebecca continues out "Living in Harmony" series by co-preaching with the incredible Elise laBarge about learning to live in harmony. Its all about coming to understand what the others will do (and each their own tendencies).

Pastor Alaina preached for our "Living in Harmony" series with what harmony means. Harmony is adding your own tune to someone else’s song—not just obeying their melody or remaining silent. We each bring something to add!

Interim Pastor Alaina wraps up our Beyond the Binary series with a sermon on Joseph's coat of blessing. We're finishing this series (for now) with the blessing of beyond the gender binary in the Bible with Joseph.

Ann Ridge provided an amazing sermon on the climate crisis for our first worship of July. Hellfire and brimstone: the state that people are living in right now. Hell and fire are here now. She reminds us that we are people of action. We’re people with responsibility. We’re able to take action.

Rev. Rebecca preached our third week of "Beyond the Binary" about the good happening in-between. In pastoral care class in grad school, a guest speaker talked about the ways people early in romantic relationships tend to project onto each other, to the extent that they miss some of what’s really there. If and when those relationships deepen, people often go through a painful but necessar...

We had the AMAZING Johnny Buranosky as a guest preacher with us to continue our June series! In this sermon, Johnny is expanding beyond the binary of thinking we will walk only one path. Dolly Parton famously said “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”

Interim Pastor Alaina kicked off our June series with a sermon about nourishment for body and soul. This Pride month we are going beyond the binary where we are looking for God in the wide colorful expanse beyond this it that, black and white, either/or, thinking!

Guest preacher and Bethany member in discernment, Xander King, provides our next sermon in the weirdest stories of the Bible series! With Numbers 25 as the base, it's just a scriptural mess but it could be an interesting exploration of how the "weird" and disturbing stories in the Bible are often the result of historical tension in the story itself. Tune in to hear!

Interim Pastor Alaina continues our series by addressing how we interpret the story of the blind man in Mark 8. It's often interpreted to be only about healing and therefore miss the vision of the blind man. Listen as she uplifts a different understanding of disability and interprets this message in a non-ablest light.