Category: Uncategorized

This letter from Friends appeared in the News-Gazette on Sunday October 12th, 2025:

Our community should appreciate the hidden gem that is Sola Gratia Farm in Urbana. Consisting of over 20 acres of crops, a greenhouse and orchards, they are located in southeast Urbana.

U-C Quaker Meeting had a tour recently and learned that this project was started in 2012 to address both food insecurity and climate change — that is, feeding the hungry and conserving the Earth. This is critical work we are all called to do, as members of religious faiths and as human beings.

We learned that in Urbana, 75 percent of public-school students qualify for reduced-price lunches. To address this, Sola Gratia donates 20 to 30 percent of its fresh food — over 50 different varieties of vegetables and some fruits — to food banks and pantries in both cities.

The 4 acres of the original Sola Gratia, started by St. Matthew Lutheran Church, are called the “Community Classroom” and are now used for outdoor agriculture education and as a demonstration farm. It offers the community new opportunities for teaching and learning. Besides feeding the underfed and being good stewards of the Earth, they work at building a community of cooperation and care.

Climate change is a challenge, but by following organic and regenerative practices, they are building the soil and designing the farm to be resilient as conditions change. We encourage everyone in the community to stop by to see this diversified operation.

BARBARA KESSEL

GRAYCE MESNER

Urbana

At a Called Business Meeting on Sunday, June 2, 2024, Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting approved joining the American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) Apartheid-Free Communities Campaign, which currently includes 330 other faith-based communities and organizations, with some standing aside. 

Our meeting signed the following, modified pledge:

We affirm our commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and all people;

We oppose all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression; and

We declare ourselves an Apartheid-free congregation and to these ends;

We pledge to join others in working to end all support to Israel’s Apartheid policies, settler colonialism, and military occupation in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

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

Dress is comfortable and casual at Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting.

We gather for Meeting in silence, there is no pastor.

We open ourselves to be present in the moment and listen to the Inner Light and follow where the Spirit leads us.