News Articles

The evening of May 18, 2025, Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church (HUUC) celebrated Rev. Bill Gupton’s 23 years as their Senior Minister prior to his retirement at the end of the month with fine finger food, drinks, music, gifts, and variety of guests. The Great Hall was filled to standing room only capacity.

Following a time to socialize, HUUC member Ann Roberts served as Master of Ceremonies for various presentations.  Speakers, in person and virtual, reminded the assembled of Bill’s call to HUUC, working on his staff, and involvement with Heritage Acres. The full HUUC choir sang a version of American Pie, reworded for the occasion.

The program ended with three gifts from the congregation to Bill. The first was a t-shirt emblazoned with “Still Imagining,” a watercolor of the church building by HUUC congregant Bill Webster, and a book of special wishes from people Bill has touched during his tenure at HUUC.

Image source: courtesy of B. L. Barnes

Our Music Director and Accompanist, Sherry McCamley, wrote and lead the HUUC choir in a musical parody to Rev. Bill Gupton at the recent Open House to celebrate his upcoming retirement. Due to many requests for the lyrics, Sherry has supplied them below.  

Bye Bye Rev. Bill
(sung to the tune of American Pie)
By Sherry McCamley

A long, long time ago, HUUC hired a new minister named Bill
And he knew if he had his chance, he could help us sing and dance
And he knew we’d be happy for awhile
In joy and love, we did shiver with every sermon he’d deliver
Good news on our doorstep, he helped us take one more step
Toward social justice for everyone
And we’d make a difference when day was done
Bill has touched us, everyone, and now we say goodbye

Chorus:
So bye, bye, Reverend Bill’s a great guy
Won’t be pastor but he’s lasted a long time so don’t cry
He won’t be far, a few miles as the crow flies
Digging holes & planting trees that won’t die
Digging holes & planting trees that won’t die

Bill believes in the power of love & he gave us faith in the universe above
He’s led the people with that love
And he believes in rock ‘n’ roll, the Beatles are part of his mortal soul
And we sing “Imagine” real slow
We pass the plate but we give it away, to some others who really need it today Our abundance we can share, Bill’s made it very fair
With Candles of Community, our connection’s strong as you can see
Our Bill has left a legacy, so we say thanks and goodbye

Chorus:

For 23 years through good times and strife
Thru weddings, births and celebrations of life
Bill’s been there to lend a hand
He’s headed to Heritage Acres now, where he shows folks the best way how
To preserve and protect our land

So now we honor Bill for real with stories, songs and vegan meals
No gluten for him please – just rice and frozen peas
And while he munches on serviceberries in the park
The choir sings folk songs in the dark
We sure will miss your intense spark
As we must say goodbye

So bye, bye, Reverend Bill’s a great guy
Won’t be pastor but he’s lasted a long time so don’t cry
He won’t be far, a few miles as the crow flies
So we won’t be really saying goodbye, we won’t be really saying goodbye

Image source: https://tinyurl.com/m942kb2m

Over 2,300 folks participated in in this year’s Forest Hills 5K Run/Walk and After Party on May 10, 2025 — including about a dozen from Heritage. Some ran, walked, or “strollered.” Laci and a couple of volunteers met/interacted with families at the Heritage booth promoting this summer’s Peace and Pride Camps. Parents and teens expressed appreciation for the welcome and encouragement they received and for the ways Heritage has shown up to support our LGBTQ kids and others in the community.

Images source: courtesy of Bill Lyon

Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (UUJEC) showed appreciation to HUUC with a hand-written thank you note regarding our recent donation as part of our annual gift from the Social Justice Collaborative. The letter read as follows:

Dear Friends,

Thanks so much for your recent contribution of $150 to UUJEC. Your support means a lot to us.

With your help we’ve been able to continue developing and distributing resources for use in social justice work by UU congregations across the country.
We hope your members will visit our website at UUJEC.org and review some of our past webinars and book reviews. We also hope you stop by our booth at the Baltimore GA this summer. Our board members would enjoy meeting and speaking with your members about your social justice work.

Keep up the good work,

Jane Bannon, Treasurer, UUJEC
Jane Bannor
2701 W. Fitch Ave.
Chicago, IL 60645

For more information on UUJEC, check out their website at https://uujec.org/

Image source: https://tinyurl.com/2b8nd923

Rae Jane and Russ Araujo recently invited HUUC members and friends to sign postcards to elected officials. The postcards were pre-printed with a message and the addressees’ names and addresses, and the postage stamps were provided. This pre-printing helped. This effort was done as part of an informal group called “UU Our Senators,” made up of people from Ohio UU churches.

Image source: https://tinyurl.com/42e6jn6s