Current News and Upcoming Events
Discovery Circles - Winter 2011 Series
Discovery Circles are a form of small group ministry, offering the opportunity to build relationships of trust and friendship with others in the church based upon spiritual practice, specifically deeper listening and sharing with each other. This program attracts both new and long-time members and friends of NSUC.
The Winter series will start in late January, and will run every other week, for a total of eight sessions. If you would like to be part of a Discovery Circle, please sign up on the registration sheet, posted on the ‘Heart Mind Spirit’ board downstairs at the church, indicating your preferred day(s) of the week and time of day: morning, afternoon or evening. We’ll do our best to accommodate you. You can also contact Debbie Leslie at the church office at 604-926-1621, or email nsuc@telus.net.
Sign-up soon! We require at least eight group members to form a Discovery Circle PLUS a volunteer facilitator for each group. Facilitator training and ongoing support is provided. Contact Rev. Stephen Atkinson or Andrea Fast if you’re interested. Andrea's contact information is in the church directory.
Compassionate Communication
On April 1, 2009, Catherine Strickland began facilitating a new Compassionate Communication practice group. It meets every other week on Wednesday evenings between 6:30 and 8:30 pm. This practice group is for beginners and those who are familiar with Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication model. This approach deepens our ability to embody our Unitarian principles through the four components of self-connection, self-empathy, expressing ourselves authentically and giving empathy to others. Contact the office for registration.
Recent Events
Ordination of Antonia Won
May 1, 2011
At St. David’s United Church, in West Vancouver, our congregation ordained Ms. Antonia Won, a long-time member of our community, as a Unitarian Universalist Minister. Antonia's path to ministry began over 10 years ago: after years of applying her energy to many different areas of NSUC programs as well as in various capacities for the Eliot Institute, she realized her call to ministry. As a student and single mother of two, her path was more challenging than most.
It was a great joy for our congregation to affirm her call to Ministry, especially given that she is now following that call as the full-time Congregational Development Staff in Western Canada for the Canadian Unitarian Council.
2010 Children's Christmas Pageant
December 19, 2010
As part of our Sunday service, many of the children in the Church School, and supporting adults and youth, put on our annual Christmas pageant. This year it was an adaptation of the musical, The Little Bell That Could Not Ring, which was directed by Kathryn Nicholson and accompanied by Elizabeth Cheng on piano. 245 people packed into the sanctuary to be part of this wonderful event. Jasha Ramsay-Latter provided many of the costumes and the scenery for us. The solos by Laila and Miranda were lovely and the children in the Bell Family played their parts and their bells well, as did the villagers. The pageant included a Nativity tableau and many hearts melted seeing little baby Jackson, who played the role of Baby Jesus, with his Mom and Dad, Gabi and Ross (aka. Mary and Joseph). The angels, shepherds and Wise People completed the scene.
Kathy McMahon:
"How to Stay Sane as the World Goes Crazy:
Economic Hard Times, Climate Change and the Messy Issues of Oil"
October 17, 2010
As we're bombarded with alarming headlines on a daily basis, how do we find
the sane space between Doom and Denial? Is there a place for wit when we
examine the major challenges of our lifetime: economic depression,
environmental degradation, and energy depletion? Is blind optimism itself,
a diagnosable mental disorder?
With humor and insight clinical psychologist Kathy McMahon addressed a few
of the major challenges of our time and discussed why "all or nothing"
thinking is cutting short a more serious conversation about what we value,
how our values dictate our behavior, and what we need to do to prepare for a
future that may be very different from what's been predicted.
She introduced Panglossian Disorder, with subtypes such as:
- Rhett-Butlerism - ("Peak Oil? Planetary and economic collapse? Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn...")
- Scarlet O'Hara-ism- ("I'll just have to think about that tomorrow...") and
- Frank Zappa-ism: ("As soon as things get really bad, they'll come up with something"- a belief that necessity is the mother of invention.)
Homelessness Action Week: Nourishing Our Community
As part of this week promoting awareness of, and service to, the homeless of the North Shore, our congregation hosted an evening meal at the Lookout shelter, inviting the entire homeless community. Volunteers went to Langley to get the fresh, donated vegetables, volunteers made mounds of delicious dessert bars, volunteers created an Italian café environment in the shelter, chopped mountains of vegetables for the salads, served a delicious, nutritious meal, and cleaned it all up.
It was indeed an all-church event, including all ages, eight and over. We served about sixty meals, many had seconds, and not a morsel was left on the many dessert trays. The enthusiastic volunteers who made this work so beautifully are too numerous to mention appropriately here, so please see the bulletin board for our remarkable cast and crew.
The following is from Robyn Newton, who organized and coordinated our efforts:
Thank you so very much to all the people who stepped forward to help with the dinner for the homeless on October 13. It was a fabulous success. The volunteers made my job as coordinator so easy. You all just stepped in, and did what needed to be done. One comment I overheard from one of the staff was “When you said it was an Italian theme I thought you just meant the food; this is absolutely wonderful!”
Special thanks go to Chef Louis Gervais, of Louis Gervais Fine Foods & Catering (www.louisgervais.com), who donated the remarkable pasta dish; and to Farmer Stephen Gallagher, of Nathan Creek Organic Farm CSA (www.nathancreek.ca),
who donated fresh, organic veggies for the salads.
As the Senior High Our Whole Lives program wrapped up, we began preparing for the program that has been affectionately entitled Puberty Blues! Grade 5 and 6 families had the opportunity to sign up for an 8-week program that covers the physical and emotional changes of puberty, and examines topics such as values and sexuality, communication and decision making. A required book for the program is called It's Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris. Each session includes a HomeLink - a homework activity for parents and children to complete together.
The program began with two mandatory parent orientation sessions on Monday, March 1st and 15 from 7-9. The 8-week session with the children started on Monday, March 22nd and will run through to Monday, May 31st with a family celebration closure evening. As in the past, there is a parent segment offered at the same time with parents going through similar exercises that the children go through with discussion about how to support the values in the home. Your facilitators for this program include Blair Thompson and Lesley Giroday. Samaya Oakley will facilitate the parent program.
