Current News and Upcoming Events
Adult Religious Education
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
Our Whole Lives
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.
Vision Harvest
Squamish Nation Elders Centre - Friday, October 9th, 2009
Some of our congregation, including our Minister Stephen Atkinson, attended the Vision Harvest event. The hosts were members of the Squamish Nation and Legacy North Shore, and the event included a Traditional Squamish welcome, a fish dinner, vision story telling, drumming and singing. Legacy North Shore is a non profit society, established in 2006 with the express intent of fostering broad-based and informed citizen engagement in support of a sustainable present and future for the North Shore of Metro Vancouver.
Unitarian men have met for decades on both sides of the border. Harold Rosen, minister of the North Shore Church, was the organizer for many years.
2009 Men's Retreat group photo
NSUC Choir Sings Karl Jenkins' “Stabat Mater”
May 30, 2009
At St. Andrew’s Wesley Church, our choir - under the direction and inspiration of Alison Nixon - was the catalyst, and brought together another 100-plus voices from choirs around the lower mainland for an evening of music in support of the Cottage Farm Society. The event was a great success!
Grade 12 Vigil
Fourth Weekend of May 2009
Some of our Grade 12’s completed a one-of-a-kind program designed specifically with their needs at this time in their life. The program started with a one day Walkabout that invites the questions that are uppermost in the mind at this point in their life. After the Walkabout meetings took place on a monthly basis for approximately 2 hours at a coffee shop. Through gentle questioning and group participation, youth were encouraged to look at where they have come from and what they are journeying to. The program ended with an overnight vigil that symbolically broke the bonds of youth.
Bombay Bazaar 2009
May 1, 2009
For those new to us, this auction is our main fund-raiser for the church and is held every Spring on the first Friday of May. The items are services offered by members of the congregation which are bid on, with the funds going to support the church. The 2009 Bazaar was a blast. Socials and fun are never too far away; fill your year at our Bombay Bazaar! Details will be in the March Newsletter.
Small Group Ministry
March to June, 2009
We began again to offer ministry in small groups for members and friends of NSUC. We call these "Discovery Circles": they offer 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. Each session includes a spiritual practice; a topic, question or reading; and a round of focused, personal sharing on that material. Our Discovery Circles serve a number of purposes: stimulating thinking and sharing about important issues across a range of congregants; offering another way to deepen spiritually; fostering deeper and wider connections among participants. As the program evolves, Discovery Circles will also be a way to integrate and welcome new people into our community. Longer series are planned for the fall.
Youth Advisor Training Weekend
On the weekend of March 20th, 2009, I joined Cathy and Paul from our Church and other youth advisors from the Vancouver Church and the Kelowna Fellowship for a weekend intensive (very intensive!) training seminar.
The openness and friendliness of the welcome we received was wonderful. We were extremely well fed and treated. I enjoyed the glimpses I saw of the town and really appreciated a chance to see a different UU service. Linda’s sermon was warm and touching and really a propos, making us think not only of the fact “that you need a village to raise a child” but also that “you need a child to have a village”.
The most interesting and informative part of the weekend was to see the interaction of Samaya and Tsuki. Here we saw in practice what the empowerment of a youth is all about and how amazing its results can be! I also found that, as a youth advisor, it really spoke to me about how I can behave with the youths of our group to get a stronger connection, now I only need the XXX years of experience to be able to really practice it.
It was quite an experience, that totally changed the expectations of what my role as a youth advisor is. Thank you so much to all who participated, organized and supported this great weekend… Now to the practice!
~Anne Drouet
~Paul Symons
Coming of Age
The 2008-2009 Coming of Age program wrapped up in April. Since the start of the church year, four of our youth went through a series of activities both in their mentor/protégé relationships and as a large group. There was a potluck on April 15th, during which the youth presented their credo statements to those gathered.
April 29th, 2009
We hosted a lecture and book-signing by author Douglas Todd, award-winning Vancouver Sun religion columnist, on his new book, Cascadia: The Elusive Utopia— Exploring the Spirit of the Pacific Northwest. In this anthology, contributors explain how our region is nurturing a unique ‘spirituality of place,’ which could become a model for the planet.
April 21st, 2009
We invited two guests to discuss their participation in the organizations Dying With Dignity and The Right to Die Society of Canada. Jim Preece and Susan Brekelmans will share their perspectives with us.
The Vancouver Grand March to end Homelessness
Saturday, April 4, 2009
We joined other lower mainland Unitarians to actively advocate an end to homelessness.
Many community groups were represented as we are gathered at the South end of the Burrard St Bridge.
The march wended its way over the bridge and along Burrard to the Art Gallery on Georgia. It stretched for blocks as
bridge and street closures enabled our journey. When we reached Georgia, we joined a second stream that marched into the city from downtown eastside.
Unitarian banners were held high at the rally, as we gathered for some serious fun; Stephen joined us there.
Talent Show
March 1, 2009
An enthusiastic audience was delighted by our annual Talent Show in March. Aaron Roseland opened with a piano piece. Pat Meyer tickled our funny bones with a Cinderella “tairy fale.” Anne Dyer’s Hawaiian dance was beautiful and graceful. Miranda Roseland’s lovely, clear voice was perfect for Who Will Buy? from Oliver. Sofia and David Osborne on violin and guitar had us tapping our feet to fiddle tunes. Mark Roseland’s original Lament of the Third Molars, which he sang with Miranda and Aaron, was hilarious. And Blair Thompson mystified us with entertaining magic tricks. Combined with the potluck that preceded the show, it was a fun and full evening.
New UU Workshop
February 28, 2009
Eight new people and one member spent a morning becoming familiar with our church and denomination. Rev. Stephen Atkinson and Director of Religious Education, Lynn Sabourin, presented information on UU history, the story of this congregation and the meaning of membership; participants asked questions and discussed together their experiences and hopes for the congregation. We encourage prospective members to participate in a New UU workshop, though it is not required in order to join us. Overall, those who attended were very glad to have a chance to understand more about who we are, where we’ve come from and where we hope to go.
Unique Sunday Services
Our congregation has enjoyed a series of unique Sunday morning services, as well as those given by our minister. On Jan 4, 2009, The Rev. Dr. Phillip Hewett, Minister Emeritus of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver, spoke to us about his visit last year to the Unitarian communities in India, and what he had learned there. Our Youth Director, Samaya Oakley, who is now studying to become a UU minister at the Vancouver School of Theology, delivered her first sermon to us, focusing on the joys of being a multi-generational community. Feb 1 our Artarians (visual artists) led the service, presenting images and material about the spirituality of BC artists Robert Genn, Emily Carr and Marilyn Mylrea. The following week, Kerry Burke and Doug Sabourin led a male-focused service, and on Feb 22, The Rev. Jane Bramadat of First Unitarian Church of Victoria preached to us on Unitarian concepts of evil, concluding a pulpit exchange with our minister, who preached in Victoria last June. The last in this series of guest speakers comes up on Mar. 8, when The Rev. Arthur Berman, an NSUC member who is a chaplain at Vancouver General Hospital, will preach to us on “time.”
Western UU Ministers ‘Retreat’
From Feb 6 to 8, ten UU ministers from Manitoba, Alberta and BC, including our own, gathered at the Rivendell Retreat Centre on Bowen Island for their annual winter retreat. Besides worship, meals and catching up, they spent several hours looking at the development of UU ministry in Canada and how ministers can be helpful with our national movement and the Canadian Unitarian Council.
Annual Budget Meeting
January 25, 2009
The congregation met to authorize our 2009 budget. Despite economic conditions, we were glad to find out that our canvass had done quite well and that budget cutbacks this year are fairly small. At this meeting, we also heard an update from the small group of Board members and volunteers who are working with hundreds of comments from members about experiences and hopes for this church in order to write a powerful Purpose Statement that will help guide our work well into the future. The plan is that this statement will be ready for our congregation to consider by our Annual General Meeting on May 24.
