Calendar of events

Here you will find all of our congregation’s Sunday Services, Board and Committee meetings and other events. Use the calendar controls to see events for past or future dates. For a quick look at recent Sunday Services, click here!

Jan
6
Sun
Joe Jencks “The Mundanity of The Sacred Journey”
Jan 6 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

In story, song, and reflection, international touring performer, songwriter, and itinerant preacher Joe Jencks explored what it means to embrace the everyday as sacred, to embrace others with compassion, and to seek healing for ourselves, and others through our daily practices. Influenced by Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Humanism, and other spiritual traditions, Joe weaves wisdom and teachings from several world religions into a message about personal growth, recovery, social justice, and community. Jencks is an award winning songwriter and long-standing Unitarian Universalist from Chicago, IL. He has shared the stage with numerous folk luminaries including Pete Seeger, Holly Near, Utah Phillips and John McCutcheon.

Jan
13
Sun
John Slattery “The Remarkable Life and Turbulent times of Michael Servetus, a Unitarian Predecessor”
Jan 13 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

Michael Servetus was an early 16th century anti-Trinitarian.  He founded no religion, established no churches,and spent much of his life in hiding.  The service examined why he was condemned to death by three separate religious establishments.

Jan
20
Sun
Susanne Garmsen “Canada’s Tibetan Resettlement Project”
Jan 20 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

Canada has undertaken to resettle a number of Tibetans here from third countries. Susanne shared the significance of this project.

Jan
27
Sun
Sue McKenzie “Meaningful Travel”
Jan 27 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

Touring Croatia with an ethical travel company: an ESL teacher’s perspective.

Feb
3
Sun
Peter Scales “Canvass & Abundance” @ James Bay New Horizons
Feb 3 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

From you I receive, to you I give! Let’s talk about ways that we can share our abundance to continue our congregational life.

Feb
10
Sun
Dick Jackson “Hymn Sing – Songs of Love” @ James Bay New Horizons
Feb 10 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

As we near Valentine’s Day, join us in raising our voices in a wide variety of songs of love in its many forms

Feb
17
Sun
Jessica Rourke “Forgiveness: A gift to yourself and to the community” @ James Bay New Horizons
Feb 17 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

What can we do individually and as a congregation to change the future by acts of forgiveness? Jessica Rourke will build on the popular presentation she gave two years ago and explore unforgivable acts, self-forgiveness, and restorative justice.

Feb
24
Sun
Rev. Antonia Won. “Confessions of a Perfectionist” @ James Bay New Horizons
Feb 24 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

Rev Antonia Won “Confessions of a Perfectionist” Growing up as a Unitarian, I was aware of highly held values it was assumed would naturally result in a better society – if we lived into them adequately. I try to be a good person and live out those values, including acceptance of others as our first principle affirms (the one about inherent worth and dignity). And yet I still struggle with people whose views I can’t understand. I feel they are wrong, even if I don’t say so. Did Unitarianism get me into this pickle? More importantly, can it help get me out?

Rev. Antonia Won is a third generation Canadian Unitarian and a minister working for the Canadian Unitarian Council, overseeing Western Region and BC. Antonia has worked in congregations large and small in New Mexico, Montana and BC. She was a theme park planner and project manager in a former life. Antonia lives in Vancouver, has two young adult children and a partner who has taught her to sail.

Mar
3
Sun
Susanne Garmsen “Does Spirituality reside in a church or within a 12 Step Program?”
Mar 3 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

Susanne presents the ideas of Franciscan Father Richard Rohr, whose book “Breathing Underwater” discusses where to find the spiritual.

This service will also include a New Members Welcome.

Mar
10
Sun
Dyanne Lineger “Healing Loneliness”
Mar 10 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

There is a great gulf between being alone and being lonely. Are they even related? Can we be alone without being lonely?  Can we be lonely without being alone? Reverend Brian Kiely explored loneliness in this sermon for the Unitarian Church of Edmonton and has welcomed Dyanne to present it to us.

 

Mar
17
Sun
Rachel Cleves “What, Another Female Husband? The Pre-History of Same-Sex Marriage in America”
Mar 17 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

Now that the Gay Rights Movement has led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in nine states and the District of Columbia, it is time to re-examine the history of this practice and recover past precedents.

This talk examines diverse evidence of the existence of same-sex marriages in North America from the 16th century through the twentieth century. Unfortunately memory of this history of marital variability has been erased, owing in part to the tendency of contemporary descriptions to describe such unions as “impossible.” The rhetoric of impossibility allowed communities to accommodate couples who transgressed the rule that marriage should be cross-sexed, without redefining the category of marriage.

Rachel Hope Cleves is Associate Professor of History at the University of Victoria. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America (Oxford University Press, 2013), which examines the lives of two ordinary women who lived in an extraordinary same-sex marriage in Vermont, from 1807 to 1851. Originally from New York City, Cleves is a happy transplant to B.C.’s beautiful capital city.

 

Mar
24
Sun
Dana L Seaborn “Celebrating Spring” @ James Bay New Horizons
Mar 24 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

What came first: the chicken, the egg, or the Easter Bunny? Join us as we resurrect the sources of our European spring festival traditions!