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!
We can build community by designing better public spaces! This talk introduces listeners to placemaking, and then provides detailed examples of how two forms of placemaking – little free libraries and road murals – can be used to build safe, connected, and resilient communities. Teale explores ways in which individuals, community groups, and municipal governments can support placemaking, and the role that visualization and data can play in promoting placemaking. Since 2017, Teale has been mapping, helping build, and stocking little free libraries around the CRD. They began with 111 in the region, and in September 2025 they celebrated the 1,000th LFL! To date, their project has distributed over 126,000 books to LFLs across the CRD.
Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff is a Councillor in the District of Saanich, a researcher and a community organizer. He works as the Director of Research for OceansAsia, which tackles marine wildlife crime, and he is the world-leading expert on sea cucumber fisheries crime. Teale is the Chair and Co-founder of the AccessBC Campaign, which successfully advocated for free prescription contraception in BC. He also works as the Research Coordinator for the BC Humanist Association, which supports the separation of religion and government in BC and across Canada. His academic research examines the strategic use of international law by non-state actors and the strategies of marine conservation organizations. He is passionate about placemaking and in particular little free libraries, and enjoys playing hockey, board games, and kayaking.
Jindi Singh is the National Director in Canada for Khalsa Aid (KA). He was part of the original team in the UK where Khalsa Aid was founded by Ravi Singh in 1999. KA has found itself at the forefront of humanitarian efforts worldwide. KA is an international NGO that provides humanitarian aid in disaster areas and civil conflict zones worldwide. The organization is based upon the Sikh principle of ‘Recognise the whole human race as one. Initially formed in the UK while Sikhs were marking and honoring the 300th anniversary of the Khalsa’s birth, its mission has now grown across the globe supporting humanity, wherever there is a need.
How are we to live – and thrive – when so much is changing around us? When the achievements of the past turn out to be precarious, what, if anything, we can count on? And is “embracing change” always so exhausting?! Karen speaks to us by video in this year’s Meaning Making series, “Meeting this moment with love and justice.”
Bio: Karen Fraser Gitlitz (she/her) is a cis-gendered middle-class woman of English, French, and Scottish ancestry. Karen and her partner, musician and composer Paul Gitlitz, are grateful to make their home on southern Vancouver Island, the territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. As an artist, professional art therapist and Unitarian Universalist Community Minister, Karen works at the confluence of meaning, belonging and justice. Find out more about Karen’s private practice at creativeupwelling.com. Formerly a parish minister serving Canadian UU congregations, Karen keeps her toes in our Canadian UU movement as the Coordinator of the Meaning Making Project. She is also excited to volunteer on the planning circles for “Activating the Canadian UU Ecosystem.”
We warmly invite you to explore the beautiful traditions of Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos). We will journey through its origins, delving into the rich pre-Hispanic and cultural roots that shaped this unique Mexican celebration. We’ll then discover how this tradition is vibrantly lived today not as a time of mourning, but as a joyful and heartfelt reunion to honour our departed loved ones. Finally, we will share the key elements and profound symbolism behind building an ofrenda (altar), providing you with a guide to build your own one at home, as a personal and meaningful way to celebrate the everlasting bonds of life, memory and love.
Bio: I’m Maria del Mar Diego, a cultural manager and communicator from La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. My professional work is dedicated to creating communication campaigns for NGOs and nonprofits with environmental causes. I’m part of two campaigns to protect the sharks of the Gulf of California and another to promote clean air. Alongside this work I am a cultural tour guide, passionate about showing visitors that La Paz has a rich cultural heritage that goes far beyond its beautiful sun and beaches. I’m very happy to share my culture with you.
Many of our ancestors lived through times of great upheaval. What can the practice of learning from our ancestor’s experiences offer us right now? Lynn speaks to us by video in this year’s Meaning Making series, “Meeting this moment with love and justice.”
Bio: Lynn Harrison was ordained at Neighbourhood UU Congregation in 2015 after receiving her Master of Divinity degree from Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto. She served on the ministry team of First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto from 2016 to 2023, and currently provides guest ministry for Unitarian congregations in the Toronto area. Lynn is also a performing songwriter with deep roots in the Canadian folk music tradition and has composed numerous songs for UU communities.
Attila Fias has travelled all around the world, both literally and musically, and has been influenced by various cultures, languages and people. He will share some of his experiences and how these cultures have made an impact on his composing and playing.
Join Donnie Jennings and Joy Huebert as they describe their experiences with the spiritual communities of Twelve Step Programs. Formed in 1935 by Bill Wilson as a community based solution to intractable alcoholism, there are now 34 programs addressing dependencies and behaviours such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, along with family support programs, worldwide with millions of members.
The 12 steps ask individuals to admit they are powerless, turn their lives over to a higher power, make amends and foster a spiritual awakening. What is it like to surrender to a higher power? IHow did this work in two real lives? Note that no graphic or disturbing personal content will be shared.
What will hold us together today? As an antidote to a world built around us/them, we’ll lean into this counter-story: that difference makes strength, and that our distinctive model as UUs – based not on sameness but on cultivating relationship and shared commitments across differences of belief – carries seeds of the transformative solidarity our world needs now. Come meet this moment with us.
Reverend Nicolin Guerrier is the CUC’s Congregational Life Lead for the Central and Eastern Regions. Recently returned to Canada after seven years serving Unitarian Universalism in the US, they persist in finding small glimmers of hope everywhere.
Camellia Janhanshani is the CUC’s Dismantling Barriers Lead, a new position brought in in October 2024 dedicated to uplifting and integrating our 8th principle of accountably dismantling barriers to inclusion in ourselves and our institutions.
In her book, The Serviceberry, Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer teaches us about the gift economy, which is intrinsic to many Indigenous cultures. What can we learn from this model – how might it help us better care for one another and this earth we share? Is it possible to do in today’s North American capitalist society?
As a mini-exercise, an embodied way of practising the principle, you are invited to bring ONE item you already have to give away in a gift exchange. Please bring ONE thing from your home which you have appreciated and are now happy to pass on to someone else.
- This is not a way to get rid of unwanted stuff; it’s not a garage sale. Look for something you really like, something still in good condition. Something you think someone else might be excited to receive.
- Please bring only ONE thing.
- We will collect your gifts before the service, and you can choose a gift to take home with you after the service.
- Rev. Melora will give anything not chosen by a Capital member to WIN (Women in Need).
Speaker: Laurie MacDuff
Nobody expects the sudden loss of a loved one. Early during Covid lockdown, Laurie’s husband of 47 years died suddenly. In this inspirational homily, she will share lessons learned.
Speaker: Paula Stone Williams, TED Talk
Paula speaks with humor and compassion about the differences in her life from the time she was a man and those when she transitioned to a woman. She worked in religious organizations as a man, and was let go by those organizations once she became a woman. She also relates that, “she thinks a lot about her brown skinned daughter and daughter in law and what do they know that I am clueless about?” Paula says “what do any of us really know about the shoes in which we have never walked”.
Speakers: Joy Huebert and Congregants
Enjoy a quiet service on the presence of darkness and light in our lives. Dale Hitchcox, Jeffery Freed, Lee Tuley and Sarah Weaver will present songs, music, poetry and a reflective homily to welcome the turning season.