There is much to get in the way of our capacity to hope. And yet, most of us find a way to get out of bed in the morning and do what it is we need to do. Where do we find the resources to be hopeful? Let's explore together the ways that we can nurture hope and how we can, in community, cultivate it.
In our first service of the new congregational year, we'll gather online to reflect on the waters that connect and sustain us through the ebbs and flows of life. As the pandemic continues, we'll reconnect and share in our annual water communion to honour our connection to one another and the earth. Please bring water that symbolizes something significant to you in this moment, whether from a lake, river, ocean or your tap.
Mary Beth Wighton is a writer, blogger, inspirational speaker, and a founding member and co-chair of Dementia Advocacy Canada, an organization of people living with dementia and partners whose goal is to have an active and respected role in decisions about all programs and policies that impact their lives. Since being diagnosed at the age of 45 with probable frontotemporal dementia in 2012, Wighton has become an international dementia advocate who has greatly influenced the Canadian landscape and government policies as it pertains to dementia and human rights. She is considered a pioneer in promoting the rights of people with dementia, inspiring Canadians to work alongside particularly vulnerable and excluded people, and to build coherent supports and platforms for co-creation and partnership building aligned with a vibrant, resilient and inclusive democratic Canada. Wighton, now 54 years old, is living well with young-onset dementia along the beautiful shores of Lake Huron, in Ontario, Canada with her partner Dawn.
These past pandemic months have been hard on everyone - we have all struggled in our own ways to get through each day. But on June 6, please join members of the Worship Committee for Silver Linings, a chance to share the unexpected good things that happened to you, or that you made happen. What has brought you joy that would not have happened had Covid not come to disrupt your life? What positive thing will you remember from these times? How has this experience changed you?
The Silver Linings service is all about you, and us. Please bring a song, a story, a poem, an object to show, or some reflection about the silver linings in your life since March 2020. It can be a piece that you created, or one that someone else created but that speaks to your experience. Please come and share your silver linings. This Sunday, we'll draw inspiration from books by two Indigenous authors:
Each year of the Canadian Unitarian Council's Annual Conference, a minister, selected by their peers, gives a "Confluence Lecture" on a topic of their choice with the hope that it will inspire and challenge Canadian UUs across the country. This year, Rev. Anne Barker shared her insights entitled "A New Premise" in 3 parts and has made them available for congregations to use. This Sunday Rev. Anne will be our speaker via the first part of her Confluence Lecture; the full lecture sparked significant and meaningful sharing at the recent CUC conference, going more than an hour and a half past the scheduled end time. Attending this Sunday gives UUCDers the opportunity to be part of an ongoing national discussion.
An intergenerational service of sharing, mutual support, fun, and humour. Please bring something for 'show and tell' - a joke, a story, a picture, a video, a song or anything else that has either brought meaning in your life over the last year, or things you are looking forward to in the coming weeks and months.
How do you steer in a world that is constantly shifting under your feet? Come hear the story of the 75,000 person UU humour group, and its accidental beginning. And what it teaches us about navigating in a world of constant change.
“When I think about the world, especially right now, I see a myriad of ways people are suffering and I hope and pray for healing. But sometimes healing doesn't look like cure or eradication of pain and harm. Sometimes healing comes in unexpected ways. I'll share a personal story as we explore different understandings of healing in our lives.”
Julien will share the highlights of his 30 year career as a photojournalist with photographs including the Leafs winning the Stanley Cup, five Canadian prime ministers, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Queen Elizabeth, rock concerts, celebrities and villains. He will ask us if it's true that "a picture is worth 1000 words" or that "the camera never lies".
|
BiographiesRead sermons by:
All
Archives
April 2022
|