Author: C Malcolm

In the Interim May 2021

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It is May. A month to celebrate Beltane, labyrinths, Mothers, Asian Heritage, International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, Ramadan, Shavuot, Ascension and Pentecost  –  AND our Soul Matters theme for the month of May is “Story”.  I will come up with a very special prize for anyone who can write a short story that includes ALL of the things above to celebrate or honour this month! What does it mean to be a people of STORY?

 

The Canadian Unitarian Council Annual General Meeting is on May 8, and the National Conference May 14-16. Our virtual conference will celebrate how our UU faith and our connections are crucial to Sustaining Our Light through engaging workshops, meaningful connections, and moving worship services. Registration is open until May 9 https://sites.google.com/cuc.ca/cucconference2021/home

A long standing tradition, the Confluence lecture, is shared as the conference keynote event on the opening evening. Our presenter is a minister, chosen by their peers to offer insight into the joys and concerns of our living tradition.

We are delighted that the 2021 Conference Lecturer is Rev. Anne Barker from Westwood Unitarian Congregation in Edmonton. This lecture is available to all, whether attending the conference or not.

The 2021 Confluence Lecture, A New Premise, will ask questions intended to gently interrupt us a little further, to imagine our collective future in a less familiar way. Anne Barker invites you to enter the experiment without a destination already in mind.

This year’s Confluence Lecture is a new concept – it is not a 1 hour lecture. Instead, Rev. Barker has prepared “A New Premise” video for you to view ahead of May 14th. Along with an introduction from the previous lecturer, the Reverend Karen Fraser-Gitlitz, this year’s work will be provided in three parts, each about fifteen minutes long, ending with an invitation for the viewer with:

    • ideas to ponder,
    • activities to try,
    • opportunities to interact with the material.

Watch the parts separately – or all at once – whatever suits you best. Explore the downloads for each part of the lecture. We hope that you will come to it with a spirit of curiosity and willingness, so we might work together to imagine a thriving future. Text for each part is available along with the full text of the entire lecture.

On the Friday evening of the conference, Rev. Barker will repeat the introduction, offer a short review to refresh your memory, and open the floor to questions and conversation.

 

Videos and Materials for the 2021 Confluence Lecture: A New Premise

Watch the introduction by Rev. Anne Barker and Rev. Karen Fraser-Gitlitz

View each part of the video and explore the downloads:

Part 1: What if we were wrong? – View Part 1/ text for Part 1

Download: Part 1 worksheet

Part 2: disComfort – View Part 2/text for Part 2

Download: white supremacy culture

Part 3: A New Premise – View Part 3 /text for Part 3)

Downloads for Part 3:

CUC’s Dismantling Racism Study Group National Survey: Dismantling Racism Study Group

Widening the Circle of Concern: Widening the Circle of Concern | Widening the Circle of Concern

Widening the Circle of Concern Study Guide: Widening the Circle of Concern Study/Action Guide 

 

Blessings,

 

Rev. Lara Cowtan

Interim Minister

Anti-Racism

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Anti-Racism Statements and Resources

Please note: we do not consider this to be anywhere near an exhaustive list and we are seeking regular updates to refresh and renew the links provided here. If you know of great anti-racism resources that are missing from our resource list, please reach out to have your link added communications@vancouverunitarians.ca

Crisis Services

  1. Kuu-us Crisis Line Society provides crisis services for Indigenous Peoples in British Columbia. Adults and Elders: 250-723-4050; children and youth line 250-723-2040. Or call toll free 1-800-588-8717.
  2. Metis Crisis Line is a services of Métis Nation British Columbia. Call 1-833-MétisBC (1-833-638-4722).
  3. Tsow-Tun Le Lum Society offers supports for people, including residential school survivors, who are struggling with addiction, substance use and trauma. Call 1-888-403-3123.

Unitarian Universalist Statements

  1. Statement on Anti-Racism from the UCV Board
  2. Canadian Unitarian Council Statement on Mourning the Deaths of More People of Colour
  3. Black Lives Matter Statement by Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice
  4. A pastoral letter to Black UUs by Rev. Lauren Smith in UU World, 6/4/2020
  5. Stop Calling the Police and Start Eradicating Anti-Blackness UUA statement and call to action, with links. June 2, 2020
  6. An Awful, Magnificent Truth by Rev. Carol Thomas Cissel in UUA’s Braver/Wiser Inspiration
  7. UUA Prayer Vigil #wecantbreate YouTube Video

Vancouver-Based Mental Health and Self-Care Resources for BIPoC Congregants and Friends

  1. Black Lives Matter Vancouver has a detailed and comprehensive list of legal, community, mental health and wellness services here
  2. Healing in Colour provides a list of therapists who have agreed to a statement of values
  3. Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community free health guide from Sunshine Behavioural Health
  4. Alica Forneret provides mental health by and for PoC
  5. Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society provides inclusive, accessible, and culturally-based healthcare and social services.

Ally Learnings for White Congregants and Friends

  1. Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources
  2. The 8th Principle project of Unitarian Universalism
  3. Black Lives UU Spiritual Subscription Box
  4. The Church of the Larger Fellowship an American UU congregation “without walls”
  5. Resources based on your current stage of racial identity development
  6. Support Black Owned Businesses

Anti-Racist Parenting

  1. Antiracist Education Resources compiled by Fourth Universalist Society in Manhattan
  2. “How To Be An Antiracist Parent” recording from Fourth Universalist Society in Manhattan
  3. Resource roundup for parents
  4. Anti-racism resources for white people and for parents to raise anti-racist children
  5. Resources for Talking About Race, Racism and Racialized Violence with Kids from the Center for Racial Justice in Education
  6. The Brown Bookshelf: United in Story pushing awareness of the myriad Black voices writing for young readers.
  7. A fabulous list of children’s ebooks from the VPL called “Stand Up! Racial Identity, Racism, and Resistance for Grades K-7”

Canadian General Anti-Racist Resources

  1. Systemic Racism Explained in under 5 minutes
  2. The Story of Slavery in Canadian History at the Canadian Human Rights Museum
  3. The Canadian federal government page of anti-racism resources
  4. Vancouver Mutual Aid Organizations and Resource List
  5. Black Lives Matter Vancouver
  6. Feminists Deliver: Confronting Anti-Black Racism in Canada (video: a panel of 8 Canadian Women of Colour)
  7. The University of Toronto Anti-Black Racism Reading List

Books

If you are planning to purchase or consign books in Vancouver, please consider supporting Indigenous-owned and local Massy Books

  1. “Policing Black Lives” by Robyn Maynard
  2. “The Skin We’re In” by Desmond Cole.
  3. “Blank: Essays and Interviews” by M. NourbeSe Philip
  4. “In the Black” by B. Denham Jolly
  5. “Queer Returns: Essays On Multiculturalism, Diaspora and Black Studies” by Rinaldo Walcott
  6. “How to Be an Anti-Racist” Ibram X. Kendi
  7. “So you want to talk about Race” Ijeoma Oluo
  8. “Do Better” Rachel Ricketts

 

Anti-Racism Resources

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Last summer, there was a huge public response in support of Black Lives Matter as well as a call to uplift and affirm the inherent worth and dignity of lives that are continually devalued in racist systems. As Unitarians, we are committed to justice, equity, and compassion in all human relations. It is important to us to continue this conversation, not just in response to the media and public outcry but as a function of our ongoing dedication to see real change occur at all levels.

We want to refresh and promote the resources we shared last summer. We are grateful for submissions from members and friends in keeping this resource list current.

Within our own organization, we are working to decolonize our systems and have arranged a Decolonizing Practices Workshop for staff, board members and congregants. Check out the link for more information – this will take place April 24th, 2021 from 10am to 3pm.

If you would like to add resources to a permanent “Antiracism Learning” page please email communications@vancouverunitarians.ca

Anti-Racism Statements and Resources

Unitarian Universalist Statements

  1. Statement on Anti-Racism from the UCV Board
  2. Canadian Unitarian Council Statement on Mourning the Deaths of More People of Colour
  3. Black Lives Matter Statement by Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice
  4. A pastoral letter to Black UUs by Rev. Lauren Smith in UU World, 6/4/2020
  5. Stop Calling the Police and Start Eradicating Anti-Blackness UUA statement and call to action, with links. June 2, 2020
  6. An Awful, Magnificent Truth by Rev. Carol Thomas Cissel in UUA’s Braver/Wiser Inspiration
  7. UUA Prayer Vigil #wecantbreate YouTube Video

Vancouver-Based Mental Health and Self-Care Resources for BIPoC Congregants and Friends

  1. Black Lives Matter Vancouver has a detailed and comprehensive list of legal, community, mental health and wellness services here
  2. Healing in Colour provides a list of therapists who have agreed to a statement of values
  3. Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community free health guide from Sunshine Behavioural Health
  4. Alica Forneret provides mental health by and for PoC
  5. Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society provides inclusive, accessible, and culturally-based healthcare and social services.

Ally Learnings for White Congregants and Friends

  1. Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources
  2. The 8th Principle project of Unitarian Universalism
  3. Black Lives UU Spiritual Subscription Box
  4. The Church of the Larger Fellowship an American UU congregation “without walls”
  5. Resources based on your current stage of racial identity development
  6. Support Black Owned Businesses 

Anti-Racist Parenting

  1. Antiracist Education Resources compiled by Fourth Universalist Society in Manhattan
  2. “How To Be An Antiracist Parent” recording from Fourth Universalist Society in Manhattan
  3. Resource roundup for parents
  4. Anti-racism resources for white people and for parents to raise anti-racist children
  5. Resources for Talking About Race, Racism and Racialized Violence with Kids from the Center for Racial Justice in Education
  6. The Brown Bookshelf: United in Story pushing awareness of the myriad Black voices writing for young readers.
  7. A fabulous list of children’s ebooks from the VPL called “Stand Up! Racial Identity, Racism, and Resistance for Grades K-7”

Canadian General Anti-Racist Resources

  1. Systemic Racism Explained in under 5 minutes
  2. The Story of Slavery in Canadian History at the Canadian Human Rights Museum
  3. The Canadian federal government page of anti-racism resources
  4. Vancouver Mutual Aid Organizations and Resource List
  5. Black Lives Matter Vancouver 
  6. Feminists Deliver: Confronting Anti-Black Racism in Canada (video: a panel of 8 Canadian Women of Colour)
  7. The University of Toronto Anti-Black Racism Reading List

Books

  1. “Policing Black Lives” by Robyn Maynard
  2. “The Skin We’re In” by Desmond Cole.
  3. “Blank: Essays and Interviews” by M. NourbeSe Philip
  4. “In the Black” by B. Denham Jolly
  5. “Queer Returns: Essays On Multiculturalism, Diaspora and Black Studies” by Rinaldo Walcott
  6. “How to Be an Anti-Racist” Ibram X. Kendi
  7. “So you want to talk about Race” Ijeoma Oluo

“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
—Son of Baldwin (Robert Jones, Jr.)

Pipelines, Brunette River and ME/WE

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By Catherine Hembling

Pipelines, Brunette River and ME/WE…
I think there’s a song that goes something like that!

These past months along the Brunette have brought great resolve and activity to the lives of many activists, many of them seniors. I feel invigorated by my involvement in something so much bigger than I am. As well, I walk in beauty, at least once a week, along the Brunette as part of my “work”.

I am a member the Prayer Circle, in turn part of PPSTMX (Protect the Planet Stop TransMountain Expansion). There are legal fees to pay, there is soup to be delivered, there are people to meet!

We are publicly and peacefully defending the Brunette’s Salmon runs, riparian zones, trees, water quality, environment. As well, we actively support the courageous tree sit which has been going on since Dec. 21/20 with little Press coverage. By doing so we hope to increase the public’s resolve to speak out against this urban pipeline construction. We hold PM Trudeau to his assertion that there has to be community support for TMX.

This salmon run is a particular treasure, one of very few urban salmon streams in the world. It has been restored from open dumping site by volunteers, starting in the late 1970’s. A public Greenway full of birds and wildlife now runs almost the full length of the river and its tributary creeks, under the administration of Metro Vancouver.

Long term could the Brunette be re-restored? Maybe, …..but not the Climate. Climate changes are happening already. More oil burned is more CO2 in the atmosphere. Climate changes can only get worse before they get better. We think to the future. Overall, time is on the side of protesters. Each delay to construction gives the market and economic facts of the project a better chance to be understood by the public. Green job creation brings prosperity to many more workers than pipeline construction. Politicians will always want to be elected and then re-elected. That is our lever.

Electorates are powerful if ME/WE choose to be involved!

photo

Our Whole Team’s Strength: Note from UCV President Diane Brown

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The UCV Board of Trustees just completed an all day workshop on Jan. 30. The focus of this fulsome workshop, led by CUC’s Joan Carolyn, was on leadership and change, working from our strengths, acting on our Transition Team Task Force’s excellent reports and recommendations, and developing our capacity and leaders for tomorrow.

 

“All our lives we need others and others need us. Multigenerational ministry is about creating and sustaining congregations through which we collectively embody wholeness. Wholeness is not a personal accomplishment because none of us is whole alone. Wholeness is something we accomplish together in creative interaction with one another, in communities where all our members are welcome, where all contribute, where all give and receive. All our lives we need others and others need us.”

– Rev. Rebecca Parker

 

There will be another Forum on the Sanctuary Upgrades Sunday Feb 14 at 12:30 via zoom. Please click ucv.im/forums 

We are also organizing a Decolonizing Practices Workshop:

Because we as Unitarians are committed to creating a more inclusive, compassionate and equitable world, we are organizing a Decolonizing Practices Workshop for staff, board, and interested members.

The Board would like all of us to have the opportunity to get better informed on decolonizing our practices and how to diversify our organization’s membership and board to include more people who identify as Black, Indigenous or person of colour. We need to identify the barriers to our organization and to develop the solutions. This one-day workshop will include a half-day on the history and ongoing colonization in Canada.

The Decolonizing Practices Workshop will be in the spring – either April or May – and hopefully live and in person. If Covid prevails, we will pursue an online format. If you are interested in this, please let me know so I have an idea of interest and numbers; president@vancouverunitarians.ca

Finally, the UCV Board of Trustees invites all members to please join us Sunday Feb. 28 at 12:30 PST by zoom for three inspiring reports and their resulting recommendations from three Ministerial Task Forces; Lynn Armstrong will present from the Organizational Design Task Force, Mairy Beam from the Long Term Staffing Task Force, and Olivia Hall from the Young Adults Task Force.
Each report will include succinct recommendations for UCV to consider implementing moving forward. Please go to ucv.im/forums.

We invite you to attend this Forum and, in the moderated Q and A components at the end of each report, to please offer your feedback and input. This conversation will inform the Board’s ultimate decisions. 

With thanks and gratitude,
Diane.

In the Interim, February 2021

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In the Interim, February 2021

“The Beloved Community [is] not a goal or destination, and it was not any kind of idealistic, Christian utopian dream, but instead a way of being – spiritually, politically, economically, emotionally, intellectually. Beloved Community is an attitude, an orientation of the heart; it’s a disciplined understanding of your own relationship to other people, to everyone else on the planet, to every living thing.” Rev. Victoria Safford

Our ministry theme for February is “Building Beloved Community”, which will be explored in our worship, small groups and religious exploration, and even by individuals reflecting about what it means to be part of a Beloved Community.

To me, Beloved Community is one of those ideas that is more about the journey than the destination. It is through our continued actions, reactions, adapting to changes, listening, making space to become more inclusive, learning, growing, becoming that we build the community of which we dream. And through all of this building, the community of which we dream is continually being reframed, always just out of reach as we strive to live into our changing vision of who we will become. A living, breathing, embodied, beautiful and perfectly imperfect human community, always aspiring to life more fully into its ideal. UCV is richly blessed with all of the building blocks needed for this work.

In community we are bound to encounter different opinions. It is said, where there are 2 UU’s there will be at least 5 different opinions! How we engage in conversation with one another to hear and find a way through our differences is what creates lasting community. The Ministerial Transition Team has begun a new task force at the request of the UCV Board to review the recent process of the Redevelopment Committee as well as looking at some conflicts that have happened or have been avoided in UCV history in order to create a new process, a pathway for facilitating inclusive, efficient, collaborative decisions.

The Transitions Team is also planning to report back to the congregation about it’s comprehensive and exciting review of UCV History during a worship service on Feb 28. To be clear, this work is not an official archival history, rather more anecdotal, teasing out of stories from the fabric woven by over a century of building community together. These are your stories, the good the bad and the ugly, the humorous and the hurtful, the celebrations, achievements and rhythms of life that have shaped UCV. “Telling our stories is not an end in itself, but an attempt to release ourselves from them, to evolve and grow beyond them.” (Huffington Post). This is the first major task of the Ministerial Transition, coming to terms with history. From there, UCV can really begin to embrace the next tasks, which have already begun.

The five goals of Transition are listed again below to remind you of the work you have already done and the pathway forward. The Board and the Transitions Team are engaging with these tasks as they prepare to make decisions about changes to staffing and governance structure that will make UCV systems more efficient and effective, allowing new leadership to emerge and welcoming newcomers to join in building this Beloved Community.

5 Focus Points of Transition
1. Heritage: reviewing how the congregation has been shaped and formed
2. Leadership: reviewing the membership needs and its ways of organizing and developing new and effective leadership
3. Mission: defining and redefining sense of purpose, identity and direction
4. Connections: Renewing and connecting with relationships and resources in the wider community
5. Future: Preparing to engage in a new future with renewed vision, stewardship and commitment.

 

Blessings,

Rev. Lara Cowtan

Our UCV Congregational History Wall 

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Overview of Our History Wall Project

Effective transition after a settled minister leaves starts with a collective review of how the congregation has been shaped and formed. It is a way to claim and honour our past, our major milestones and evolution and engage and honour our griefs and conflicts. It is done in a spirit of community and mutual respect.

If you are interested in particular about the online wall, information is at the bottom of this page.

Board Announcement about the Congregational History Wall
Presented by Leslie Hill on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020

As you’ve been hearing for a few weeks now, the Transition Team is working hard to establish a Congregational History Wall; a physical one in Hewett Hall and an online one on our website.

Loren Mead, writing about a change in ministers, says:
“Every congregation is strengthened immeasurably by its history, but every congregation has also been deeply wounded by its past. It is both the heir and the victim of its story.”

As I’ve been looking backward at the decades portrayed on our History Wall, I’ve found answers to questions I didn’t know I had. I’ve learned that Greenpeace wasn’t the only organization that had a founding meeting here. Vancouver’s Gay Alliance Toward Equality (GATE) found space here when it was denied by other institutions. Alice James booked the Fireside Room for the first meeting of the Vancouver Status of Women. She and Phillip Hewett became agents of change together; she fed him some ideas that he incorporated into sermons. Members of that group later reported to Phillip that a UCV Associate Minister was sexually abusing some of his clients in the Unitarian Family Life Centre. From the ashes of that debacle, Alice James chaired a committee to work out the restructuring of that organization and that lead to the founding of Oak Counselling, which still offers its services at UCV.

This congregation’s history is rich and detailed and this is our opportunity to add to it. You don’t have to have been here a long time to have favourite memories, poignant moments, troubling concerns, inspirational awakenings. Maybe it’s been a sermon, or social action, or a standout Forum, or the work of our young people.

Scroll down to learn more about the Online History Wall or contact Leslie Hill if you have contributions for the Physical History Wall in Hewett Hall.

Ministerial Transition Team

Learn More About the Ministerial Transition

Progress Photos of Our History Wall in Hewett Centre

Our Online History Wall – UCV Stories

For those among us who prefer to contribute from a distance, we have an Online History Wall – UCV Stories. You can contribute all kinds of digital documents – texts, documents, pictures, and audio and video files – all from the comfort of your own home! We are also creating a digital archive of what is on our History Wall in Hewett Hall so that everything will be in one place.

Go to padlet.com/vancouverunitarians/stories to add your stories and peruse the many posts. The user-friendly site includes a practice area. Remember, this is a work in progress!

Paul Prescod has taken the lead to set up this Online History Wall and he welcomes more volunteers, so please contact him if you are keen to get involved!

UCV Opposes the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project

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The Board has passed a motion to send the following letter, penned by John Boyle, to members of government in opposition to the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project. The letter was also copied to four Federal Ministers and 13 Members of Parliament

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Minister Wilkinson and Minister Garneau

Re: Refuse permission for Roberts Bank Terminal 2

The Board of Trustees of the Vancouver Unitarians, a congregation with some 350 members, has unanimously approved a motion to oppose the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project and ask that you deny permission for it to proceed.

We are particularly alarmed that the Project would devastate the biological productivity of Roberts Bank. As a critical waypoint on the Pacific Flyway, millions of western sandpipers rely on its biofilm to fuel the next stage of their northward journey. The loss of this resource may well lead to their extinction. The Bank also hosts huge numbers of snow geese, shore birds and dabbling ducks, and its eel grass beds are vital rearing habitat for juvenile chinook salmon. As you know, chinook salmon are a vital food source for the endangered orcas (southern resident killer whales or SRKW). Project risks to these marvellous aspects of our coastal ecosystem must be avoided.

We were shocked to learn that the Review Panel was prevented from seeing the report by Environment and Climate Change Canada which emphasized the dire environmental risks posed by the Project. Indeed, ECCC’s finding was that the Project constitutes an unmitigable species-level risk to western sandpipers and shorebirds more generally.

But even in the absence of this expert government advice, the Panel concluded that the Project would result in significant adverse residual and cumulative effects on:

  • wetlands and wetland functions;
  • barn owls, listed as threatened under the Species at Risk Act;
  • dungeness crab and the local crab fishery;
  • juvenile chinook salmon originating from the Lower Fraser and South Thompson Rivers;
  • southern resident killer whales, an endangered population of orcas;
  • the current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes, and cultural heritage, for
    First Nations of the area; and
  • human health due to exposures to NO2, other respiratory irritants, and noise.

And all the above, of course, in the absence of a major oil spill which the Panel concluded could result in potentially significant adverse residual effects for vulnerable species such as SRKW and marine birds; marine commercial and recreational activities; and current use, cultural heritage and health of Indigenous groups.

In our view, these environmental risks are more than enough to deny Project permission. We also understand that the business case for the Project is weak to non-existent. Independent analysis indicates that the Port of Vancouver has consistently understated actual port capacities for containers while at the same time over-estimating forecast growth. And there is sufficient operational or planned capacity on the BC west coast to meet Canada’s trading needs for many years to come. Indeed, the private sector stands willing to expand the existing container ports at both Roberts Bank and Prince Rupert as demand increases – if it ever does as supply chains adapt to the covid-19 disruption. The need for a massive, environmentally disruptive, publicly-financed expansion of container handling facilities at Roberts Bank thus seems to be a mirage.

Prime Minister Trudeau, Minister Wilkinson and Minister Garneau, it is hard to imagine what public interest might conceivably over-ride the significant adverse residual and cumulative effects the Project would cause. Especially as the business case for the Project is weak to non-existent. We urge you to deny federal government permission for this Project.

Respectfully,

Diane Brown
President, Vancouver Unitarians

Cc: Hon. Joyce Murray, Minister of Digital Government
Hon. Bernadette Jordan, Minister for Fisheries and Oceans
Hon. Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability
Inclusion
Hon. Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defense
Terry Beech, MP
Don Davies, MP
Sukh Dhaliwal, MP
Hedy Fry, MP
Gord Johns, MP
Peter Julian, MP
Jenny Kwan, MP
Elizabeth May, MP
Ron McKinnon, MP
Randeep Saral, MP
Jagmeet Singh, MP, NDP Leader
Patrick Weiler, MP
Jody Wilson-Raybould, MP