Author: Mary Bennett

Walk the labyrinth as the longest night approaches

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During the Yule celebration, we’ll have lanterns for you to make (or simply hold) as you walk — possibly in the rain — our labyrinth. As you wend your way to the centre you might think about 2019 and all you are leaving behind. Then, after turning in the centre, consider the coming days with growing light and what they will bring to you.

The courtyard labyrinth is easily accessed directly from Hewett Hall.

Hardier labyrinth walkers might want to make their way over to our garden path labyrinth on the east side of the property.

December Festivities – Atheists, Pagans, Christians — Everyone — Welcome!

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Whatever your spiritual path(s) and tradition(s), you might well find a gathering (or two) that will suit your current approach to the winter holidays.

December 1st starts the season with our choir concert. They sing for us and then provide refreshments after wards as well.

You can be sure to find a mix of Agnostics, Atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Pagans and, of course, Unitarians,  at most of the upcoming events. Indeed some people identify with two or more of those labels.

Our Christmas Eve service does take a look at the Christian story of Jesus’ birth but unlike most other churches, we also honour other mid-winter holy days such as Solstice and Hanukkah. A favorite of many is the section on  “Christmas with an attitude” which is always a humorous even ironic take on the whole season. Whatever your current beliefs, you can celebrate with us in a non-dogmatic ambiance.

The evening Candlelight Service on December 15th is one of music and poetry and one of the most beautiful services of our congregational year. We share a light potluck afterwards. This might be a time to connect with old friends or meet new ones. Many appreciate the fact that this date comes with  no expectations or obligations.

Our earth spirit group is planning a Winter Solstice/Yule event and we encourage families to come along. There will be dancing, and meditating, and lantern making, and labyrinth walking and, most important of all, feasting. This year a focus will be “feasting in all directions” – where four altars will be set up to include foods corresponding to the direction and element of that table.

Check out the events list and calendar for details on these and more events.

 

November Labyrinth

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Thanks to D. Rainbow for these photos taken on the Garden Path labyrinth in mid-November. And thanks to John Voth for the new markers. Carex ice dance is a perennial grass which stays green all year and is very hardy.

 

Be the Change Earth Alliance

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Be the Change Earth Alliance is a charitable organization that lives at the end of the hall in the Admin Building at 49th and Oak. They are a busy hive of activity, bringing eco-social education to secondary schools throughout BC.

Formed in 2005, they create empowering workshops and learning resources to help fulfill their vision for ‘an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet’. To learn more about their work you can visit their website: www.bethechangeearthalliance.org They greatly enjoy the warmth and kindness of all of the UCV staff.

If you see them having lunch under the maple tree in the summer or enjoying a tea break in the courtyard, make sure to say hi!

Come and meet Margot Adler while the veil is still thin

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Every year, Rev. Steven Epperson writes scripts for our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors to address us from the other side. UCV members then enter to the opening bars of the Twilight Zone and address our congregation, someimes with a challenge. Among the four “guests from the past” this year will be Wiccan priestess and UU Margot Adler, author of Drawing Down the Moon.

Born: April 16, 1946, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
Died: July 28, 2014, New York, New York, United States

Here’s information about the service.

Here’s a wikipedia entry about Margot Adler.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margot_Adler

It says:

Adler was a Wiccan priestess, an elder in the Covenant of the Goddess,[1] and she also participated in the Unitarian Universalist faith community.[1]

Here’s some background on her UU involvements

http://uudb.org/articles/margotadler.html

Some selected excerpts:

She was a member of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City, a member of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS), and a frequent speaker at national and regional Unitarian Universalist events.

Beacon Press published an expanded edition of Drawing Down the Moon in 1986. The next year Adler was a keynote speaker at the annual Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) General Assembly (GA). A continental organization, the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) was formed and was granted affiliate status with the UUA in 1988. Adler was a member of CUUPS and served on the board. She joined the All Souls congregation in New York City in 1992 and participated in the activities of its Women’s Alliance. She would speak at numerous Unitarian Universalist affiliated events over the next twenty years.

Adler saw Paganism as the spiritual side of feminism which rejected the hierarchy of monotheism. She thought monotheism was “imperialism in religion.” In 2005 Adler spoke at the annual Southwest Unitarian Universalist Women’s Conference in Houston, Texas. There was still some resistance in Unitarian Universalist women’s circles toward the Pagan movement despite the fact that “Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions” had been named the sixth source of our Unitarian Universalist Living Tradition. In her talk, Adler explained how much pagan spirituality and ritual had contributed to Unitarian Universalist worship; from croning and water ceremonies, to walking the labyrinth, spiral dances, drumming, and—perhaps most importantly for Margot—chanting, a practice she often introduced at women’s gatherings.

Adler presented her theories about vampires to the Second International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women in October 2012 in Marosvásárhely, Romania. In her keynote speech, Adler compared America’s twenty-first century fascination with vampires to that experienced in Great Britain at the close of the nineteenth century when Dracula, written by Bram Stoker, had been published. She theorized that the two cultures were similar in experiencing the end of empire and perhaps also sharing a view of themselves as evil; the British sucking the blood from colonies while America was sucking oil through powerful multinational corporations. She published Out for Blood in 2013, and Vampires Are Us: Understanding Our Love Affair with the Immortal Dark Side the following year.

In 2013 Adler placed books from her parent’s collections into the “Margot Adler Collection” at the Adler Graduate School in Richfield, Minnesota. Alfred Adler’s papers were donated to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Transcripts and audio copies of some of Margot Adler radio broadcasts can be found at justicetalking.org, pacificaradioarchives.org, hourwolf.com, npr.org, and YouTube.

And here’s something I didn’t know:

Her father was a psychiatrist who helped continue the work of his father, the distinguished Viennese psychiatrist Alfred Adler, who was first an ally and later an ideological adversary of Freud.

Huff Post article after her death.

Margot Adler Memorial Page on Facebook

New York Times article on her death:

 

CUUPS Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/CUUPS.org/

 

UU World Article

Why I am a UU Pagan

http://www.spelcastor.org/cuups/margot.htm

 

 

What Do We Call Ourselves? Forum

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Missed the “What Do We Call Ourselves?” Oct. 20th Forum?

Read All About it.

If you missed the October 20th Forum on “What Do We Call Ourselves?” (WDWCO?) you can find the agenda and presentations below. Twenty-three people attended. Pasted below are the WDWCO? (draft) Terms of Reference.

1.WELCOME (Sheila Resels)

“Welcome to the “What do we call ourselves?” Task Force Forum.

So who are we?  My name is Sheila Resels.  I am one of co-chairs of the Task Force, along with my co-chair Eva Allan.  Members include Leonie Armstrong, (past chairperson), Jeannie Corsi, John Smith, Fouad Hafiz and advisors Mary Bennett, Steven Epperson, Keith Wilkinson and Tamiko Suzuki.

What is this Task Force?

The Task Force was approved by the Board 2 years. ago.  It was originally called the “Name Change Task Force”.  (more…)

Fall on the Labyrinth – Please help yourself to mint, chives etc.

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Calendula in various stages: full bloom to full seed. Planted judiciously it will grow year round.
Apple mint in pot on west pathway near hedge. Cranesbill geranium (pale pink flowers) in ground in front.
Pineapple mint (left) and peppermint (right)
Golden Lemon thyme. Along with red creeping thyme, these were two of the plants we purchased that correspond to the west thanks to funding from Vancouver Foundation
Echinacea gone to seed. The birds are enjoying it! We may wait till spring to divide and spread seed around now. https://www.wikihow.com/Divide-Coneflowers

Some of our plants are dying down and going to seed.

Soon the mint, chives and various other herbs will die down to rest over the winter.

You are invited to pick as much as you can possibly take–there are several kinds of mint go dry for tea or enjoy fresh.

Some like the echinacea will be ready to divide and transplant. Lots of calendula seedlings and seeds still doing well.

We’d like to share our rudbeckia, strawberry plants, lambs’ ears and chives. Let us know if you’d like some so we can dig enough up for you.

We have for sharing (but not as desperate to give away!) garlic chives, grape hyacinth bulbs, sage cuttings and mint.

See more photos of the labyrinth through the seasons here. 

Be a Connector

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Are you a friendly person who likes to introduce new people to our amazing (but somewhat complex) congregation?

The Connect & Engage team is inviting UCV members to help between two and five new folk get connected with the people, programs and information they may want in order to feel connected with the congregation. We’re anticipating that one or two contacts per month (e.g. saying “hello” on Sunday morning or an email mentioning an event you’re going to that you think they’d enjoy) is all that would be necessary for up to a year.

Some may move very quickly to “flying solo”; others may decide this isn’t for them.

If you’re up for trying it, what will happen is that people who fill out our survey online will be introduced to you by email and you’ll take it from there. We’ll try to match up your interests and theirs. For example if you’re in a men’s group, we’d forward people who have checked that, similarly for book groups, etc. Alternatively you may just wind up chatting with someone on a Sunday or at a meeting and will let us know that that’s someone you’re willing to continue to welcome and show around.

We anticipate occasional gatherings of the connectors to share feedback from what we hear from new people and see what we can do about it.

Here’s the “position description”.

All of this is flexible–just some suggestions.

1. send a reply offering to meet them on a Sunday (or other time). Perhaps at the sermon discussion table.
2. when you meet try to introduce them to two or three other people who are involved in the things they checked interest in.
3. check in with them about twice a month for six months to a year. This might be as simple as looking for them on Sunday morning and saying “hello”. But if you haven’t seen them for a month, send an email, asking how they are and noting you haven’t seen them recently.
4. If you’re attending some open special event that you think they’d be interested in, forward the information with a “hope to see you there” message. For example, potluck dinners, choir concerts are good draws.
5. when the New to Vancouver Unitarians workshop and “Part II” are advertised, send email or (better) mention in person about how valuable it is (stressing no obligation to join if that seems appropriate).
6. help them sign up for the newsletters and follow our social media accounts if they’re interested.
You’re not expected to know everything about the congregation and Unitarianism, but are committing to finding out the answers to any questions or introducing them to someone who can answer.
It will likely be a learning experience for you as well as the folks you’re helping.
We will be gathering up the questions to create an “FAQ” on our website.
Reference:

 

How to form a Supper Club (or Brunch Club) — we can help

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Your Connect & Engage team has a new approach for how to get to know people better in a friendly, social atmosphere.

One “supper club” has formed: 12 people who will each organize a restaurant meal out once a year.

They’ll choose a restaurant, send details along with the proposed date and time to the “club members”. Then they’ll take registrations, make a reservation and confirm with those who have RSVP’d. Probably they’ll arrive early to be there to welcome people.

At any one time two people will be thinking about the next gathering so if one gets swamped with life, the other can get onto it.

For the group that has formed, there is no regular date (e.g. 3rd Friday or such). They’re just letting the host choose. They have decided on a geographical area. In that case Fairview/Westside and that all selected restaurants will be on an easy transit line with parking nearby (e.g. 4th Avenue or Broadway in this case).

This new format is being proposed as a possible replacement for two other approaches to setting up shared dinners are now longer operating. (Movable Feast and Hygge Potluck Dinners)

Over time each of these groups will make their own decisions about how many people to have in the group; where and when they’ll meet, and whether they’re limiting to a particular kind of restaurant or location.

If you want to be part of a group like this, let us know and we can help you advertise through the order of service and, if desired, set up a google group to make connections with your members easier.

The FUN (Fairview Unitarian Neighbourhood) Women’s Supper Club formed by an initial dinner with four women and they then each invited a few others until the maximum of 12 had confirmed.

Movable Feast was a once-a-month dinner out organized by Karen and Dianne for three years. The attendance varied between 8 and 24.

Hygge Potluck Dinners were monthly potluck dinners hosted in members’ homes organized by Patti and Mary.

In both of these cases, the volunteer organizers got involved in other UCV activities and no one stepped up to carry them on. When the time is right these two programs might be revived.

Signup here if interested.
Go to Shared Dinners – would you like to join a supper club?

Pitching in Volunteer Opportunities

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The congregation runs on a lot of committed volunteer time and talent that complements our staff and minister’s roles.

We recognize that some people can’t easily commit to a regular schedule of volunteer contributions, so here are some opportunities where the organizer would be very happy to have you pitch in whenever you have the time and interest.

Children’s Program

– Sunday mornings

  • Attending to the Buddy Bags: Hang out in foyer of sanctuary and make sure each bag has an animal, colouring book, and five to seven crayons in a baggie.
  • Before or after service – check the pencils in the Buddy Bags and sharpen if necessary.

Children’s Program – Any time

  • Art Supply Management: Help Kiersten by keeping the kids program art supplies organized.
  • Paint a Shelf: This is a one time request. Contact Kiersten

Lots of other opportunities too

Gardening

Every 3rd Saturday a work crew gathers between 9 am to 12 noon. Patti brings home-cooked yummies to feed the gardeners. You can also do some gardening at your own time and speed. For an orientation click below and we’ll get back to you. Don’t worry about being late, even half an hour or so is helpful.

Mending meetup

A new group is meeting every 4th Saturday from 12 noon to 2 pm. If you can help others mend their clothes, please join Marie Witt and others. Darning, hand and machine-sewing, and any other talents are most welcome.

Sermon discussion table

This is an informal place to welcome people and introduce them to each other. Even if you’re new it’s helpful to have additional hosts who can help newcomers find their way.

Newsletter signup and online form support

If you can use our tablet or your own device (or theirs) to help people sign up for our e-newsletters or one of the online forms through Breeze database for registering for programs, connecting with folk at the Sermon discussion table would be very much appreciated.  Even if you can only stop by for five minutes, likely at least one person could use your help.

Labyrinth tending and gardening.

Mary often stops by a couple of times per month to tend the labyrinth on an ad hoc basis–and often after the service on Sunday (in sunny weather!)