Happy November dear UCV! October was a busy month for me and I can hardly believe that Halloween has passed already. I was able to attend the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) in-person for the first time in three years. It was a multi-platform event with a little over 100 people visiting Birmingham, Alabama and an equal number attending online. We visited the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the Memorial for Peace and Justice. I know a lot about history, but I still learned details I was not aware of.  

The vastness of the slave trade and racial terrorism in the American South makes it easy to see why many Canadians think racism is different here, not as bad or as drastic as in the U.S.  But the justification of racial hierarchy that spawned the Doctrine of Discovery is the same that justified slavery, Indian Residential Schools, and the legacy of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, not to mention our current migrant labour policies. I wonder what a comprehensive museum of the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada would look like, what it would illuminate.   

That is the heavy stuff that has been on my mind. More exciting is the beginning of new things and the revitalization of others: 

• Our first Elders Circle met this week. The group is exploring meaning and spirit in aging and planning field trips and activities with our Coming-of-Age youth who are 12 and 13. Let me know if you are over 65 and would like to join the circle!   
• UU Wellspring for Busy People starts next week, and I am looking forward to running this 8-session Covenant Group now and again in March. Wellspring is at a good number of registrants, but there is still room if you want to hop in https://ucv.im/uu-sources.  
• Parents, kids, and youth—look out for a call for actors to workshop our new Solstice pageant set to perform on December 18th!   
• Messy Church is joining forces with our Youngerish Games Night to bring multi-generational connections and playfulness into our life. First Saturdays of each month—that’s this week, Nov 5th! Bring a dish to share and a board or card game you enjoy.  
• Anyone interested in leading the new Dreamers, Devisers, Doers gender expansive update to Cakes for the Queen of Heaven and Rise up and Call Her Name?  Contact me! 

There is more in the works and more to be imagined. I look forward to bringing it to life with you! 

–Kiersten E. Moore 

Director of Lifespan Faith Development