Archives: Services

Bridging ceremony for our graduating youth

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Join us June 11th for UCV’s annual bridging ceremony. As the end of the school and congregational year approaches, we celebrate our children who are bridging into youth group and our teens who are bridging into young adulthood. This is a special time for our youth, but also for our community as we mark the changes in our congregation.

All welcome to our Sunday service beginning at 11a.m. at 49th and Oak and at ucv.im/live. Service is followed by a Coffee and Social Hour from Noon to 1 pm.

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100 Years of Flowers

As we celebrate our annual Flower Communion, we look back on the century-old story of its roots in Czechoslovakia, its complex and sometimes tortuous path, and the importance of this enduring ritual in our lives.  Please bring a flower for each person present to share in our communal bouquet.  Children will be present through this intergenerational service. (Photo: Unsplash)

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What is Sacred?

What is it that you hold most dear? How do we recognize, nurture and honour that which makes our hearts and spirits come alive?

“Sacredness is a quality we attribute to a dimension of our lives we perceive as worthy of the highest respect and reference.  The sacred draws us out of ourselves.  It is a vehicle through which we may experience ourselves in deeper relation with the divine.  To hold something sacred is to name it as holy.” – Paul Rasor. 

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(Photo: Casey Horner / Unsplash)

Celebrate and Blossom: Fostering cultural connections, celebrating diversity

This service is brought to you by the IPA (IBPOC Plus Allies) and will be a celebration and reflection on our first year of existence and our plans for the future to continue to foster cultural connections and celebrate the diversity of our community.

…[breaking through] fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community.” – bell hooks

(Photo: Jose Carlos Cerdeno, iStock)

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Partner Church Service

Come hear about our growing and warm relationship with the Unitarian Fellowship in Rutana, Burundi. Two years ago, UCV helped buy sewing machines for the successful Women’s Sewing Project, employing 6 women.  Last year, we raised money to erect the foundation, walls, and roof for their new church. This year, we hope to raise funds to finish the interior and furnish the building. Along the way we’ve gotten to know each other through shared stories about our very different lives in Burundi and Canada.

The service will include African music, a talk from our Unitarian, Burundian refugee  (one of 12 Burundians the Refugee Committee is sponsoring this year!) and greetings from Gerard Niyungeko, minister of the Rutana Fellowship. Please join us for an inspiring service.

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‘Testifying with Our Lives’ – Rev. Shawn Gauthier

This Sunday, Rev. Shawn Gauthier will conclude our Candidating Week with a service that invites us to consider what it means to put our faith into practice. Drawing on his own story, Rev. Shawn will reflect on the defining moments that have shaped how he seeks to live his life. And he’ll invite each of us to do the same, reflecting on the stories that call us into the fullness of our lives as Unitarians. 


Rev. Shawn Gauthier (formerly Newton) is the Candidate for Settled Minister at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver. For the past sixteen years, Rev. Shawn has served as Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto. Since 1991, he has served in various staff capacities in five congregations in the U.S. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University. He and his husband Bob will celebrate their 25th anniversary in September.

After Sunday service there will be a lunch hosted by, and fundraising for, UCV Youth. 

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‘So much is in bud’ – Rev. Shawn Gauthier

In “Beginners,” the poet Denise Levertov reminds us that “we have only begun / To love the earth.” And so we have. This Sunday, Rev. Shawn Gauthier will begin our Candidating Week with a service to honour our planet as we celebrate Earth Day. At the heart of the service is the question of what it means to truly love this beautiful “pale blue dot”—the only home we will ever know.

 

Rev. Shawn Gauthier (formerly Newton) is the Candidate for Settled Minister at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver. For the past sixteen years, Rev. Shawn has served as Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto. Since 1991, he has served in various staff capacities in five congregations in the U.S. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University. He and his husband Bob will celebrate their 25th anniversary in September.

 

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Click here to view the service livestream

Reflections on the Journey

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Intentional change is not a simple or straightforward path. Specific tasks and goals guide the work of the interim minister and Transition Team. This Sunday members of the Ministerial Transition Team will review and celebrate the tremendous accomplishments and challenges that UCV has been engaged in through this time of transition, as we look forward to our next chapter.

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Easter: Practicing Resurrection

Resurrection is a lot of work, is messages of hope to carry, is a lot of imagining what we’ve never seen, is throwing off the old way and opening to something new. This resurrection the Marys proclaimed, it’s a thing to live into, not something to receive. Believing the impossible and loving it into being.

 

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