Category: Community

Community social gatherirngs; mens and womens groups; covenant groups, neighbourhood groups and news from the communications, membership and care and concern committees.

Meet the Kinder Morgan Arrestees!

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Sunday October 7 Forum, 12:35pm
Four UCV members chose to cross the injunction line at the Kinder Morgan site and face arrest, jail time, and fines. One other member faces a lawsuit and potential bankruptcy.  Why did they do this? Hear their personal stories and their experiences with the police and legal system. We will also hear from a lawyer who will speak on the legal implications and potential future developments now that the company has been bought by the Canadian government.
Sponsored by the Environment Team

Rise For Climate International Day of Action

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UCV Joins Rise for Climate
the International Day of Action
September 8th, 2018

Rise for Climate is organized world wide by 350.org

When: September 8, 2018

Where: Different events at different venues.

Go to the link above and type in your city for local events or check out the following events:

  1. At UCV, faith leaders and community from Metro Vancouver will gather for a meaningful, multicultural dialogue on the power of ‘spiritual activism’ to engender global peace, sustainability and harmony in the face of an uncertain future. Sat. Sept 8, 9:30am,-3:30pm.

    2. https://multifaithaction.jimdo.com/

  2. Burnaby, BROKE will have music, speakers, graphics on “Suffering Salmon” in streams on Burnaby Mountain at the Watch House , Sat. Sept 8, 11am-3pm

    3. https://www.facebook.com/events/328347781240170/

    https://actionnetwork.org/events/suffering-salmon-climate-change-and-trudeaus-pipelinetanker-project

  3. Downtown Vancouver, Climate Convergence and UBCC350  are organizing a rally and march at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Sat. Sept. 8, 4 pm

    http://www.ubcc350.org/

    https://www.facebook.com/events/328347781240170/

Why: We need people to step up and let leaders know what we are already doing to prevent climate catastrophe.  The Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, Sept. 12-14 needs to hear from the grass roots: us. We need to join forces to fight the Kinder Morgan / Trudeau Pipeline Expansion (TMX).

Who: Everyone who cares about the impacts of Global Warming.

How: RSVP and show up!

OWL – Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society

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Outreach Opportunities Fund Recipient

The Outreach Opportunities Fund will be collecting for the Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (OWL) from June to September. OWL is a non-profit organization whose staff and volunteers are dedicated to public education and the rehabilitation and
release of injured and orphaned raptors.

A portion of the Sunday service offering goes to an organization selected by the OOF committee.

About OWL

 

From Melody Mason on behalf of the Outreach Opportunities Fund Committee.

Would you like to visit? http://www.owlrehab.org/visit-owl/

3800 – 72nd Street
Delta, BC, Canada, V4K 3N2

Summer – July to August

Sunday – 10am to 3pm
Monday – 10am to 3pm
Tuesday – 10am to 3pm
Wednesday – 10am to 3pm
Thursday – 10am to 3pm
Friday – 10am to 3pm
Saturday – 10am to 3pm
Holidays – CLOSED

OWL offers guided tours for the public to come and visit our permanent residents. Hours are listed below.

You can visit us at OWL and see many of our permanent residents (hours are listed below). We operate on a guided tour basis only. You will learn how they came to be at our facility, the jobs they preform at the facility, and about the different species of raptors you can find in British Columbia. This portion of the tour is outdoors and occurs rain or shine, so don’t forget to dress for the weather!

Our tour also includes a walk inside through our Wildlife Museum and Gift Shop. The many exhibits and displays were made possible by dedicated OWL volunteers Sharon Pilkey, Gerry Powers, Colin Iverson, and Christina Hamberger.

Guided tours are by donation, are approximately 30 minutes long, and leave on the half hour, with the last one going out at 2:30pm. Bookings are required for groups of 10 or more, so please call or email us in advance so we can arrange a tour for you.

Mystery Pals Magic

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May 6th dawned bright and warm. I felt a flutter of nervous excitement carrying armfuls of flowers to church, an unusual three block walk to get across the marathon using 49th street. This was the culmination of Vancouver Unitarians first experience with the UU Mystery Pal letter exchange tradition and I wanted to create a beautiful backdrop for it to unfold.

Twelve pairs ranging in age from 4 to 80 were matched up by at least one common interest and had spent the month of April exchanging letters, drawings, and emails not knowing the identity of their pen pal. As the orchestrater of the exchange I had the pleasure of hearing the excitement and curiosity as pals discovered their letters each week. I heard from parents how much their children were enjoying the exchange and from adults having fun comparing notes on how fascinating, bright, and fantastic their pals were. Everyone tried to guess who exactly their pal was of course. My own four-year-old wasn’t sure he wanted to participate because it would be scary to sit at a party with someone he didn’t know. He didn’t want to be left out though so I told him I would sit with him at the party.  As it turns out…

The day of the Big Reveal.

I had tables set aside in the Hall Annex with flowers, fruit, and snacks that pals brought to share. Place settings were marked with the famous Unitarian Universalists that each pair had been connected through—find your famous UU, find your pal, eat and talk together. After the whole congregation worship service, “The Work We Do”, let out Pals started to find their place and find each other. My four-year-old who was sure he wanted me to sit with him? He chatted easily with his Pal for more than half-an-hour; a month of writing letters had taken away the layer of strangeness that he would usually feel with an adult not in the family.

I looked around at the smiles, conversation, and earnest engagement unfolding and found it nothing short of magical. I’m sure some Pals will stay connected more than others, but everyone found a new friend at church. The length of time Pals spent together that morning showed real, meaningful, personal connections were made during a time we often talk to the same people within our age or interest cohort each Sunday.

For all those who missed participating this time around, we will do it again next year!

A Weekend of Celebration

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A Weekend of Celebration

On Friday, April 6th, the Vancouver Unitarians celebrated their first Passover Seder/Dinner in a long time bringing together 42 folks from across the lower Mainland.  The seder (or service) was brilliantly led by Rob Dainow, a self-declared JewNitarian.  “I grew up in a Jewish family and now make my home in the Vancouver Unitarians community. We always celebrate the main Jewish holidays in my family and it was very nice to share the Passover holiday this year with so many at our UCV seder.  Passover is a celebration of the Jews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt in ancient times; the importance of observing it every year is to tell and retell this story so that we will not forget that we were once slaves and that people continue to be enslaved in many ways today. I was especially happy to share this event and its meaning and traditions with so many who were participating in a seder for the first time.”  
Vivian Davidson, one of the key organizers added, “Indeed it was such a great event, attended by so many remarkable people, where wonderful food, stories, communion were shared. Everybody did such a great job who helped plan and execute that event that I know many people appreciated having attended including me.  I really treasured being able to be part of putting it together.” For many, like Vivian, it was their first experience of a seder.  
Mary Bennett went on to say, “That was just my second passover seder ever and I really appreciated all the efforts put in by so many. Ever since joining the Unitarians and learning…a bit and then a bit more…about Jewish customs, I’ve been quite drawn to them. I like ceremony and ritual and “living traditions” – I love that I now know that people treat the Hagaddah (the book which guides the service and tells the Exodus story) as a changeable script open to new examples and traditions.”
Friday’s celebration of freedom led the way to an intense weekend of fostering connections. The lead-up to the following day’s Lower Mainland conference. A most uplifting and joyous event!
Submitted by Sheila Resels (on behalf of the Passover Planning Team/Jewish Holidays Planning Team).

Earth Day Service a success

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The 2018 Earth Day Service was put on by the Environment Committee today. Guest speaker Aline Laflamme gave a moving, insightful sermon titled “All My Relations”. She spoke of the Indigenous view of what “relations” means as well as the responsibility that comes along with being part of a family that consists of all that is living and non-living in the world. The Daughters of the Drum performed Indigenous songs of thanks and prayer and, just to change things up a bit, rather than being read to, the Coming of Age kids read the Story for All Ages to the congregation!

Aline LaFlamme explaining how the drum is a circle that represents the interconnection of all Our Relations, all that is living and non-living in our world.
Daughters of the Drum
The Coming of Age kids reading the All Ages Story to the younger kids and the congregation!

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Sermon Discussions: Turning Tamiko’s Idea into a Weekly Reality

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Sheila Resels, Connect & Engage Team.

Newcomers and new members often have a hard time connecting with others at UCV. The hardest time is when they leave the service and enter the Hall room. They find themselves amongst a large group who seem to know one another…really well. It’s overwhelming. Even intimidating. So several of us asked ourselves, “What can we do?” And came up with the idea of creating a Sermon Discussion group.

Tamiko Suzuki speaking at the Wild Salmon night.

Tamiko Suzuki thought it might create a friendly, casual environment where these new folks could sit with others and converse…introduce themselves … and talk about that morning’s sermon. A shared experience. Well, she was absolutely right.

We held the SD for several months and it was a real success. Those who attend are newcomers, new members and regulars. We averaged ten participants – the Sermon Groupies.

Sessions were moderated by a facilitator. “The discussions are thoughtful, insightful and dynamic,” said one new member. Another regular added, “This really enriches the potential Sunday experience.” One of the facilitators thanked everyone “for sharing in a meaningful discussion”. And another new member who comes frequently said, “it was a good discussion. I have been impressed so far with the depth and quality of communication in these sessions.”

There was a need to connect. The Sermon Discussions found one way to address that need. The group met weekly after services in the Priestley room from noon – 1:15.

Now the experiment is over having fulfilled the mission of connecting many people and helping them make new connections.

The Connect & Engage Team has now gone on to other initiaties.

Mystery Pals – Make a New Friend at Church

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Make a Friend at Church

create connections across generations!

The mystery only lasts a little while, but the friendship can be much longer.

Sign-up to be a Pal to someone older or younger than yourself—we would love to have everyone involved and will match any pair from different generations (roughly 20 years apart). To facilitate anonymity, each pair will be identified by a famous Unitarian with a corresponding “mailbox” envelope in the Hewett Centre Hall.

Celebrate May 6th after the service with a Mystery Reveal Party.

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Giving to Community Legal Assistance Society (CLAS)

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Outreach Opportunities Fund Recipient February – May 2018

Community Legal Assistance Society (CLAS)

CLAS provides legal assistance to low-income people across British Columbia (BC).  They focus on legal issues in the areas of: housing security, income security, human rights, mental health rights, and workers’ rights.  They offer a wide variety of legal services, including: summary legal advice to outline client’s options and point them in the right direction, guidance to help clients represent themselves, and full representation.

Assistance is provided to clients in the following areas.

Housing evictions: if there has been an eviction and the tenant has lost a dispute resolution hearing at the Residential Tenancy Branch, if a home is being foreclosed upon, or if membership in a co-op is being terminated.

Access to Government Benefits: if an appeal at the Employment and Assistance Appeal Tribunal or Social Security Tribunal has been lost over regular or disability benefits, supplements or other kind of income support.

Human rights: if someone has been discrimination against, or an appeal has been lost at the Human Rights Tribunal.

Mental health: if a client has applied for a Review Board hearing under the Mental Health Act, or an upcoming Criminal Code Review Board hearing

Work-related legal issues: if an appeal at the Worker’s Compensation Appeal Tribunal, Social Security Tribunal or Employment Standards Tribunal has been lost over workers’ compensation, employment insurance, or other employment-related benefits.

CLAS also takes test cases through the court system. Currently, it has launched a Charter challenge on behalf of two individuals who have undergone forced psychiatric treatment. The case challenges the laws in BC that remove any right for involuntary patients to give or refuse consent to psychiatric treatment, either for themselves or through a trusted family member or friend.

CLAS also advocates for systemic law reform. They work with community and advocacy groups to develop concrete proposals to improve fairness in the law and policy that govern the lives of people in BC. For example, in 2015 their lawyers worked with the City of Vancouver Renters Advisory Committee on a report, Reforming the BC Residential Tenancy System.

From Melody Mason on behalf of the Outreach Opportunities Fund Committee.