Category: Recent News

The monthly e-newsletter selects about 5 news posts with this category. Priorities are news relevant to a wide number of people and especially of interest to visitors or new folk.

Gift bags for Mothers Offering Mentorship and Support Program

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MOMS (Mothers Offering Mentorship and Support) is supporting struggling young people in East Vancouver.

The programs run by MOMS, located at Grandview Church, make an incredible difference in the lives of those experiencing poverty, social isolation, familial instability, and health challenges. In past years, MOMS has organized the “Coldest Night Walk” to raise money, but this year MOMS will hand out Christmas bags.

UCV has been asked to help prepare  gift bags filled with daily necessities, like grooming and food items, or even with some toys. MOMS is hoping for about 20 bags, big or small.

Here is a list of items that may be placed in the bags:

  • toiletries,
  • candles,
  • scarves/gloves,
  • coffee gift cards,
  • small games,
  • stamps and greeting cards,
  • tea towels,
  • simple jewellery, or
  • chocolates.

The bags will be collected by Ursula on the Sundays Dec. 8 and Dec.15, before and after the service in Hewett Hall.

MOV Exhibit: There is Truth Here: Creativity and Resilience in Children’s Art from Indian Residential and Day Schools.

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Check out the Museum of Vancouver exhibit: There is Truth Here: Creativity and Resilience in Children’s Art from Indian Residential and Day Schools. Four UCV’ers accepted an invitation from Canadian Memorial to join a dozen others at the exhibit Nov 26 for an explanatory talk by the curator, Dr Andrea Walsh. All found it a powerful, deeply moving experience.

More information about the exhibit:

April 5, 2019 – January, 2020
There is Truth Here: Creativity and Resilience in Children’s Art from Indian Residential and Day Schools.
There is Truth Here focuses on rare surviving artworks created by children who attended the Inkameep Day School (Okanagan), St Michael’s Indian Residential School (Alert Bay); the Alberni Indian Residential School (Vancouver Island) and Mackay Indian Residential School (Manitoba). The focus of the exhibition is not on the schools themselves, but upon witnessing the experiences of the survivors as conveyed through their childhood artworks – for some the only surviving material from their childhoods.

Are you worried about overdose deaths? Forum in January will address what more can be done about harm reduction.

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According to the latest figures for 2019, there were 2.6 drug toxicity deaths every day in BC. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/life-events/death/coroners-service/statistical-reports

This horrifying number is despite there being Overdose Prevention Sites, mobile needle exchange programs, the Insite program for treatment of drug users, and other services. If you want to know more about what can be done, come to the Social Justice forum on January 12, to hear Micheal Vonn, CEO of Portland Housing Society (PHS) https://www.phs.ca/.

She will be discussing the Society’s harm reduction programs and further actions she would like to be taken to reduce the number of deaths and provide treatment and other services to drug addicts. Micheal has recently been appointed CEO of PHS and was previously the Policy Director for BC Civil Liberties Society. Prior to that she worked on developing BC’s HIV/AIDS program.

 

CUC Dismantling Racism Study Group

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Members of the Canadian Unitarian Council’s “dismantling racism” study group are preparing for their audit of anti-racism work in Canadian congregations. The group plans to distribute a survey on this topic to Canadian Unitarians, with its release tentatively set for January. Rev. Julie Stoneberg of the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough, co-chair of the eight-person group, says they are hoping for the broadest possible participation by Canadian clergy and laypeople.

Doug Ennenberg and  Tamiko Suzuki from UCV, and Catherine Strickland from NSUC, are the western representatives in the group.

https://cuc.ca/enews-november-26/?utm_source=Canadian+Unitarian+Council+List&utm_campaign=0ac6efa9c1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_15_08_49_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9434666947-0ac6efa9c1-328231665#dismantling

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.

 

A silent auction: Art for Refugees

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Art for Refugees is a silent auction of artwork by Karen Brumelle with all proceeds to the refugee committee. The art is on display in the Fireside room from December 1 to 22.

Come view the artwork and write your first bids when the exhibit opens on December 1.

You can review bids and bid or rebid on any day. Bidding closes at 12:15 pm on December 22.

Support the wonderful work of the refugee committee – get some art for yourself or as a gift.

Preview: Art for Refugees (@UnitarianUCV) – click on that link to see tweets with images of art for sale in the silent auction. (You do not need a Twitter account for this.)

 

notes and links

featured image from silent auction

artist’s website: brumelleart.com

in these notes, DuckDuckGo bang commands (!?) link to search results for words they follow when the commands are in parentheses, for words they precede when they are not:

!ucv refugee committee / a search on the UCV website

!tw “Art for Refugees” (@UnitarianUCV) / a search on Twitter

the Merriam-Webster definition of a silent auction (!mw) notwithstanding, the written bids in Art for Refugees are not sealed but displayed with the art

The Buddha on friendship and the spiritual life

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Ananda [AH-nuhn-duh], a cousin of the Buddha and among the first of his followers, had a reputation for attending all his talks and accurately remembering all he said. Except once.

Ananda must have skipped the talk about friendship. One day, to clarify a point he was unsure about, he turned to the Buddha and asked if it was true that friendship is half of the spiritual life.

“Not so, Ananda,” said the Buddha, “friendship is the whole of the spiritual life.” (!?)

 

notes and links

photo by Briana Tozour on Unsplash

parenthetical DuckDuckGo bang commands (!?) link to search results for terms they follow

ananda (!di) / “perfect bliss”

A bang command for UCV on DuckDuckGo

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There are some good reasons for using the DuckDuckGo search engine and even for making it the default search engine on your browser so you can just type search terms right into the location bar (address bar) at the top of your screen.

This post goes into just one reason: the bang command. If you click on that link and then scroll down, you can see why bang commands are useful.

The bang commands in this post link to their results so you don’t have to type them into your browser to try them out. Just click on them.

!ucv principles for kids / for grownups too (see link in item found)
!ucv small groups / where everyone has a voice and is heard
!ucv vision statement / !g “… exactly what it says on the tin”

Those examples used the new bang command !ucv
/ (given nothing to search for on a website, a bang command displays the home page)

Even if you don’t make DuckDuckGo the default search engine on your browser, you can maybe still use it in the browser search box. This is usually to the right of the location bar (address bar) at the top of your screen, as it is in Firefox.  Click on the dropdown symbol – if there is one in the search box – and select a miniature version of the featured image in this post after you have typed the search term.

Here are some other bang commands worth knowing:

!yt Vancouver Unitarians / YouTube

!gb “Singing the Living Tradition” / Google Books

!gr “Singing the Living Tradition” / Goodreads

!b becoming a Unitarian site:cuc.ca / Bing

!i Vancouver Unitarians  / images

!m Unitarian Church of Vancouver, 949 West 49th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5Z 2T1  / map

!ucv technology / drop-in sessions, first Sundays, for help with any or all of the above

Please spread the word. Send people this copy-paste of the title of the post with its embedded link:

A bang command for UCV on DuckDuckGo

Thank you.

Voting by Proxy

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We usually hold two general meetings each year.

Here’s how to vote if you can’t attend for whatever reason.

Those who have been members for over 90 days are entitled to vote. To vote a proxy, the person must also have been a member for more than 90 days.

Not sure what a proxy vote is? Read this wikipedia article.

What if I can’t be at a meeting?

You can submit a proxy form by email or sign and send with the member who will vote on your behalf. You can put two names on the form. Each member can only hold one proxy vote. So in the event the first person on your list already is voting on behalf of someone else or is not able to attend, you will still be represented.

Just cut and paste this into an email addressed to ca@vancouverunitarians.ca with copy to Lynn Armstrong ucvsecretary@gmail.com, board secretary. Please send from the email address that we have on file for you.

Unitarian Church of Vancouver – Proxy

The undersigned hereby appoints
[Name] ___________of  [City] _________

or failing them

[Name] __________________of  [City] ___________

as proxyholder for the undersigned to attend and vote for and on behalf of the undersigned at the General Meeting of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver to be held on the 11th day of June, 2023 and at any adjournment of that meeting.

Signed/submitted by email this ____ day of ___________, 2023.

Member’s Full name:

UCV Bylaw 36:

Each member shall have one vote and votes shall be cast either in person or by written proxy. No person present may cast more than one proxy vote and no person shall be entitled to vote as a proxy unless such person is qualified by membership to vote in his or her own right at the meeting at which he or she acts as proxy.