March 2022 Update from the What Do We Call Ourselves Task Force (WDWCO TF)
For decades there have been discussions about the name of our faith community, mainly revolving around the inclusion of the word ’Church‘ in our name – The Unitarian Church of Vancouver. It has been a challenging issue and there are strong feelings both for and against a change.
In 2004 the Board unanimously decided, after consultation with the congregation, to identify us as Vancouver Unitarians on our webpage, logo and banner, reducing the prominence of our legal title containing ’Church’. In 2019, the Board created a task force, now called the What Do We Call Ourselves Task Force, to review our name with the congregation and make recommendations. We were active for about a year when a number of other issues came to the fore – COVID shutdowns, Rev. Dr. Steven Epperson’s retirement, welcoming our interim minister Rev. Lara Cowtan, the culmination of the redevelopment process, the reorganization of the Board and Administrative structure, and the adoption of the 8th principle. Hence it was decided in March 2020 to suspend WDWCO’s study to make way for these other urgent and time-consuming issues
Our current Board has now asked the WDWCO TF to continue its study of whether our legal name should remain or be changed to something else, and to be ready for a vote at the Fall AGM.
The WDWCO TF Mission is to create and guide an unbiased process within the UCV community about the issues regarding the use of the word ‘church’ in our official name. This will culminate in either keeping our current name Unitarian Church of Vancouver or choosing a new one. Our deepest wish is for convergence on what name is best for our community.
We are Eva Allan (Chair), Louise Bunn (Board rep), Carrie Mac, Sheila Resels, John Smith.
Our Advisors are Nancy Barker, Jeannie Corsi, Rob Dainow, Keith Wilkinson.
Our email address is [email protected]