Calendar of events
Here you will find all of our congregation’s Sunday Services, Board and Committee meetings and other events. Use the calendar controls to see events for past or future dates. For a quick look at recent Sunday Services, click here!
The Fathers of Confederation, the men who created Canada more than 150 years ago, were at least partially defined by the women in their lives: The Mothers of Confederation.
The political leaders of the day were profoundly influenced by their family lives, and family is something we can all relate to – that’s why I found it so rewarding to investigate the Mothers of Confederation (and the sisters and the daughters and at least one mistress).
The lives of these women were mightily proscribed, yet even within the doctrine of separate spheres, they managed to influence the events that led to nation creation.
Eventually, women had power enough to hold elected office, were declared “persons” enough to sit in the Senate, and be appointed to the Supreme Court (thank you, Bertha Wilson), while still exerting influence.
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Bio: Moira Dann shares a birthplace with Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning author Saul Bellow (Lachine, Quebec) and a birthdate with the Dalai Lama (July 6). She worked as a journalist much of her career (CBC, The Globe and Mail) and is a late-life graduate of University of King’s College in Halifax. Currently board president of Craigdarroch Castle, Moira is the author of Craigdarroch Castle in 21 Treasures (Touchwood), winner of a 2021 Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Historical Writing. She’s currently writing a memoir.
In the Gospels called Luke and Matthew, the angel Gabriel tells two Jewish ladies, post-menopausal Elizabeth and virgin Mary, that they will become pregnant despite obstacles. Their sons, John and Jesus, were worshipped from birth onward: John as a baptizer and Jesus as a healer. How did Christians get from this story to the elaborate shopping, decorating and feasting rituals of Christmas 2023? Peter Scales, a member of our congregation since 2004, loves the humanistic, pagan and historic rituals surrounding the darkest nights of the year.
Winter is a time to nourish each other and our community. Let’s come together for songs and stories, to find a place of calm joy amidst the turmoil.
An Unconventional Christmas Eve morning Service
Join us for: a delightful story about Christmas Eve and a cosmic angelic devil, a cross Canada glimpse at the places where our out of town congregants live and the awe and magic of the small. Along with some music and singing. Celebrate the festive season through: Beauty, Peace, Giving, and Closeness of Friends and Family- in an alternative fashion.
New Year’s Eve is a wonderful time to gather and gently let go of the old while looking forward to all of the potential of 2024. Join Amanda in a nourishing gathering to help hold our tender hearts.
Get your pencils ready: What was the single best thing that happened this past year? What was the single most challenging thing that happened? What was biggest thing you learned this past year? What are your hopes for 2024 in terms of community, wellness and spiritual health? Come and share!
The advent of AI and chatbots has opened a whole new area of ethics. In what ways is artificial intelligence pushing us to strengthen our ethical and theological muscles? What do our answers to these questions say about our understanding of what it means to be human, especially the ways in which this understanding impacts our relations with other humans and with the other-than-human world.
Speaker bio: Karen Fraser Gitlitz is Saskatoon Unitarians’ parish minister and a professional Art Therapist. For the past three summers, she has been a participant and a core walker with the Water Walk for the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers, following Indigenous leadership by walking the river in Ceremony for the healing of the water. In all of these activities—ministry, art therapy, and water walking—she has witnessed the healing that arises when we are able to connect to ourselves, our communities, and the land.
Part of the Meaning Making in Liminal Times Series.
As a climate justice organizer, campaign strategist and consultant, Emily Lowan has worked with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Corporate Mapping Project, and led Divest UVic’s successful campaign through 2020 and 2021.
Emily is completing her degree in political science and environmental studies at UVic, having finished her term as the elected director of campaigns and community relations for the University of Victoria Students’ Society. Emily lives in Victoria, B.C., on unceded lək ̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ territories, and is passionate about supply-side fossil fuel policy and organizing for a just future.
Will it be spring soon? Are you a dragon? Do Unitarians need purification? Join Joy to explore a month that is short yet jam-packed with modern and ancient celebrations and rituals. But most importantly: Will we be our Valentines?
Carl Sagan wrote “A religion that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.” After a sometimes bumpy evolution of our theology throughout the 20th century, UUism is poised to be this religion for the 21st Century and beyond. Come wonder about the future of our faith together with Candidate for Ministry and Climate Plan Co-Founder Reilly Yeo.
In this time, we are facing multiple climate crises. It can be frightening and dispiriting. How can our values and practices sustain and inspire us – as individuals and as a Unitarian community? How can we get from despair to hope?
Rev. Meg Roberts has served congregations in various parts of Canada during the last 20 years: Edmonton, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver Island, and now with Beacon in New Westminster and the Tri-cities area in BC. She also does community ministry using interactive theatre techniques with groups who want to deal with challenging social and organizational issues, and find practical solutions.
Karen Enns is a Canadian poet based in Victoria, noted for her 2017 collection Cloud Physics, which won the Raymond Souster Award for poetry in 2018. Her 2023 collection, Dislocations, takes the reader on a lyrical journey, wrapped in the vicissitudes of seasons and weather—while observing human and other-than-human lives. Enns invites us to peer and is concerned always with the locations and dislocations perspective implies and creates.