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!
How do we foster healthy relationships between people, communities, and the earth?
Eleven years ago at a CUC National event, a group of Canadian young adults wrote a poem – The Church of Our Imagination – that captured the attention of everyone present. Today we are revisiting it, and them, as we imagine our way(s) forward.
What is The Church of Our Imagination?
And is this even the right question for today?
Remembrance Day tomorrow is a time to remember those who died in wartime. Today we consider the Big Questions surrounding war and peace, in historical and current wars.
Candles and lamps have long been used in rituals and ceremonies, perhaps from the time when humans began containing fire. When an ember would need to be kept alight from day to day or travelling place to place. This service is both a homily and a yearly ritual of art making to acknowledge the regathering after the COVID pandemic, so we might remember how precious it is to meet in person. Materials for making chalices or light containers will be provided, or you can bring your own. Poetry readings and music suggestions to fit the theme can be offered, contact Leigh, we will create this service together.
Sanctuary, inspiration and love are found in sacred spaces. From the beginning of human life, we have been creating approaches to the divine and to the highest aspirations of our lives and relationships. Joy will present images of the gorgeous Blue Mosque of Istanbul (Sultan Ahmed Mosque), and other sacred spaces such as Stonehenge; and closer to home, our forests, lakes and gardens. In the forum, we will have an opportunity to share our personal experiences of sacred spaces, and discuss how to create these portals to deep refuge and meaning.
Indigenous land defenders say “defend the sacred.” As Unitarian Universalists, what does “sacred” mean to us? By letting go of traditional religious ideas of the holy as something limited to sanctified church experiences, we opened ourselves up to a world where – to quote Peter Mayer – everything is holy now. This means that we suffer alongside the natural world, but also that we can draw tremendous solace and inspiration from it.
Come join Reilly as she continues to explore reverential naturalism, and the ways that her experience working at Victoria General Hospital shaped her perspective on our UU faith.
Digging Deeper into practicing Radical Hospitality
Bio: The Rev. Samaya Oakley (she/her) currently serves as the Minister for the Calgary Unitarians. She discovered Unitarian Universalism through the North Shore Unitarian Church, and quickly became active continentally though the Youth Office of the UUA. She holds at the heart of her ministry the importance of relationships and compassion. Rev. Samaya is a strong believer in social justice and believes that our theology calls us to be active agents for love and justice in the world. She holds at the heart of her ministry the importance of relationships and compassion. She is a strong believer in social justice and believes that our theology calls us to be active agents for love and justice in the world.
Rev. Samaya served as Co-Chair of the Canadian Unitarian Council’s (CUC) Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Reflection Guides – five age-appropriate reflection guides for use in Canadian UU congregations. Most recently she helped to coordinate the CUC’s Widening the Circle program that invites leaders and aspiring change-makers to engage with the work of finding new ways of being together that challenge our current ways of thinking.
This is one in the year long series “Roots of Resilience” presented by 8 different Canadian Unitarian Ministers.
This is one in the year long series “Roots of Resilience” presented by 8 different Canadian Unitarian Ministers. More details soon!
Meharoona will share her quest for hope, faith, and the Divine while living with a chronic illness and becoming disabled. Meharoona is a Muslim woman born and raised in a small Canadian town, currently living in Victoria. She is an accomplished writer, educator, and motivational public speaker with over 25 years of experience in the areas of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Her work appears in several prose and poetry collections. She also writes
for the Times Colonists’ Spiritually Speaking column. Learn more about her at:
https://www.mghaniconsulting.ca
A camping trip to the northwest coast of Vancouver Island at the end of October taught invaluable lessons about who I am as a person and a photographer. Going back to nature deepened my connection to the wilderness. This morning I’ll tell you a bit about my adventure and the wildlife I observed.
How are we working for a just and compassionate society?
This is one in the year long series “Roots of Resilience” presented by 8 different Canadian Unitarian Ministers. More details soon!
Globally, the outlook for 2025 is quite frightening. How can we live joyfully, or at least cheerfully, in a world full of other people’s suffering? I will argue that good cheer is a useful contribution to a disturbed world and suggest some ways to achieve it. This is a follow up to my January 2022 homily on the Discipline of Joy.
Learn how cancer-related research and clinical practice have advanced in recent years. Everyone of us has been touched by cancer. The ways that cancer is detected and treated is radically different than how it was done even 20 years ago.
Dr. Walter spent 23 years as staff scientist at Benioff Children's Hospital, Oakland, Calif., before
returning to Canada. Today he is an Adjunct Associate