Capital Unitarian Universalist Congregation

Rev Antonia Won “Confessions of a Perfectionist” Growing up as a Unitarian, I was aware of highly held values it was assumed would naturally result in a better society – if we lived into them adequately. I try to be a good person and live out those values, including acceptance of others as our first principle affirms (the one about inherent worth and dignity). And yet I still struggle with people whose views I can’t understand. I feel they are wrong, even if I don’t say so. Did Unitarianism get me into this pickle? More importantly, can it help get me out?

Rev. Antonia Won is a third generation Canadian Unitarian and a minister working for the Canadian Unitarian Council, overseeing Western Region and BC. Antonia has worked in congregations large and small in New Mexico, Montana and BC. She was a theme park planner and project manager in a former life. Antonia lives in Vancouver, has two young adult children and a partner who has taught her to sail.

Susanne presents the ideas of Franciscan Father Richard Rohr, whose book “Breathing Underwater” discusses where to find the spiritual.

This service will also include a New Members Welcome.

There is a great gulf between being alone and being lonely. Are they even related? Can we be alone without being lonely?  Can we be lonely without being alone? Reverend Brian Kiely explored loneliness in this sermon for the Unitarian Church of Edmonton and has welcomed Dyanne to present it to us.

Now that the Gay Rights Movement has led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in nine states and the District of Columbia, it is time to re-examine the history of this practice and recover past precedents.

This talk examines diverse evidence of the existence of same-sex marriages in North America from the 16th century through the twentieth century. Unfortunately memory of this history of marital variability has been erased, owing in part to the tendency of contemporary descriptions to describe such unions as “impossible.” The rhetoric of impossibility allowed communities to accommodate couples who transgressed the rule that marriage should be cross-sexed, without redefining the category of marriage.

Rachel Hope Cleves is Associate Professor of History at the University of Victoria. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America (Oxford University Press, 2013), which examines the lives of two ordinary women who lived in an extraordinary same-sex marriage in Vermont, from 1807 to 1851. Originally from New York City, Cleves is a happy transplant to B.C.’s beautiful capital city.

What came first: the chicken, the egg, or the Easter Bunny? Join us as we resurrect the sources of our European spring festival traditions!

In Buddhism, one begins with the human predicament in order to grow into a more satisfying life.

“When one studies Buddhism, one studies the self; when one studies the self, one forgets the self; when one forgets the self, one is enlightened by all things.” Great Master Dogen (1200 – 1253 AD)

Rev. Master Meiten McGuire was originally a clinical psychologist and educator in both the US and Canada. She has been a Buddhist monastic in her Soto Zen order for 33 years and teaching on Vancouver Island for the past 10.  She is a member of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives, and a Resident Teacher of the Vancouver Island Zen Sangha.

Coodinator: Amanda S Tarling

Dr Rippin is a Professor of Islamic History at the University of Victoria, he is a specialist in the Qur’an and the history of its interpretation.  Dr Rippin authored the textbook “Muslims: their religious beliefs and practices”.

As part of SPARK! Circus, Karina Strong, founder of VestaFire Entertainment, travelled to Thailand in 2012 with her family (Kevin, Jenna (8) and Caden (3)) to bring a circus experience to Burmese refugee children. Using multi-media, Karina and Kevin will share the stories of this mission to bring a little joy and playfulness to underprivileged children they met and the impact it had on her own family. Karina is a member of First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo.

We make community on Sunday mornings.  Unitarians also make community at dinners, regional gatherings, summer camp, and the national gathering each May.  Come and learn more!

Dr Norbert Čapek founded the Unitarian church in Czechoslovakia and created the flower celebration service in 1923. Dr Čapek was born in 1870 and was murdered in 1942. The impetus for writing the flower communion came from his feeling that his church needed a symbolic ritual that would bind his congregants more closely together. Come and join us in this beautiful service.