Capital Unitarian Universalist Congregation

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.

Please join us at 10am on Sunday December 29th for the film “Once Upon a Forest” This film is part of a series called “Something Beautiful for the World”

Maria was a romantic, animal-loving, dreamy child who, growing up, had a hard time conforming to the demands associated with the trajectory towards “a normal life”. As a young adult she became depressed, and was encouraged by her therapist to go for walks in the forest. The myriad of funny-looking twigs and sticks she found along the way immediately put her on a path to recovery. Now, 25 years later, she’s a celebrated “twig poet” whose art is shown in galleries throughout Sweden. When a climate related crisis strikes the forest where she lives and works, she’s forced into a new type of creativity in order to save the place that once upon a time saved her.

The films of the series “Something Beautiful for the World” explore how small acts of love and kindness have the potential to ripple out and change the world, touching hearts and minds in ways that we could never begin to imagine.

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 Professor of Biology and the Zen Buddhist
spiritual care provider at UVic Multifaith.

People in all cultures sing, for many reasons: to connect in community, to revive memories, to tell their stories, to express emotion, to celebrate life events… and some people don’t sing — also for many reasons. Let’s explore this a little, with a lot of singing, and a welcome to join in.

Dick and Cathy are co-directors of Victoria’s Gettin’ Higher Choir, Outside Voices and the Wednesday
Evening Sing-In. Together with Denis Donnelly, they lead the Community Choir Leadership Training
program.

Please join us at 10am on Sunday January 26th for Reilly Yeo – Prophets of Love: Active Engagement in a Time of Polycrisis

We’re called in this time of climate crisis not just to change our world, but to transform it. In the process, we will need to transform ourselves. Climate change is a wake-up call that heralds the urgency of our third principle as Unitarian Universalists – spiritual growth. Join Reilly Yeo, Candidate for Ministry with the Unitarian Universalist Association and Co-Founder of Climate Plan, for this exploration of the spiritual dimensions of the climate crisis.

This pre-recorded sermon is part of the Meaning Making series.

Bio: Reilly is an organizer and facilitator with extensive experience in digital campaigns. Prior to entering seminary, she was the Director of Communications and Public Engagement at the David Suzuki Foundation, and she currently serves as Co-Founder of Climate Plan, a membership-based organization that helps people and their communities respond to climate change. She received her MDiv from the University of Toronto and completed her chaplaincy training (CPE Basic) at Victoria General Hospital. Her work focuses on the twin challenges of spiritual resilience and systems change in the face of the polycrisis, the interlocking crisis of crises that defines our time. She lives in James Bay on the unceded territories of the Swenghung, a Lekwungen-speaking people, with her partner Jamie and their children Avery and Elyse.

The Truth Mandala. Re-created for Capital this was created by Joanna Macy and is a whole group structure for owning and honoring our pain for the world. The practice emerged in 1990 amid a large, tension-filled workshop near Frankfurt, on the day of the reunification of East and West Germany.