Rev. Wendy McNiven is a Unitarian minister, retired and living on Vancouver Island.  She has served congregations in BC and Alberta, and continues her ministry in retirement through leading rites of passage, counselling and coaching.  As a member of the Comox Valley community, she is involved in environmental activism, tai chi, and choral singing.  Wendy and her husband Mike are outdoor enthusiasts and grandparents.

Heather, Joy, Sharon, Donnie and Aiofe

New Board members Joy Huebert, Heather Stefanek, Donnie Jennings, Sharon Bool and Aoife Lentz met with Reverend Anne Barker on March 24 for a retreat to explore communication skills, and the legal requirements of boards.

Thanks to John Pullyblank for allowing us to meet at his home, Aiofe for organizing the technology, and everyone who contributed ideas, their time and delicious snacks.

We look forward to the challenges of 2025 and plan to continue to support our uplifting Unitarian community.

Report from the Board – Heather Stefanek

The “old board” met on March 19. Main topic of discussion was final details for the upcoming Annual General Meeting. The hiring committee reported that the process is moving along, and that advertising for the Administrative Assistant position will begin in mid April. This was one of our shorter board meetings, we were finished in an hour.

Following the service on March 23, the AGM was attended in person by 18 members with 9 on zoom, as well as some guests. Prior to the election, each board member presented a brief bio of their history of UUism. The new board was elected, with newcomers Sharon Bool and Donny Jennings joining the board, and Joy, Heather and Lou continuing for another year. Joy will take over as Chair, and Lou is our new Treasurer. Joy had purchased plants as a thank-you gift for Laurie and Cathy, as well as myself. Amanda presented the two retiring board members with ceramic UU pendants. A deficit budget was passed. It looks like we are finally able to fulfil Brooke’s request for part of his bequest to Capital to be sent to the Hungarian Unitarian Church. This will be handled by the Treasurer at First Church. A Nomination committee (Cathy & Sarah) was formed to seek candidates for next year’s AGM. Leigh indicated her willingness to be Capital’s delegate at the CUC AGM in May. On completion of business, those of us who remained in the hall sat down for a pot luck lunch together. Thanks to everyone who brought such delicious and varied food items.

The following day, the new board met at John’s house for a three hour retreat, which was facilitated by Rev. Anne Barker on zoom. We learned about the responsibilities of a board, and practices for working together as a strong team. As well, we became more aware of the legalities, both Federal and Provincial, with which we are required to comply. We realize that our bylaws are in need of review, a process which will take place over the coming year. Any changes needed will be brought to next year’s AGM for approval. Anyone interested in participating in this process is encouraged to contact me.

It was a delight to reconnect with many of you in person, and a big thank-you to Leigh for offering us the use of her home while she is away in Mexico.

Heather Stefanek
Past chair/Secretary

I am pleased to present a tribute to Cathy Baker, who is leaving the Board after two terms. She has written an inspiring description of her journey with Capital Congregation that is linked below.  Cathy has been a wise and steady light for our congregation since 2012 when Winnie Cooper invited her to attend and introduced her to Dick Jackson.  Thirteen years later, Cathy has served in many capacities, including two terms on the Board, and as a participant and support  for our Sunday music.  I encourage you to read her story with its many fascinating details, including her life as a transit driver.  Cathy is one of the many incredible people who have brought and still bring Capital to life for the past nearly 30 years.

I started coming to Capital in 2012 after being invited by Winnie Cooper who I met through the Gettin’ Higher Choir. Unbeknownst to me, Winnie was hoping to introduce me to Dick Jackson (she had a hunch we’d get along). Dick was away providing music for the Salt Spring Unitarians on the first Sunday I attended Capital, but I got a very warm welcome from the community and the greeter who was Elizabeth Atchison who gave me a stack of pamphlets so I could learn more about UU’s in general and Capital in particular.

A few weeks later, I hosted a musical gathering in my home and Winnie boldly invited Dick to come along. Her hunch proved correct and Dick and I connected over music and other interests and have been hanging out together since then! I finally read the stack of UU pamphlets and really got the sense that Unitarianism was a good fit for me. Dick and I got married in Amanda’s Oak Bay garden in July 2013 with Amanda and Donna Seaborn officiating and most of Capital in attendance for the ceremony and the potluck dinner and garden party.

For several summers, Dick and I served as the music team and core members of the Camp Dance Band when the Island UUs held summer retreats at Camp Pringle or at the Easter Seals Camp on Shawnigan Lake. We also helped with Music about once a month for services lead by Amanda with the Salt Spring UU fellowship.

My prior work schedule sometimes made Sunday attendance a challenge as my schedule as a city bus driver changed every three or four months, but I usually managed to pick shifts that would  accommodate services at Capital. I sometimes had to change into my bus-driver uniform during coffee time and slip out of Forum early to catch the start of my shift. I was always delighted when someone from Capital would get on my bus. I enjoyed seeing Capital friends at various places throughout the city and would attempt a friendly non-startling bus horn beep-beep greeting (it’s hard to do that subtly).

While Dick is the official music director, he welcomes my input and I often have song ideas to contribute and I enjoy finding songs that fit the homily theme. I am not generally at ease in the spotlight, but I see my musical role as being in service to the community and to augment the message of the homily. During pandemic lock-down, Dick and I together did most of the live singing to support our services. We have contributed music videos for a few national services and I enjoy our opportunities to collaborate with other UU musicians.

I often helped with any set-up since Dick and I were usually among the early arrivers at James Bay New Horizons. If needed I’d help with coffee time and clean up. I occasionally filled in as a greeter and within a few years was serving on the Board. I helped on the search committee when we were looking for a new home for Capital after our rental agreement with New Horizons wrapped up. It was fun figuring out how to beautify the games room when the Cook Street Activity was our temporary home.

Elizabeth Atchison asked me to join her on the Conflict Resource Team in 2021 where I served for several months, but stepped off that committee when a perceived conflict of interest arose.

Dick and I are still among the first few to arrive and the tech set-up is more involved now so set-up and take-down are still part of my contributions on Sunday mornings.

I joined the Board again in 2023 and after this, my second 2-year term, I will step off to allow new perspectives to arise and to put more of my energy into the musical work that Dick and I do outside of Capital.

In addition to seeing opportunities that arise and being willing to step in as needed, I believe in making a financial pledge within my means. I know that it makes a difference to those who plan our budget to have some idea of what we’re working with. I truly believe the words of our offertory song speak volumes:

From you, I receive
To you, I give
Together, we share
And from this, we live

Carmina Burana cast (with Capital UUs circled)

Three sold-out shows at the Royal Theatre!
Many thanks to Ballet Victoria for putting on this show and including the Victoria Choral Society (VCS) – Peter Scales

Painting by Dale Hitchcox

Hinda Avery, PhD was born in 1940, in Vancouver, BC. She holds a BFA, a MFA and a PhD (UBC). Her Doctoral research, in architecture and urban planning education, was from a feminist perspective and for several years she taught Women’s Studies.

Avery has always tried to integrate political and social issues into her artwork and, in the 1970s, the feminist movement gave her work a particular focus – that of portraying women in a non-stereotypical way. This focus has remained with Avery throughout the years.

A trip to Poland and Germany, to seek information about relatives murdered during World War II, as well as to research Holocaust Memorials (museums, monuments, and memorial sites) was life-altering. The experience made Avery change the direction of her art and to focus on Holocaust subject matter. The result was a series of paintings depicting Jewish women as resistance fighters during the Holocaust. This project lasted for 13 years. She now produces comics.

For more information see: https://www.hindaavery.com/

Financial Update – Amanda Tarling

Concerns or questions about the financials?  You are welcome to reach out to Amanda any time.

Book Review

Mark D. Morrison-Reed, Revisiting the Empowerment Controversy:  Black Power and Unitarian Universalism

By Ellen Campbell, First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto
Former CUC Executive Director, Former Member of the CUC Board of Trustees

January 24, 2019

Even as a small child, Mark Morrison Reed was bothered that there were so few people in the Unitarian church he and his parents attended who looked like him.  He felt at home and warmly loved in the church school, the Chicago Children’s Choir, and later the Youth Group.  But there were very few people in families like his.  This question has been a theme through Mark’s life and has directed the work he has done as a historian of Unitarian Universalism.

Revisiting the Empowerment Controversy: Black Power and Unitarian Universalism (Skinner House, 2018) is the fourth book Mark has written on the history of African American participation in the Unitarian Universalist community, and it deals with the explosive crisis in our denomination in the late 1960s and early 70s.

A number of Unitarians, particularly a new generation of young ministers, had become committed to the civil rights movement through their participation in the march in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and were working in their communities with civil rights organizations.   Some congregations, mostly in urban areas, were beginning to develop racially integrated congregations, although the numbers were small.  The membership in most congregations, however, particularly in suburban locations and in New England (and Canada), was totally white.  Like the society around them, they displayed a full range of attitudes to racial integration, from very open and accepting to uncomfortable, and even racist.

Download and read the entire book review (pdf)

About Rev. Mark D. Morrison-Reed

Raised in the First Unitarian Society of Chicago, Rev. Dr. Mark Morrison-Reed served for 26 years as co-minister with his wife, Donna, at the First Universalist Church of Rochester, New York, and later the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto. He is a former president of the Canadian Unitarian Council’s Board of Trustees and the Family Service Association of Metropolitan Toronto. He has also served as the vice-chair of the UUA Commission on Appraisal and Ministerial Fellowship Committee. As a historian of the African-American presence in UUism, he is the author of Black Pioneers in a White Denomination and Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism. He has also written In Between: Memoir of an Integration Baby, is co-editor of two meditation manuals Been in the Storm So Long and Voices from the Margin and has several pieces in Guarding Sacred Embers: Reflections on Canadian Unitarian and Universalist History. He has retired from his affiliated faculty member at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago and from active ministry. He was also the coordinator of its Sankofa Archive, a collection of materials about the people of color who were UUs.

Read Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed’s 2013 CUC National Conference Keynote: Radical Inclusion

or search YouTube “Capital UU Congregation”

Sunday Services

All Sunday services are on Zoom.

The link to all Sunday Services:
Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87331646008?pwd=K3NhVVhxTmd6RkY2K2VpUFBxUmFyQT09

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kIZ8GIiaS

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