Unitarian Congregation of Guelph

A PROBLEM. A TEAM. A TRANSFORMATION: ORGANIZING TO SUPPORT SCHOLARS AND STUDENTS IN CONFLICT ZONES
2022-03-27 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | 122 Harris St / Zoom
Karen Balcom explains how a small team formed at McMaster University to support students and faculty of the Women’s and Gender Studies MA program at Kabul University. Anyone connected to the programme was and remains at severe risk in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover. Seven months later, we are connected to campus and political communities across Canada, we are delivering material support to scholars in Afghanistan, and creating an employment-based immigration pathway as a model for other universities. And (as of March 10th, 2022) we have convinced the President, Provost and Deans at McMaster to commit $800,000 for a wide ranging programme in support of students and scholars at risk from any country in crisis. This talk will also include basic information about Afghan refugee support networks forming in Guelph.

Karen Balcom is an Associate Professor of History and Gender & Social Justice at McMaster University, where is also the Academic Director of the Office of Community Engagement. She is a somewhat lapsed member of this congregation, who was grateful to raise her daughters (now 17 and 20, YIKES!) in this community. She will be speaking today about her work with McMaster’s Committee on Scholars and Students in Crisis.

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SPRING EQUINOX
2022-03-20 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | 122 Harris St / Zoom
We are stepping away from the magical dark into growing light. What pivot do you want to make? What possibilities have you discovered in pandemic constraint? Is a new passion emerging? Let’s explore in community, because, like geese, we fly farther when we fly together.

Join us either virtually or in-person for this first hybrid service.

Note that the Sunshine Room after the service will take place via Zoom only.

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BRIDGING CULTURAL DIVIDES FOR COLLECTIVE LIBERATION AND TRANSFORMATION
2022-03-13 10:30 UTC | Zoom
Encounters with different cultural ways of being and belief systems have the potential to stir visceral discomfort and deep reactivity. In the ongoing polarizing challenges of these times – from COVID to the climate crisis amidst profound inequities – how can we as Unitarian Universalists embrace a deeper, more rooted call and spiritual practices for engagement? This sermon builds on a series of sermons with which the guest minister has been traveling for the past few years, alongside her lived experiences and writings.

Rev. Dr. Michelle Walsh, PhD, LICSW is a Unitarian Universalist community minister who is a certified Internal Family Systems therapist/practitioner and trained spiritual director with a private practice known as Sacred Play Explorations. She also has worked as a scholar activist for many years in urban contexts, teaches as a Lecturer at Boston University, and is the author of Violent Trauma, Culture and Power: An Interdisciplinary Exploration in Lived Religion as well as chapters in other volumes.

DREAMING, DEMYSTIFYING, DECOLONIZING, DEVOTING
2022-03-06 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
Join us for a celebration of International Women’s Day, with a montage of music, pictures, and words of wisdom and inspiration, drawing upon the Canadian UU Women’s Association service from 2021. The service will feature singing by Wendy Luella and a talk by Rev. Kathy Sage (minister emerita from the Kingston UU congregation), with original animated artwork by Ilara Stefaniuk-Gaudet. We will also enjoy a video of the women of UCG.

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Tolerant or Inclusive - Are We Living Our Principles?
2022-02-27 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
At the start of our services we state that we “strive to be a diverse community of mixed ages, genders, sexual orientation and race’. That is a cornerstone of our faith. But what if diversity isn’t enough? Are we truly living our faith through inclusion?

Join us as we explore the idea and challenges of true inclusivity, and ask the question: What does true inclusivity look like?

LESSONS IN MYTHS
2022-02-20 10:30 - 12:00 UTC | Zoom
There is magic in the wisdom of myths, wisdom that is still resonant today. What if myths were not just for putting children to sleep, but for waking adults up?

Mel Horvath-Lucid, is the former Director of Congregational Life at UCG. She is a current student at Haden Institute, studying Spiritual Direction, and is trained as a Mediator, and through the UUA, as an Interim Ministry Specialist, and as a Healthy Congregations facilitator. Mel brings a passion for exploring the many transitions and changes we experience in life, with a focus on who we wish to be and how we wish to be, during those transitions. As a human, Mel is a wild creative, Mama to five children, and currently works as the Community and Volunteer Engagement Coordinator for Community Justice Initiatives, an organization committed to Restorative Justice.

HEALING HAUNTED HISTORIES
2022-02-13 10:30 - 12:00 UTC | Zoom
(with thanks to Elaine Enns and Ched Myers, Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization, available in the Guelph Library and through the Bookshelf)

How are feeling about being a Canadian with the ongoing discovery of unmarked graves at former Indian Residential Schools? Our guest, John Buttars is feeling terrible about it and will share his personal journey seeking to come to terms with being both a Canadian but also an ordained United Church minister where his denomination had over a dozen of those schools, the last closing in 1969, a year before he was ordained. While in Theological College at Queen’s University, he cannot remember hearing anything about them.

How are you feeling about being a participant in our society with such a history? And does this have any impact on your being part of a Unitarian congregation. The Canadian Unitarian Council recently passed an 8th Principle: “We, the member congregations of the Canadian Unitarian Council, covenant to affirm and promote individual and communal action that accountably dismantles racism and systemic barriers to full inclusion in ourselves and our institutions.”

John Buttars is a long-time resident of Guelph and formerly one of the ministers of Harcourt Memorial United Church in Guelph. He and Barbara have two daughters and three grandchildren. Yes, retired but he continues to be involved in the life of the community.

CELEBRATION AND CONTEMPLATION: THE PATH OF AN 8TH PRINCIPLE
2022-02-06 13:00 - 14:30 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
Unitarians and Universalists have been on the forefront of social change and justice seeking for hundreds of years. In November 2021, congregations of the Canadian Unitarian Council once again stepped forward, this time to commit ourselves to dismantling racism and systemic barriers to full inclusion for all people. Be part of celebrating this commitment to foundational social change as we contemplate the steps we take to move forward in our commitment to justice in ourselves, our denomination, and our larger society. To attend this service, please register at the following link:

Sharing Our Faith National Sunday Service – Canadian Unitarian Council Conseil unitarien du Canada (cuc.ca)

Join us live on Zoom or the CUC’s YouTube channel.

Call-in toll-free: 1-855 703 8985; Meeting ID 847 1005 5117; Passcode: [REDACTED]

AN INFORMAL GATHERING AT OUR USUAL TIME
2022-02-06 10:30 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
Join us for the chalice lighting, sharing joys and sorrows, and some music and a reading in honor of Black history month.

Isabelle Horvath Kirby will share what she has put together as programming for children and youth.

Email Holly at admin@guelph-unitarians.com for the Zoom link.

AWAY SERVICE WITH THE UNITARIAN FELLOWSHIP OF SARNIA AND PORT HURON
2022-01-30 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
Code White – Sounding the Alarm about Violence Against Healthcare Workers

Through health care workers’ own voices, we learn what it is like to work in a state of almost constant hypervigilance, never knowing for certain when they might be harassed or threatened or assaulted. They are the true “experts” about such violence and its negative physical and psychological. Their ideas for prevention are based on their own personal knowledge and lived experience. The book reveals the institutional and systemic failure to protect health care workers from violence and the failure to adequately support them in its aftermath. Violence against health care workers is symptomatic of sick health care system that is inexorably unravelling. Increasingly, governments are failing to provide much needed funding for health care, leading to frustratingly long patient wait times, understaffing, bed shortages, and appallingly impersonal long-term care. Under such conditions, it is not surprising that violence against rushed and harried staff would flourish.

James Brophy and Margaret Keith both have PhD’s in environmental health from the University of Stirling in Scotland.

As a couple and as research partners, they have studied an extensive range of important occupational and environmental health issues. Both worked at the Sarnia Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers (OHCOW) where they helped to document one of the largest cohorts of asbestos diseased workers in Canadian history – the industrial workers in Sarnia. They also assisted the First Nation’s community of Aamjiwnaang in examining health problems that were hypothesized to be associated with environmental pollution arising from the petrochemical industry. Margaret was a co-author, along with Ada Lockridge, of an article that found a skewed birth ratio among the Aamjiwnaang community that generated international scientific attention. In 2008 they were recipients of the Gold Award in Environmental Health by Canadian Geographic for their work in assisting the Aamjiwnaang community.

They have just had a book published entitled Code White: Sounding the Alarm on Violence against Health Care Workers, which drew heavily on three important research studies they conducted over the past five years. The first two focused on violence against health care staff in the hospital and long-term care settings and the third on health care worker protection during the pandemic.

OUR UU SOURCES - A TASTE OF WELLSPRING
2022-01-23 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
Since September, a small group has been meeting twice a month to engage the materials of Wellspring, a curriculum focused on the sources of Unitarian-Universalism, self-selected spiritual practices, spiritual mentoring (or companionship), and reflective conversation. This Sunday offers a “taste” of Wellspring, as some of the participants will share their experiences in the program. You will then be invited to participate in a mini-version of the Wellspring meetings, which follow the “Circle of Trust” developed by Parker Palmer. See the Courage and Renewal website if you want to learn more about the Circle of Trust approach. Please note that we will break into small groups for a part of this service.

CHALICE CAFE
2022-01-16 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
Join us for an hour of conversation as we get to know each other better and celebrate the spiritual and religious diversity within our UCG community. You will be invited to reflect upon and share the story of what led you to Unitarian-Universalism. What, if any, were the religious beliefs and practices of your childhood and young adulthood? How does your upbringing relate to your current worldview? How would you describe yourself now? Are you at home in UUism or still seeking a religious/spiritual home?

TRANSFORMATION: THE LIVING EXPERIENCE OF COMMUNITY-BUILDING: THE STORY OF JUNCTION VILLAGE
2022-01-09 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
In the past ten years, Mary-Kate and Mike Craig have intentionally established a new community in Guelph, called the Junction Village. Diana Smith will interview these two community pioneers to find out what their intention was in starting this project. The process of setting up a community is filled with uncertainties and risks, and Diana will explore these through Mary-Kate and Mike’s stories and find out the meaning of what they learned in attempting to consciously live a life of transformation. Look for the service link in your inbox on Sunday morning.

Service to be lead by Team Blue: Lorna Wyllsun, Hannah Schell, Ruth Slavin and Michael Gilbertson

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LETTING GO OF THE OLD AND EMBRACING THE NEW
2022-01-02 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
Please join us to welcome in 2022 with a Zoom version of the Fire Communion or Burning Bowl ritual, a UU tradition. We will take time to reflect on the past year, and to let go of the old in order to embrace the coming year.
