Confronting Wildfires in an Era of Climate Emergency

Our Environmental Action Team invites you to a Free Public Panel discussion on wildfires and the climate crisis. The panel will explore how to balance investments in emergency response and climate preparedness with spending on climate action that drives down emissions, so that we can reduce extreme weather events, ensure our communities and workers are safe, and ensure a liveable world for future generations.

Monday, May 6 at 7pm

at UBC Robson Square
(800 Robson Street, Vancouver)
and online

In-person attendance is encouraged, but the event will also be live-streamed. Masks are welcome.  Register: Please register for either in-person or online attendance HERE.

 Speakers:

  • John Vaillant (best-selling writer, journalist, and author of the award-winning book Fire Weather)

  • Joe Gilchrist (Salish Fire Keeper and People of the Land)

  • Byron Cruz (organizer & outreach coordinator for the BC Federation of Labour’s Occupational Health & Safety Centre’s Migrant Worker Program)

  • Dr. Maura Brown (Clinical Assistant Professor in Diagnostic Radiology at UBC & member of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment)

  • with Seth Klein as moderator (team lead at the Climate Emergency Unit and author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency)

Butterfly Garden Work Party May 4th

Butterfly Garden Work Party
10am to noon Saturday, May 4th

Our Butterfly Garden at NSUC is regrowing nicely after a long winter! Many of our native plants are looking strong and healthy.  However, some maintenance is needed to give our garden a boost. 

We need helpers to weed, clip, turn soil, replant, rake and bag.  Our table centrepieces (which were used for NSUC’s sandwich lunch on April 21st) will be used in our Butterfly Garden to attract pollinators with their wonderful fragrance, as well as some other plantings.

Please dress for the weather and bring your own coffee mug plus these tools if possible:

  • Trowels

  • Clippers

  • Gloves

  • Knee pads

  • Lawn rakes

  • Spades (pointed shovel)

Please RSVP Jean Prescott at jihana@shaw.ca if you are coming.  (Jasha has offered tea and snacks, but needs a head count).

Annual Reports due April 30th

Annual Reports are due April 30, 2024 from the following people:

  • The Chair, Co-Chair, Leader, or Co-Leader of a group, committee, team, task force or program at the church  

  • The Board Liaison for a group, committee, team or task force that doesn't currently have a Chair or Leader

  • On the Nominating Committee

  • A Staff person responsible for the areas under your direction

If you are in any of those categories, please send your Annual Report to Janni by then as a Word document or in the body of an email (not as a PDF).

The Annual Report covers the time period of May 1, 2023 through April 30, 2024, so your report should include activities that took place in your area(s) during that 12-month period.

Your report should cover these three main things:

  • Who is involved and what are their roles?

  • What happened this year?  (Include accomplishments, challenges, on-going tasks, and anything else you would like to share).

  • Looking forward, what’s high priority?  What else are you thinking about?

If you have questions or would like to see last year’s Annual Report for your area, please reach out to Janni. 

Flip the Script Info Session for parents and grandparents: 7-9pm Thursday, May 2nd

Our Social Justice Team wants to direct your attention to is an information session at the North Shore  Women’s Centre called “Flip The Script Community Info Session”. This interactive session helps adults learn about an evidence-based sexual assault prevention training for high-school aged girls. It takes place 7-9pm on Thursday, May 2nd at the North Shore Women’s Centre (131 East 2nd Street in North Vancouver).

 If you have children or grandchildren who are teenage girls, this is a game changer!!!

 The Flip the Script with EAAA™ program is a sexual assault resistance education program for young women that has been researched* and shown to decrease the likelihood of experiencing sexual assault in the future.  Learn more about the program HERE. This program is about resistance not prevention. Women can’t prevent someone from trying to harm them, but the research shows that women can fight back when given the right tools. 

Prevention is a goal that requires active involvement from the community and social change. We know that social change takes time. But we also need short term solutions that can make an immediate difference in the lives of women on campus - and that’s the goal of resistance education. 

It’s time to Flip the Script. You can make a difference in the lives of young women you care about!

Register to attend this adult session to learn more about Flip the Script HERE.

*NOTE: The Flip the Script with EAAA™  program was evaluated with a randomized controlled trial (the SARE Trial) and the results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Research showed that women who took the Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) program experienced a 46% reduction in completed rape and a 63% reduction in attempted rape in the following year compared to those in the control group. Other forms of sexual violence such as non-consensual sexual contact were also significantly reduced. 

Collecting donation for local Women's Centre

We're collecting food and toiletries for the North Shore Women’s Centre, which provides women with access to resources and assists them with life choices, actively addresses violence against women at all levels of the community, challenges sexism and discrimination in the community, and works towards the elimination of the feminization of poverty. 

Please see the lists below to determine what is needed. Bring your donations to the church and place them in the bin in the foyer.  A church volunteer will drop them off weekly at the Centre.

Tree Removal: Cedar "Hedge" has to go!

Brian Welwood (Board Member, and Chair of our Building & Grounds Team) announced today:

“The little cedar hedge at the northwest corner of the church (pictured above) was not really that noticeable when I joined the church over 30 years ago. Now it is over 50 feet in height and projects at least 15 feet over the church roof.

This is a serious fire hazard and contributor to clogged drains that have caused flooding in the corner office — so we’re going to take it down soon.

Brace yourselves for a lot more sunlight for the Butterfly Garden — and Happy Spring!”

Town Hall Meeting: 12:30-1:30 pm on Sunday, April 14th

We hope you will join the Town Hall Meeting on Sunday April 14 from 12:30-1:30pm in the Sanctuary when the Board will present their preliminary thoughts for NSUC’s future.

The four main topics we will discuss are:

  1. Sunday Services

  2. Building and Grounds

  3. Organizational Leadership and 

  4.   Building Community

Following a brief presentation, we will open the session to gather input and suggestions for the future of this beloved of community. This is a Soup Sunday.

We look forward to seeing you there!