WONDERDOME
The Wonderdome is an area in the Sanctuary for anyone who needs to keep a little bit busy during the service. If playing with pop-it fidgets, colouring, drawing, knitting or crochet will help you focus, you’re welcome to the resources in the Wonderdome. Feel free to take what you need to your seat or hang out near the Wonderdome. Please just bring it back after service or Spirit Zones.
Each month, we Each Sunday, 100% of our offering plate collections, unless otherwise marked, are given to a nonprofit organization whose mission is in line with our own. We call this “Outreach”.
During September, October, and November, we are collecting Outreach funds to be divided evenly between these four organizations. (Click on any of these logos to visit that website).
(Click on the above images to go to the organization’s website to learn more!)
To contribute to our Fall Outreach Collection, place your cash or cheque in the Sunday morning offering plate OR you can donate by eTransfer, text giving, or credit card. Whichever payment method you use, please mark your payment as “Outreach” so we know how to apply the funds.
This week marks the beginning of a new element in our Sunday Services. There will be two stations, one with water, one with fire, on either side of the chancel. During the prelude you may wish to light a candle on the fire station for an inspiration, joy, or hope you are bringing with you. If you would like to acknowledge and release a burden or sorrow, you may wish to drop a stone into the water at the other station.
As a private gesture, we hope this fortifies your heart and soul. As a public gesture and witness we hope it knits us closer together as a community of care.
As with all new endeavors, this is a process of discovery. So please give us grace as we learn from experience.
Now more than ever we need to come together to strengthen our connections, kindle hope, and move forward in love. The CUC has announced it’s 2023 National Symposium on the 8th Principle in Ottawa, Ontario or Online May 19-21, 2023.
In the spring of 2023, the Canadian Unitarian Council and First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, in collaboration with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ottawa, invite you to a national symposium. Join us in person in Ottawa or online to renew your spirit, reconnect with friends, and celebrate what it means to be Unitarian Universalist (UU).
The CUC is referring to this event as a symposium, not a conference. That's because it will be organized around a single issue rather than a general theme. Through engaging presentations, rich discussions, and worship, we will explore our newest principle, which calls us "to dismantle racism and systemic barriers to full inclusion in ourselves and our institutions."
Maury Prevost, lead for the Host Team, sends this warm invitation:
“On behalf of the Host Team, the hosting First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, and our collaborators at the UU Fellowship of Ottawa, I invite you to come to Ottawa in person to join us for the events over the May long weekend of 2023. Although we can’t promise that the tulips will be at their best for the long weekend, spring will be well underway and the Tulip Festival should run May 12-22 in 2023. With spring flowers, national museums, many parks, and other activities in Canada’s capital city, it is a good time of year to visit Ottawa, so you may wish to extend your stay before or after the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) events. We look forward to seeing many of you in Ottawa and we equally look forward to welcoming online participants.”
Young adults will have their own gathering, Chorus, alongside the Symposium. The youth con, CanUUdle, will also take place concurrently on the campus of the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa.
The Annual General Meeting will be held on Friday, May 19th, from 1:00 to 4:30 pm ET, and will have online and in-person participation.
Watch for more details in the coming months. Registration opens at the end of January 2023.
Volunteers Needed! The CUC’s national gatherings needs many, many people working together to organize and execute. Let us know if you'd be willing to help with the National Symposium in Ottawa from May 19 - 21, 2023. Volunteers are needed in different areas, so fill in this form to tell us how and when you'd like to be involved (feel free to share the link!)
Questions? Email conference@cuc.ca
These beautiful photos of Ottawa were taken by Maury Prevost:
(Updated September 9, 2022)
Our office is generally open from at least 9:30am to 1pm (if not longer) Monday through Friday. Occasionally, staff work from home or have offsite meetings, so you’re welcome to phone first (604-926-1621) before coming to visit us.
You can reach staff via email on their work days:
Rev. Ron Phares (our Minister)
Janni Kretlow (our Church Administrator)
Laura McNaughton (our Director of Congregational Life)
Alison Nixon (our Music Director)
Contact Janni if you have questions for our Financial Administrator, Anna.
On September 18th, we will hold our annual Water Communion Service — which is a community-building and healing experience for us all. Please bring water to the service, whether it is water from a grand adventure, from your kitchen sink, or points between.
During the service Rev. Ron will invite you, by sections, to queue up before the chancel.
When it is your turn, you will approach the glass basin on the altar. There, the Sunday Service Associate will offer you a microphone so that you may each share with us, in a couple of words, the character of the experience around getting the water -- even if you just got the water that morning. You are encouraged to think of that experience as a blessing to this community, whether it was joyous or painful. All of your experience is welcome. For instance, you might say, "This represents new beginnings," or "This is the water of loss," or "Peace and relaxation." Then you can return to your seat.
Your characters will mingle. All our characters will combine.
Ushers will be available to assist those who need help going up or down the chancel stairs. We will also accommodate anyone who wishes to participate but cannot make it onto the chancel.
After this service, you’re invited to join us for our annual Corn Roast! Details.
During September & October, our Sanctuary will feature the work of Ian Carter. See his online Art Show HERE, or visit our Sanctuary to see the pieces in person.
As a contemporary watercolour and acrylic mixed media painter, my work is a conscious play of mood, light and colour, but as a naturalist raised and rooted in the diverse landscape abstracts of Scotland, Mexico and British Columbia, a painting means more than that to me.
Each location is an encounter with the land, the trees, and water that have always given me a sense of connection and order. When a location intrigues and inspires me, I will paint the scene into a series using a range of themes, experimenting and searching to learn more about the natural threads that tie the painting together with colour, composition, complexity, subtlety, feeling and, balance. I really being part of a studio group, where we can talk about our art and the art of well-known painters. I have painted commissions for clients in the USA, UK and British Columbia.
I look for new ways to express spatial relationships and distance with layers of paint, brushwork, gradations, collage and diffusions of light and shadow. I strive for understanding in my study of the landscape in both abstract and representational paintings to bring me closer to an intriguing translation as I place concept, colour and value into new compositions to continue to communicate the emotional connection I feel, with viewers and environment.
My abstract works are created from many ideas and structures. I usually start with a small watercolour to gauge composition and colour combinations. Only then do I play with the larger themes. Togetherness and Mineshaft are two examples of recent works.
In the tradition of the Impressionists, I mostly paint my watercolour paintings of landscapes en plein air. My paintings focus on light and shadow, filtering through the trees in the landscapes on the West Coast of British Columbia, Oregon, and Vancouver Island.
I like to create an idea of the moment when immersed in seeing the landscape unfold, as though I was seeing it for the first time. The whole process of perception allows a stronger focus on what I see in the landscape.
Thus, the formation of this vision provides me with a structure to explore the properties of aquamedia, composition, transparency, and juxtaposition of colours. My landscapes are colourful and distinct.
I particularly enjoy en plein air painting; where it is possible to experience the weather, light, colour and the big and little people who are curious about what I am doing.
Website: www.iancarterartist.com. Email: ian.carter@telus.net.
Registration is now open for the 2022 weekend retreat for BC Unitarians who identify as being female. The dates are September 9th - 11th. This retreat has been held (almost) continuously for the past 25 years at the serene Bethlehem Retreat Centre near Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island.
We work together to create space for celebration and support for each other by sharing our gifts and talents to make this a fun, healing and healthy experience. Activities will include:
discussion circles
a water celebration ceremony
crafts
yoga
quiet time
music
labyrinth walking
a Sunday service
a jewelry & book exchange
exploring nature outside
We will have a combination of “inside” and “outside” activities. The weather should be warm, as this is our earliest fall weekend yet! The food is excellent, and each participants has their own room. There are also rooms for people with mobility challenges.
We are limiting registration to a maximum of 14 participants this year to ensure COVID spacing. Your place is secured by paying the fee. The all-inclusive cost for the weekend: $345 by August 22 or $370 until registration closes Sept. 5, 2022. Nanaimo ferry pickup can be arranged.
Please email Lynn Beak at lynnbeak@gmail.com (or phone 1-250-886-4205) for further details.
This FundFest event has 5 more spots available. In this multi-session program, you’ll come more completely into your body and develop a meditation process to heal your energy space. The series includes tools and techniques (like centering, grounding, non-resistance and more), that can facilitate ease and flow, wellness and clarity.
The 2022 dates and times included in this series:
Sat. Sept. 17, 10-4 (Fireside)
Wed. Sept. 21, 7-9:30pm (Fireside)
Wed. Sept. 28, 7-9:30pm (Fireside)
Wed. Oct. 5, 7-9:30pm (Fireside)
Wed. Oct. 12, 7-9:30pm (Fireside)
Sat. Oct. 15, 10am-12:30pm (Sanctuary)
Sat. Oct. 22, 10am-12:30pm (Sanctuary)
If you’re interested in attending, please contact Sandra Robinson.
Cost is $200 per person (payable to NSUC). But as with all FundFest and church events, if cost is ever a barrier to your attending a church event, please contact Janni in the Church Office for assistance from the Pastoral Discretionary Fund.
