Nominating Committee Seeks Board Members

A new Board of Trustees is elected each year at the Church's Annual General Meeting. The next AGM is due to be held in May 2023.

Your Nominating Committee would like Members to think ahead about whether they might like to be on the Board after the AGM.

Serving on the Board of Trustees supports the life of the Church, and contributes to our community. There will be vacant positions for 1-year and 2-year terms.

The Nominating Committee welcomes Members to nominate themselves, or to suggest names of other Members to be considered. Nominations are also invited as a potential Member of the Nominating Committee.

All suggestions are welcomed, and will be received in confidence. Please contact any of us to nominate a candidate.

~ Nominating Committee: Michael Watson Jacky Coates Ryan Guenther

Winter Office Hours

Our office is generally open Monday through Thursday from 7am to 2pm. Please phone first (604-926-1621) before coming to visit us on a Friday since our Church Administrator works from home most Fridays.

You can reach staff via email on their work days:

  • Rev. Ron Phares (our Minister) welcomes you to reach out to schedule a visit.  Text him at 604-999-3690 or email him at rev.phares@northshoreunitarians.ca. 

  • Janni Kretlow (our Church Administrator) usually works in the Church Office Monday through Thursday. She works from home most Fridays. Her hours most days are 7am to 2pm most days.

  • Alison Nixon (our Music Director) is at the church most Thursday afternoons/evenings.

  • Contact Janni if you have questions for our Financial Administrator, Anna.

Congregational Meeting ("Budget Meeting") January 29th

Our "Budget Meeting" will be held at 12:30pm on Sunday, January 29th.  Although anyone may attend, only Members who meet our Bylaw Requirements may speak or vote on the matters being presented. 

This meeting will be held at 12:30pm in the Sanctuary and by Zoom (Registration from noon to 12:25pm).

For the Zoom link and additional details, please see the Notice Packet that was distributed to Members by email (and mailed to Members without email) on January 18th, with a follow-up packet going out on Thursday, January 26th. If you are a Member and did not receive these packets, please locate them in the Member-only area of our website and contact Janni in the Church Office to let her know that you are not receiving Member emails.

Inquiring Souls

Inquiring Souls Spirit Zones was offered by Jessica Motherwell-McFarlane and Bill Richardson by Zoom and in the Sanctuary, and were very popular! At each session, the group tackled a burning question, and drew large graphics of their explorations. 

Special thanks to Bill & Jessica for hosting such a popular Spirit Zone activity!

Uncolonizing the Democratic Processes

9:30am on Sat. February 4th
on Zoom

Our JEDI Team invites you to a workshop event offered by the CUC (Canadian Unitarian Council). This event is designed to help us think about some of the implicit biases inherent in some of our democratic practices.

Our CUC rep (Joan Carolyn) said, “Congregations that choose to take up the challenge of actively welcoming greater diversity may need to reconsider some of their long-term practices.  The ways we organize and make community decisions are no exception. Some of our congregations are exploring new approaches. In this workshop, we will explore a few ways they are working to uncolonize their democratic processes.  Participants will be able to choose two of the four streams being offered.”

For further information and to register, please click on the button below.

Transcendentalism Comes West Event

9:30am - 2:30pm
Sat. January 28th

Our Spiritual Development Team (part of the Congregational Life Team) invite you to join the First Unitarian Church of Portland for a virtual Seminary for a Day on Saturday, January 28. The theme is Transcendentalism.

The keynote speaker, Rev. John Buehrens, served as UUA President from 1993-2001. A prolific author, his most recent piece about our heritage is CONFLAGRATION: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender, and Social Justice (Beacon, 2020).

Rev. Buehrens will offer a keynote on the first Unitarian Transcendentalist on the Pacific Coast, the Rev. Thomas Starr King. He exemplified key spiritual practices of the Transcendentalists that need renewal among us today: personal reflection (often in the form of keeping a journal), and deep interpersonal connections crossing conventional boundaries.

In addition, Rev. Buehrens will offer a workshop entitled, “God Optional: Theologies Among Us Today.” John Buehrens and Rebecca Ann Parker surveyed the hope-filled thought patterns in progressive religion today in their book, A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion in the 21st Century (Beacon, 2010). While their framework borrows from a heritage of Judeo-Christian systematic theology, it also makes room for humanist, indigenous, and non-Western a/theologies. All such thinking, however, needs to meet some overriding and important tests to be effective. Tests which will be revealed in the workshop. 

Details: Saturday, January 28, 2023 from 9:30am to 2:35pm (Pacific Standard Time).

Registration is open until 4pm on Sunday, January 22nd. You will receive a link to join via email on January 23rd.

NSUC Finances Q&A

Several congregants have expressed the view that our financial statements and budgeting process are rather opaque and confusing.  To help those who would like to understand our finances better, the members of the Finance (Brian Funt and Brian Welwood) and Residence Governance Committees (Elain Duval and Barrie Forbes) will lead a Spirit Zone on January 8th, NSUC Finances Q&A. Topics will include the budgeting process, personnel costs, operating costs, pledge income, rental income, and endowment funds. As well, we’ll discuss the financial arrangement surrounding the minister’s residence. Questions and discussion will be encouraged.

Since pledges are down from 210,000 last year to 140,000 this year, the Finance Committee projects a serious budget deficit for 2023.  Budget cuts will be needed.  Although this Spirit Zone will not be a budgeting session, it is hoped that it will help participants understand our finances well enough to feel comfortable making informed decisions at the upcoming January 29th Congregational Budget Meeting.

~ Brian Funt, Treasurer