In our final episode of this series, we explore the Canadian Unitarian Council and how it serves Unitarian Universalism in Canada.

Our guests include:

• Robyn Newton and catharine strickland, UUs of the Salish Sea

• Anonymous leaders of QUUeer Connecting

• Liz James from Mirth and Dignity, and

• Reverend Wendy Luella Perkins, founder of Soulful Singing.

• Peter Scales at First Unitarian Church of Victoria

• Jim Sannes and Ellen Papenburg from Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice (CUSJ)

• Reverend Danie Webber, CUC Youth and Young Adult programming staff

• Camellia Jahanshahi, Rising Together host

• Z Brimacombe from Loving Justice group

• Brenagh Rappaport, host of Gathered Here

• Reverends Anne Barker and Linda Thompson, CUC's Congregational Life Team

  Questions for further discussion:

  1. Reflect on your UU Expression(s). What are you doing that is so engaging that it gives you goosebumps? In what ways, if any, do you have your ladder up the wrong metaphorical building?

  2. How could UU membership work locally, regionally, and nationally if congregational involvement was no longer the only measure of engagement?

  3. What possibilities come to mind when you consider Rev. Danie Webber's question, "What if we started shifting how we define a religious professional?"

  4. Ellen Papenburg said, "It [the state of UUism in Canada] is not without hope." What gives you hope to continue during this period of change and transition?

  5. Thanks to the internet, UUism in Canada is not limited to borders, oceans, and any other form of geography. Wendy Luella's Soulful Singing is an example of a Canadian UU expression reaching across the globe. What different types of goosebump ideas can you dream up for how we can use the internet to open new doors?

  6. What if we rebranded ourselves to make multi-expressions and co-creating a celebrated part of UUism? How would that feel?

  7. As Rev. Danie Webber said, "It is a practice to be Unitarian Universalist. You have to practice these principles. You have to engage and participate in discovering what your community will look like." Having learned more about the state of UUism in Canada through this docuseries, how will you engage and participate in co-creating what your UU community will be like?

  8. Consider the writing "The Church of Our Imagination". When you imagine different types of UU expressions, what images engage you so profoundly that they give you goosebumps?

     
     

     Notes and Research Links

     • ⁠About the Canadian Unitarian Council⁠ (Retrieved October 7, 2024)

     • ⁠CUC- Governance and Management⁠ (Retrieved October 7, 2024)

     ⁠The CUC Co-Lab Event⁠- November 1-3, 2024 (online event to engage all UUs)

In this episode, we get curious about new ways of being and what it means to remain the same.

Our guests include:

• Rev Anne Barker, Rev Linda Thompson, CUC staff, Congregational Life

• catherine strickland, Robyn Newton, UU's of the Salish Sea in British Columbia

• Claire Heistek, Le rassamblement unitarien universaliste d'Ottawa

• Anonymous leaders of QUUeer Connecting

• Liz James from Mirth and Dignity

• Reverend Wendy Luella Perkins, founder of Soulful Singing.

  
  

  Notes and Research Links

  • ⁠Unitarian Universalist of the Salish Sea⁠

  • ⁠Heartwood House⁠ - The organization the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ottawa have a partnership with.

  • ⁠Soulful Singing⁠ - Rev. Wendy Luella Perkin's online singing ministry

  • ⁠Unitarian Universalist Hysterical Society⁠ (Retrieved Sept. 11/24).

  • ⁠Le rassamblement unitarien universaliste d'Ottawa⁠ (at The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ottawa)

  Note 1: "Have the Spoons" is another way of saying, "have the energy" a phrase coined by ⁠Christine Miserandino⁠

  Note 2: "Hit the fan" is short form for "shit hit the fan" which is a slang way of saying that everything went chaotic.

  For questions for further discussion see our website: https://cuc.ca/unitarian-universalism/uu-expressions/

In this episode, we uncover the potential within community ministries that share UU values while creating sustainable revenue streams.

Our guests include:

• Reverends Anne Barker and Linda Thompson, CUC's Congregational Life Team

• Rev Wendy Luella Perkins, Founder of Soulful Singing

• Kayoki Whiteduck and Lynn Kofmel-Preston from Ajaski Project (Ottawa First Unitarian Fellowship)

• Yvette Salinas (Executive Director) and Joanna Barrington (Camp Director), Unicamp, Ontario

• Karen Dunk Green, Lay Chaplain, Toronto

  Questions for further discussion:

  1. Wendy Luella Perkins challenges us to consider the "deep whys" behind our actions as Unitarian Universalists. What are your UU group's "deep whys" for the various actions you initiate together?

  2. What feelings and thoughts arise in you in response to Anne Barker's observation, "...the reliance on volunteers and not paying fair wages to humans makes it hard to keep something vital"?

  3. What beliefs do you hold about volunteerism within spiritual communities? Where did those beliefs originate?

  4. What beliefs do you hold about paying people to work for a spiritual community? Where did those beliefs originate?

  5. What thoughts, feelings, and questions arise when you imagine UU's creating good-paying jobs to express social justice?

  6. Besides weddings and ceremonies, what other types of social enterprises might UU's be well positioned to co-create? Consider the needs in your area, your UU group's assets and talents, and the things that make your heart sing.

  7. What type of CUC membership and services could benefit UU groups engaged in community-based ministry?

  8. Karen Dunk-Green ended the episode by suggesting we need to be willing to invest upfront, believing that what we're offering up to the world is truly of value and will make its way back to us in a way that will matter. What are some courageous offerings your UU community could make that have value within the community at large?

     Notes and Research Links

     • ⁠Lay Chaplaincy⁠- Canadian Unitarian Council

     • ⁠Shawn Loney⁠- Social Entrepreneur that Anne Barker mentions.

     • ⁠Ajashki Project ⁠ at Ottawa First Unitarian Fellowship

     • ⁠Soulful Singing⁠ - Rev. Wendy Luella Perkin's online singing ministry

     • ⁠Uni-Camp of Ontario

In this episode, we discuss money related to community-based ministries, the assets managed by UUs, and the beliefs and systems surrounding it.

Our guests include:

• Liz James from Mirth and Dignity

• Reverends Anne Barker and Linda Thompson, CUC's Congregational Life Team

• Kayoki Whiteduck and Lynn Kofmel-Preston from Ajaski Project (Ottawa First Unitarian Fellowship)

• Yvette Salinas (Executive Director) and Joanna Barrington (Camp Director), Unicamp, Ontario

• Karen Dunk Green, Lay Chaplain, Toronto

• Rev Wendy Luella Perkins, Founder of Soulful Singing

  Questions for further discussion:

  1. What beliefs do you have about money? Where do these beliefs originate from? Are they true? How do you know?

  2. In what ways do your beliefs about money influence how you approach financial sustainability within your UU community?

  3. Reverend Linda Thomson observed that some UU communities are approaching outreach as a recruitment project to find more people to make financial donations. She suggested this comes from a place of fear and vulnerability. In what ways, if any, is this showing up in your UU community?

  4. Choose one limiting belief you have about money. If you were to change or release it, what impact could it have?

  5. Liz James spoke about how Mirth and Dignity and the Hysterical Society limit the amount of money people can donate to limit the amount of privilege and influence people get to have on the work they do. This limits financial bullying. What thoughts and feelings come up for you when you hear this strategy?

  6. In what ways, if any, does financial bullying happen within your UU community or initiative? What strategies could you use to address this?

  7. What thoughts and feelings arise when you think of money as energy?

  8. In what ways could UU positively impact "the system" by embracing our place within it more fully and consciously?

     Notes and Research Links

     • ⁠Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed⁠ - book mentioned by Erin

     • ⁠The System⁠- Wikipedia

     • ⁠The System⁠ - Oxford Dictionary

     • ⁠Ajashki Project ⁠ at Ottawa First Unitarian Fellowship

     • ⁠Unitarian Shelter⁠- Founded by Nanaimo Unitarian Fellowship; now run by Nanaimo Family Life Association

     • ⁠Lay Chaplaincy⁠- Canadian Unitarian Council

     • ⁠Soulful Singing⁠ - Rev. Wendy Luella Perkin's online singing ministry

     Note 1: ODSP, mentioned by Wendy Luell,a means Ontario Disability Support Program

     Note 2: APC mentioned by Liz James refers to ⁠the Annual Program Contribution

In this episode, we will learn how people are harnessing UU values to create meaningful change in their communities.

Our guests include:

• Kathryn Jane Hazel from Nanaimo Unitarian Shelter

• Kayoki Whiteduck and Lynn Kofmel-Preston from Ajaski Project (Ottawa First Unitarian Fellowship)

• Yvette Salinas (Executive Director) and Joanna Barrington (Camp Director), Unicamp, Ontario

• Karen Dunk Green, Lay Chaplain, Toronto

• Rev Wendy Luella Perkins, Founder of Soulful Singing

  Questions for further discussion:

  1. What feelings arise when you hear about these community-based ministries?

  2. What, if any, beliefs would you need to challenge within yourself to embrace the notion of community-based ministries as legitimate expressions within UUism?

  3. The difference between relational support and structure support was mentioned. In what ways could we remove barriers to full inclusion for community-based ministers/ministries within our local and national structures?

  4. What are some needs that exist in your community and world? What assets (physical, monetary, skills, etc.) does your UU group have that you could utilize to meet those needs in a creative way? What UU value(s) could you draw upon?

  5. Lay Chaplains engage many non-UU's in meaningful ways. How could we amplify the work of lay chaplains, understanding that this is valuable outreach?

  
  Lynn Kofmel-Preston of the Ajashki Project spoke about how this initiative brought about changes that were hard for some folks at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa. What animal best embodies your views, beliefs, and feelings related to change in your own life? UU community? What shifts would need to happen within you and your group to embrace something new, such as a community-based ministry?

  Notes and Research Links

  • Ajashki Project at Ottawa First Unitarian Fellowship

  • Unitarian Shelter- Founded by Nanaimo Unitarian Fellowship; now run by Nanaimo Family Life Association

  • Lay Chaplaincy- Canadian Unitarian Council

  • Report of the Task Force on Polyamory- Canadian Unitarian Council, May 2020

  • Soulful Singing - Rev. Wendy Luella Perkin's online singing ministry

  Note 1: E.D. is short for Executive Director

  Note 2: Since this recording, Ottawa First Unitarian Fellowship shared this exciting announcement (Sept 8, 2024- Leaders List Announcement):

  "The 1st Unitarian Ottawa Board is pleased to inform everyone that Ottawa City Council, at its meeting this past Wednesday, September 4, gave approval to the zoning and other changes required for our campus redevelopment and the creation of Odayanhaway, Little Village.

  This was the final level of approval needed to move forward with this important project, which will provide 220 units of almost entirely affordable rental housing for Ottawa within 200 meters of a new light rail station. This will include 60 units in a 6-story building being built by Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services on land given to them by the congregation.

  A year of further planning now begins, which will be conducted with input from all on our campus, aiming at construction to begin roughly a year from now. For more information, please visit the First U affordable housing page."

  Note 3: MAiD, mentioned in the section on Lay Chaplains, stands for Medical Assistance in Dying.

  
  

In this episode, we will attempt to legitimize the creative solutions of UU Expressions who are experiencing a sense of place and space in different ways. Whether far from each other geographically, or in terms of how ministry is practiced, how we are situated can play a huge role in strengthening relationships within our movement and beyond.

Our guests include:

• Luci Dilkus, with Huronia Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

• Rev Wendy Luella Perkins, Founder of Soulful Singing

• Janet Pivnick, Minister in Training

• Robyn Newton and catharine strickland, UUs of the Salish Sea

  Questions for further discussion:

  1. Should the CUC create another avenue for membership for community-based ministries? Why? If so, how could it work?

  2. Would it be possible and helpful for the CUC to create regional hubs? If so, how could it work?

  3. What emotions arise in you as you think about the possibility of collaborating and sharing resources with other UU Expressions in your geographic area?

  4. What emotions, ideas, and apprehensions arise in you when you consider the option of nomadic UUism?

  5. What role could nature play in enhancing your UU Expression?In what ways, if any, is the upkeep of your building distracting from the work of building an intergenerational UU community?

  6. In what ways, if any, is the upkeep of your building distracting from the work of building an intergenerational UU community?

  7. Janet Pivnick suggests, "I think the way forward is to honour who we all are. And I think Unitarian Universalism is actually a fantastic place to do that." In what ways could we collectively honour and support community-based ministers within UUism in Canada?

     Notes and Research Links

     Inclusivity Forum on Classism - materials

     Huronia Unitarian Fellowship- Congregation that has a nomadic style of UUism

     Unitarian Universalist of the Salish Sea

     Soulful Singing - Rev. Wendy Luella Perkin's online singing ministry

     OWL - Our Whole Lives sexuality education

In this episode, we explore the value of authentic connection within and beyond traditional UU communities by showcasing 3 affinity groups and a path to ministry that lay outside the congregational expression, followed by a conversation about covenant and the challenges of togetherness.

Our guests include:

• Janet Pivnick, Minister in Training

• Anonymous leaders of QUUeer Connecting

• Claire Heistek, with Le Rassemblement unitarien universaliste d'Ottawa

• catharine strickland, UUs of the Salish Sea

• Liz James from Mirth and Dignity

• Z Brimacombe from Loving Justice group

• Camellia Jahanshahi, Rising Together host

• Reverends Anne Barker and Linda Thomson, CUC's Congregational Life Team

  
  

  Questions for further discussion:
  

  1. What feelings and questions arise in you when you consider affinity groups within UUism?

  2. How could the notion of safe spaces and dynamic spaces play a role in your UU community?

  3. How could you facilitate healthy fluidity between affinity groups and the larger collective?

  4. In what ways does your UU community pave the way for authentic connection? Where is there a growing edge?

  5. How do you know when it is ethical to ask others to change to suit your needs/desires and when it is not?

  6. In the context of inclusion within various UU Expressions, when is compromise a positive, negative, or neutral thing?

  7. Within your UU community, how could you actively build trust to ensure that people will embrace the storming phase of group development when it starts?

  8. What role is covenant playing in your UU community and how could it be strengthened?

  9. How could the concept of roles and intentional friction be used to assist your UU community in co-creating whatever comes next? (think saw metaphor)

     Notes and Research Links

     • Heartwood House - The organization the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ottawa have a partnership with.

     • Flaming Chalice International - Rev Mwibutsa (Fulgence) Ndagijima's international ministry.

     • The 8th Principle Process - Forums dedicated to help the national UU community navigate their feelings toward adding the 8th Principle to the previous seven: Individual and communal action that accountably dismantles racism and systemic barriers to full inclusion in ourselves and our institutions.

     • Our Covenant by Alice Blair Wesley

     • The Responsibility Covenant - Tool created by the CUC to help create space for those with less relative power to be able to share without facing as much resistance from those with more relative power.

     • Rising Together- Online affinity group for UU's of Colour

     • Unitarian Universalists of the Salish Sea- The new UU community that is centring youth and young adults in their UU expression.

     Note 1: After recording was complete the facilitators of QUUeer connecting informed us that they are taking a leave as they navigate a busy time of their life. If people are interested in connecting, or helping to keep the group going, they can send an email to UU connecting.