AGM is Sunday, May 29th in person AND by Zoom

Our Annual General Meeting will take place on Sunday, May 29th at 12:15pm. Fully vaccinated people may join us in the Sanctuary with masks on. Zoom is also an option for Members who prefer participating from home. (If you’re joining by Zoom, please sign in between 11:45 and 12:05pm using the link provided in your Notice Packet).

Church Members were mailed or emailed Notice Packets on Wednesday, May 18th, and re-emailed on Friday, May 27th. It can also be found in the password-protected Member area of our website. A few printed copies of the Notice Packet will be available in one of the racks on the foyer table.

Although anyone may attend the in-person meeting, only Members who meet Bylaw requirements may vote at the meeting.

A Special Message from the Minister about this Sunday

This Sunday (May 22nd) is a very special one! We are making an effort to reconnect with all those wonderful kids, now grown up, who have come through NSUC's R.E. program over the years. We know some are near and yet not here! So we've reached out with an invitation and, to add some steak to our sizzle, we've hired a food truck to provide meals after the Spirit Zone.

Mr. Bannock will be here to provide us with Indigenous-inspired deliciousness! The meal will be free for all. But donations are warmly welcome. It is our intention that no guest, returning or otherwise, pay at all.

What can you do to help welcome folks home? Well, first of all, show up. Be your beautiful, welcoming, curious, participatory, Bannock-loving self! Another task might be to reach out to any not-near-retirement age folks you know and invite them. People feel welcome and are more likely to connect when they see people that look and feel like themselves. So this is an opportunity to take advantage of that.

If this is successful, it might prove a model to reach out to other specific demographics. But in the short term, it's just a good time to have some fun, celebrate our gifts, express our gratitude, and take pleasure in what our congregation brings to the world while we welcome home those who we helped bring up.

See you Sunday!

Intergenerational Choir: Coming to Spirit Zones Starting May 15th

Intergenerational Choir: Joining our voices, and celebrating all stages of life!
Alison will be offering a series of three intergenerational choir practices in Spirit Zones the last 3 Sundays in May. We will sing and make music with our voices, rhythm instruments, guitar, and ukulele. All are welcome! So join us in Spirit Zones on May 15th, 22nd and 29th. We’ll bring our wonderful music to the service on June 5th. Contact Alison with questions.

Invitation To Spiritually Surprise Yourself

What is easier to become than a medium, less time intensive than a minister, but just as spiritually expansive and thrilling?

Becoming the next Lay Chaplain of North Shore Unitarians! If you've been searching for your next life adventure then Rites of Passage work may be the surprising answer you didn't think to look for.

Weddings, memorials, and the odd baby blessing, are just some of the beautiful containers and rituals you'll be privileged to create. But the inner spiritual journey you will take as you learn this art is far beyond just officiating ceremonies.

Before you think "Oh no, there's no way I could do that!", just hold that thought and investigate this opportunity further by contacting either Barb Moore or Lindsay Hindle. Lindsay wrote: "Serving as your Lay Chaplain for the last 7 years has been more rewarding than I could ever imagine. But it's time for me to move on and pass the stole on."

Not only will you receive excellent training from the CUC Lay Chaplaincy program, but there are many retired Lay Chaplains around to guide you and a network you can be part of.

Be brave and take the leap, you may just spiritually surprise yourself!

To learn more about becoming a Lay Chaplain, please contact Barb Moore or Lindsay Hindle or Janni in the Church Office.

Grocery Receipt Program

City Market at Park Royal and IGA Dundarave participate in our Grocery Receipt Program.  For each $5,000 worth of receipts we collect, they give us gift cards that Nora Coates converts into donations to the church. Since 1999, this program has earned over $8,000 for the church!  

If you shop at these stores, put your receipts on the bulletin board in the stairwell.  It results in “free money” for the church!

 

Vigil for Ukraine: 1-2pm Sunday, May 1st

Our Music Director (Alison Nixon) and the NSUC Vox Lumina Choir invite you to join them at a Vigil being held from 1-2pm at the Lynn Valley United Church. Our choir will be singing a Ukrainian prayer there. All are invited to attend this inter-faith event that offers opportunity to connect, start a dialogue and offer support for those affected by the events in Ukraine.

For more information, visit the Lynn Valley United Church website HERE.

This weekend's guest speakers: Guy Heywood and Chris Best

This Sunday (April 24th), Guy Heywood and Chris Best will be in the pulpit to share their message called “Actually . . . We Can Handle the Truth”.

Guy has lived on the North Shore Vancouver for over 50 years. He raised two sons in Lynn Valley a few doors down from the house he grew up in. Guy was elected as a Trustee on the North Vancouver School Board three times, as a Councillor in the City of North Vancouver twice. He ran unsuccessfully for Mayor in the City in the last election. He has been a board member and volunteer for the Recreation Commission, Arts Council, Neighbourhood House. His day jobs have been in banking and finance, although his very first job was as a coal salesman.

Guy went to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario for the last half of his undergraduate degree, which is where he first met Christene. Twenty plus years later Guy persuaded Chris to move to the North Shore as well.

Chris was born and raised in Ottawa, although spent years in Quebec City and London, England. Her father was a founder of the union that represents all federal civil service employees who moved to management as a deputy minister and then to the foreign service as High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago. Chris attended Queen’s for her undergraduate degree and an MBA. Chris was hired by the Xerox Corporation and worked in progressively senior roles until 2000 when decided to stay in Vancouver, where she has been a sales and marketing executive for several tech companies.

Chris’s ancestors settled in Nova Scotia in the 1790s. Her paternal grandmother, an Order of Canada recipient, was the publisher of the first black newspaper. Her maternal grandfather, another Order of Canada recipient, fought in World War 1 as part of an all-black infantry unit. 

Chris and Guy are getting married in less than a month.  

We are looking forward to having them in the pulpit this Sunday!