Join Alison Nixon (our Music Director) in the Sanctuary for Ukulele classes at 6:30-7pm Thursdays starting September 12th. For beginning and intermediate students of all ages.
Sessions are free, but you must pre-register HERE and bring your own Ukulele.
In our Fall Newsletter, Barrie Forbes (our Board President) announced this:
“Another major project – a complete organizational review and marketing strategy – requires more hard work and input from the whole congregation before anything gets cast in stone. As you’ve likely read, sociologists suggest that many people ‘out there’ are looking for a real-life community such as ours – full of well-intentioned people who think deeply about both spiritual and personal/societal issues. But those same people don’t know we’re here. Indeed, we may just be the “best-kept secret” on the North Shore!
At the Town Hall you’ll hear terms like ‘spiritual but not religious’, ‘target’ programming and marketing, ‘social’ media and other communication strategies. They all relate to ways and means for us to connect with people who might want our liberal approach to community and spirituality. I believe this will be a seminal moment in the life of NSUC and will set us on a path to the future. So, mark your calendar – we want everyone to engage in this discussion so we can continue to thrive.”
Please join us for this Town Hall discussion following the Sunday Service on October 6th.
Each September, we host a BBQ and Corn Roast following the Sunday Service of the new church year. You’re invited to join us! First-time visitors eat for free. Suggested donation for all others is $5 per person to help offset the cost of food. Hot dogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers and corn will be included. Questions? Contact Dianne Hicks or the Church Office.
Our Building & Grounds Team has been hard at work this summer! Here's a list of their recent accomplishments:
Brian Welwood and family members Kay and Clayton dismantled the Kuddles shed (which was crushed by falling cottonwood branches) and took it to the dump.
Brian McConnell, Brian Welwood and David Pratt dismantled and reinstalled the skylights on the preschool building.
Brian McConnell and David Pratt are getting quotes on repairing two roof patches on the preschool roof.
Mark Rosario completed the upstairs washroom re-installation this week.
Timberline Tree Services will remove the cottonwood this week (as its falling branches destroyed a shed and pose a safety hazard).
Removal of the cedar hedge will follow soon.
Brian Welwood completed a walk-around with a rep from our insurer (this hadn't been done since 2016).
Work by Mark Rosario on the southwest corner will begin next week.
Special thanks to Brian Welwood for coordinating all of this work!
This summer, we’re raising funds to support the work of the North Shore Women’s Centre.
During June, we raised money for their Empowerment Camps. During July & August, we’re continuing to collect funds to help support the other programs of the North Shore Women’s Centre.
Please mark your donations as “Outreach” so we apply them correctly.
Learn more about the Payment Methods we accept HERE.
During July & August, Janni will work in the Church Office several days each week, and from home the rest of the week. On all week days (except vacations and holidays, which are marked on the Church Calendar) she is available by church phone and email from 7am - 2pm (604-926-1621, info@northshoreunitarians.ca).
If you’re planning to stop by the church unannounced, please phone ahead to make sure someone is there.
Drop in to a "Butterfly Garden Party" hosted by the Environmental Action Team on 4 Monday afternoons this summer. We'll be weeding, trimming, and watching for pollinators fluttering by. Bring your own lawn chair -- we'll serve the tea. Donations of goodies to share are always welcome; participating in garden maintenance is optional. On rainy days, we'll meet inside the church. Each session will feature a different environmental conversation starter. Join us from 1 to 3 pm on July 8, July 22, August 12, or August 26.
You’re invited to a free BRUNCH on Sun. July 28th, 10am to noon. Includes free food, friends, fun, music and games!
This is a FREE event, but you must RSVP so we know how many people in your household are attending (so we can plan to provide enough food). RSVP here or using the link below.
In 2011, Mary Segal, a beloved founding member and long-time volunteer at North Shore Unitarian Church, passed away. In her honour, we established a prestigious award that is given annually to an outstanding volunteer or group whose service has had a significant impact on the church. The volunteer may have contributed a considerable length of time, or volunteered for a variety of tasks, or have demonstrated effective leadership in our Church community or in the community at large.
On June 23, 2024, we presented the Mary Segal Award to our Sunday Services Team, pictured below.
From left to right: Rebecca Lindley, Alison Nixon, Kerry Burke, Sue Forbes, Leslie Whyte, Bruce Grierson, and (not pictured) Dennis Cooper.
We also presented Service Certificates to Dianne Hicks, Malcolm Mallory, and Ruth Sherwood, (pictured below) for their many years of volunteer service to NSUC.
How do we live with the enormity and urgency of today’s intertwined crises? Vancouver Unitarians invite you to this weekend retreat with Heather Talbot and Olive Dempsey this fall at the Vancouver Unitarian Church (949 West 49th Avenue) in their Fireside Room. (Watch the eBulletin and our website for details as the time gets closer).
Through experiential practices of reflection and ritual, we will open to the grief we carry for our planetary home, deepen our gratitude and respect for the gifts of life, explore ways of knowing, and renew our connections to ourselves, each other and all of life. Together, we will cultivate courage and resilience for facing this moment with clarity and purpose, and we will strengthen our commitments to bringing our unique gifts more fully into the service of life.
The Work that Reconnects (WTR) is an interactive and evolving group process, first developed by Joanna Macy, in cooperation with many colleagues, over several decades. The WTR draws on a range of foundational teachings, including systems thinking, deep ecology and deep time practices, along with wisdom traditions and a commitment to undoing oppression.
Lunches, tea and coffee provided.
Heather and Olive have been students and facilitators of the Work that Reconnects framework for more than 15 years. Together, they bring decades of experience in justice-oriented group process facilitation and therapeutic practice, which they integrate into the containers they create to support meaningful and connected participant experiences. As non-Indigenous practitioners living on the territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish peoples, they are each walking a path of grounding this work in practices of decolonization.
