The Hands That Feed Us - film screening & discussion with filmmaker Devon Cooke

film screening and discussion
with filmmaker Devon Cooke

Friday, March 13th at 7pm

(doors open 6:30pm)
Admission by donation ($10 suggested)
Light refreshments available

Filmmaker Devon Cooke sets out to find out why his dream of becoming a farmer seems so impossible. The film chronicles Devon's journey and five Canadian farmers as they cope with border shutdowns, labour shortages, market closures, and wild price swings. When the crisis is over, will it be business as usual, or will our farmers create a stronger, more local food system?

Road closures on Hadden will result in detours weekdays starting Feb. 16th

The District of West Vancouver is doing a sanitary sewer upgrade project along Hadden Drive between Mathers Avenue and Southborough Drive. Work is scheduled to begin in February and be completed in July. Construction will take place between 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, or as needed to complete the project.

PW Trenchless Construction has been hired to carry out this work. There are planned road closures along Hadden Drive with each road closure depending on the construction progress. There will be detour routes in place, as needed. Please see this PDF containing additional information. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Westbound Hwy 1:

Coming from Deep Cove, North Vancouver, and Lynn Valley day or night:

  1. Take the Taylor Way exit (as usual).

  2. Ignore the “Road Closed” and “Detour” signs, and turn right on Hadden (as usual).

  3. Turn right on Mathers (as usual).

Eastbound Hwy 1:

Coming from Horseshoe Bay or West Vancouver on weekdays from 7:30am to 5:30pm:

  1. Drive past the Taylor Way exit.

  2. Take the Capilano exit.

  3. Turn left at the bottom of the exit ramp to head up the hill and under the freeway.

  4. Get back on the freeway heading westbound.

  5. Take the Taylor Way exit.

  6. Ignore the “Road Closed” and “Detour” signs, and turn right on Hadden.

  7. Turn right on Mathers, as usual.

More info & map

Experiment with Light Meditation

Experiment with Light is a meditation process from the Quaker tradition. Each session has a short check-in; a half-hour lightly guided meditation; 15 minutes journaling; and 15 minutes sharing.

We will meet on zoom from 7 to 8:30 pm on the 2nd Monday of each month starting February 9th.

More information at https://experiment-with-light.org.uk/

Mary Bennett (from VanU) has been attending a semi-monthly “Light Group” for over two years. In the last year she has started facilitating and would like to share this practice with Unitarian friends.

Email: unitarianmary@gmail.com with questions or to register. Maximum 10 participants

February Outreach: Pathways Serious Mental Illness Society

Each month, we raise funds for a registered charity whose mission is in line with our values. We call this “Outreach”.

During the month of February, we are collecting donations for Pathways Serious Mental Illness Society — a local organization consisting of families of loved ones living with a serious mental illness helping other families with this shared experience. They help families through support, education and advocacy. They’re a volunteer-driven and membership-based family support organization doing ambitious work. Their programs and services are based on a peer support model and include one-on-one support, peer support groups, skills-building workshops and Family-to-Family educational program. Family Peer Support Volunteers all have lived experience of caring and supporting a loved one with a serious mental illness.

Please label your contribution as “Outreach”, whichever payment method you use to donate.

Updates to our Grocery Receipt Program

Over the years, we've raised thousands of dollars in "free" money for the church through our Grocery Receipt Program.

Here’s how the program works: We've made arrangements with two local grocery stores (West Vancouver IGA and City Market at Park Royal).  For every $5,000 in grocery receipts from their stores, they give us a $25 (or $50) gift card -- which we sell at face value to someone in the church who shops there, and the money from the sale is donated to the church.  In other words: for every $5,000 in receipts, the church gets $25 (or $50) of "free" money.  

Marie Bensley was originally in charge of our Grocery Receipt program -- and then she handed it over to Nora Coates. Since 2024, the program is monitored by Linda Pratt. Linda sorts donated receipts for the two stores, add them up (so they are in bundles of roughly $5,000), send the packets to the store manager, and "sell" the donated gift cards.

If you shop at either of these two stores, please save your receipts! Bring them to the church and place them in the folder on the bulletin board in the stairwell. This is a great way to earn “free” money for the church!

Similarly, if you shop at either of these stores — please let Linda know if you’d occasionally be willing to purchase gift cards (at face value) for those stores, to help her convert the gift cards into cash for the church.

UPDATE:

As of January 2026, City Market at Park Royal is offering a drawing and will award a $25 Gift Card to one of our shoppers from each batch of $5,000 that Linda submits. See the sign in the stairwell for complete details, but basically, here’s how this NEW program works:

Buyers who shop at City Market at Park Royal are invited to go online to complete a brief “tell us how we did today” survey (linked at the bottom of your receipt). If you strongly agree to all the survey questions by giving them a 5 out of 5 rating, simply write your name and phone number on the back of the receipt. You will then be eligible to win a $25 City Market Park Royal Gift Card.

Each time Linda submits a batch of $5,000, one name will be drawn for the $25 gift card — so your chances are very high of winning!

(The store Owner/Manager, Doug Huntington, has assured us that your name and phone number will be kept confidential — and he will personally contact the winner using the phone number they provide).

Budget Meeting February 1st

We're having our Annual "Budget Meeting" after the service on Sunday, February 1st.  Notice Packets were mailed/emailed on Wednesday, January 21st. If you are a Member and did not receive the packet, you can locate it in the Member area of our website or by contacting Janni in the main office

Only those who meet Bylaw requirements for voting will be able to vote at the meeting.

If you have questions about voting eligibility, contact Janni in the main office.

Wanted: Pictures for our new website

Happy New Year!  

One of our priorities for the new year is to update our website to make it more attractive and user-friendly for both existing and potential new members. We plan to unveil the new website in the next few months.  

We're looking forward to including snapshots of NSU activities and we're hoping you can help us with this.

Please email us your best photos of NSU activities from the past 3 years.  This could include Sunday morning services, socializing at NSU functions, small group activities (such as men's and women's groups, book club, Soul Matters, etc.), groundskeeping and environmental activities, art projects, choir practice, etc.  We prefer candid, "action" shots, rather than staged, posed photos.  We're looking for photos that show all the activity that goes into making NSU the welcoming, vibrant community that it is.  

Please send your photos (no more than 10 per person, please) to  NSUpics@northshoreunitarians.ca by January 20th.

We can’t promise that we’ll use all the pictures that are submitted — but we’ll do our best!

Many thanks.

~The Growth & Development Team
(Barrie Forbes, Pamela Berg, Alison Fleischauer and Janni Kretlow)