NEWS AND UPDATES FROM REGIONAL COUNCIL 15 (RC15)
Please send announcements to trose@united-church.ca
www.ucceast.ca
Staff Directory
Emergency Response Memos for Regional Council 15 (RC15)
Making Hope Visible – Podcast
To view upcoming programs at the Tatamagouche Centre please click here.
To view upcoming events at the Atlantic School of Theology please click here.
Regional Council 15 (RC15) Committee Volunteer form.
Condolences: John Campbell Lloyd Hudson
Condolences are extended to Rev. Kelly Hudson-Lewis (FSLDW), and family, whose father John Campbell Lloyd Hudson passed away on November 21, 2021. The obituary can be viewed here.
Advent Letter from the President
View the Advent Letter from Jane McDonald, President of Regional Council 15.
Funding Resources
The Regional Council Executive through its Financial Accountability & Investments Committee is pleased to announce that as part of its ongoing work and commitment to their mandate, stewardship and promotion of the various funds available we have completed a thorough review of all of the funds that are held by the Region Council and have produced a document “Financial Policy Funds Held for Regional Council 15 of The United Church of Canada”. We encourage everyone to take the time to have a look at the funds available for the use of the ministries in the Region. Funds are available to communities of faith and regional members both laity and ministry personnel to assist with ministry needs and innovations. As well as encouraging communities of faith, laity and ministry personnel to make application for funding as needed, we are also encouraging people and communities of faith to consider donating to any one of the funds that are held by the Region. It is important that we continue to support these funds so they are available well into the future. Thank you in advance for your consideration. Please visit the Funding Resources page on the Regional website for more information.
Interested in Pastoral Relations?
Region 15 has need of additional Liaisons to support and facilitate the work of Pastoral Relations. Liaisons offer training and guidance with local committees to prepare Profile materials and position descriptions, and to Search for ministry personnel to serve in ministry in local settings. Both lay members and ministry personnel are eligible to serve as Liaisons. Training sessions will be held in January by Zoom. If you are interested in receiving the training and discerning your Call to the role of Liaison, please contact Regional Minister David Hewitt dhewitt@united-church.ca
Called to Be the Church: The Giving Program
Good things happen when a church focuses time, energy, and money on others. Carrying out a giving program annually lets everyone know your church has a vision that is bigger than just keeping the doors open! The United Church’s annual giving program, Called to Be the Church, provides all the resources you need to hold a successful annual giving program. Now you can choose! Check out the new Do It Yourself webpage or Do It With Us webpage for help and support. Downloads include a Worship Sampler, featuring a new Epiphany worship resource: Discover Your Gifts – Share Your Gifts. Order the full resource on paper from UCRDstore.ca.
For more information please contact Roger Janes (rjanes@united-church.ca or 709-486-3239).
Gifts with Vision – Gifts that Make a Difference
In this season of giving would you like to give a gift that lasts all year long? Want to remember someone special in a very special way? Want to avoid gifts that will require exchanging, watering, dusting, or recycling? Give a gift with impact! Consider a donation to the Region 15 outreach programs that depend on the Mission & Service fund! These programs support the lives of those in need in our communities in very practical ways. Please note: Not all M&S outreach programs are included in the printed edition of the Gifts with Vision catalogue. All programs are listed on the Gifts with Vision website: Gifts with Vision
Region 15 Outreach Programs
GWV 21-28 Multifaith Monday Meal (Dalhousie UCC Chaplaincy)
GWV 21-21 Outreach Program: Pandemic Recovery (Brunswick Street Mission)
GWV 21-18 Send a Kid to Camp (Camp Kidston)
GWV 21-24 The GO Project (programming for children & youth)
Please share this announcement with your Congregations!
You Are Invited!
Join your colleagues/friends/neighbours in the three Atlantic Regions in the rescheduled on-line book study through 4 weeks in early 2022 (January 12, 19 26 and February 2). We’ll read together Canadian Senator (Retired) Hugh Segal’s recent book: Bootstraps Need Boots; One Tory’s Lonely Fight To End Poverty in Canada (UBC Press, Vancouver, 2019.
The four Zoom sessions are to be held on Wednesdays, January 12, 19, 26 and February 2 at 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Atlantic Time; 7:30 to 9 NL time. Each session will be 1 ½ hours duration. Meetings will be hosted by Marion Pardy (NL), Karen & Hal Llewlellyn (NS), Audrey Lounder and Rose-Hannah Gaskin (NB). We ask those who register to make a commitment to read through the book and to participate as fully as possible in the sessions. The plan is to go through 5 chapters each evening of January 12, 19 and 26. We have Senator Hugh Segal himself confirmed for the February 2 discussion and final session. The registration form can be found here.
Registration deadline is January 4, 2022.
There is no charge for the course. We invite participants, however, to consider making a free-will offering to the Mission and Service Fund of The United Church of Canada.
A number of the books are now in stock at the United Church Resource Centre, St. John’s, NL at a subsidized cost of $25 (plus shipping, if necessary). United Church Resource Centre, 320 Elizabeth Avenue, St. John’s, NL A1B 1T9, 1-800-268-3781, extension 6141, Leona Laundry, LLaundry@united-church.ca.
For any further information you may contact rose-hannah.gaskin@gmail.com or m-pardy@nf.sympatico.ca
Guaranteed Livable Basic Income
A recent press release from 47 Canadian Senators (https://sencanada.ca/media/368373/statement-re-guaranteed-livable-income-and-pei-5-nov-2021.pdf ) has called on the Canadian Government to support the Prince Edward Island (PEI) Government in implementing a province wide Guaranteed Livable Basic Income. As the Senators write: The time for the federal government to match the Island’s commitment with action on a PEI guaranteed livable basic income is now.
Lois Wilson, co-chair of the United Church Canadian network on GLI, and a former moderator, also thinks that NOW is the time for the UCC network to support this initiative from PEI, an initiative supported by all political parties, First Nations leaders, and people from the community. As Coordinators of a GLI United Church network in Nova Scotia, we urge you to pick up the Senators’ call for support of the Prince Edward Island plan. Read more and view sample letters here.
Sherbrook Lake Camp Rentals for United Churches
Sherbrook Lake Camp value our connection with the United Churches and want to make sure you have priority with booking rentals at Sherbrooke Lake. We will be launching bookings tonight and tomorrow for our Event and Retreat booking opportunities. Our Day bookings will be booking come February 2022.
PDFs will also be posted on our website www.sherbrookelakecamp.org for your convenience.
Christianity and Environmental Apocalypse: Lessons from the Nineteenth Century.
Shawn Kazubowski-Houston from the Centre for Religion and its contexts at Emmanuel College invites you to join the eveny on Thursday, December 2, 12–1:30 p.m. EST (Online, Free, Register Here) for a presentation–conversation on Christianity and Environmental Apocalypse: Lessons from the Nineteenth Century.
Church leaders in North America now confront an environmental crisis that already shapes our lives and seems to threaten apocalyptic destruction. However, as many Indigenous authors and scholars–including Nick Estes (Kul Wicasa), Kim TallBear (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), and Cherie Dimaline (Métis)–have pointed out, colonialism has already brought apocalypses to North America that are intimately connected to the current crisis. Read full invitation here.
ATTENTION YOUTH 15-19!!!
General Council 44 is coming up, and with that, comes the opportunity for youth between the ages of 15-19 to participate in Youth Forum! Along with that, Home Group Leaders are needed! Each region will get to have 4 participants (the other 1 from each region is your commissioner…please speak to me if you have questions about who that person is from your region) to the event that takes place throughout the year, starting in the winter of 2022. As you’ll see, it is also an opportunity for employment! Share both of these links far and wide.
Please email or phone Catherine Stuart, Regional Minister for Children, Youth and Young Adults, for further information, cstuart@united-church.ca 1-800-268-3781 ext 6158
