NEWS AND UPDATES FROM FUNDY ST. LAWRENCE DAWNING WATERS (FSLDW)
Submission Request for Weekly Announcements
www.ucceast.ca
Staff Directory
Emergency Response Memos for Fundy St. Lawrence Dawning Waters (FSLDW)
It’s Your Call – Podcast
Spark Newsletter
To view upcoming programs at the Tatamagouche Centre please click here.
To view upcoming events at the Atlantic School of Theology please click here.
To view Continuing Education opportunities at the Atlantic School of Theology please click here.
Fundy St. Lawrence Dawning Waters (FSLDW) Committee Interest form.
Condolences – Rev. Alison Etter
Our condolences are extended to the family of Rev. Alison Etter of Glace Bay, NS, who passed away this morning, Wednesday, February 14, 2024. The obituary will be posted when available.
Annual Declaration of Criminal Records – Draw Deadline February 16, 2024
Dear colleagues in ministry,
You’ve made it through another intense Advent and Christmas season! We know, and appreciate, how much you have put into your ministry as you enter this season of Epiphany. Of course, there are always more tasks and ministry waiting for you in 2024.
The Annual Declaration is one of those required administrative tasks that Ministry Personnel are asked to prioritize each year.
The Annual Declaration is a mandatory process, where Ministry Personnel declare whether or not they’ve been charged with a criminal offense in the past year. This is a simple process that must be done through ChurchHub, by logging in to your account at churchhub.ca.
As per the Police Records Checks policy, if the Annual Declaration is done by the deadline, you will not be asked to obtain a new formal level 1 and level 2 Police Records Check.
Please remember that even if you were late in completing the form for 2023, it still needs to be done on schedule this year.
If you have any questions about this process, please contact your Vocational Minister Andrew Richardson (ARichardson@united-church.ca ). Need help accessing ChurchHub? Please contact ministry@united-church.ca
Complete your Annual Declaration for a Chance to Win
Complete your Annual Declaration by February 16 and your name will be included in a draw for a $50 gift card of your choice. There will be five lucky winners!
The deadline for the early bird draw is February 16, 2024.
The first Regional Council to achieve 100% completion will be recognized at the September GCE meeting with a message of appreciation!
Don’t delay, complete your form today!
Nominations are Open for President-Elect
Fundy St. Lawrence Dawning Waters Regional Council is seeking nominations for President-Elect. The President serves for a total of 3 years: as President-Elect, President, and Past-President. The President-Elect will serve as a member of the Regional Executive, leading our Region in its work and ministry, within the bounds of the Region. Serving as President of the Region offers many unique and exciting opportunities to engage in the work and life of the Region. More information on the role of President can be found here.
The election will take place at the Annual meeting. In order to post bios of the nominees and allow for printing of meeting materials, please submit nominations by May 17, 2024 at midnight. Nominations can also come from the floor of the meeting at which time nominations will close at the close of the Friday night session. Nominations are open to all members of the Regional Council, including ministry personnel and lay representatives. To submit your nomination, please fill out the form here. The nomination form must include the name of the mover and seconder of the nomination. The Nominee, the mover and seconder must be members of Regional Council. If you have any questions, please contact Nominations Chair, Rose-Hannah Gaskin.
Elected Members to Regional Council 2024
Please use the below link to view a memo from the Executive Minister, Faith March-MacCuish, regarding elected members to Regional Council for 2024.
Fundy St. Lawrence Dawning Waters Memo
Executive Minutes
The draft minutes from the January 31, 2024 Executive meeting are now available on the FSLDW website.
Annual Meeting Teller Volunteers Needed
Coming to the Annual Meeting at UPEI? Do you like to be involved and active while still being present at the meeting? Then please consider being a teller, where you’ll get to help with activities like voting, distributing materials and taking up the offering. No experience necessary. Please fill out the form to let us know of your interest.
Hello from FSLDW President Elizabeth
By the time you read this letter you may already be bearing a forehead smudged with Ash Wednesday ashes. Yesterday you may have acknowledged Shrove Tuesday with a stack of pancakes smothered in maple syrup.
Please click here to read the full Hello from FSLDW President Elizabeth.
Chaplains needed for Y@R
We are looking for 1-2 chaplains to help with our youth program during our annual meeting taking place at UPEI May 30-June 2. You would be responsible for providing pastoral care to the youth and helping the leadership team prepare worship with the youth. If interested or for more information please contact Lisa Folkins.
Greetings Growth Seekers from Growth Animator Sharon
What are your heart-felt experiences and how do you share them? What are your community of faith’s heart-felt experiences? How are they being shared? How can your community of faith support others experiencing heartache, hurt, pain and loneliness? How can your community of faith support others in “heart-full” experiences? Understanding our local contexts, we faithfully bring our whole self, whole body to our story, our community building relationships.
More than ever, we are facing challenging times in our church, but together, we are companioning each other, hearing each other, visioning how God is calling you and me to build relationships, deepen our offering of hospitality and to be a part of renewing hope in the world. What sort of phoning ministry outreach might be needed to call your neighbours. Love your neighbour. Why not give me a call and let me know what your community of faith is up to? You can reach me by email at sballantyne@united-church.ca or by phone 705 875-8837. Let’s grow together with deep spirituality, bold discipleship and daring justice
Candles for Lent – Just Peace Working Group
Join the Just Peace Working Group as we gather in support of Palestine. Each Thursday evening at 8:00 beginning on February 15th, we will gather on Zoom to extinguish candles using the liturgy from UNJPPI. Afterwards we will spend some time together for support. Please join us for one week or all six. Registration is not limited.
You can register here.
Communities of Faith: Singing Songs of Hope to Support Mental Health – Feb 21 7:00PM
Our next Affirm Webinar : Our spirituality is our unique SONG: our sense of Self; connection to Others, understanding of the Natural order of things and our relationship to God.
When life is out of balance a person’s mental well-being can become compromised. They might change behaviors, forgot who they are, who cares for them and maybe they even feel disconnected from God.
This webinar will be an opportunity to dive deeper into our understanding of spirituality, mental health and the impact a community of faith can have on providing support.
Our Presenter is Kelly Hudson-Lewis, Manager of Spiritual Care for the Saint John Area of Horizon Health. Kelly is a United Church minister who, in 25 years of ministry, has served in congregations, community advocacy agencies as well as mental health outreach.
For registration please click on this link.
Green Enthusiast for My Church
Do you know someone in your church who is enthusiastic about the environment and concerned about how to have a green future? We would like to connect with them for mutual sharing and communication, maybe funding and advocacy opportunities, also. We have information and resources we would like your church’s ‘Green Enthusiast’ to know about. Could you send us their name and email address, along with your church’s name, please? This could be the beginning of something amazing! Send their info to SMunikwa@united-church.ca. Thank You, Your Maritime region’s Eco-Justice Working Group, JMOC.
Communities of Faith Annual Reports
It’s that time of year again where we request your Annual Reports. Please email when they are available (electronic files are preferred) to your Regional Council using the following email:
Fundy St. Lawrence Dawning Waters Regional Council: Info4RC14@united-church.ca
If you are unable to submit by email please mail one copy of your report to:
Fundy St. Lawrence Dawning Waters Regional Council
21 Wright Street
Sackville, NB E4L 4P8
The Fifth Gospel: Pilgrimage in Israel/Palestine
February 15 – 26, 2024
Course Fee: $250 CAD plus Eventbrite fee
Deposit: $500 CAD, non-refundable
Full Cost: $6,538 CAD
This course integrates biblical study with a 10-day pilgrimage in Israel/Palestine. Students will explore the Holy Land, its people, history, and archeology as well as the current experience of Palestinians living under occupation and the work being done towards a just peace. Several class times with the instructor will take place prior to departure, dates to be determined. These are open to Continuing Education participants. Click here to view the poster.
Some of the locations the group will visit:
• Qumran, the home of the Essenes
• Bethany by the River Jordan where John the Baptist baptized Jesus
• Sea of Galilee
• Nazareth
• Jerusalem
• Bethlehem
About the Instructor:
Dr. MacAlpine-Gillis earned an MDiv (Atlantic School of Theology) and a DMin (Bangor Theological Seminary). She served both rural and suburban churches during 31 years of full-time ministry. As an avid traveler, Dr. MacAlpine-Gillis believes in the integration of travel and Biblical studies as a way of bringing the stories of scripture to life through walking the land where they unfolded.
To attend, please register at this link.
Beloved Is Where We Begin: An Online Conversation With Author and Artist Jan Richardson
You are warmly invited to join us for an amazing online conversation with author and artist Jan Richardson on Saturday, February 17th, 2024 from 9:30 am – 12:00 PT. This event is co-hosted by Oasis United Church and Naramata Centre, and registration is now open! If you register between now and January 26th, there is a 20% discount. For more information, please click on this link.
Music Director Opportunity
St George & St Andrew United Church, Annapolis Royal, NS, is seeking a part-time Music Director/Organist/Choir Director. Duties include playing at regular Sunday services, for special services as required, and conducting a weekly rehearsal of forthcoming choral anthems and other music.
We have a two-manual baroque-style (with Swell) tracker-action instrument by Orgues Létourneau (Opus 28, 1991) and a Yamaha digital grand piano (CLP-695GP). The church boasts a strong music programme, with choral anthems as a regular part of every service, and many other musical events take place in our sanctuary due to its excellent acoustics.
For further information and details please email: andrea.boulding@gmail.com.
CCS Friday: Creating Harmonious Space
On Friday, February 23 from 12:00 to 1:00 CST join an online conversation about creating “harmonious space” rather than “safe space”. Harmonious space is the condition in which diversity and inclusion truly grow. Guided by author and educator bell hooks, who said, “ Learning takes place in harmonious space” and “Community that allows for risk, the risk of knowing someone outside your own boundaries is love.” We will consider harmony and risk as opposed to “safety” as the best environment suitable for diversity.
Our special guest will be Deaconess Adrainne Gray. Adrainne was consecrated a Lutheran Diaconal Association (LDA) deaconess and ordained an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) deacon in 2017. She is currently the Director for Recruitment for the LDA with a focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and works remotely from her home in Atlanta, GA.
CCS Fridays are free. Please register HERE to receive a zoom link.
CCS Fridays are online conversations to help us respond faithfully to emerging issues in local contexts. These workshops are open to anyone who might be interested. There will be a presentation that will be recorded for future viewing, plus opportunities to engage with the ideas in small groups.
Rural Routes Through the Holy 2024: Registration now open
Registration is now open for RRTH 2024. Join us for our fourth annual gathering, June 13 – 15th at Orchard Valley United Church, New Minas NS.
Beautiful to Behold; Broken Open Church is our theme this year and along with the theme times (with Rev. Dr. Catherine Smith) and Rural Café conversations. We’ll have workshops on Spiritual Memoir, Collaborative Ministry and Acadian Experience to choose from. There’ll also be ‘tasters’ 30-minute presentations by those excited about ministries they’re involved in. There’ll be worship, a separate room full of prayer practice ideas and the quiet to engage them, food and this year, a Maker’s Market where local artisans and you who come can offer the work of your hands for sale. See the schedule. Read about the theme, how Rural Routes began and more by visiting here and hovering over the Rural Ministries for the drop-down menu. For questions email ruralatlantic@gmail.com
