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NEWS AND UPDATES FROM BERMUDA-NOVA SCOTIA REGIONAL COUNCIL
Submission Request for Weekly Announcements
www.ucceast.ca
Staff Directory
It’s Your Call – Podcast
News from the Pews Newsletter
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.
To view upcoming events at the the Centre for Christian Studies please click here.
Bermuda-Nova Scotia Regional Council Committee Volunteer form.
Condolences – Allison Bulmer Weeks
Our condolences are extended to the family of Rev. Mary Lynn Whyte, whose father, Allison Bulmer Weeks, passed away on February 3, 2026. The obituary can be viewed here.
Toward 2035 (T2035)
Towards 2035 is an initiative of the General Council to invite a broader and more collective consideration of our experience of church decline. Analysing data helps put things in context, but more important will be our response to the situation. If “doing the same” inevitably leads to more decline, what changes will we willingly engage in order to achieve different results?
In support of this conversation, Regional Ministers are beginning to offer introductory webinars to share some information, as well as prepare leaders to offer exploration and discernment in congregations using a provided study outline.
Beginning with ministry personnel, six time slots will be offered between February 17 and February 19. Please see the form, with the times and dates here. Similar webinars will be offered for lay leaders in March.
Forms Related to Retirees and Jubilarians
Please click here for a memo from Faith March-MacCuish, Executive Minister, with information regarding forms related to Retirees and Jubilarians.
Sunday Service May 31, 2026 – Annual Meeting
The Region is sharing a “Congregation Take Home Full Service” for use on Annual Meeting Sunday, May 31, 2026. This has been posted near the bottom of the Annual Meeting webpage under the heading “Sunday Worship Service” in both PDF and Word files.
Halifax Area Youth Gathering
Our next HRM Youth Cluster gathering will take place on Sunday, February 22, from 5:30–7:30 PM at St. Luke’s United Church (5374 St. Margarets Bay Rd). The theme for this gathering is “What’s the point of Lent?” Together we’ll explore this question through worship, music, food, games, and hands-on group outreach projects, as we learn, serve, and connect with one another. Please see the attached poster and feel free to share it widely with youth, families, and leaders in your communities. RSVP here.
We’re looking forward to a meaningful, fun, and community-filled evening together!
BNS Youth @ Region is looking for facilitators and more!
Are you an awesome leader who would love to share your faith with a fabulous group of church youth? The Bermuda-Nova Scotia Youth @ Region Planning team are seeking interested leaders to serve as facilitators, music team members, and chaplains for this year’s program. Youth @ Region will be a 4-day event, May 28th to 31st at Acadia University, Wolfville, creating a fun and safe space for youth grades 6 to 12. A training event will also take place in late-April/early May.
Further details about the roles and responsibilities can be found here.
Applications for the leadership team are now available! Applicants must be 19 years of age or older and must have at least one gap year between being a participant and a facilitator. Deadline for registration is March 6th, 2026. Application can be found here.
Youth applications will be available in March, stay tuned for further details!
Becoming an Affirming Community
Mark your calendars for March 4th at 7:00 for a web gathering to learn and discuss the process for becoming an officially recognized Affirming Ministry in the UCC. You can be one person who is interested, or a group from your congregation. Come join in the conversation.
Link details will be sent out later.
You Are Invited: Ministry Leadership in Such a Time as This with Karen Oliveto
Ministry Leadership in Such a Time as This
Thursday March 12th from 9:30AM to 3:30PM (Atlantic) (storm date Friday, March 13)
Fundy St. Lawrence Dawning Waters Regional Council Office
12 Wright Street, Sackville, NB E4L 4P8
In-person ($25) and Online via Zoom (no cost)
In the rise Christian Nationalism and increased polarization in our communities, how do we live with the current angst on the continent and world? What leadership is prompted in “Such a Time as This?”
Our guest reflector will be Bishop Karen Oliveto – a retired bishop of the United Methodist Church and former pastor of Glide Church in San Francisco who now lives in Pugwash, NS. Last summer Karen was guest evangelist at Berwick Camp.
Karen will lead us in reflecting on questions such as: What is our role as ministry personnel in these times? How do we live into the prophetic and pastoral aspects of ministry? Who are our ministry partners as we act as agents of God’s love in the public square? How do we live and proclaim the hope and amazement of Easter in a Good Friday world?
Please click here to read the details of the entire announcement, including link for registration.
Growth Ideas 101: Love in Action
Please click here to read the Growth Ideas from Sharon Ballantyne, Growth Animator, for February 11, 2026.
Share your ideas with your growth animator at 506-306-0500 or by email at sballantyne@united-church.ca.
Invisible Illnesses Awareness, My Journey with Crohn’s Webinar – March 12, 2026 7:00PM (ATL)
Invisible illnesses are conditions whose symptoms and challenges are not immediately apparent to others or not visibly obvious. Like any other disease or affliction, they affect the daily lives of those diagnosed with them and many seek empathy from those in their lives to understand and support them. Examples include autoimmune diseases, neurodiverse conditions, chronic pain, long Covid, and various others. Many who have such conditions experience stigma that may involve judgment, invalidation, and pressure to ‘prove’ their illnesses. To help shed light on experiences such as these, Rev. Ian Harrison is offering a webinar/information session sharing his own life with Crohn’s disease over the past decade, serving as a case study which represents a wider community of those with IBD, a population that has grown steadily in recent years, yet remains unknown or obscure to many. Please click here to register.
Collective 2026
Plan for summer NOW! Collective (formerly Rendez-Vous) is a national event for youth, young adults, and leaders grade 9 and up. This year, it’s happening August 12-15, 2026 at Brock University in St. Catharine’s Ontario. Here in the Maritimes, we are looking at a bus for transportation, so watch for more information about that soon.
Collective is an opportunity to gather from across the church, along with the Presbyterian Church in Canada, to grow in faith, build community and reflect on shared experiences. For more information, check out the website or email Catherine Stuart.
Neurodiversity Workshop – widening our welcome
This webinar was first presented in October 2022 by Shelley Pick. As we begin to understand the wide range of Neurodiversity in our gatherings, this may be a helpful session to review again.
If you have comments/ questions you can direct them to Pix.
Let’s keep the conversations going
Please share – Breaking the Silence Guatemala Internships
The Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network, partner of the Justice, Mission and Outreach Committee, is pleased to announce our July-December 2026 Internship Program announcement, in collaboration with the Atlantic Council for International Cooperation. Please share this with any young person who may value this opportunity.
Atlantic Candidacy Board – Seeking Elected Members – Deadline March 17, 2026
The Atlantic Candidacy Board is seeking two new elected members. The mandate for the board is:
- approving an individual for candidacy for ministry in the United Church;
- determining an individual’s readiness for accreditation for ordination, for commissioning, and for recognition as a designated lay minister; and
- overseeing the Candidacy Pathway process.
Expectations and Term
- Online meetings: Varies by candidacy board. Usually monthly for one to one and half day (summer months excluded), totaling about 16 days per year of meetings or interviews. Scheduling is set according to the availability of members and candidates. At present, most meetings and interviews take place during daytime hours on weekdays.
- In-person meetings: Most boards meet in-person once per year. Travel is required.
- Expectations between meetings: Significant preparation time in reading candidate materials in advance of each meeting and sets of interviews.
- Additional appointment expectations: none
- Appointment term: May 2026 to August 2028 (46th General Council), with the possibility of reappointment for a second term.
Visit the opportunities page for more details and Use our online nominations form to nominate someone or express your own interest.
Deadline: Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Blessing of the Banned Books
Sunday, February 22nd
11:00 AM
Berwick Trinity United Church
(240 Commercial Street)
*A worship service in honour of Canada’s Freedom to Read Week
(February 22nd-28th 2026)
Please join us as we honour one of the most fundamental freedoms found in a democratic nation-the freedom to read. Through word, song, and the sharing of stories, we hope to uphold and raise awareness of narratives that are at risk of being banned or censored, so that we may better understand how to counteract these movements in our communities and beyond.
ALL ARE WELCOME!!!
CHURCH LEADERS WEBINAR: Transform Your Church by Transforming Your Conversations
This particular workshop is being held through the Conversations Worth Having Institute – April 29 and May 1, 2026. This workshop for Spiritual Leaders is a webinar for clergy and lay.
Envision & practice conversations where people feel heard and new ideas emerge. An environment where communication fuels unity, belonging & purpose.
That’s the power of Conversations Worth Having.
And it’s not out of reach – it starts with learning a better way to engage in conversations.
To register, please click here and look for Training – CWH for Spiritual Leaders.
Rev. Todd McDonald, United Church Minister, recently retired from the position of Pastoral Relations Minister of Shining Waters Regional Council is among the facilitation team for this event.
Stewardship Planning for today’s church
The time is approaching for the end of the Free Stewardship Workshop
Why not try a workshop by yourself or with a group of like minded people .
I have to share that I have always been a spiritual baker. How excited I was to see our Lenten Study- Bless Break Share. Have you joined one of the Lenten Studies?
