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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: Gord Wood
Our condolences are extended to Rev. Jennifer Broomhead and family, whose husband Gord Wood, passed away on May 25, 2026. We will share the obituary when it is available.
Condolences: John Harley Grimmer
Our condolences are extended to the family of Harley Grimmer, who passed away on May 21, 2026. Harley was a member of Halifax Presbytery Executive for many years. His Celebration of Life service will be at St Luke’s United Church in Tantallon on Thursday, May 28 at 11 am, with a reception to follow in the church. His obituary can be found here.
Annual Meeting – Celebration of Ministry Service
Congregations are invited to join us, in-person, at Acadia University Convocation Hall for the celebration of Ministry Service, 10am, Sunday May 31, 2026.
For those unable to join us in person for the service, the Celebration of Ministry Service will be live streamed. Please click here to join.
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.
Survey Says–Take a few (fun) moments to help out Y@R!
Hello friends of the Bermuda-Nova Scotia Regional Council! The Youth@Region event’s theme this year is “Church 101” and we are spending time learning together about the church and our faith together. One of the activities we will be doing is a game-show style event with the top 8 answers to these questions and more!
This is where we need your help. Can you please take a few moments and fill out the survey below to help determine our answers? Doing so will give you an opportunity to put your name in for a prize of a limited edition youth@region t-shirt! Thanks for your help!
Please fill out the survey here.
United Church Bookstore Regions East
The United Church Bookstore will be in attendance for the annual meeting at Acadia University, May 28, 29 & 30. The store will be located in room 206, Alumni Boardroom, in the Fountain Commons Building. Please make every effort to drop by and say hi. See you there.
The UCC Foundation invites you for a pre-meeting gathering at the BNSRC Meeting
Sarah Charters of the United Church of Canada Foundation warmly invites you to a pre-meeting gathering at the BNSRC Meeting on Thursday, May 28 at 4:00 pm.
This gathering is a chance to connect with fellow participants, enjoy good conversation, and hear inspiring stories about how grants have made a meaningful impact in your region over the past year. There is much to celebrate in Bermuda-Nova Scotia! Foundation President Sarah Charters will share some brief insights and reflections on how the Foundation and Mission and Service can continue to support vital ministries in the Region.
We’ll wrap up in time for you to seamlessly join supper.
We’re excited to come together, celebrate the important work happening in BNSRC, and share some truly good news with you.
To RSVP for the gathering, please email.
BNS AGM — Join Growth Animator Sharon May 28 8:30 p.m. Room 139 Acadia University Wolfville
You are warmly invited to join me for a casual time of conversation and sharing, to learn more about growth animator work, how I come alongside communities of faith, and explore opportunities for working together, strengthening invitation, meeting our neighbours and extending beyond our walls in your context.
Bring your hopes, strategies, strengths, questions and concerns. Share stories
Be curious about how a picnic table might help you connect with neighbours
If you are a participant in the BNS AGM, or in the area of Wolfville, come meet with me Thursday night May 28 from 8:30 to 10 p.m., room 139 in our meeting building.
Don’t forget to also join me Every Wednesday morning for our virtual 30-minute coffee break on zoom
Connect with me directly for the zoom link if you want to book a meeting, Ask a question
Email me at sballantyne@united-church.ca
Please come find me at the AGM. Introduce yourself. Hope to see you Thursday night May 28 and throughout the AGM
AST Alumni Reception
All Alumni/ae of Atlantic School of Theology are invited!
Come spend time with your classmates and other AST grads on Thursday, May 28th, 8:30pm to 10pm, during the Regional Council meeting at Acadia. Learn about what’s up at AST these days, upcoming continuing education events, and why you should recommend AST to everyone you know!
We’ll be in Fountain Commons, room 108 and we’re looking forward to being with you!
HEAR SHADIA SPEAK – Thursday May 28 at 8:30PM
Shadia Qubti is a Palestinian Christian theologian born and raised in Nazareth, now living in Vancouver, where she serves as Community Engagement Animator at Trinity Grace United Church.
COME HEAR HER SPEAK!
Thursday May 28 at 8:30PM
Harvey Denton Hall Lobby (#12 on the campus map, directly across from Fountain Commons), Acadia University
Community Connexion hosted by Just Peace Working Group
and Justice, Mission and Outreach Committee
Click here for more info.
Growth Ideas 101: Say “I’m glad you are here.”
Please click here to read the Growth Ideas from Sharon Ballantyne, Growth Animator, for May 27, 2026.
Share your ideas with your growth animator at 506-306-0500 or by email at sballantyne@united-church.ca.
Inventions of Summer
Inventions of Summer is a simple, creative, theologically rich companion for a Summer Sabbath or Worship Series; it is a four-week, ready-to-use program with four different themes, read more about it here. The Region has purchased a license from Prayer Bench and want to offer this resource as a gift to support worship leaders and communities of faith in their ministry; therefore, there is no cost to receive the resource materials. Please sign-up for access to this resource using this link.
Temporary Vocation Minister Coverage
Rev. Ivan Gregan has been appointed as the interim Vocation Minister for the Atlantic Regions from May 01 until August 31. He will be working half time. Please email Ivan with any Office of Vocation related matters.
Vocation Minister for the Atlantic Regions
The Theology, Ministry and Leadership Unit is pleased to announce Rev. Don Sellsted as the new Vocation Minister for the three Atlantic Regional Councils. (First Dawn Eastern Edge, Bermuda Nova Scotia, and Fundy St. Lawrence Dawning Waters). Don will be working remotely from Nova Scotia and begins his work on August 1st, 2026. He will support the work of the Atlantic Candidacy Board and remedial processes, as well as offering support to ministry personnel.
Fort Massey United Church’s historic final service is on Sunday June 7th at 10:30.
Fort Massey’s final service – everyone is invited; entry through the Tobin Street doors. Please join us for Coffee and Conversation prior to the service, starting at 9:45 in the Music Room and then follow the sound of the music into the sanctuary for the pre-service hymn sing and the service. Following the service, Fort Massey family (members and adherents) are invited to a catered lunch in the Lower Hall. On July 1st, Fort Massey will be amalgamating with St. Matthew’s and Saint Andrew’s to form Halifax United Church.
Godly Play Taster Day June 10th
Come experience the essential elements and founding principles of Godly Play. Join the circle, and become part of a full Godly Play session. Explore the deep care and compassion for the spirituality of the child. This one day workshop is open to all leaders regardless of their exposure level to Godly Play.
Wednesday, June 10th from 10am-3pm
Includes coffee break and lunch, no fee required
Bedford United Church, 1200 Bedford Hwy, Bedford, NS B4A 1C3
Registration is limited, please fill out this form by Wednesday, June 3rd.
Email Jenny Eisener for any questions.
Rural Routes 2026: Registration Closing June 3rd
Rural Routes Through the Holy, is a space where rural faith communities come together to rest, receive, and rekindle their spirits.
Whether you’re feeling isolated in your rural congregation or simply in need of spiritual nourishment, you’ll find support here.
This year our theme is Tales, Tables, and Tending: The Slow Work of God in a Fast World. We have lots of presenters engaged to spark our sense of possibility and and encourage our reflection.
You can read more about this year’s theme and registration here. We’d love to welcome you.
United Church Worship Resources
Many Communities of Faith (CoF) find themselves where it is falling to lay members to support or lead worship. Lacking formal training, or having very little training, in leading worship these lay members often look for support in leading worship. Additionally, these CoF are often strapped for the funds, which limits their ability for training or support materials for their lay leaders. There are, however, many materials that are inexpensive or free that are available for use by CoFs and lay leaders. On June 22nd the Faith Formation and Leadership Development Committee of the Bermuda-Nova Scotia Region is pleased to present a webinar to help CoFs and lay leaders find these resources. On June 22nd, Alydia Smith – Program Coordinator, Worship, Music and Spirituality at the General Council of the United Church of Canada – will lead our webinar. The session will be on June 22nd and start at 7pm (Atlantic Time) running for an hour with time at the end for questions and discussion. Registration is now open, click here: there is no registration fee for this webinar. Registration will close the morning of June 22nd.
Upon registration you will receive an automated email. A few days later you will receive a welcome email from the committee with the zoom link for the sessions. You will also receive a reminder email before the session.
New GLI webpage
Friends, check out the newly revamped GLI webpage for timely resources on guaranteed liveable income.
Annual Meeting Evaluation Form
We would ask everyone who attends the Bermuda-Nova Scotia Regional Council annual meeting to take a few minutes to fill out the online evaluation form by June 15 (form will open May 30).
Living into the vision of Toward 2035, Fall Course,2026
There is an exciting learning opportunity happening this fall. As your growth animator, I will be there to learn alongside all the participants. I am inviting you and people from your pastoral charge to come and learn too!
Toward 2035 is an invitation to prayer and conversation about the future of God’s call to the United Church of Canada. Together, we dream of a United Church that is “increasingly multigenerational, multiracial, and intercultural,” one that reflects the diversity of our neighbourhoods.
But sometimes we don’t know where to start, or how to move from good intentions into practical action. You’re not alone, there are folks across our church who are asking the same questions, and this fall, they are gathering to dig deeply into them.
Becoming An Intercultural Church is a six-week online led by Rev. Dr. Hyuk Cho, exploring how churches can respond faithfully to cultural diversity, migration, racial injustice, ecological crisis, and the lingering effects of colonial histories. Designed for ministers, lay leaders, congregations, and related communities of faith, this course moves beyond simple inclusion language to examine shared woundedness, companionship, anti-racist formation, and the transformation of church life through shared power and responsibility.
The class runs weekly on Wednesdays from October 14–November 25, 2026. Registration is $40 per person or $70 for a group of up to 10. Register on CHURCHx. I invite you to sign-up and consider bringing some friends with you. By having this conversation together, reflecting and practicing in community, we can begin to move beyond those good intentions into real transformative change.
Do you want to talk more about strengthening invitation, church growth and renewal now!
Book time to meet with me
Sharon Ballantyne (she/her)
Growth Animator | Atlantic
506-306-0500
sballantyne@united-church.ca
The ASTE Levy Lecture NAVIGATING HOPE AND DESPAIR: A NATURE WRITER’S JOURNEY with Harry Thurston Tuesday June 18th 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm St Andrew’s United Church 55 King St, Truro NS
Harry Thurston was born in 1950, at the very beginning of the Anthropocene, that era in which humans became a geological force shaping the planet’s biosphere. As a nature writer and poet, his challenge has been to navigate the rough moral and artistic terrain between despair and hope. He will trace that journey and the responsibility that comes with it through an examination and sharing of his work in both prose and poetry.
Born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Harry Thurston is the author of thirty books of poetry, natural history, and memoir. His first prose book, Tidal Life, A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy, revealed the life-giving powers of the Fundy tides and argued against damming them for electrical generation, and is now considered a classic in the natural history genre. His eco-memoir, A Place Between the Tides, A Naturalist’s Reflections on the Saltmarsh won the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award in the U.S., and The Atlantic Coast, A Natural History, received the Lane Anderson Award for the best science writing in Canada. His latest poetry collection, Ultramarine, was a finalist for the J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. He lives in Tidnish Bridge, Cumberland County, and is a Mentor in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program at University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Learn more about Harry at his web site.
Learn more about ASTE.
The Levy Lecture is an integral part of ASTE. The lecture is open to the public at no charge. In particular we are always glad to welcome ASTE alumni to the lecture.
Invitation to share: Northern Indigenous Ministers Retreat
Across Northern Canada, Indigenous ministers walk closely with their communities through grief and loss. It is sacred work, but it can also be deeply isolating.
The Northern Indigenous Ministers Retreat offers something essential: time away to rest, share, and receive care among peers who understand the weight of this calling. Supported through Mission and Service, this gathering creates space for healing, connection, and renewal.
The United Church of Canada Foundation is inviting you and your community to take part in supporting this gathering. Please make a life-changing gift today in of support the Northern Indigenous Ministers Retreat.
Sensational Sounds Spring Concert
An invitation from Bethany United Church, Halifax, NS
Friday, June 5 • 7:30 PM – 9 PM
A Variety Filled Evening of Thrilling Music featuring a 35 piece Brass Band, Tenor Soloist, with Piano & Pipe Organ.
Enjoy a festive evening of music featuring the 35 piece Chester Brass Band , directed by George Morrison, John Lindsay-Botten, tenor soloist, and Shawn Whynot, piano & organ. Music will include works by Purcell, Beethoven, Strauss, music from The Lord of the Rings, and favourite folksongs.
Order tickets here.
