CUC & NEIGHBOURS

The Unitarian Council of Canada through Jennifer Dickson Executive Director, is urging all congregations to celebrate Climate Change Day and undertake new environmental actions. The original request is available here at the Canadian Unitarian Council's website §.

In response to this request, the congregation will experiment with a paperless service on October 25. Also the congregation has an electronic newsletter system in place and will ask members if any others would like to join the program.

In the Climate Change Day of Action letter mentionned above, Jennifer Disckson also requested that the Canadian Unitarian Council invites you to visit your MP asking for his/her support for the Climate Change Bill C311 which comes up for 3rd reading this Fall, and asking for him/her to sign the pledge for politicians.

Hamilton has requested our help in their minister selection process. The UCN Board will discuss their request in July.

The Sharing Our Faith service is a day when we extend our thinking and support beyond UCN outward toward Unitarian congregations in Canada that need financial help for special projects. We do this by joining other congregations in setting aside one Sunday a year to have a special collection. All the money collected is sent to the CUC (Canadian Unitarian Council) who distribute every penny of it among as many congregations as possible whose grant projects have been approved.

The annual winter social justice fund raiser at First Unitarian Church of Hamilton is on February 28 from 6:30-10p.m.. Bill Johnston, Chair of the Social Justice Committee (905 523-7128) extends an invitation to anyone in your congregations to attend. It promises to be a fun event. The band, Rocketship 7 is really good. The event is also part of their process of honouring our 12-year ministry with the Rev. Allison Barrett. Allison is a director of USC Canada so half the proceeds of the event will go to that organization. The other procedes to go to schools in India through the Unitarian churches of the Khasi Hills in India and McMaster Students International Health Initiative.

A representative of USC will also make a short presentation during the event.

Tickets are $10.00 available at the door. Children under 12 are free.

The event is at the First Unitarian Church of Hamilton, 170 Dundurn Street South, Hamilton, Ontario.

For more information on Unitarian Service Committee Canadago to this page §

For more information on the Khasi Hills Congregation go to this page § .

For more on the McMaster Student initiative, go to this page§ .

In 2002, the CUC took over the staff and congregation development from the Unitarian Association of America. In order to ensure the success of the transfer of responsibilities, the CUC concieved of new organizations called Regional Network Groups and drafted a five year plan called "Of Regions and RNGs" . Local members participating in developing the plan included Rev. Allison Barrett from Hamilton and John Storm from Saint Catharines. The plan expected that an increased level of service by the CUC and the Regional Network Groups would translate into an increased level of membership. A copy of the 2002 plan is available here §.

In 2007, the CUC conducted a survey to evaluate the success of the transfer of the services. The planned increase in the membership base had not been achieved. The Canadian Unitarian Council wanted to review member satisfaction across Canada with the services that they and its Regional Network Groups were providing. A copy of the survey results and an interpretation of the results is available here §.

Since then, the stock market has crashed affecting the in the assets of Canadian Unitarian Council. There have also been resignations of key people in the Canadian Unitarian Council. Based on the current lack of resources, the Canadian Unitarian Council is revisiting the 2002 plan and the recommendations of the 2007 followup study in order to develop a short term plan. In January 2009, the Canadian Unitarian Council has issued a document summarizing the current situation here § that describes the Canadian Unitarian Council as a community of communities.

You can check what the Canadian Unitarian Council is doing with the short term plan to handle the resource shortages at this web site §. The Canadian Unitarian Council is using a "wiki" technology to make the planning accessible to members. For more information on wiki refer to the following Wikipedia web article §.