Canadian Ministry Days (Virtual)
Monday, May 20, 2024 - Friday, May 24, 2024
The conversations at this gathering will shape the future of our collegial connections. Your voice and your unique experience of ministry is important -- we hope you will join us.
Here is the link to register: https://forms.gle/H87QCNSgi1BR1XLE6
Ministry Days Package in the google drive folder, available here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oVgPEY7WFir1gX_3Dj9sF_k79hMAo2Vl?usp=sharing
Theme: What matters now
Intention for our gathering:
What does it mean to be colleagues in this new era? What does “needing one another” look like, now?
This can feel like a time of increasing disconnection. How we gather matters. Gone are the days when most people could check one box when asked what “type” of ministry they do. While some of us are community or parish ministers, some of us check multiple boxes: community, parish, institutional, military, entrepreneurial, academic/research and/or justice ministries. There used to be a clear-cut division between active ministry and retirement. Now a number of us are semi-retired or retired but still working. How do we shape our gatherings so that everyone is welcomed, whatever their ministry context?
Ministry can be profoundly lonely, for all sorts of reasons. In addition to gaining skills and resources (often important at particular moments in our lives and our careers), we gather to be with people who understand the work, to feel that we are not in this alone. With all of these needs and hopes, it is especially painful if we feel not heard or not seen. How do we come together to hold one another and serve Unitarian Universalism as it is now and as it will be in the future?
Join us at Canadian Ministry Days, May 20-24, 2024, and be a part of shaping the future of UU ministry in Canada.
Timing of our national gatherings:
Monday, May 20, 6:30-8:30 pm Eastern
Tuesday, May 21, 12-1:30; 3-4:30, 7-8:30 pm Eastern
Wednesday, May 22, 12-1:30, 3-4:30 pm Eastern
Thursday, May 23, 12-1:30; 3-4:30, 7-8:30 pm Eastern
Friday, May 24, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm Eastern
(the full draft schedule is available in the google drive folder)
What is different this year? 5 things you need to know:
1. This gathering is the first step in a multi-year, iterative process.
The conversation started at last year's Ministry Days and continued with the fall survey. Next year's ministry days will look quite different. Your participation and feedback will shape what happens next.
2. This year we are prioritizing online connections.
Whether you are attending in person or online, we invite you to connect on our Mighty Networks platform -- this is the place to check in, chat, make plans, and read announcements. Watch for a direct invitation coming to your email inbox. There will be opportunities to join a live demo and get signed in online before ministry days.
3. There are three ways to participate this year:
- individually, using your own Zoom sign in
- with a group at a watch party (a group of people who gather at a central location each day)
- with a group at a pod (a group of people who are sharing meals and accommodations as well as watching together)
Group participants will still receive the individual online link. Individual sign-ins will be encouraged at events with breakout groups, to allow more interaction between in person and online participants.
4. Registration is different depending on how you are participating:
- to register as an individual zoom participant, fill out the registration form and make your payment. That's it -- simple!
- to register as part of a group (watch party or pod), fill out the registration form and make your payment AS WELL AS doing whatever is required by your watch party or pod organizers.
Subsidies are available for watch party participation (details in the registration form).
5. How we show up matters.
Bridging online and in person participation so that we all get to know each other requires intention and commitment from all of us. We are investing in paid tech support, so that our members can be more present in the meeting, but volunteering will still be the heart of our gathering -- we hope that everyone commits to doing at least one thing (details in the registration form).
Here is the link to register: https://forms.gle/H87QCNSgi1BR1XLE6
