Canadian Ministry Days (In Person and via Zoom)
Tuesday, May 20, 2025 - Thursday, May 23, 2025
Optional social gatherings: Monday evening, May 19, and Friday morning, May 24, 2025.
Theme: Leading with Love in Difficult Times: Re-imagining Community Care for Canadian UU Ministers
This year we are meeting online and on site, linked together through zoom and our Mighty Networks community platform.
For more information and registration, go here: https://forms.gle/yRZd6n3k4uwPn5cSA
or email Karen Fraser Gitlitz kfrasergitlitz@gmail.com.
Registration closes May 5 at midnight. Here is the link to register: https://forms.gle/Uo2U7f6SvfcVnTWaA
More detailed information available here on the UUMA UUMOC Chapter Page
Format & Location
Join on site in Edmonton and/or online via Zoom.
- Tuesday to Thursday all worship and programming is both online and on site.
- There will be 'cross-fertilization' between on site and online attendees several times each day.
- Monday evening and Friday morning social times are separate events for in person and online attendees.
On site location: Providence Renewal Centre, 3005-119 Street NW, Edmonton Alberta
Providence Renewal Centre is located in south Edmonton, approximately 25 minutes drive time from Edmonton International Airport. Century Park Transit Centre is the nearest local transit hub. https://providencerenewal.ca/
On site accessibility:
Providence is not a fully accessible site but does have the following:
- main entry at ground level (no steps);
- all 3 levels serviced by elevator;
- some suites have walk-in showers.
Programming Highlights
Feedback from last year's Canadian Ministry Days included a desire to deepen our relationships with each other and with worship. We are taking this feedback to heart, centering worship as one of the main experiences of our time together. With daily morning and evening worship services, our intention is to ensure that we are able to attend to both the online and in-person experiences. Some of the services will prioritize online worship and others the in-person experience. There will be options for everyone for every service, and the schedule will clearly identify which services are more aimed at which experience.
Another priority was ensuring that our primary professional development offering is relevant to as many people and as many types of ministry as possible. We are pleased that Lisa Gasson-Gardner will be joining us to lead a workshop on the religious right in Canada. Gasson-Gardner is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary. Her book Listening Right: Truth, Affect, and White Evangelical Christianity is under review at Fordham University Press. Lisa is committed to tearing down oppression, challenging Christian nationalism, and drinking coffee. She also attends Calgary Unitarians.
Lisa's workshop "The Religious Right in Canada: What You Talking About?" challenges the assumption that a religiously motivated riot like the January 6th event at the US capital "could never" happen in Canada. The workshop teaches participants terminology to describe the Canadian Religious Right and maps its current trends. At the same time, the workshop resists erasing the humanity of the Religious Right by inviting conversation about the complex feelings and experiences that attract people, even Unitarian Universalists, to the far right.
The Odyssey, a colleague's recounting of their life story, is an annual highlight for many. Drumroll please .... We are excited to announce that our colleague the Rev. Shawn Gauthier will be giving his Odyssey this year.
More details, including the schedule, will be in the meeting packet which will come out mid April.
Note that the UU Ministers of Canada annual meeting will *not* be taking place during Canadian Ministry Days this year. Our annual meeting will be an online-only event on Thursday, May 29, 9-10:30 am pacific.
