Canadian Unitarian Council - CUC

06/04/2026

Emergence isn't a concept. It's something you've been living.
Ten months ago, we gathered around adrienne maree brown's Emergent Strategy and asked ourselves a question: how would the CUC — and how would you — actively practice emergence during the 2025–2026 church year?
We didn't ask for a plan. We asked for attention. For noticing. For staying curious about what wants to grow.
Now, ten months later, we're coming back together to share what we've seen.

On June 6, join us for the closing session of the Emergent Strategy Book Club — a two-hour conversation about what you've noticed in your personal life, your community, and in the broader work of building something more just and more alive.
You don't need to have attended the first session. You don't need to have read the book. You just need to be someone who has been paying attention — and who wants to think out loud with others who have too.

Saturday June 6 · 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm ET · Zoom · Free
Register at cuc.ca/events
Canadian Unitarian Council

05/28/2026

Incoming Executive Director Michael Jodah shares a first message worth reading, reflecting on membership, imagination, and what it means to liberate a movement rather than simply preserve one. Read his letter here.

It is a real pleasure to greet you as the incoming Executive Director of the Canadian Unitarian Council.I am still a new face to many of you, and I look forward to getting to know you more in the months ahead. My background has been in the education, environmental, and housing sectors, and I come in...

05/27/2026

Public Workshop: Boundaries are my Love Language is happening tomorrow May 28 at 7:00 pm ET and there's still time to register. Link below.

This one is a little different from our usual Dismantling Barriers sessions. Camellia Jahanshahi is leading a workshop she designed specifically for activists, community workers, and artists — anyone who gives a lot of themselves and sometimes struggles to know where they end and everything else begins.

If that sounds familiar, this 90 minutes is for you.
You'll also leave with a reflection guide to keep the work going after the session — supporting your path toward pleasure, joy, and collective liberation.
Map 28 · 7:00 pm ET · Zoom · Free · 90 min
See you there

https://cuc.ca/events/dismantling-barriers-boundaries-love-language/1779994800/1780000200/

05/27/2026

This one's close to home.

A recent article in The Tyee follows journalist Anjini Snape on a personal search for meaning — and it leads her straight to a Unitarian Universalist congregation on the North Shore of Vancouver.

What she finds there isn't dogma or doctrine. It's community. Curiosity. People oriented, as she puts it, "in the same direction."
The piece touches on something we think about a lot: as Canadians drift away from organized religion, what gets lost isn't just belief — it's belonging. And yet, as Snape discovers, UU communities are quietly offering something many people are desperately searching for, without always knowing where to look.
We loved seeing the North Shore Unitarians spotlighted here — and we think this piece will resonate with anyone who has ever walked through the doors of a UU congregation wondering if they'd fit in.

Give it a read. Then maybe share it with someone who's still looking.

This one's close to home. A recent article in The Tyee follows journalist Anjini Snape on a personal search for meaning — and it leads her straight to a Unitarian Universalist congregation on the North Shore of Vancouver. What she finds there isn't dogma or doctrine. It's community. Curiosity. Peo...

05/26/2026

The CUC held its Annual General Meeting on Saturday, May 23, bringing together Canadian Unitarian Universalists from across the country for a multiplatform gathering of governance, reflection, reporting, and connection.

An AGM may look like one meeting on the calendar, but it is made possible by many hands: delegates and observers, Board members, committee volunteers, youth observers, ministers, staff, tech support, parliamentarian support, report writers, timekeepers, hosts, and the many people who help carry this shared work throughout the year.

We are grateful to everyone who helped make this gathering possible, whether by preparing reports, presenting updates, supporting the meeting process, participating as a delegate, joining online, or welcoming people in person.

Shared governance is not only about motions and reports. It is one way we practice being a national community: listening, deciding, learning, and tending the work together.
Thank you to all who helped bring this year’s AGM to life.

05/23/2026

Boundaries are not walls. They're how we stay present for the people and work we love.
Most of us were never taught how to build healthy boundaries — especially in community work, where the ask is always to give more. So we overextend, burn out, and quietly resent the very work we care about most.

This May 28, join Camellia Jahanshahi for a workshop she designed specifically for activists, community workers, and artists: Boundaries Are My Love Language. This session is a departure from the usual Dismantling Barriers conversation format — it's a structured workshop that gives you real tools for identifying, communicating, and sustaining boundaries in your relationships and your work.

Participants will also receive a reflection guide after the session to support them in deepening their relationship with boundaries and carving paths toward pleasure, joy, and collective liberation.
Saying no to the wrong things is how you say yes to everything that matters.

Thursday May 28 · 7:00 pm ET · Zoom · Free · 90 min
Register at cuc.ca/events

A Dismantling Barriers session with the Canadian Unitarian Council

05/21/2026

We loved reading this piece because it asks a question so many of us quietly carry: what do you do with the urge for community and meaning when traditional religion doesn't fit? Anjini Snape's search for a spiritual home is honest, curious, and surprisingly hopeful.

I went in search of a spiritual home but I’m not religious. Neither, I discovered, are some churches.

05/20/2026

A NEW BEGINNING FOR REFUGEES IN CANADA
Rebuilding lives: All over the world, refugees have to leave their countries & homes behind to find safety. Be part of empowering refugees as they establish new lives in Canada.
Give to the Canadian Unitarian Council's GoFundMe https://gofund.me/ab1e79dba

05/20/2026

What a delight to receive this message from Rob Van Wyck this morning:

"Thanks to a tip from Debra Falk, Lakehead Unitarian Fellowshipwas able to engage acclaimed singer/songwriter Tony Turner for a concert and a service May 16 & 17. Tony was crossing Canada in his camper van, and going to be stopping in Edmonton, Wakefield, Perth, Halifax and Calgary. He readily accepted an invitation from Thunder Bay. Tony is a former environmental scientist and an active member in the Unitarian Universalist community. He polished his craft for decades in the Ottawa folk scene before relocating to Vancouver Island where he joined the First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo. He gained prominence in 2015 with his protest song Harperman and further acclaim with his signature anthem of unity, Circle of Song, which is widely sung by congregations nationwide.

His concert included a mix of the old and the new as he promoted his recent CD, Survivor Tree. His voice, a lyrical and freely sounding baritone, wove its magic while addressing core Unitarian values of social justice, environment and our shared human condition of love and loss, joy and grief. Heartbreak with a dose of humour.

Our Sunday morning service involved him as both speaker and musician. It was an amazing service with lots his music, and songs that involved the congregation. His talk entitled “Enduring Love” was a heartfelt expression of how to remain calm and focussed in a world of constant change and challenge. His talk can be viewed on our congregation website, luf.ca.

If you get the chance to hear him play in your community don’t miss it! The many happy listeners in our congregation were happy they did. Maybe he’ll be willing to drive across the country again to perform for you too!"