by Michele | Jan 10, 2025 | 100th Anniversary, Anti-Racism, Camps & Retreats, Children & Youth, Climate Change, Community, Events, Global Community, Indigenous Justice, Learning Opportunities, LGBTQIA+ and Two-Spirit people, Mission & Service, News, Pastoral Relations, Regional Council, Resources, Right Relations, Social Justice, Staff, Stewardship, The United Church of Canada, UCW
Flourishing: Antler River, Western Ontario Waterways, and Horseshoe Falls Regional Councils
Spend a day with the Moderator, engaging in reflection and energizing activities towards dream-oriented actions for our churches and communities.
Saturday, February 22, 2025, 9:00 am to 4:30 pm (local time).
9:00am -9:30am Registration and coffee/tea
9:30am – Welcome and Introductions
In person
Avondale United Church, 194 Avondale Ave., Stratford, ON N5A 6N4
All around the world – from universities to the United Nations, from corporations to community organizations – people are talking about flourishing. Rooted in belonging, flourishing means living with purpose and joy, and bringing bold collaborative solutions to our world’s challenges.
The Moderator, the Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, wants to bring that conversation to The United Church of Canada. She invites us to connect to one another in hope, with a deep conviction by a belief that, despite all the challenges of church life in this day and age, we can move from despair to transformation – from languishing to flourishing.
Is your church flourishing?
(Perhaps that’s the wrong question.)
Is your church contributing to the flourishing of your community?
How might we truly be a flourishing church in the world? How might we live in deep spirituality, bold discipleship and daring justice, linked from coast to coast to coast in ministry that transforms us and the world around us?
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER: Flourishing Workshop
by Michele | Dec 20, 2024 | Advent, Community, Events, News, Regional Council
Dear Friends,
As we gather to celebrate the joyous season of Christmas, I want to extend my warmest greetings and blessings to each member of the Antler River Watershed Region. As we travel through the Advent Season, we reflect on the profound gifts of Hope, Peace Joy and Love that the birth of Jesus Christ brought into our world.
Those gifts often feel lost with the hustle and bustle of our daily lives and it is easy to feel disconnected—from our loved ones, our communities, and even from God. Christmas is a beautiful opportunity to pause, reflect, and renew these essential bonds.
This season, I invite you to reconnect with each other and with God in meaningful ways. Reach out to a friend or family member you haven’t spoken to in a while. Share a meal, a story, or simply a moment of your time. Maybe you are missing seeing your neighbouring churches or colleagues, why not reach out and get together support each others events, form a cluster or just have that coffee that we keep talking about having but never quite set a date! The new year is the perfect time for new and renewed relationships. When we connect with one another, we embody the spirit of Christ’s love and hospitality.
Let us also take time to reconnect with God. Through prayer, scripture, and worship, we can deepen our relationship with the Divine. Remember the humble manger where Jesus was born—a symbol of God’s profound love and presence in the simplest of places. God is always with us, inviting us into a deeper communion.
As we light our Advent and Christ candles, may they remind us of the light of Christ that shines within us and guides our path. Let this light inspire us to spread Hope, Peace, Joy and Love in our communities of faith and beyond.
May your hearts be filled with the wonder of Christ’s birth, and may you experience the true meaning of Christmas through the warmth of reconnection this holiday season and beyond.
Wishing you a blessed Christmas and a New Year filled with grace and peace.
In Christ’s Love,
Rev. Cheryl Bolton
President, Antler River Watershed Regional Council
by Michele | Nov 26, 2024 | 100th Anniversary, Community, Events, Regional Council, The United Church of Canada
Clarity on 100th anniversary package sent to communities of faith
Nov 20, 2024 | News, UCC Centenary
In October, many communities of faith or pastoral charges received communication from Brian Arthur Brown, chair of Friends of the United Church Foundation and author of two recent books that were widely distributed to communities of faith, Keys to the Kindom and The Untied Church.
The letter speaks about inviting specified Communities of Faith to come together and participate in events for the United Church’s 100th Anniversary, including special services raising funds for specific ministry initiatives within the church. The associated group calls itself “Friends of the (United Church) Foundation”.
The communication circulating is an invitation, not a directive or a request from any official body within the denomination. Communities of faith are free to engage the invitation or develop their own ways of commemorating this milestone in the history of our denomination. The choice is entirely yours.
Further clarity about Centennial worship services
The worship service referred to in the correspondence is not the worship for the Centennial. It is one of many such planned services, and communities of faith that appear in the lists were chosen somewhat randomly and/or for their association with the members of the Friends of the Foundation. The services Brian Arthur Brown is organizing will happen live on June 1st and be available online on June 10, ,2025. The official denominational national service will be held online and in person in St John’s NL on June 8th, 2025.
Antler River Watershed will likely hold its own Region-wide centennial service online, with materials available for all communities of faith, possibly alongside the Celebration of Ministries service. More information will be sent out through the weekly newsletter as plans develop.
In the meantime, please check the information on the General Council 100th anniversary page and the Regional Council anniversary page for more information about these events and services.
And remember, the Region and the national church want to help promote your plans! Have a look at the above links, and please let the Regional office and Keeper of the Archives know if we can support you in any way. We wish you creative and faithful planning as we commemorate this milestone, honour those who came before us, and look to the future.
by Michele | Nov 13, 2024 | Advent, Community, Learning Opportunity, News, Regional Council, Resources
Free Resource
for an Advent Small Group Study
We are offering every Community of Faith a gift this Advent season! By means of a regional subscription you can access an Advent Small Group Study created by:
The Prayer Bench entitled Advent Longing
We hope this will be a gift for busy ministers and lay leaders in this Advent season who want a faith formation opportunity for their community of faith.
This Advent Small Group Study invites participants to nurture longing as a powerful spiritual gift through an imaginative pilgrimage in an old-growth forest. It encourages us to notice longing in our ordinary days, recognize its gifts during times of desolation and reclamation, and welcome “thin spaces”—those moments of connection, support, and hope. In the context of a planetary crisis, we explore how to activate Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love in the world God loves.
What You Receive with this Downloadable Resource
- Complete Leader’s Guide for three Advent sessions with ideas for Opening, Singing, Movement or Sound Prayers, Conversation prompts, a Group Spiritual Practice, and Closing.
- Three 8-10-minute audio recordings.
- Three scripts of the audio recordings to download and copy so participants can follow along.
- Access to a Prayer Bench webpage with all the study materials, downloadable image for social media promotion, customizable poster for the series, and other resources related to the study.
Click here to register and receive the free resource here:
https://prayerbench.ca/regional-license-for-advent-small-group-study/
Advent Small Group Study Taster on Zoom
An introduction to the Advent Small Group Study for Leaders with Janice MacLean of Prayer Bench, offering background information and hints for leading the process. Please download the resource and come with any comments or questions for use in your setting.
We are offering two sessions (the same content just different times and days) as follows:
Antler River Watershed, Horseshoe Falls and Western Ontario Waterways Regional Council
Friday, November 22nd at 1:00pm
Click link to register and receive the Zoom link:
https://united-church.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAudequpj4qHtUr_VJD6D436RejF-lPoQO7
OR with
Eastern Central Ontario Regional Council
Monday, November 25 at 7:00 pm
Click link to register and receive the zoom link:
https://ecorcuccan.ca/eco-rc-2024-advent-small-group-study/
by Michele | Oct 4, 2024 | Affirming, Anti-Racism, Camps & Retreats, Children & Youth, Community, Events, Learning Opportunity, LGBTQIA+ and Two-Spirit people, News, Regional Council, Social Justice, The United Church of Canada
Regional Councils of ARW, HF and WOW in partnership with The Hub and Trinity UC Kitchener-
Thursday November 28th, 2024, 6:30-8:30 (all participants are asked to arrive at 6:40).
Background: Post-pandemic, Youth leaders struggle to put together groups. A message often heard from youth in the church is that what’s being offered doesn’t work for them. Being an intercultural church includes finding ways to bridge communication between different age groups/generations.
Goal– To offer a forum that brings together youth and Elders in the church– a forum that allows the two groups to hear one another and be heard by one another, and to consider what might be the Spirit’s invitation to the church for youth ministry at this time.
FISHBOWL PROCESS:
8 Youth (teens to twenty-somethings) and 8 Elders (45+) from WOW, HF and ARW Regional Councils and facilitators will gather via Zoom.
- Discussion questions will invite each to share and listen to experiences of their own youth faith formation, and hopes and challenges for youth ministry then and now.
- On each question, using the Zoom spotlight feature to focus on one group of eight:
- Youth will invite one another to share, while the Elders listen.
- Places will be switched, and the Elders will invite one another to share while the Youth listen.
- For some questions, the order might be reversed, with Elders sharing first
- After two rounds of sharing in separate groups, Youth and Elders will have an opportunity to reflect together as one group.
Each group will be invited to reflect on what they have heard and consider possible next steps.
Participants will be given questions for reflection and feedback, to be submitted in writing following the session.
This is a cross-cultural listening event, and a pilot project. This session will not focus on problem solving or planning. The focus of this event is to listen and learn about one another as a first step of re-visioning youth ministry in ARW, HF and WOW in this post-pandemic time.
An HONORARIUM of $105 is available for participants who are not otherwise paid for their time in this discussion.
To apply, complete the Application Form :
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=qLUYz3gmEUCTEhXw9xV1dPBWSFWIXSNPila5mgKiAchUM0NLV0kyWUtVM1JXUEcyOUw4QlVaRlVDUS4u
Application deadline November 18, 2024
For more information contact
Thérèse Samuel tsamuel@united-church.ca
Kathy Douglas kdouglas@united-church.ca
Adam Cresswell – hubleadership@gmail.com
Aimee Belanger at youthevents@hubcommunity.ca
