Save the Dates: Spring 2024 Tri Regional Council Meeting
2024-05-24 - 2024-05-26
Spring 2024 Tri-Regional Council Meeting
REGISTER for the Tri-Regional Council Meeting
Time will be designated for each individual Regional Council to meet separately. Each Regional Council will be electing their GC45 Commissioners, President Elect and slate of Executive/Commission members.
Friday May 24: 2 PM start & Friday evening The Right Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne will speak
Saturday, May 25: All day. Includes Celebration of Ministries Service in the afternoon
Sunday, May 26: 9 AM to Noon: Includes Honouring of Retirees, Jubilands, In Memoriam, Community of Faith Life Cycle Changes

Kids Across the Region - The Amazing Grace
2024-06-07 - 2024-06-08 | Camp Bimini, 3180 Perth Road, St. Paul’s, Ontario, N0K 1V0, Canada

Rendez-Vous 2024 - Audacious Hope
2024-07-03 - 2024-07-06
Youth, Young Adults, and Those Who Lead Them:

Save the Date!

Audacious Hope
July 3-6, 2024, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON

Brought to you by the Rendez-vous team of The United Church of Canada and the LIFT team of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

More information soon!

#UCCan #AudaciousHope2024

Ask An Expert
2024-09-18 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Toronto) | Online via Zoom
We’re trying something new. We’re introducing an Ask An Expert series in partnership with the General Council Office. You ask the questions, and we’ll provide the expertise.
Who are the experts? Well, it depends on the topic and staff availability.
Maybe you want to know more about the insurance partnership between the GCO and Communities of Faith. Or what you do when the local newspaper calls (or when you want to get a good story out). Or what the new government relations officer does. Or what the cost-of-living-adjustment is.
It’s kind of like a Pick-Your-Own-Adventure book. Here’s how it works:
1. You send us your questions here: https://forms.office.com/r/q7UM9spU9z
2. We find the expert who can answer them.
3. We all tune in on Wednesday September 18th, 7-8 p.m. by Zoom here: https://united-church.zoom.us/j/89972136949
4. As many questions will be answered as can be within the allotted time. Unanswered questions will carry over to the next session, or we’ll answer them on our Regional Council Facebook group.
5. Tough questions are okay. We’ll do our best to answer them, and if we can’t on the spot, we’ll follow up with the right information.
So, pick your adventure. Will it be insurance? Or grants? Climate justice? Governance? Media relations? Government relations? Global partnerships? Or something else?
You pick. Ask your question here: https://forms.office.com/r/q7UM9spU9z. Join us on Wednesday September 18th at 7 p.m. to get an answer in real time. Don’t have a question right now? Listeners welcome!
This session will be facilitated by: Michelle Owens

Preaching with an Ecological Lens
2025-02-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Online by Zoom link
Ministry Personnel and LLWLs,
Are you looking for ways to address the climate crisis from the pulpit?
Join us online Tuesday Feb 4th, 2025 7:00-8:30PM
Preaching with an Ecological Lens
A workshop offered by the Rev. Dr. HyeRan Kim Cragg,
Principal and Professor of Preaching at Emmanuel College.

The Rev. Dr. HyeRan Kim-Cragg is the 14th Principal and Professor of Preaching at Emmanuel College. She is the first racialized person holding both roles. Kim-Cragg received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020, the highest honor granted to Emmanuel Alumni. She has been actively involved in the preaching life of the United Church of Canada, a denomination that has been aspiring to become an intercultural and anti-racist church for the last 25 years. As a leading postcolonial scholar, she has written or contributed to over 15 books including her monographs Interdependence: A Postcolonial Feminist Practical Theology (2018) Postcolonial Preaching: Creating a Ripple Effect (2021), both are claimed as original contributions in homiletics and practical theology. Her most recent book is Moments in Time: Sermons from the United Church of Canada 1910-2020 (UCPH, 2024). Currently, she is preparing a manuscript for preaching addressing the climate crisis and ecological justice with a tentative title, A Homiletic of the EARTH. She is grateful to share some of her current research in this workshop.
Workshop: Preaching with an Ecological Lens
In this workshop Rev. Dr. HyeRan Kim-Cragg will share her insights into challenges faced by those of us who wish to address the climate crisis from the pulpit. She proposes five homiletical strategies that may help preachers and congregations face these challenges and tackle this crisis. The five strategies can be remembered using the acronym of E.A.R.T.H. which stand for the Elements of Life, Animals in the Bible, Rhythm of Life, Tree of Life, and Hesed (God’s unconditional love). Once briefly reviewing these five, Kim-Cragg will note the Elements of Life as Water, Fire, Air, and Soil that are prevalent in the Bible and well used as theological metaphors. She will focus on air, Ruah in Hebrew. With the deepened appreciation of this sacred element of life, Kim-Cragg will offer how to proclaim the Gospel for the sake of the Planet Earth.
There is no registration fee. The costs of this workshop are fully covered by Antler River Watershed, Horseshoe Falls and Western Ontario Waterways Regional Councils.
For more information contact Thérèse Samuel (Minister, Right Relations and Social Justice) tsamuel@united-church.ca
Click to register for “Preaching with an Ecological Lens” online workshop.
The costs of this workshop are fully covered by Antler River Watershed, Horseshoe Falls and Western Ontario Waterways Regional Councils.

Flourishing: Spend a day with the Moderator
2025-02-22 09:00 - 16:30 | Avondale United Church, 194 Avondale Avenue, Stratford, Ontario, N5A6N4, Canada
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

Ontario Election 2025: More than Tariffs Workshop
2025-02-23 15:00 - 16:15 | Online by Zoom link
Ontario Election 2025:
More than Tariffs A panel discussion
Sunday Feb 23, 3:00-4:15 PM EST on Zoom
Information to help you faithfully discern your vote and continue advocacy after the Feb 27th election.
Brief presentations by five panel members on selected topics.
Panelists will respond to questions from the audience.

Advance registration required:
https://united-church.zoom.us/meeting/register/Pfy-0rDhQt-l-V5KqspFkw
For more information contact:
Thérèse Samuel tsamuel@united-church.ca and John Egger jegger@united-church.ca

Moderator:
Rev. Éric Hébert-Daly serves as the Executive Minister to ECO and EOO Regional Councils in Eastern Ontario. He was ordained in 2020. He served for 5 years as Responsible, Ministries in French, for 9 years as the National Executive Director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. Éric spent 17 years working in federal political circles and 7 years as a registered lobbyist. He also brings a hope-filled passion for the church.

Panel Members
Charles Barrett is a retired economist, who was actively involved in policy dialogue in North America, and the Asia-Pacific region in international economic relations, human resources development and capacity building. He has broad research experience and has written extensively on Canadian and international policy issues. He is a member of Riverside United Church, Ottawa and Eastern Ontario Outaouais Regional Council.

The Rev. Dr. Jessica Hetherington is an ecotheologian and ordained minister in the United Church of Canada. Working at the intersection of ecology and theology for 20 years, she inspires people of faith to transform their actions in response to the climate crisis. She currently serves as commissioner on climate justice with the World Council of Churches and the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Sign up for her weekly newsletter: Faith. Climate Crisis. Action. (https://jessicahetherington.substack.com/).

Bryan Smith is a long-term member of the Oxford Coalition for Social Justice, an organization committed to work and advocacy on a wide range of social and environmental issues locally in the County of Oxford and across the planet. It stands in for the Ontario Health Coalition and stands up for public health. Bryan is a retired teacher, and is active in providing school lunches and community dinners, and promoting local foods, the avoidance of waste, community events, and public health.

Rev. Jeffrey Dale (they/he) is the Minister at College Street United Church in downtown Toronto. Jeffrey is a harm reduction advocate and community educator, working with harm reduction advocacy groups throughout the Province of Ontario to educate communities of faith and the wider society regarding the needs of people who use drugs.

Rev. Susan Eagle is the minister at Grace United Church in Barrie. She chairs both the Ecological and Social Justice Commission for Shining Waters Regional Council, and the Steering Committee of the provincial interfaith coalition, ISARC, which does policy analysis and advocacy for income security, homelessness and employment rights. She has worked with newcomer and low-income individuals and sole-support families as a community outreach worker, and served on London City Council for 13 years.

This workshop is presented by the Social Justice Network of Ontario Regional Councils (SJNORC) with representation from Eastern Ontario Outaouais, East Central Ontario, Shining Waters, Canadian Shield, Antler River Watershed, Horseshoe Falls, Western Ontario Waterways and Prairie to Pine Regional Councils of The United Church of Canada.
Engage, Pray, Vote.

Adopt a Body of Water
2025-04-22 10:00 - 11:15 | Online via Zoom
Children and Youth Ministry Webinar:
Adopt a Body of Water 🌊🌊🌊
Contact Kathy Douglas, Tri-Regional Council Minister of Faith Formation for the Zoom link KDouglas@united-church.ca

Fishing Tips 2.0 Workshop
2025-05-02 09:30 - 14:30 | Thamesville United Church, 107 Elizabeth Street, Thamesville, Ontario, N0P 2K0, Canada
Fishing Tips 2.0 Workshop:
Rev. Dr. John Pentland is coming to Thamesville United Church!
Register Now for Fishing Tips 2.0

Youth Forum 2025
2025-08-05 - 2025-08-12
Click here for more information:
Youth Forum 2025

Great Lakes Collaborative Retreat
2026-08-23 - 2026-08-25 | Five Oaks Education and Retreat Centre, 1 Bethel Road, Paris, Ontario, N3L 3E3, Canada
Register Here for The Great Lakes Collaborative Retreat

Contacts:
Kathy Douglas kathymdouglas@hotmail.com
or
Lisa Hart lhart@wcucc.org
