Confluence Lecture 2023
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it. ~ Margaret Fuller
Confluence Lecture: Open Minds | Closed Doors
Friday, May 19, 2023 - 7:45 pm ET (find your local time)
In person at the Theatre, Robert C. Gillett Student Commons and livestreamed on the CUC's YouTube channel.
UU Ministers of Canada is pleased to announce that Rev. Julie Stoneberg is the 2023 Confluence Lecturer. Rev. Stoneberg ministered for over 17 years with two Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations in Ontario and recently moved to Wisconsin where she is serving UU Church West as Interim Minister.
Rev. Stoneberg introduces her topic: Open Minds | Closed Doors.
“This is the church of the open mind.” But beware! Every change involves some loss. Each new idea or concept can threaten our sense of security and identity, causing us to close down and shut our doors. Are the threats we feel real? Are our identities that fragile? A firm foundation that sustains and holds us is a good thing. Yet, I’d like to imagine that the people of the Canadian Unitarian Council can live into our aspirations to be theologically alive (minds open) and radically inclusive (doors open). Can we be the people who risk our comfort to create the life-changing realities that are needed to bring a world of love and justice into being?”
Rev. Julie Stoneberg
Confluence Lecture Series: A Canadian UU Tradition
Since 2003, UU Ministers of Canada (UUMOC) has commissioned and sponsored a lecture series, presented during the Canadian Unitarian Council National Conference with the CUC as its host.
The guidelines read that “The purpose of The Confluence Lecture is to stimulate and promote critical thinking on issues that are of importance to Canadian Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists. The aim is to promote an expanded level of scholarship and intellectual inquiry arising from the practice of ministry.” The choice of topic is entrusted to the speaker and the lectures have often been provocative, always thoughtful, and usually aligned with the theme of the conference at which it was delivered. A facilitated Q & A follows the presentation.
The first Confluence Lecture was given in Winnipeg, Manitoba by the Rev. Dr. John W. Baros-Johnson, then minister of the Universalist Unitarian Church of Halifax, NS, on the topic: Understanding UUism As A Faith Tradition. Rev. Ray Drennan followed in Edmonton, Alberta in 2004 with: Canadian Unitarianism: An Idea of a Possibility. The most recent: A New Premise was offered by Rev. Anne Barker – the first to be ‘all virtual’, due to pandemic constraints. Most have a solo presenter, although three have been given by a pair of colleagues. All 15 Confluence Lectures can be found on the CUC Website, in print and/or video format, at: Confluence Lectures - Canadian Unitarian Council Conseil unitarien du Canada (cuc.ca).
