Workshops

Join us for engaging workshops on a wide range of topics.

Saturday Workshops: 10 am PT|11 am MT|12 pm CT|1 pm ET|2 pm AT (1.5 hours)

MG indicates this workshop is Multigenerational and suitable for all ages.

Choose the Workshops you want to attend on your registration form.

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Workshop 1 MG (Part 1): Lighting Up Our Communities - Joan Carolyn M. Div. and Rev. Linda Thomson
(Participation in both Workshops 1 and 7 is recommended.)

Congregations are the living example of Universalist Unitarian values in action, and they play an important role in showcasing our faith to the world. This session will explore aspects of congregational life, helping participants reflect on the ways they can build vitality within their communities. Our premise is that vital congregations are ones that members are passionate about and which attract new people. What would it take to make the members of your community want to share the good news of Unitarian Universalism? What can we do together to help our congregations create sustaining practices:

• Within people - helping them create sustaining practices and a rich spiritual life

• Among people - fostering authentic relationships and relational justice

• Beyond the building - creating meaningful and effective Social justice programs.

Workshop 2 MG: Sustaining Our UU Light at the United Nations - Allison Hess, Bruce Knotts, Taz Trefzger and Noella Prescod

This workshop will shine a light on the subject of global engagement with the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations. Even as 2020 marked the launch of the UN’s “Decade for Action on the Sustainable Development Goals,” the COVID-19 pandemic has hindered much of the progress the world had begun to make towards achieving those goals and addressing global inequalities and sustainability. This decade of action is all the more urgent now. In this interactive program, youth and adults will learn how UUs play a role in the United Nations community advocating for UU values. There will be activities to strategize for UU action locally on issues from intersectional gender equity to climate justice to make a global impact, drawing on the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and our UU values.

Workshop 3: Community-Building Through FUNdraising Bazaars - Carol Card and Gordon Darrall

Unitarian Universalists love to build connections in their congregations and with the wider community, help the environment, and fund worthwhile activities. FUNdraising bazaars do all this and more. But what happens when a pandemic hits and the traditional model goes out the window? In this interactive workshop, Ottawa First and Kingston Fellowship team up to present their respective experiences and challenges before and after COVID. And we want to hear your own congregations’ fundraising successes and challenges too! For 14 yrs and up.

Workshop 4 MG: Reconciliation is a Spiritual Journey - Sharon Jinkerson Brass

Elder and artist Sharon shares her lived experience and insights as one of the many Indigenous children who were adopted by white families in what is known as the Sixties Scoop. Sharon will reflect on the personal work and joys of healing through difficult things.

Workshop 5: What Would it Mean to Defund the Police? - Leslie Kemp and Allie Pev

We’ll shed light on the criminalization of poverty and systemic racism embedded in the criminal justice system. We’ll explore how putting more resources into reducing inequality, homelessness, racism, discrimination, mental health issues and lack of key services enhances inclusivity and public safety while building community and saving money, than deploying police is.

Workshop 6 MG: Soulful Singing: Singing with Freedom and Joy - Rev. Wendy Luella Perkins

Want to feel more freedom and joy in your voice and build community through creativity and fun? Miss singing with others through the pandemic? Looking to spend 90 minutes nourishing your body, heart and spirit? Join in this highly participatory workshop/playshop. We'll reflect on narratives that both limit and empower us to sing. We'll express ourselves through vocal warm-ups, games, songs and chants. Everyone is welcome in the circle of song, from shower singers to experienced choristers, children to elders. Come with a curious heart, leave humming a tune and with greater pleasure from and confidence in your voice.

Workshop 7 MG (Part 2 of Workshop 1): Lighting Up Our Communities - Joan Carolyn M.Div. and Rev. Linda Thomson

Congregations are the living example of Universalist Unitarian values in action, and they play an important role in showcasing our faith to the world. This session will explore aspects of congregational life, helping participants reflect on the ways they can build vitality within their communities. Our premise is that vital congregations are ones that members are passionate about and which attract new people. What would it take to make the members of your community want to share the good news of Unitarian Universalism? What can we do together to help our congregations create sustaining practices:

• Within people - helping them create sustaining practices and a rich spiritual life

• Among people - fostering authentic relationships and relational justice

• Beyond the building - creating meaningful and effective Social justice programs.

Workshop 8: Dismantling Racism: Can We Talk? - Rev. Julie Stoneberg and Beverly Horton

Sustaining the Light of Unitarian Universalism requires us to answer the call to examine and undo white supremacy. Without this work, we believe our faith will become, at best, irrelevant. So, what do the results of the Dismantling Racism survey tell us about what we need to do, and how we might embark on the journey to, in the words of the proposed 8th principle, "accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions"?

Workshop 9 MG: The Eyes of the Future Generations Are On Us - Carol Burrows and Kathy Mostardi

Greta Thunberg delivered these words to the U.N. Climate Action Summit in September 2019, "How will Unitarians be viewed by future generations that look back at these times?" Do we have the courage and fortitude, both individually and collectively, to continue shining a light on global warming?

As Unitarians, how do we juggle the emotional and physical demands of the current health crisis with the longer-term but equally urgent need to slow global warming and its impacts? This stream will try to answer these questions through presentations and discussions, starting at the individual level, and then at the congregational and community level. Finally, we will look at the challenge behind these questions at the CUC and political level.

Workshop 10: Conversations on Death - Kathleen Sorensen

An interactive and experiential workshop dealing with the spiritual issues surrounding Medical Assistance in Dying from multiple perspectives: those who are making the choice, families who are supporting their loved ones, and the larger community who may or may not agree with the decision. Ages 14 and up. Given the sensitivity of this topic and that it may be challenging for some, pastoral support will be available.

Workshop 11 MG: To See, To Be, To Do: The Landscape of World Religions - Brian Carwana

Light allows us to see – to see our world and to see others as they are. This talk provides an overview of world religions, revealing the landscape and providing a useful map for seeing many religions at once. Popular with numerous audiences for 15 years, this presentation will grant you a new way of seeing and understanding the world’s religions and perhaps a new perspective on your own spiritual beliefs.