The Unitarian minister A. Powell Davies once said, “life is a chance to grow a soul.” He didn’t mean something out-of-this-world, but rather an experience rooted in the reality of the here-and-now.

The work of growing our souls, with intention and care, is the high calling of our faith and the purpose of our congregation. It is the work we undertake, together, when we gather on Sundays, when we engage in meaningful dialogue, when we tend the sacred bonds that knit our lives with others and the great web of being. It happens at potluck dinners and committee meetings, while tending the grounds of our campus, and while marching together for justice.

And it is work we undertake whenever we choose to be generous with our resources in support of those things we most cherish. It is by such transformative acts that a soul is grown. It is through such dedication that “we build the common good and make our own days glad,” to quote one of my favourite hymns.

On April 14th, we will launch our annual campaign to seek financial and volunteer support for the future well-being of our congregation. I would ask, between now and then, that you consider what it would mean for you to make a principled commitment to VanU for the coming year.

To ask what it would take for your giving—of your money, your time, yourself—to be truly transformative? To wonder and to respond to this chance to grow your soul by investing in this community of memory and hope.

With excitement for our future,

Shawn

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Sunday services coming up in April

April 7th – Kiersten Moore: “Growing Up and Growing Whole”

Kiersten Moore, our Director of Lifespan Faith Development, will reflect on the stages of faith development as we move through the seasons of life.

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April 14th – Rev. Shawn Gauthier: “Investing in Our Future”

Over the past few years, the congregation has focussed a great deal on who it is and who it aspires to become. In this service, Rev. Shawn will invite us to consider how much of ourselves—through the work of our hearts and hands (and our resources)—we are willing to invest in our congregation to make those dreams come true.

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April 21st – Councillor Christine Boyle: “A Celebration of Earth Day”

Vancouver City Councillor Christine Boyle and the Environment Team come together to reflect on the challenges we face and the hopes we carry, as we celebrate the earth and the interdependent web of life, of which we are a part.

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April 28th – Rev. Shawn Gauthier: “The Wheels on the Bus”

In this service, Rev. Gauthier will reflect on the possibility of finding deep joy and enduring meaning, even in the mundane stuff of life.

As the calendar turns from one year to the next, it’s a natural time to take stock of the return on whatever investments we have made with our lives over the prior year. With anxiety over the economy so often in the news, we could be easily seduced into thinking our bottom line is the only meaningful measure of our lives. But, it is not, and it never really has been. After all, when was the last time you attended a memorial service where the balance of the dearly departed’s bank account mattered—unless that person had somehow managed to be extraordinarily generous with whatever they had?

While we cannot always forecast our financial futures with as much certainty as we might like, there is much we can do to ensure a healthy, balanced, and meaningful life. So, here’s my best spiritual investment advice to you:

Engage: Jump in with everything you’ve got. Don’t hold back! It’s like the Hokey-Pokey: “You put your whole self in, you take your whole self out, you put your whole self in, and you shake it all about. . .” The poet Wendell Berry was so right when he said, “Every day you have less reason not to give yourself away.”

Diversify: Broaden your involvement. Branch out. Have a spiritual life that extends beyond Sundays. Listen to different opinions. Seek out new perspectives. Consider possibilities you never have before.

Go with your gut: Trust your instincts, and be guided by that “voice, still and small” within. Regularly ask yourself what you are feeling called to do with your life, and when the way becomes clear, go for it!

Follow your bliss: Invest your time and energy and resources into the things inthis world that matter most to you. Give the labour of your heart and your hands to making the difference that you, alone, can.

Be in for the long-haul: Deepen your commitment to what spiritually sustains you and this community. Reach out to others. Join a small group. Come to see Coffee Hour as an adventure! Help out with what needs to be done. Take on responsibility. Take up leadership. Take your spiritual development seriously.

As we move into this new season, this is the soundest advice I can offer. As your advisor, please let me know if you’d like to discuss your investment strategy for the year ahead.

May 2024 be a year of great joy and deep meaning for us all.

In faith and love,

Shawn

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Services this month

Lives Lived – link

January 7th – Rev. Shawn Gauthier

In this strangely life-affirming service, we will look back on the lives of some of the famous and not-so-famous people who died in 2023, and whose lives changed our world in ways big and small.

The Great Good Place – link

January 14th – Rev. Shawn Gauthier

As the world around us becomes increasingly secularized, it’s fair to ask—and essential that we ask—what our congregation is really for.

The Unitarian Genome Project – link

January 21st – Rev. Shawn Gauthier

In this service, Rev. Shawn will put our tradition under the proverbial microscope. In this exploration of the Unitarian genotype, we’ll seek to understand what’s in our DNA.

Feeding the Fire of Intentions – link

January 28th- Vancouver Unitarians Lay Chaplains

Our Lay Chaplain team will lead us in a service honouring the Pagan tradition of Imbolc by reflecting on the meaning of spiritual growth.

I was recently asked the oh-so telling question: “If you were a rock, what kind of rock would you be?”  Having taken geology in university, I immediately began comparing myself to the qualities of obsidian and granite and limestone, wondering just how I stacked up. In the end, it was less a question about what I am made of and more about where I’d been. 

My answer was that I am a Glacial Erratic. Those are the boulders that end up a long way from home, slowly transported by the plodding pace of a glacier and then dropped as a stranger in a strange land as the melting glacier recedes. (That’s how the United State’s much-hyped Plymouth Rock settled on the sandy shores of Massachusetts Bay some twenty thousand years ago, even though its lithology reveals it started out somewhere between Boston and Quebec.)

Like most Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists, I started out in another religious tradition and explored a few others along the way for good measure. Today, swept far away from where I first began, I’m grateful for the marvellous mix that is our theological home. Yet, the journey is far from over—for ours is a faith that is “ever moving, ever still.” 

It is this idea that is at the heart of one of the creeds by which I live my life: “Nothing is settled. Everything matters!” By these words, I’m reminded that we can build a world better than the one we know. So, as I settle in at UCV, I delight in the knowledge that we can make a difference, even if it requires that we be a little erratic along the way!

I look forward to seeing where time takes us, together.

In faith and love,

Shawn 

November Sunday services at UCV

November 5th – Rev. Anne Barker: “Three Lessons that Changed My Mind”

On the 5th, we will welcome to our pulpit Rev. Anne Barker, the Congregational Life Lead for the BC and Western Regions of the Canadian Unitarian Council. In gratitude for the wisdom and gifts of others, Rev. Anne will bring a 2nd Source reflection. She’ll share three lessons that surprised her with their transformative power …changing her mind, as well as her life.

A ceremony to dedicate a new heritage plaque in the courtyard will follow the service, at 12:15pm. Rev. Shawn and Rev. Steven Epperson will take part in the ritual with members of the Building & Grounds Committee. All are welcome.

November 12th – Rev. Shawn Gauthier: “War Is Hell”

This weekend, we mark Remembrance Day with new and jarring reminders of war’s utter brutality. Rev. Shawn will reflect on the moral injuries of war and the rarely-heeded call of peace.

November 19th” – Rev. Shawn Newton: “The Alchemy of a Sunday Morning”

A not-insignificant part of a minister’s working week is dedicated to what happens on Sunday mornings. This week, Rev. Shawn will pull back the curtain to reflect on the craft of preaching and the art of worship, because what we do together on Sundays is very much a shared endeavour.

November 26th – Paul Prescod: “Can we remain fully Human in the Age of Spiritual Machines?”

Scientists and leading capitalists have declared that they can foresee the near-term end of a project that they have been working on since 1956: the creation of digital beings that are as intellectually flexible as humans: Artificial Intelligence. Whether they succeed or fall short, some form of “Homo Digitalis” is on the horizon. What are the implications for us, the Homo Sapiens? What, especially, of those of us who hold reverence for humanity and nature as not just a preference, but as a sacred devotion.