Reaching Out Feels Good!

As winter turns to spring, I sense the stirrings of new growth that comes with warmth, nurturing, and conscious attention. With the changing seasons, I sense a change in atmosphere. There is a new sense of purpose as we finish our Stewardship Campaign - a month of talking about what the church means to each of us. My wife tells me I am generally not a very perceptive person; it takes me a while to become conscious of changes, but this winter I have sensed a growing confidence in the church. Throughout one of the coldest winters in many years, we have been keeping the fires burning in many ways and sharing the heat.

We seem to be more comfortable reaching out to others, whether they are newcomers to the church or new friends outside our walls. Certainly, some of this warmth is due to long serving programs such as the Harvest Food Bank we host every Thursday morning, where a large group of volunteers work with our clients to set up tables, unload the truck, distribute food, and share coffee and fellowship. New this year, our Youth got involved by donating proceeds from their delicious YoHoHo dinner to Winnipeg Harvest's new kitchen project.

In addition, Rev. Millie has been very busy this winter reaching out to the Manitoba Interfaith Council by hosting meetings, sitting on their Education Committee, and most recently offering to host the Interfaith Council’s library along side ours. Marilyn Brooke and her Library Committee have welcomed this opportunity with open arms and it looks like this will be one of those win-win-win situations with people of many faiths using the library.

We have also reached out to our community through our “Share the Plate” initiative. Through our special monthly collections on Sunday mornings, we have been able to donate hundreds of dollars to three local organizations with similar values to ours. Besides our financial support, we have made friends with the great people who run the Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, West Central Women’s Resource Centre, and Rossbrook House. And who knew that asking our members and friends to support these organizations would also result in a general increase in our weekly collections!

Ruth Pearce and her Global Outreach Committee have also been very busy sharing the good work of the Unitarian Service Committee and the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-UNO) in New York. As one of only two Canadians on the 20 member board of the UU-UNO, Ruth, a retired professor, travels to meetings in New York twice a year.

Carolyn Garlich and her Green Action Committee have also been busy heating things up both inside and outside our walls. They just finished organizing, hosting, and promoting another important public forum to improve the City of Winnipeg’s long-term approach to managing municipal waste.

Once again, we are partnering with the Winnipeg Folk Festival by providing space for their annual Music Retreat, which offers one-on-one professional instruction from some of the festival’s performers. This four day retreat occurs the week before the festival in July and takes advantage of our beautiful building and gardens nestled on the banks of the Assiniboine River.

And finally, I want to recognize our hard-working Director of Religious Exploration, Andrea James, who is constantly reaching out and helping someone. In addition to coordinating the fabulous RE program for our children and youth, Andrea is the Canadian Liaison to the Liberal Religious Educators' Association (LREDA) in the US. She will be joining many of us who are looking forward to our annual conference and meeting in Toronto on the May long weekend.

It feels good to share the warmth of our congregation outside our church walls.

In faith,

Craig Edwards