Some Good News! Deep Dive's Registration Fee is Waived ~ Attend for Free!

Friends!

We want to empower as many clergy to come together before the AGM, and we know every little counts -- so we're waiving Deep Dive's $50 registration fee.

Yes! — Deep Dive is now totally free of charge, with catered on-site dinner and lunch still provided for all who are able to attend.

Click Here to Register Now!

Individual registration is needed so that we can prepare to welcome *you* and any dietary needs you may have.

Rev. Michelle Slater is around for calls or emails should you require more info before confidently jumping into Deep Dive (and the gathering's schedule can be seen in the FB event details, on LeaderSHIFT's website, and just below too).

Hoping this is good news for you, and that we'll get to welcome you on May 29!

Faithfully,
The LeaderSHIFT Team

Deep Dive - A Time for Ministry Personnel

A LeaderSHIFT offering with United Church of Canada Growth Animator, Rev. Scott Reynolds, and LeaderSHIFT’s Rev. Michelle Slater.

• 1pm Wednesday May 29 - 1pm Thursday May 30

• In-Person at St. Andrew's-Wesley United, Downtown Vancouver BC

• $50 FREE, including catered Wednesday Dinner and Thursday Lunch

• Registration Required

A Time of Community, Discernment, and Celebration

How did you embrace ministry during the pandemic, and what did you learn? What do we want to lament, and what do we want to ask God’s blessings on? How can we support one another in the challenging work of ministry leadership today? All PMRC-United Church ministers are encouraged to arrive to Vancouver BC to the AGM one day early -- to join this Deep Dive gathering! This is dedicated time for you, as ministers, to connect and tend our call to ministry and leadership, here and now, in this time and place, with all that is before you and the church.

Deep Dive Schedule

Wednesday May 29, 2024

1-5pm Community-Building, Context, The Practice of Lament
5pm Dinner (onsite, catered)
6:30pm The Practice of Storytelling
8:30pm Close

Thursday May 20, 2024

9:30am The Practice of Blessing
12pm Close with Lunch (onsite, catered)
1pm AGM Welcome &/Check-In Table Opens
4pm AGM Begins

Contact Rev. Michelle Slater with questions: MSlater@united-church.ca

Register Online: https://app.amilia.com/store/en/chinook-pacific-uccan/shop/programs/98110?subCategoryIds=5136863

Blue Corn Tortillas, Parking In The Clouds, Mayan Ceremonies, Living Presence

Dear Friends,

I hope you have found some rest and renewal after the demands of Holy Week and Easter – and that the Risen One will continue to meet you in surprising ways and places this Eastertide!

And, I hope you can give some thought and prayer to joining in the Guatemala Pilgrimage this August 2-12, 2024.

In our Executive Minister Treena Duncan’s Holy Week message, she wrote, “Despite facing generations of trauma and scarcity, the people of Guatemala demonstrate unwavering faith and hope, pouring out their love and devotion into the world. Witnessing their dedication reminds me of the inseparable connection between faith and hope: when we nurture faith, we nurture hope; when we nurture hope, we nurture faith. There is resurrection going on.”

Our intention is that this pilgrimage of ministry leaders, will indeed nurture our faith and our hope – and that we will see, and be, signs of resurrection.  

Guatemala: a tour for ministry leaders
August 2-12, 2024

I know it’s expensive – and I believe it is really, really worth it. I’ve sourced a few options for financial assistance, with links below.

We’ve set the registration deadline at April 30, so we can make a decision on whether the trip is a go – and if it is, we’ll continue to accept more participants, so spread the word!

• You can register directly with World Pilgrim Global Education, here: World Pilgrim Global Education Incorporated » Application Form

Lots more information is on the event webpage, here: Guatemala: A Your For Ministry Leaders in the Time of Lent — LeaderSHIFT UCCan, including a recorded Zoom information session with our guides in Guatemala, as well as the itinerary.

I hope you can join us – it would be really meaningful to be on this journey with you (and don’t worry about the heat, it’s quite cool in the highlands where we’ll be going)!

Deep blessings,

Michelle

Sources of funding:

 
For Diaconal Ministers, through Diakonia of the United Church of Canada:  2023editedKaufmanFundBrochure (ducc.ca)
 
For Youth/Young Adult Ministry leaders, through the national church:    vision-fund_con-ed-bursary_application-form_2024.docx (live.com)
 
For clergy, through VST:H.R. MacMillan Fund application - Vancouver School of Theology (vst.edu)
 
For lay and ministry personnel leaders in Pacific Mountain Region:Pacific Mountain Congregational Learning Fund — LeaderSHIFT UCCan
 
For lay and ministry personnel leaders in Chinook Winds: there is some leadership funding available, contact me!

- Michelle

Knowing Jesus In A New Way

Dear Friends,

Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia, alleluia!
 
One of the wonderful things about Easter is that it is not over – it has just begun.
 
While the rest of the world may mark Easter Sunday with bunnies and chocolate and then move on, the church knows that the mystery of Easter is far too big and deep, beautiful and important, to be explored or celebrated in just one day. The mystery of the rising is so great, that it takes not one Sunday, not one week, but seven, to truly enter the mystery. Well, perhaps it can take our whole lives to really comprehend the mystery of the resurrection, but the circle of the church year gives us seven weeks in which to hear all the ways the disciples encountered the risen Christ, and to look together for signs of unexpected and paradoxical new life.
 
During this season, the Risen One is made known to them in absence (in an empty tomb)…in the breaking of the bread (on the road to Emmaus)…in doubt (with the disciple Thomas)…and in waiting (for the day of Pentecost).

I am always struck by the way Jesus reveals himself to his friends. He does not come in a show of glory and power, blasting open locked doors, like a superhero. He does not perform wonders and miracles, like a magician. Rather, he comes in silence, hardly recognizable at times, a physically scarred human being.  
 
It takes the disciples a long time to recognize and accept the mystery of Easter, and I find this tremendously comforting. This broken, beautiful world is suffering right now, and just like the disciples, I am often full of doubt, and fear, and confusion, and longing.
 
It helps, I think, to remember that the word “faith” in scripture, doesn’t mean a cognitive acceptance of intellectual truths. It means something more like trust, loyalty, giving your heart. Rather than talking about “having faith”, we should perhaps talk about “faithing” – the choosing to give our heart to the Risen One and the kin-dom he proclaimed and embodied. To trust that the rising is occurring, “unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see” (in the words of Natalie Sleeth). And then, to commit our lives, our words, and our actions, to be witnesses of these things.
 
May we be given the grace to trust in God’s power for resurrection, and to keep our eyes open to see it, ears attuned to hear it, and bodies prepared to enact it, even and especially when it is hard to glimpse.

During the season of Easter, and beyond, you’re invited…

to the Theological Banquet!,
to take a Deep Dive!,
to Live Generously!,
to enter into Pilgrimage!

Easter Blessings,

Michelle