Churches, Denominations and Religions: Embracing the Spirit: Emptying Cupboards and Making Art, Innovation Events, and more!

Friday, May 29, 2020

Embracing the Spirit: Emptying Cupboards and Making Art, Innovation Events, and more!

Friends, we are living through challenging, unprecedented times, there's no doubt about it. We hope that you're all taking care of yourselves, and others, as you are able. For information about The United Church of Canada’s response and policies regarding COVID-19, please visit the United Church's dedicated webpage for official updates.

Emptying Cupboards and Making Art Together (At a Distance)

St. John's United Church in Marathon, ON, is on the north shore of Lake Superior. With a median age of 45, our town is a family town with a wonderfully high percentage of kids and babies. During this pandemic, our faith community has been asking itself how we can serve our neighbours from a distance, and the kids in our town are always top of mind. There have been lots of community efforts to arrange birthday parades and teddy bear scavenger hunts, but what could we do? What did we have to offer?

Well, what we had to offer was a closet and cupboards filled with Sunday school remnants, craft materials and art supplies laying untouched. So, the idea was hatched to host an art contest for the kids in town, to provide a box of free art supplies by the church's front door for anyone, and to do some meaning-making too.

Art is such a wonderful tool to explore our feelings; it can give language to those struggling to find words. So an elementary school teacher and our minister worked together to find some themes that could invite kids to reflect on hope and calm during a time of high anxiety. Our themes were “Hopes for Spring” for younger children, and “Where I Find Calm” for the older ones.

Every child and teen who entered also had their name submitted for a draw to win a gift certificate to our local video store where they can rent movies to watch with their family (folks still do that in Marathon) or buy a game to play. We wanted a prize that would continue to encourage connection and conversation, as well as support a local business.

We had eight entries which you can view on our digital art gallery and awarded five prizes. Maybe we didn’t get 30 or 40 entries, but the ones we did were so creative and thoughtful. About two thirds of the free supplies found a home, and we made connections with folks who are part of our town but not part of our faith community.

It was a little idea we made happen in a week, but it was fashioned with a whole lot of love. And we couldn’t be happier with the results.

- By Selina Mullin, Congregational Minister with St. John's United Church, Marathon

[Photo credit: St John's United]

Innovation Events

Image of a sign which says "think outside the box"

30 Hacks for Managing Change

On June 3 at 3:00 p.m. EDT, Disciples of Christ and EDGE are partnering to deliver this ‘Church Hac k’. Successfully managing a period of change takes art, intuition, skill, strong listening, effective communication, and spiritual discernment. When done correctly, change management can help a leader gain respect and loyalty. Done poorly, it can have adverse effects on the organization and its people. Managing change is often daunting to oversee, especially during challenging circumstances.

Theory of Change Workshop: June 8

Create a more informed, responsive, and impactful ministry. This workshop will explore links between your ministry's activities and outcomes for the purpose of planning, participation, and evaluation. The resulting product will guide and focus your work, helping you increase intentionality and purpose. We believe this workshop will help you significantly improve your spiritual, social, ecological, and financial impact and better accomplish the change your ministry is trying to accomplish. RSVP to the facilitator if you'd like to join!

The Eco-Commoning Project

Session One, June 11 - Bill Phipps and Ted Reeve outline what Eco-Commoning is, its history, its challenges, and its future.
Session Two, June 18 - More social enterprise and social innovation stories from across the country! Stories from Quebec, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan will be featured.
Session Three, June 25 - Partnering! How do we start these conversations and build strong relationships? This is the first step in discovering what 'eco-commoning' can look like in your neighbourhood.

Creative Outreach? Look for Partners!

Want more creative outreach ideas? Last week United in Learning featured three stories of creative outreach and three stories of partners that have ideas of how to work with communities of faith.

The stories of the communities of faith were from:

Vancouver Island, where storytelling time is something that provides community and comfort for many
An urban community of faith in Montreal which has leaned into supporting some of the most vulnerable at this point in time
A rural pastoral charge in Ontario that's unleashing gifts from throughout their community of faith and neighbourhood through technology and a recording studio in their home

The stories of partners were inspiring as well!

A food non-profit explained how their food box delivery program has jumped to 5,000 boxes a week
There was discussion about how artists and musicians could be in partnership with communities of faith during this reopening
We learned about the cooperative movement and its shared values with communities of faith, and the new ideas they're working on and inviting us into

Each of them is showing resilience during this time by pivoting, re-imagining, and inventing new ways of being community and doing outreach. Watch the video.

Embracing the Spirit is a learning network and innovation fund. It offers funding and support for innovation ideas hatched out of faith communities and communities in ministry. Some of the stories and best practices that are happening throughout The United Church of Canada are shared in this newsletter.

If you have an idea that you want to launch, reach out and tell us about it! Proposal deadlines are quarterly, and due on the 15th of the month: January, April, July and October. Find out more.