Churches, Denominations and Religions: Embracing the Spirit: Innovation Grant Dates for 2021, Dream Workshop, 2020 Round-Up, and more!

Thursday, January 7, 2021

Embracing the Spirit: Innovation Grant Dates for 2021, Dream Workshop, 2020 Round-Up, and more!

Innovation Grant Application Due Dates!

Innovation Grants are all about catalyzing ideas that are just sprouting in your community of faith. This could mean the fledgling idea has started to be experimented with, or the idea itself is in its infancy. We want to support communities of faith that are willing to stick their necks out and take a leap of faith.

Innovation Grants are up to $5,000 in funding and the due dates for 2021 are:

January 15
April 15
July 15
October 15

Consider booking a conversation with our team.

You can also check out some ideas of past grant recipients, and find a map of ideas from the last few years.

Learn more about Innovation Grants here.

The Gathering Place

Denman Island United Church has been exploring what it means to be the Gathering Place. The key for them? Connection with other communities of faith thinking the same way. This bolstered their courage to talk about the wonderful things they were doing and dreaming of. What happened?

They had a big wave of interest in the Gathering Place with their calendar almost full in November until they were required to close.
Their newsletter is now actively signed up for throughout the community.
The communications fund has received specific donations as it is making an impact.

Things to note on their website:

If you scroll down the home page there is a short drone video.
If you look under the 'People' tab you can see a unique baptism!

Embracing the Spirit is a learning network! It's about no longer feeling like we're alone, or out on a limb anymore. Denman Island is now prepared to see new opportunities and we look forward to what new relationships and directions they see.

[Image credit: Denman Island United Church]

Dreams: God’s Forgotten Language Canada

Dreamwork Canada invites you to register for our second workshop—this time a virtual workshop—on Friday January 29 (evening) and all day Saturday January 30, 2021. Like our first one, this workshop will offer an approach to understanding our dreams as one of the ways God speaks to us. You will be invited to indicate whether you wish to attend an Advanced or Beginner’s keynote address. When you type in your name on the registration form, please put after 'A' (advanced) or 'B' (beginners) to indicate which address you wish to attend, e.g. Smith-A or Smith-B.

Participants will learn about dream interpretation within a Christian context using the concepts of Carl Jung. There will be an opportunity to explore participants’ own dreams as well as working with the dreams of others in a group context. For details of the workshop please see our website.

Registration is limited so apply early!

[Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash]

Embracing the Spirit 2020: The Giant Accelerator

2020 was the giant accelerator. In many ways, Embracing the Spirit was accelerated by five years, with so many communities of faith experimenting in new ways as we were all forced to do things that we never thought would be possible.

Follow us on a look back at 2020, and what we saw in terms of innovation across The United Church of Canada!

For us the question remains, “what is possible now that wasn’t before?”.

[Photo by Osman Rana on Unsplash]

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.