Are you one of the people who should attend the Spiritual Leadership Symposium in May?

If you are someone who has attended CUC annual conferences in the past, you might be wondering: “What is a Spiritual Leadership Symposium?” and “Is it something I want to attend?” Or perhaps you have never attended a CUC conference, but might find this event inspiring.

We encourage you to bring your vision to the Symposium if:

• You are a youth involved in your congregation, who wants to connect with other youth and adults who share their passion about UU religion,
• You are a senior who’s had leadership experience, and who wants to share with others,
• You are a minister, a ministerial candidate, or an aspiring minister,
• You play an active role in your congregation,
• You are new to Unitarianism but want to engage in a more meaningful way,
• You are a young adult who isn’t connected to a congregation but wants to be connected to the UU movement in Canada,
• You are active in social justice work, in your congregations and/or in the CUC,
• You play a key leadership role in your congregation (such as Board, committee chair),
• You think you might play a key role in leadership in your congregation down the road,
• You are a professional or volunteer religious educator,
• You have a passion for congregational music as a way of energizing congregational vitality and spirit,
• You are a CUUL School or Goldmine graduate or facilitator,
• You are interested in building a strong UU movement in Canada,
• You are a life-long learner and open to learning from others as well as sharing your own wisdom.

This is not an exhaustive list, but we hope you get the idea. This Symposium will engage you in questioning, exploring, and sharing. It is designed to engage a different kind of participation, and result in a very different experience from the CUC annual conferences.

Our goal in offering the Symposium is to encourage a national conversation about how we make the connections between our congregational life and our personal spiritual life. Ideally, congregations will identify a team of leaders to attend — leaders who will then return to help engage the members of their congregation in the same conversation.

We encourage you to think about the kind of team that would best represent your congregation at the Symposium. Who are your current leaders? Who are your future leaders?

If you are a large congregation, you might want to think about sending a team of 20 or more participants. If you are small, perhaps five people will be enough. The idea is to enhance learning through the numbers of people bringing back ideas to your own congregation.

A diverse, multigenerational mix of participants will also enhance learning, so please keep this in mind when you choose your delegates for the AGM (business meeting), and in identifying others you might encourage or support to participate in the Symposium.

Please note that the youth conference, CanUUdle XII, is interconnected with the Symposium — youth attendees will automatically be participants in both.

As an investment in your congregation, support your existing and new leaders in attending the Spiritual Leadership Symposium this May! Support them because it is an investment in our future as a UU movement.

In summary, we suggest you participate if you are:

• open to new ideas about congregational life, and
• longing to make the connection between your spiritual grounding, congregational life, UU identity, and your role as an established or emerging leader.

— The CUC and UUMoC Spiritual Leadership Symposium Planning Team