1. What feelings arise when you hear about the decline in those attending the congregational expression of UUism? What beliefs are behind those feelings?
2. What feelings arise in you when you hear that there are "wildflower" expressions of UUism happening within Canada? What beliefs are behind those feelings?
3. What beliefs, customs, routines, and fears get in the way of you imagining other ways of doing and being a Unitarian Universalist?
4. What "wildflower" expressions of UUism are blooming (or trying to bloom) in your community? How are you currently engaging with them? 

Engage with Us! 

• Through the reflective questions: We encourage you to reflect on these questions with a friend, within a group, or in your own time as you listen. Let these episodes spark meaningful conversations and ideas for your own UU community. Whether you’re exploring affinity groups, covenant, or nomadic UUism, we hope these discussions inspire you to think creatively about the future of our movement.
• Insights Form: Has something caught your attention? Would you like to share it with us? We invite you to use this insights form to help inform our planning.  
• Congregational Conversation, Nov 23: Join us to share insights, questions and possibilities.  Find the registration and link information here.

Notes and Research Links

• Humanist Unitarian Universalists, Unitarian Universalist Association (Retrieved Sept. 11/24)

• ‘Gone by 2040’: Why some religions are declining in Canada faster than ever, Global News, Jan. 8/22

• Volunteer-Supporting Charities Are Closing at Alarming Rates, PANL Perspectives, Tues. Aug. 22/23

• Singing mindfully with spirit and joy, Wendy Luella Perkins, (Retrieved Sept. 11/24)

• Resolutions: 1978-1984– Sexual Orientation, A Summary, Canadian Unitarian Council (Retrieved Sept. 11/24)

• Unitarian Universalist Community Cooperatives(What Liz James referenced) (Retrieved Sept. 11/24)

• Unitarian Universalist Hysterical Society (Retrieved Sept. 11/24)

• Love the UU Hysterical Society?  [Facebook group] (Retrieved Sept. 11/24)

Note 1:  In each congregation, there are a fair number of people who are not official members - for a variety of reasons. For instance, some don't believe in joining, some congregations discourage membership if people don't make a certain level of financial pledges, and other reasons. The Congregational Life team estimates the difference between members and census-identified people has been about 1 registered member to every 3 non-registered attendees.

We would love to hear from you. Email us with any questions or comments.

Accessibility Transcript

Episode 2: The Gap

1. How can we fully embrace the culture that is emerging from Young Adult (YA) spaces so people can experience it throughout their lives (instead of ending at 35 years)?
2. Consider the analogy of Young Adult co-creative culture being like contemporary theatre while congregational culture is like classical theatre: How does playing a role feel different than filling a role? Why is this significant? 
3. In what ways could elements of co-creative UUism be intertwined with elements of classical UUism in a way that could be compelling for all ages? 
4. In what ways can we lean into our shared belief of interdependence so that we become communities that feel like unified teams where life challenges and spiritual growth are faced collectively rather than individually?
5. What is one thing you could immediately do differently within your UU community so there is an emphasis on deep relationships between people of all ages?

Engage with Us! 

• Through the reflective questions: We encourage you to reflect on these questions with a friend, within a group, or in your own time as you listen. Let these episodes spark meaningful conversations and ideas for your own UU community. Whether you’re exploring affinity groups, covenant, or nomadic UUism, we hope these discussions inspire you to think creatively about the future of our movement.
• Insights Form: Has something caught your attention? Would you like to share it with us? We invite you to use this insights form to help inform our planning.  
• Congregational Conversation, Nov 23: Join us to share insights, questions and possibilities.  Find the registration and link information here.

Notes and Research Links

• ‘Gone by 2040’: Why some religions are declining in Canada faster than ever, Global News, Jan. 8/22
• Young Adults & Beyond: Final Report August 2024, Canadian Unitarian Council
• Young Adult Ministry Resources, Canadian Unitarian Council (Retrieved Sept. 11/24)
• Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice (Retrieved Sept. 11/24)
• Abolition: A World without Prisons & Police. Tulane University (Retrieved Sept. 11/24)
• Remembering Maiken (Dani) Cooper, Canadian Unitarian Council (Retrieved Sept. 11/24)

Note 1: The CUC's Youth and Young Adult Team have pointed out that Young Adult culture is the same as Youth culture.
"I want to add, which is to complicate the narrative that the CUC at some point just decided to invest in YA programming and now we have this community/problem. I don’t want us to forget that everything that’s going on now has decades (centuries) of history behind it. The continental youth and young adult movements have long histories. The YAs who were part of sparking the current national YA situation were very much involved in and inspired by continental UU young adult organizing (OPUS, CUUYAN). And many of them, in turn, were raised in continental UU youth events. This would be a whole other podcast episode or series to really investigate but I suspect that a lot of the brilliance and a lot of the roots of the current challenges have their origins in these broader, longer movements. One thing to watch that will give more context to this is the movie "Why Are You You?" .  That is currently in production- it’s a documentary about the continental YRUU movement."  Casey Stainsby
Note 2: "The naming of "young adult" was inherited from the UUA. When we became more autonomous in 2001, Young Adult support was still funded, to some degree, by the UUA - and so their age definitions became ours. We've never shifted from this." Rev. Linda Thompson
Note 3: "Adults at the Annual Conference and Meeting *also* plunge into a kind of UU utopia that lasts for only 72 hours.  Adults and YA's both yearn for keeping that conference flame alive in their hearts when they get home." Peter Scales

We would love to hear from you. Email us with any questions or comments.

1. Younger UUs speak about life feeling precarious, including insecure housing and employment. The value of paying young adults for time spent on UU's work was lifted up. What questions and ideas arise when you consider paying younger leaders for their roles in their UU community?
2. Ilara Stefaniuk-Gaudet said, "Because we have focused so much on the individual, there is not so much a strong sense of a collective".
   • What, if anything, has an individual vs collective focus manifested in your local and national UU community?
   • How could UUs create more balance between individual and collective while still emphasizing each person's right to their own search for truth and meaning?
3. Reverend Danie Webber shared that younger UUs often value authenticity over politeness, and older UUs often value politeness over authenticity and that this difference may play a role in the silos that seems to be happening in some places. Can you think of examples or real-life scenarios of this?
4. What responsibility, if any, do younger UU's have to carry forward the traditions, values, and legacy of the UUs that came before them?
5. What responsibility, if any, do older UU's have to fertilize the work of younger UU leaders, even if what they are co-creating is not a UU expression that older UU's prefer?
6. If UUs were to create a program that taught and celebrated the role of UUs in all stages of life, what components would be key for each stage of life, including infancy, childhood, teenagerhood, young adult, mid-adult, recently retired, and very elderly?
7. How can we use the old structures of UUism to support something new coming forward rather than allowing them to be a barrier to something new coming forward?

Engage with Us! 

• Through the reflective questions: We encourage you to reflect on these questions with a friend, within a group, or in your own time as you listen. Let these episodes spark meaningful conversations and ideas for your own UU community. Whether you’re exploring affinity groups, covenant, or nomadic UUism, we hope these discussions inspire you to think creatively about the future of our movement.
• Insights Form: Has something caught your attention? Would you like to share it with us? We invite you to use this insights form to help inform our planning.  
• Congregational Conversation, Nov 23: Join us to share insights, questions and possibilities.  Find the registration and link information here.

Notes and Research Links

• Volunteer-Supporting Charities Are Closing at Alarming Rates, PANL Perspectives, Tues. Aug. 22/23
• Canada’s first State of youth report: for youth, with youth, by youth, Government of Canada (Retrieved Sept. 11, 2024)
• Critical lack of volunteers putting Canadian non-profit services at risk: Volunteer Canada, CBC News, Jan. 24, 2023
• Youth Volunteering: Let’s make space for our young people again! , 125 United For Literacy, Sept. 12, 2023
• Volunteer Canada- August 2023- Pre-budget submission to the House of Commons, Volunteer Canada, August 2023

Note 1: After recording was complete the facilitators of QUUeer connecting informed us that they are taking a leave as they navigate a busy time of their life. If people are interested in connecting, or helping to keep the group going, they can send an email to UU connecting.

We would love to hear from you. Email us with any questions or comments.

1. Should there be additional or other avenues to membership for community-based ministries within the CUC? Why? If so, how could it work? 

2. Would it be possible and helpful for the CUC to create regional hubs? If so, how could it work? 

3. What emotions arise in you as you think about the possibility of collaborating and sharing resources with other UU groups in your geographic area?

4. What emotions, ideas, and apprehensions arise in you when you consider the option of nomadic UUism?

5. What role could nature play in enhancing your UU Expression? 

6. In what ways, if any, is the upkeep of your building distracting from the work of building an intergenerational UU community?

Engage with Us! 

• Through the reflective questions: We encourage you to reflect on these questions with a friend, within a group, or in your own time as you listen. Let these episodes spark meaningful conversations and ideas for your own UU community. Whether you’re exploring affinity groups, covenant, or nomadic UUism, we hope these discussions inspire you to think creatively about the future of our movement.
• Insights Form: Has something caught your attention? Would you like to share it with us? We invite you to use this insights form to help inform our planning.  
• Congregational Conversation, Nov 23, 2024: Join us to share insights, questions and possibilities.  Find the registration and link information here.

Notes and Research Links

• Inclusivity Forum on Classism  - materials

• Huronia Unitarian Fellowship- Congregation that has a nomadic style of UUism

• Unitarian Universalist of the Salish Sea

• Soulful Singing - Rev. Wendy Luella Perkin's online singing ministry

• OWL - Our Whole Lives sexuality education

We would love to hear from you. Email us with any questions or comments.

Episode 6: Community Ministry [coming soon]

Questions for further discussion

1. What feelings arise when you hear about these community-based ministries?

2. What, if any, beliefs would you need to challenge within yourself to embrace the notion of community-based ministries as legitimate expressions within UUism?

3. The difference between relational support and structural support was mentioned. In what ways could we remove barriers to full inclusion for community-based ministers/ministries and shift our local and national structures to be more supportive? 

4. What are some needs that exist in your community and world?  What assets (physical, monetary, skills, etc.) does your UU group have that you could utilize to meet those needs in a creative way? What UU value(s) could you draw upon?

5. Lay Chaplains engage many non-UU's in meaningful ways. How could we amplify the work of lay chaplains, understanding that this is valuable outreach?

6. Lynn Kofmel-Preston of the Ajashki Project, spoke about how this initiative brought about changes that were hard for some in her congregation. What animal best embodies your views, beliefs, and feelings related to change in your own life? UU community? What shifts would need to happen within you and your group to embrace something new, such as a community-based ministry?

7. What role could nature play in enhancing your UU Expression? 

8. In what ways, if any, is the upkeep of your building distracting from the work of building an intergenerational UU community?

Engage with Us! 

• Through the reflective questions: We encourage you to reflect on these questions with a friend, within a group, or in your own time as you listen. Let these episodes spark meaningful conversations and ideas for your own UU community. Whether you’re exploring affinity groups, covenant, or nomadic UUism, we hope these discussions inspire you to think creatively about the future of our movement.
• Insights Form: Has something caught your attention? Would you like to share it with us? We invite you to use this insights form to help inform our planning.  
• Congregational Conversation, Nov 23, 2024: Join us to share insights, questions and possibilities.  Find the registration and link information here.

Notes and Research Links

Note 1: E.D.  is short for Executive Director
Note 2: Since this recording, Ottawa First Unitarian Fellowship shared this exciting announcement (Sept 8, 2024- Leaders List Announcement):
The 1st Unitarian Ottawa Board is pleased to inform everyone that Ottawa City Council, at its meeting this past Wednesday, September 4, gave approval to the zoning and other changes required for our campus redevelopment and the creation of Odayanhaway, Little Village.
This was the final level of approval needed to move forward with this important project, which will provide 220 units of almost entirely affordable rental housing for Ottawa within 200 meters of a new light rail station.  This will include 60 units in a 6-story building being built by Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services on land given to them by the congregation.
A year of further planning now begins, which will be conducted with input from all on our campus, aiming at construction to begin roughly a year from now.  For more information, please visit the  First U affordable housing page."

Note 3: ODSP, mentioned by Wendy Luella Perkins, refers to the Ontario Disability Support Program.

We would love to hear from you. Email us with any questions or comments.

Episode 7: Money (coming soon)

• What beliefs do you have about money? Where do these beliefs originate from? Are they true? How do you know?

• In what ways do your beliefs about money influence how you approach financial sustainability within your UU community?

• Reverend Linda Thomson observed that some UU communities are approaching outreach as a recruitment project to find more people to make financial donations. She suggested this comes from a place of fear and vulnerability. In what ways, if any, is this showing up in your UU community?

• Choose one limiting belief you have about money. If you were to change or release it, what impact could it have?

• Liz James spoke about how Mirth and Dignity and the Hysterical Society limit the amount of money people can donate to limit the amount of privilege and influence people get to have on the work they do. This limits financial power. What thoughts and feelings come up for you when you hear this strategy?

• In what ways, if any, does use of financial power happen within your UU community or initiative? What strategies could you use to address this?

• What thoughts and feelings arise when you think of money as energy?

• In what ways could UU's positively impact "the system" by embracing our place within it more fully and consciously?

Engage with Us! 

• Through the reflective questions: We encourage you to reflect on these questions with a friend, within a group, or in your own time as you listen. Let these episodes spark meaningful conversations and ideas for your own UU community. Whether you’re exploring affinity groups, covenant, or nomadic UUism, we hope these discussions inspire you to think creatively about the future of our movement.
• Insights Form: Has something caught your attention? Would you like to share it with us? We invite you to use this insights form to help inform our planning.  
• Congregational Conversation, Nov 23, 2024: Join us to share insights, questions and possibilities.  Find the registration and link information here.

Notes and Research Links

•  Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed - book mentioned by Erin

• The System- Wikipedia 

• The System - Oxford Dictionary

• Ajashki Project  at Ottawa First Unitarian Fellowship

• Unitarian Shelter- Founded by Nanaimo Unitarian Fellowship; now run by Nanaimo Family Life Association

• Lay Chaplaincy- Canadian Unitarian Council

• Soulful Singing - Rev. Wendy Luella Perkin's online singing ministry

We would love to hear from you. Email us with any questions or comments.

• Wendy Luella Perkins challenges us to consider the "deep whys" behind what we do as Unitarian Universalists. What are your UU group's "deep whys" for the various actions you initiate together?
• What feelings and thoughts arise in you in response to Anne Barker's observation,  "...the reliance on volunteers and not paying fair wages to humans makes it hard to keep something vital"?
• What beliefs do you hold around volunteerism within spiritual communities? Where did those beliefs originate?
• What beliefs do you hold about paying people to do work for a spiritual community? Where did those beliefs originate?
• What thoughts, feelings, and questions arise when you imagine UUs creating good-paying jobs as an expression of social justice? 
• Besides weddings and ceremonies, what other types of social enterprises might UUs be well positioned to co-create? Consider the needs in your area, your UU group's assets and talents, and the things that make your heart sing.
• What type of CUC membership and services could benefit UU groups engaged in community-based ministry? 
• Karen Dunk-Green ended the episode by suggesting we need to be willing to invest upfront, believing that what we're offering up to the world is truly of value and will make its way back to us in a way that will matter. What are some courageous offerings your UU community could make that have value within the community at large? 

Engage with Us! 

• Through the reflective questions: We encourage you to reflect on these questions with a friend, within a group, or in your own time as you listen. Let these episodes spark meaningful conversations and ideas for your own UU community. Whether you’re exploring affinity groups, covenant, or nomadic UUism, we hope these discussions inspire you to think creatively about the future of our movement.
• Insights Form: Has something caught your attention? Would you like to share it with us? We invite you to use this insights form to help inform our planning.  
• Congregational Conversation, Nov 23, 2024: Join us to share insights, questions and possibilities.  Find the registration and link information here.

Notes and Research Links

• Lay Chaplaincy- Canadian Unitarian Council
• Shawn Loney- Social Entrepreneur that Anne Barker mentions
• Ajashki Project  at Ottawa First Unitarian Fellowship
• Soulful Singing - Rev. Wendy Luella Perkin's online singing ministry
• UniCamp of Ontario

We would love to hear from you. Email us with any questions or comments.

• Anne Barker and Linda Thomson referenced a trend we are experiencing in Canada (and elsewhere): a decline in religiosity and an increase in desire for spirituality.  What could be like if UU's embraced this trend and became less religious and more spiritual?

• What benefits would there be if UUism became less religious and more spiritual? What drawbacks?

• In what ways is your UU group engaging in succession planning, meaning preparing for a time when your UU assets and projects outlive your UU community? In what ways is your UU group resisting?  Why? What feelings are arising?

• Grief is a natural and expected part of change- even change that we want. In what ways is grief showing up within yourself and your UU community? In what ways, if any, are you engaging in mourning to process the grief and move forward? 

• In this docuseries, we are meeting UUs who are expressing their UU values in new ways despite the uncertainty of this path.  What emotions and thoughts arise when you consider your UU community doing something similar?

• What thoughts and feelings arise when you consider the option of resource sharing and collaboration with other UUs in your geographical area? What potential do you anticipate? Drawbacks?

• Linda Thomson shared a story of an encounter she had with someone who was rigid in their language, identity, and ideologies. In what ways, if any, are you and/or your UU community being rigid in your identity, beliefs, and expression of UUism? What impact is this having? What benefits might arise should you choose more fluidity and curiosity instead?

• It has been suggested that some older UUs create their UU identity around who they aren't, whereas some younger UUs create their UU identity around who they are.  How might this difference be shaping our movement at this point in UU history?

• When you reflect on your UU expression, in what ways are you making art? In what ways are you preserving an artifact? How do you feel about that? What parts of your UU expression do you want saved?

• Anne Barker asked us to consider what our brave move is now as we look at reinventing ourselves in relation to what our communities need. What is your UU group's brave move?

Engage with Us! 

• Through the reflective questions: We encourage you to reflect on these questions with a friend, within a group, or in your own time as you listen. Let these episodes spark meaningful conversations and ideas for your own UU community. Whether you’re exploring affinity groups, covenant, or nomadic UUism, we hope these discussions inspire you to think creatively about the future of our movement.
• Insights Form: Has something caught your attention? Would you like to share it with us? We invite you to use this insights form to help inform our planning.  
• Congregational Conversation, Nov 23, 2024: Join us to share insights, questions and possibilities.  Find the registration and link information here.

Notes and Research Links

• Unitarian Universalist of the Salish Sea
• Heartwood House - The organization the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ottawa have a partnership with.
• Soulful Singing - Rev. Wendy Luella Perkin's online singing ministry.
• Unitarian Universalist Hysterical Society (Retrieved Sept. 11/24).
• Rassemblement unitarien universaliste d'Ottawa (at The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ottawa)

Note 1: "Have the Spoons" is another way of saying, "have the energy" a phrase coined by Christine Miserandino
Note 2: "Hit the fan" is short form for "shit hit the fan" which is a slang way of saying that everything went chaotic.

We would love to hear from you. Email us with any questions or comments.

• Reflect on your UU Expression(s). What are you doing that is so engaging that it is giving you goosebumps? In what ways, if any, do you have your ladder up the wrong metaphorical building?
• How could UU membership work locally, regionally, and nationally if congregational involvement was no longer the only measure of engagement?
• What possibilities come to mind when you consider Rev. Danie Webber's question, "What if we started shifting the way that we look at who's considered a religious professional?"
• Ellen Papenburg stated her view that "It [The state of UUism in Canada] is not without hope".  What gives you hope to continue during this period of change and transition?
• Thanks to the internet, UUism in Canada is not limited to by borders, oceans, and any other form of geography. Wendy Luella's, Soulful Singing is an example of a Canadian UU expression that is reaching across the globe. What other types of goosebump ideas can you dream up for how we can use the internet to open new doors? 
• What if we rebranded ourselves to make multi-expressions and co-creating a celebrated part of UUism? How would that feel? 
• As Rev. Danie Webber said, "It is a practice to be Unitarian Universalist. You have to practice these principles. You have to engage and participate in the discovery of what your community is going to look like." Having learned more about the state of UUism in Canada through this docuseries, how will you engage and participate in co-creating what your UU community will be like?
• Consider the writing "The Church of Our Imagination". When you imagine different types of UU expressions what images engage you so profoundly that they give you goosebumps?

Engage with Us! 

• Through the reflective questions: We encourage you to reflect on these questions with a friend, within a group, or in your own time as you listen. Let these episodes spark meaningful conversations and ideas for your own UU community. Whether you’re exploring affinity groups, covenant, or nomadic UUism, we hope these discussions inspire you to think creatively about the future of our movement.
• Insights Form: Has something caught your attention? Would you like to share it with us? We invite you to use this insights form to help inform our planning.  
• Congregational Conversation, Nov 23, 2024: Join us to share insights, questions and possibilities.  Find the registration and link information here.

Notes and Research Links

• About the Canadian Unitarian Council (Retrieved October 7, 2024)

• CUC- Governance and Management (Retrieved October 7, 2024)

• The CUC Co-Lab Event- November 1-3, 2024 (online event to engage all UUs)

We would love to hear from you. Email us with any questions or comments.