Lynn Sabourin
By Rev. Brian Kiely and Jim Stephenson

[Presented online at the Sunday Banquet of the CUCs National Symposium, May 2023 by Rev. Brian Kiely]

It gives me great pleasure to announce on behalf of all the ‘KNIGHTS” the 2023 recipient of the Nancy and Victor Knight Living Tribute for outstanding service to Unitarianism in Canada.

It is traditional for us to describe the merits of our nominee before naming them, though I think many of you will figure it out long before I get there. 

Our honouree this year is a religious educator with almost four decades of service in a particular congregation.  As an exemplary Director of Family Ministries she has made a significant contribution to the furthering of Unitarianism in Canada as a volunteer, the reaches of which go far beyond her congregational staff assignment. 

I had the pleasure of serving with her on a committee that helped shape the first Regions and RNGs plan in the early 2000’s after the CUC became autonomous. Of course her particular focus was Religious Education portfolio but her contributions went far beyond that portfolio.  She managed to be passionate and determined and yet constructive, lighthearted and supportive to the rest of the team.  Her eyes were always on the prize, that being the service to Unitarianism in Canada. In any task, you would want our honouree on your team.

She brought a wide range of experience and wisdom to her role as CUC Life Span Learning Consultant for 6 years. She developed and conducted workshops and retreats for colleagues and volunteers, including Renaissance Modules, Our Whole Lives facilitator trainings, and conference sessions at the national and regional level. 

She was a founding member of CUURE, Canadian Chapter of Liberal Religious Educators Association, and has been a Good Officer for LREDA since 2014. She facilitated many Covenanting workshops for Religious Educators and served on the LREDA Equity Team and worked with CUURE to create stronger ties with the ministers of UUMOC.

She has mentored scores of DRE’s across the continent, and educated more than a few young ministers (including me) in the value, purpose and best practices of lifespan learning.  She has been a champion of youth and young adult programming. She inspired volunteers of all ages to seek leadership training at camps, retreats, and conferences.

As a key member of the team developing and implementing the CUC’s Shining Lights Award, she has drawn on her broad network of connections to raise awareness of noteworthy programs in Canada during her four-year tenure.

She has assisted in the development of Canadian resource materials by field-testing new curricula and program guides, most recently by her direct involvement in piloting the Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary and Youth Reflection Guides for the CUC’s Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Task Force.

Our honouree is now retired - though I thought that day would never come - from her long and distinguished career with North Shore Unitarian Church the Lower Mainland area of BC.  And she is of course, the amazing Lynn Sabourin.

Please join me in celebrating her achievements.

Reverend Mark Morrison-Reed
by Kim Turner

(Presented  at the CUC’s online AGM, May 8, 2021)

The 2020-21 recipient of the Knight award is the Reverend Mark Morrison-Reed.

In the 1990s, while a co-minister in Toronto, Mark played a critical role serving as facilitator between the CUC and the UUA as discussions began regarding the autonomy of the CUC.  As  the meetings  became more formal, Mark was appointed to the CUC negotiating team. 

Herman Boerma -a past CUC President and Knight recipient , described Mark as having a “ calming influence”  that “ kept the conversation on point and amicable.”   He had credibility with the representatives of both sides of the border. 

As a  member of that negotiating team,  and as President of the CUC at that time, I can personally attest to Mark’s calming influence. But to be fair, while calm, Mark’s commitment to setting the CUC on a new path was fierce and passionate.

Brian Kiely, also a Knight, recalls Mark standing at the CUC ACM crying freely as the overwhelming majority of delegates voted to approve the separation process in principle.

In 2001 Mark became CUC President and used his terms to complete the autonomy process and help start the CUC on it’s new path thereby furthering UU principles in Canada.

Throughout his career, Mark has written several books on matters of race and spiritual integration.  As a CUC volunteer, he undertook a 2012 survey of Canadian Unitarian congregations on diversity and  brought the results  to the membership  in the Keynote speech at the 2013 CUC Annual Meeting, entitled Radical Inclusion.  I re read his keynote this morning, and the message and challenge it includes is relevant more than ever today. 

In 2020 Mark  was a volunteer member of the CUC Black Lives Matter Roundtable. His work on diversity and race pushed the boundaries of our understanding of Unitarian principles challenging Canadians to live our religious ideals.

I am told that Mark also led by example among his colleagues in the UU Ministers of Canada, bringing that same thoughtful perspective to their deliberations.  He co-led that organization through a powerful extended workshop confronting racism and privilege. 

My grandmother Nancy Knight knew Mark  and I can say without any doubt at all, that she would be thrilled to see him being honoured by this award which is given in her name and in the name of my grandfather. 

Mark has exemplified the ideal of furthering Unitarianism in Canada by prodding us with his ideas while still comforting us with his compassion, humour and love. 

Mark, thank you for all you have done for Unitarianism and Universalism in Canada.

Reverend Frances Deverell
Presented by Betty Donaldson, recipient of the Knight Award in 2018

Rev. Frances Deverell, 2020 Knight award recipient

Frances Deverell is the recipient of the 2020 Knight Award. This honour is in recognition of her many volunteer contributions at the national level. Highlights of these contributions include preparation of the first Social Justice Handbook.

Substantive contributions at the international level include organizational duties when the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) was held in Vancouver (1999), facilitating the participation of First Nations representatives and the women’s service. She also was a representative at the UUNO, helping to establish the Canadian role with respect to human rights and lobbying for attention to environmental issues.

During the early 1990s, she developed the CUC Social Relations Handbook which included many practical suggestions for effecting positive social changes. In 2004, she presented a paper to the CUC Historical Society at the Edmonton Congress: “William (Bill) Irvine and the Social Gospel”

From 2009 – 2014, Frances served as president of the Canadian Unitarian Social Justice (CUSJ) Association and is credited with rebuilding it into a stronger and vital associate organization. 

In 2015, she received the CUC Social Justice Award. Frances has been an active supporter of the evolving national women’s organization (CUUWA), particularly encouraging Ministers to become involved with international Women’s Day services and lobbying for more equitable access to legal abortions. 

The Knight family established the Knight Award to honour Victor and Nancy Knight. This Award acknowledges long and substantial volunteer services that contributes to the development of the Canadian Unitarian Council. Members are elected by the other recipients in advance of the Annual Congress. The 2020 Award will be announced at the on-line meeting but delivered in 2021 when it is hoped we might meet in person.

Dr. E. Lisbeth Donaldson

This year’s recipient is Dr. E Lisbeth (Betty) Donaldson, a former member of the Unitarian Church of Calgary who now belongs to the Comox Valley Unitarian Fellowship. Donaldson served on the boards and several committees of both congregations, in addition to many other accomplishments.

Women’s issues and organizations have long been a key focus for Donaldson. During her time in Calgary, she participated in and led the the Prairie Woman’s Gathering, as well as facilitating two Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation programs:  Cakes for the Queen of Heaven and Rise Up and Call Her Name. In the 1990s, she won the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Association Feminist Theology Award, the first Canadian to have ever done so.  She used the financial foundation from that award to develop the award-winning play “Images of the Goddess” and to create a follow up video, which also gained international recognition.  

Donaldson was also the last Canadian representative on the Board of the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Association, and after the organization stopped offering programs for its members, she helped establish the Canadian Unitarian Universalist Women’s Association to take its place.  She was the founding president, serving seven years on the board, and remains an active member.

Donaldson has also advocated for choice in dying,  serving as chair for more than a decade of the CUC’s monitoring group on the topic, and and conducting workshops on “What is a Good Death.” Her work allowed the CUC to be one of only three groups permitted to make representation to the B.C. Supreme Court on the issue in the case of Carter v. Canada. She remains active on this issue, as well as in the green burial movement.

Ellen Campbell
By Art Brewer

Ellen’s service to Unitarianism and Unitarian Universalism spans nearly six decades and literally the globe.

Ellen joined the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto in 1973.  Her resume includes stints on the Board, chairing of the 1988 Ministerial Search Committee, and several other committees.  

She continues to be a presence in every community she serves, soft spoken, but determined to move things forward.

Ellen’s work as Executive Director of the Toronto YWCA led her to a contract job in long range planning with the Canadian Unitarian Council (the CUC).  

In 1990, she became the second Executive Director of the CUC and served in that position until 2000.  

Using her skills in organizational development and training, Ellen brought a new and sophisticated level of organization and policy structure to the CUC.

Ellen has named three themes that dominated her tenure: 

1. the growth of congregational confidence to manage our own affairs nationally, 
2. the growth of an indigenous Canadian ministry, and 
3. the development of an international presence. 

She influenced all three. 

Those who attended the CUC Annual Meetings in those years will recall Ellen sitting side by side with the President on the dais.  As often as not, it was Ellen who responded to queries from the floor.  

It was not a matter of exceeding her place, but rather a case of simply knowing the organization inside and out.

Ellen helped spearhead a change in social justice practices by inviting a couple of congregations to create study guides on particular issues (such as choice in dying).  

Instead of haphazardly passing resolutions in response to limited and immediate needs, the guides helped the CUC create comprehensive policies, some of which still guide our actions today.

Ellen was one of the driving forces in the growth of our international presence.   She served in the International Association of Religious Freedom from 1996-2006, including two years as President.

She attended the founding meetings of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists.  She was on the Executive Committee from 2001-2003 and currently is supporting the fundraising campaign of that body. 

Ellen introduced the International Luncheon at CUC meetings to promote UUism beyond our borders.  Canadian Unitarians have a higher awareness of our international connections than any group in the UU world.

Most recently, Ellen served on the CUC Board, promoting fund-raising, a re-awakening of the Friends of the CUC campaign, and she was on the Executive Director Contract Committee and the Search Committee.

Also, while serving on the Board, Ellen represented the Unitarian Congregations of Greater Toronto on the Toronto Area Interfaith Council.

Whether as staff, elected officer or supportive committee member, Ellen has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to the cause of Unitarianism in Canada and Unitarian Universalism worldwide.

Barbara & John Taylor

The annual Knight award for distinguished service to our movement in Canada is occasionally presented to two persons, and that is particularly appropriate this year because John and Barbara Taylor have always worked together jointly as a team.  For many years they were familiar figures at CUC annual meetings, in charge of the bookstall, well-stocked with a wide variety of literature of interest to Unitarians.  This had usually involved hauling the books across the country.

Haulage was also involved in the major project they undertook for the CUC, photographing the archival records of congregations from coast to coast with the heavy equipment necessary for this work. They travelled at their own expense and spent a lot of time arranging for storage and indexing, for too often the records were not in good order and had to be rescued from where they had been hidden in half-forgotten places.

The other area in which John and Barbara have been very active is social responsibility.  John was a board member of CUSJ, and also did extensive work directly with the CUC in the complex field of ethical investment, a subject on which he was largely responsible for raising our consciousness, resulting in appropriate policies being implemented denominationally.  On several occasions he represented the CUC at corporate meetings of bodies in which we held shares.

John and Barbara remain active at a local level; formerly in Halifax, where they still retain membership, and  currently in Vancouver.

Christine Johnston

Christine has made a distinguished contribution to Canadian Unitarianism for many years and at all levels from the local to the international.  Her work in preserving our history has included many years of service as archivist of the First Toronto congregation, and the writing of a full-length biography of Joseph Workman, one of the leading nineteenth-century pioneers.  She is a founding member and served as secretary of the Canadian Unitarian and Universalist Historical Society.  She also facilitated the publication of the writings of former Toronto minister John Morgan.  

As a long-time member of Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice she continues to remind us of our social obligations to implement our principles. She has served on the board and as chair of both the Toronto First and Victoria First congregations, and served on the CUC board from 2002 to 2006 as social justice liaison. 

Christine has long been active in the International Association for Religious Freedom, including many years as Canadian IARF Chapter chair.  Other denominational involvements have included chairing the Vancouver Island Unitarian Committee and leadership positions in the local Partner Church program, denominational affairs committee, Kairos, and Child Haven International.   

Usually a familiar figure at CUC meetings, Christine was unable to be present in Montreal to receive the award because she will be this year's CUC delegate to the Congress of the IARF in England.  Instead, the award was presented to Christine during a service at First Unitarian Church of Victoria. 

Reverend Brian Kiely

Following his ordination at the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto in 1988, Brian spent nine years serving a number of congregations in British Columbia and was the founding minister of the South Fraser Unitarian Congregation in Surrey, BC. He has been the minister at the Unitarian Church of Edmonton since 1997.

Aside from serving congregations in a ministerial role, Brian has contributed to Unitarianism not only at the national level, but also internationally. He is currently president of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists.

From 1988 to 1991, Brian was editor of The Canadian Unitarian, the national publication of the CUC, and was the primary author and witness in a brief to the Canadian Senate on the Council’s position on euthanasia and assisted suicide. He managed communications for the endowment campaign in the early 1990s.

 As a member of the CUC Board, the CUC-UUA Negotiating Team and Chair of the CUC Implementation Task Force, Brian played a leading role during the years that the CUC evolved to become the central service provider to Canadian congregations. He was President of the CUC from 2004 to 2006.

Brian’s vision has always been informed by his recognition that he is making a contribution not just to the CUC of today, but to the ever evolving Canadian Unitarianism of the future.

In addition to all of these accomplishments, according to his congregation’s web site, he is a terrific speaker, a great cook, and an all-round nice person.

It is with great pride that we honour his ministry among us.