Organizing a Sharing Our Faith Service

Every year the Canadian Unitarian Council offers worship materials to help congregations plan a Sharing Our Faith service to celebrate our faith in Canada. Many congregations organize this service in February, but it can be done at any time. All funds received by the CUC by March 31 will be used for the year’s Sharing Our Faith grants, which will be announced at the Annual General Meeting in May.

We ask that congregations take up a special offering for the CUC Sharing Our Faith Fund at the service, to support fellow UU congregations. For further information, contact the CUC office or send an email to sharing-our-faith@cuc.ca.

Sharing Our Faith Worship

In 2021 congregations are invited to attend a national service of February 7th. Together we will explore how we can use what we have learned to widen our circle and become the inclusive and transformative faith we aspire to be. Because the service will be hosted nationally, no worship package has been created. Congregations are invited to view the service on our Youtube channel at a future date.

The 2020 Sharing Our Faith package (download as a Sharing Our Faith Package 2020 (pdf) or Sharing Our Faith Package 2020 (Word document) focuses on the theme of Making Waves. Compiled by Rev. Fran Dearman with contributions from Canadian UU ministers, the material contains an eclectic collection of reflections, art, readings, and sermons for your congregation’s use in planning your 2020 Sharing Our Faith service. We hope that the use of these collective worship materials will strengthen the awareness of interdependence and connections of our congregations across the country.

Note: An audio MP3 file from Wendy Luella Perkins accompanies the Sharing Our Faith package, under Section 1: Arts, Music, Blessing. Download it now:  Take Me to the Ocean – Wendy Luella Perkins

Making Waves is also the theme for the CUC’s 2020 National Conference held in Halifax NS from May 15-17, 2020.  The theme encourages and challenges UUs to make waves that embody justice, practice radical inclusion, challenge the status quo, and push us to remain relevant into the future.

Preparing for Sharing Our Faith Week

  • Prepare the worship service using the provided materials. It is sometimes worthwhile to reflect on how congregations across Canada are sharing the same theme for a morning.
  • Consider inviting special guests to participate in the service. This could be someone from the CUC board or staff, or possibly someone from a neighbouring congregation.
  • Consider creating a display emphasizing UU communities across the country or in your area. This might help congregants to think about our national UU community.
  • You may also want to create a display of CUC publications to offer for sale. Contact the CUC office for more information about this at info@cuc.ca.
  • Remind members of the congregation that Sharing Our Faith week is coming up, by including an entry in your newsletter or order of service ahead of time.

Introducing the Service

  • At the beginning of the service, mention your congregation’s history of holding a Sharing Our Faith service. Do you do it on the same day every year? (Many congregations do it on the first or second Sunday in February.)
  • Announce the Sharing Our Faith special collection, to be taken instead of the normal offering. Try to announce the special collection in advance, during announcements in previous weeks, or in your newsletter.

Taking the Offering

  • Mention some of the congregations and projects for which the donations have been used in previous years. If your congregation has received a grant in the past, mention that and how the money was used.
  • Ensure that people know that all the money collected is then given out to Canadian congregations.
  • Let people know that they can receive tax receipts from the CUC for their contributions, by including their name and amount donated with the Sharing Our Faith contribution.
  • Cheques can be made out to the “Canadian Unitarian Council” with “Sharing Our Faith” in the memo line.
  • Collect the cash donations and send the CUC a single cheque in that amount (do not mail cash).

Resources from previous years:

Information about applying for a Sharing Our Faith grant.