eNews: June 24, 2026 – Issue 184

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This Issue:

Letter from Vyda

We’ve been through a lot together, folx. In the fourteen years since May 2012 that I’ve been in this position, we have navigated many changes and transitions. We have worked through difficult challenges, dared to experiment, built new capacity, and continued to learn. Our path has included changes within the organization to events beyond our control. Here is some of what we have navigated together:

Organizational Change and Resilience

    •       Weathered staff transitions every year—which is an especially significant challenge for a small team.
    •       Moved the office location twice.
    •       Researched and introduced online platforms for working and meeting remotely.
    •       Learned and pivoted—oh, how we pivoted—during the pandemic, providing resources and support to congregations to engage virtually. We emerged          changed, vulnerable and more resilient.
    •       Created stable systems and processes behind the scenes to support the ongoing work of the CUC.

 Community Growth and Leadership

    • Introduced virtual annual general meetings to broaden participation and increase inclusion.
    • Managed challenging budgets—through both surpluses and deficits—while continuing to support congregations and help grow vital communities.
    • Introduced innovative programming that engaged, invigorated, and challenged us to move beyond what was familiar in order to explore what is possible.
    • Nurtured leadership among youth and young adults, including 12 Youth Observers on the CUC Board, as well as board and committee members and volunteers.
    • Strengthened our international and continental UU connections.

Milestones, Legacy, and Transformation

    • Said goodbye to beloved members who had a profound impact on our congregations and national community, including founding members of the CUC.
    • Grew our investment portfolio by more than 60%.
    • Created Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation Reflection Guides to support our reconciliation work.
    • Celebrated our 60th anniversary in 2021.
    • Helped bring the 8th Principle into being: “Individual and communal action that accountably dismantles racism and systemic barriers to full inclusion in ourselves and our institutions” and the attendant Dismantling Barriers staff position to help enact this.
    • Supported leadership transitions as board members welcomed new members and passed the baton forward.

 That’s a lot.

 I have learned and grown so much in these last fourteen years. This role has both energized and consumed me and has accompanied me through significant personal transitions. During my farewell party on June 12th, many of you generously shared kind words which touched me deeply and reinforced that relationships are at the heart of everything we do. 

Releasing this role is a little like sending your child off to junior high school. You hope that the foundation you laid during the early years with love will build empathy and compassion, healthy boundaries, kindness, discernment and a strong sense of equity and justice. You hope that those foundations will result in resilient, conscientious and strong global citizens, informed by our UU Principles, aspirations and values. Time will tell.

My thanks and gratitude to you all for the opportunity to serve our beloved national Unitarian Universalist community. My life has been profoundly changed by this work and by my connections with you. May you all go well.

In faith and love,
Vyda

Thanks, Vyda

Fourteen years. That is how long Vyda Ng has been, for so many of us, the face and spirit of the Canadian Unitarian Council. Across more than a decade of AGMs, board meetings, audits, bylaw reviews, a pandemic, and countless quiet emails answered with care, one word surfaces again and again when people describe her: steady. A calm, grounded presence at the helm, holding the ground firm through every transition and storm.

But steadiness was never the whole of it. Those who worked closely with Vyda speak of her warmth, her humour, her generosity of spirit, and yes, her unfailing knowledge of where to find the best food and snacks wherever UUs gathered. She praised generously and corrected gently. She hired good people and trusted them to try new things. She got us all using Zoom long before the rest of the world caught on. She led, as one colleague put it, not by giving orders, but by making space for others to grow. One needn’t be ordained to minister, and Vyda has ministered to this movement in every sense that matters.

Her fingerprints are on nearly everything the CUC has become, though much of her finest work happened quietly, behind the scenes, where most of us never saw it. She held things together on a shoestring, through challenges many of us will never fully know about. And she did it all with grace, patience, and a remarkable ability to, as more than one person fondly noted, herd cats.

Vyda, you have given so much. As you step into rest, travel, time with family, and many delicious meals ahead, we send you off with deep gratitude and great affection. We’re fairly certain this isn’t the last we’ll see of you. People with your dedication rarely stay still for long. But for now: thank you, enjoy every moment, and may your cup be filled to overflowing.

Note: We just learned that the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Board of Trustees has appointed Vyda to the Presidential Search Committee. This seven-person committee selects nominees for the position of President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, with the next UUA presidential election taking place at General Assembly 2029. This volunteer position is a 5-year term from 2026-2031. And with that we confirm, Vyda is not doing well at taking a break! Again, Thanks Vyda.

We’ve gathered our thanks in one place. It stays open, so there’s still time to share yours.

 

Spaces where Unitarian Universalists across Canada are learning together, mentoring one another, and nurturing leadership in our communities.

CUC Congregational Life: Looking Forward & Back

Looking Back on 2025-26 by Rev. Anne Barker 

Looking back on this congregational year, we have especially enjoyed meeting UUs across the country, and deepening relationships with so many. We’ve been fortunate to visit many of you in person – reaching six provinces in the last 15 months (see Looking Forward for more news!) In these face to face meetings – whether it’s a Ministerial Start-up workshop, Conflict Resolution work, Imagining a Thriving Future, a Ceremonial event, or simply ‘Checking In’ – we learn so much about you, your needs and your wisdom, which helps us to focus our work and serve in more meaningful ways. 

Through Congregational Conversations leaders came together to share ideas and resources, support one another through challenges, lean into best practices, and reimagine congregational wellness. You’ve wrestled with Volunteer Challenges, Ministry Search & Settlement, Conflict Resolution, Vision & Decision Making, and How to Live Our Principles in Tangible Ways – through the context of these conversations and well beyond: 

    • September: Truth, Healing, & Reconciliation Work in Congregations with Amber Bellemare
    • October: What Happens When We Disagree
    • November: Finding the Energy 
    • January: 2026 Fresh Start
    • February: Ministry Updates 2026 with Christine Purcell
    • March: Planting, Pruning, & Bearing Fruit
    • April: Shifting From Problem to Opportunity, lessons from Shaun Loney 

There have been many tender moments: when we have lost beloved UUs, when congregations have faced hard conversations or decisions, and as some of us say goodbye from roles and positions. Throughout it all, you have worked so hard to make caring, ethical choices, and to show up for one another again and again. 

Author Leo Buscaglia writes: 

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt.

It’s what we do, as Canadian UUs. We return to those sacred truths that brought us together in the first place. We remember the gifts this faith has offered to us – and extend them, now, to one another – all while gently holding onto each of our unique strands within the interdependent web.  

Looking Forward to 2026-27 by Nicoline Guerrier

Looking ahead to summer and fall, we enter a new chapter without Anne Barker as the CUC Congregational Life Lead for Western and BC Regions. I will miss Anne’s long experience serving our Canadian movement, her terrific sense of humour (and gift for creating catchy event titles), as well as her deep love for our movement. Though her shoes will be hard to fill, I’ll be looking forward to building new connections with congregations recently served by Anne. 

I’ll also be looking forward to new face to face connections as I head out west (well, west of my base in Montreal) to conduct Start-up workshops for Toronto-area congregations with newly arrived ministers.

As always, your input helps keep Congregational Life programming timely and relevant. Have a question? Looking for a resource? Have news from your congregation you’re excited to share? We’d love to hear from you! congregationallife@cuc.ca

Congregational Conversations Living Resource Guide

Check out the new 2026 Updates in the Congregational Conversations Resources Folder, a growing collection of shared wis

dom, practical resources, and ideas gathered through the CUC Congregational Conversations since 2024.

Designed as an evolving tool, it offers support and inspiration on leadership, worship, sustainability, ministry, finances, and community life.

 

RAMP! What We Learned When We Stopped Trying to Fix Each Other

You’ve heard us talk about RAMP! for months now. This is the story of what actually happened, and an invitation to see it for yourself.

RAMP! (the Reciprocal Annual Mentorship Program) began with a simple but radical question: what happens when Unitarian Universalists across generations come together not to teach, fix, or lead one another, but to learn side by side? Designed by Amber Bellemare and Camellia Jahanshahi, this four-month national pilot launched in March 2026 in response to a need surfaced through the UU Expressions: Love in Real Life research: the hunger for genuine relationship across generations. Without those connections, younger UUs can struggle to see themselves in the future of their faith, and the wisdom of older generations risks going unshared.

So RAMP! paired twelve people from congregations across Canada into intergenerational partnerships. Each pair chose a real challenge facing their community and explored it together, not with a prescribed solution, but with curiosity, reciprocity, and room to experiment. The cohort sessions were intentionally closed, allowing trust to deepen. And something unexpected grew there: not just mentorship, but a kind of UU mastermind of young and old, a hopeful glimpse of what our communities could become.

Robyn described the experience this way:

“Ramp is a program that encourages participants to connect with other Unitarians across Canada to explore creative ways of expressing their faith and contributing to the broader Unitarian Universalist community and the wider world.”

Alongside the cohort, four public skill-building workshops opened the learning to everyone. Participants mapped their communities’ hidden assets using playful, expansive frameworks. Social enterprise expert Shaun Loney reframed underused church buildings not as burdens but as opportunities. The Necessary Trouble Collective taught communities how to move through conflict with care and courage rather than avoidance. One participant said the asset-mapping session was nothing like any such exercise she’d done before: “so much more expansive and cooperative.” Another left a workshop already imagining how it could transform her congregation’s five-month building renovation. A consistent insight ran through it all: serious work does not have to feel heavy.

For Robyn, the program also changed how she understood the time required to create something meaningful:

“I realized that setting aside a few hours a week for 6 months is plenty of time to create something lasting that can make the world a better place in some way. I plan to continue to act on this discovery!”

She would also recommend the experience to others:

“I would definitely recommend the RAMP program to others. It gives the participants support to step outside their comfort zone and support their faith community in totally new ways. I was especially inspired by hearing about the projects developed by other members of the cohort.”

RAMP! was never meant to deliver a finished product. It was meant to learn, adapt, and gather the insights that could one day become a program congregations run themselves, locally, on their own timelines. It is a pilot in possibility, and it has been, in Amber’s words, the greatest gift to witness.

Robyn reflected on why that opportunity matters for busy congregations:

“We tend to get so busy with our daily lives, and the ongoing tasks involved in keeping a faith community going. RAMP is an opportunity to step outside our regular routine and produce something useful and lasting (the “project”). What was created during the 6 months can inspire other congregations.”

RAMP! is planned to continue nationally as an annual offering that builds new resources and learning opportunities with each edition, as well as a self-led guided program for congregations that wish to develop similar relationships and skills within their region.

In Robyn’s words:

“RAMP is a program that gave me a structure to look outside my usual ways of supporting the Unitarian Universalist community, and chance to contribute something very different. It was an opportunity to connect with another Unitarian at the other side of Canada and combine our skills to create something unique.”

On Saturday, June 27, the cohort shares what they created. The final public workshop is where the projects, partnerships, and discoveries of these four months come into the open, along with practical wisdom for any community navigating change. If you’ve been curious about RAMP! all year, this is the moment to see what grew.

Dismantling Barriers

Over this past congregational year, Dismantling Barriers has focused on deepening national programming, expanding educational resources, strengthening relationships with congregations, and piloting new initiatives in collaboration with CUC staff that respond to emerging needs named by youth and young adults in our faith.

This year reflected a shift from initial program development and observation of organizational structures into more sustained, collaborative programming and deeper organizational exploration alongside CUC staff. Through an intentional move away from siloed work practices, staff aligned programming around shared themes while bringing distinct lenses and areas of expertise. Our session on Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown introduced both the text and its practice, inviting participants to notice what emerged across our collective work. One example was how Dismantling Barriers work tied in with the RAMP! Program, an initiative everyone involved can be proud of.

This year of Dismantling Barriers work has reaffirmed that relationality and intentionality are foundational to creating collaborative environments and dismantling barriers to full inclusion. Trust takes time, and this work requires sustained relationships to deepen impact and broaden reach.

It has been an honour to build trust with staff, congregations, and all those who reached out seeking support in their 8th Principle journeys. This work remains ongoing, evolving, and unfinished.

Before the conclusion of formal programming in September, the remaining months of the Dismantling Barriers position will focus on thoughtful transition planning, completing resources, and supporting sustainability wherever possible. The conversation on governance will take place June 25, 2026 at 7 pm ET on Zoom. 

Looking ahead, future possibilities for this work include:

    • Continued learning spaces exploring Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and refugee experiences
    • Development of anti-racism curriculum grounded in racial intersectionality
    • Expanded affinity spaces that centre marginalized communities
    • Deeper curriculum and skill-sharing opportunities on economic justice and values-based living
    • Continued responses to youth and young adults seeking meaningful connection and learning
    • Strengthened relationships with congregations engaging more deeply with the 8th Principle

While the conclusion of the Dismantling Barriers position limits the immediate potential for some of this work, deep gratitude goes to everyone who shared their trust, stories, and time.

You are worth this work. You are worth infrastructures that strive to support belonging, justice, and collective flourishing.

The toolkits and resources created through this work remain available on the CUC Dismantling Barriers page.

 

A UU Chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces

Captain (Rev) Nicole McKay is the first Unitarian Universalist chaplain in the Royal Canadian Chaplain Service. Her work at Canadian Forces Base Borden is a striking example of what UU ministry looks like in unexpected places: relational, pluralist, and grounded in care for all.

Her story takes on new meaning this month, as the US Department of Defense removed UU from its list of recognized religious designations for military chaplaincy. We share her story as a reminder of what is at stake, and what becomes possible when UU ministry is given room to flourish.

Read the full piece and watch the video

 

Charity of the Month: Capital Rainbow Refuge

In more than 70 countries, LGBTQI+ communities remain criminalized. Sexual and gender minorities in these countries often face unimaginable human rights violations perpetrated by families, communities, police and the state. This ranges from barriers to employment, housing, healthcare and education for LGBTQI+ people… to jail, torture or death. Many LGBTQI+ people are forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in other countries as a direct result of homophobic or transphobic laws, or threatening environments where their very safety is put at risk. 

Capital Rainbow Refuge began in Ottawa in 2010, the result of a diverse group of community members becoming aware of the crisis facing LGBTQI+ refugee crisis around the world. Inspired to make a difference on this issue, the group continued to grow over the years and formally incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 2020, achieving charitable status in 2024. The CUC, as a Sponsorship Agreement Holder, has worked closely with Capital Rainbow Refuge to resettle several LGBTQI+ refugees in Canada.

In the years since its founding, Capital Rainbow Refuge has helped hundreds of refugees, through core services including Rainbow House, sponsorship group support, and the QmunityFund for low-income newcomers. While it faces the challenge in the coming years of doing more with less, it aims to grow its service delivery and volunteer capacity which involves leveraging partnerships, enhancing its profile, strengthening organizational capacity, and diversifying fundraising.

 

CUC Support Available for New Horizons for Seniors Grant Applications

New Horizons for Seniors: Support Still Available for Your Application

On June 21, the CUC hosted an online information session on the 2026–2027 New Horizons for Seniors Program, exploring how congregations and UU-affiliated groups can access this federal funding. For those who missed it, support is still available.

The New Horizons for Seniors Program funds community-based projects designed by and for seniors. This includes projects that reduce social isolation, encourage volunteerism and mentoring, support intergenerational connection, raise awareness of elder abuse, or strengthen programs and spaces that serve seniors. Congregations and UU groups may be eligible to apply for up to $50,000 for a one-year project.

If your congregation is considering an application, there’s still time to get help. The CUC is offering appointments to discuss project ideas, workshop an application, or review a draft before you submit. Applications are due to the Government of Canada by Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. ET.

To explore the opportunity or request support, email CUC Executive Director Michael Jodah at michael.jodah@cuc.ca.

AUUMM (Association of Unitarian Universalist Music Ministries) Virtual Conference Meetup
By Susanne Maziarz, Music Director at Neighbourhood UU Congregation, Toronto

I would like to bring attention to an event we are hosting at Neighbourhood UU Congregation.

I have been going to the AUUMM (Association of Unitarian Universalist Music Ministries) annual conference since 2009 and have learned so much about UUism and making music in community. Like many Canadians, I am no longer travelling to the US and will be attending the conference virtually.

Rev. Danie Webber from Hamilton suggested that Canadians attending the conference virtually should gather together and attend together for the sake of building community amongst us.

Neighbourhood is going to host a virtual AUUMM conference in our building.

The services, plenaries and choir rehearsals that we attend together will be held in our sanctuary, and we have 4 rooms available for simultaneous workshops.

    • Thursday, July 30, 9 am-5 pm, 7-8:30 pm
    • Friday, July 31, 9 am-5 pm
    • Saturday, August 1st, 11am – 4pm

There are lots of great restaurants in the area to go for lunch/dinner, or we can use NUUC’s kitchen, and I am sure we can find billets for folks that are from out of town.

This is open to anyone who has registered for the conference and would enjoy attending with other Canadian UUs. Please contact me at: music@nuuc.ca 416-763-5635

Things to Know About the CUC

People discover Unitarian Universalism in a variety of ways, one of which might surprise you: Beliefnet.com’s Belief-O-Matic quiz.

Those who take the quiz (including the CUC’s new Executive Director, Michael Jodah) sometimes discover they are a UU based on the results the quiz offers.

Feel free to share it with those in your circles who are looking for community but uncertain about traditional religion. They might find a UU congregation is the place for them.

 

What’s Making Us Smile – VIDEO: A Tribute to Vyda

Don’t miss the best part, turn up your sound!

video
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Upcoming Events

Below is a list of upcoming gatherings, workshops, and conversations taking place across the Canadian UU community in the coming months. Please share with your congregation.

Dismantling Barriers: Engaging in Governance
June 25: 4:00 pm PT | 5:00 pm MT | 6:00 pm CT | 7:00 pm ET | 8:00 pm AT | 8:30 pm NT (90 min)

Workshop: Projects, Partnerships & Practical Wisdom from RAMP!
June 27: 10:00 am PT | 11:00 am MT | 12:00 pm CT | 1:00 pm ET | 2:00 pm AT | 2:30 pm NT (90 min)

View all events at: cuc.ca/events

Enews written, edited, and formatted by the CUC communications team: Tatiana Saliba, Comms Manager; Kenzie Love, CUC Writer; and Brigitte Twomey, CUC Website Specialist. Contact communications@cuc.ca