Ministry

Calendar

This Christmas season, you’re invited to join us for a justice-themed Advent. The Spiritual Care team has put together an Advent Calendar to help us start the work of Call for Justice 18.17 from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Call 18.17 states: “We call upon all governments, service providers, and educators to fund and support the re-education of communities and individuals who have learned to reject 2SLGBTQQIA people, or who deny their important history and contemporary place within communities and in ceremony, and to address transphobia and homophobia in communities (for example, with anti-transphobia and anti homophobia programs), to ensure cultural access for 2SLGBTQQIA people.”

Advent and Christmas Calendar 2023:

Advent and Christmas Calendar 2023

The calendar runs from December 3 to January 5 and features daily actions to help us along the journey to fulfilling Call 18.17. This important work is part of our commitment to putting reconciliation into action and advocating for justice for MMIWG and 2SLGBTQQIA.

Please join us by participating in these daily actions. Each Friday, Lauren Sanders, Indigenous Spiritual Care Chaplain (Prairie Band Potawatomi/mshkodeni bodéwadminwen, Kickapoo Nation of Kansas/kiikaapoa, African American/Black), will host a Zoom session (link in the calendar) to provide a safe space for deeper discussions.

Learn more about why this Call for Justice is important.

You may also want to download our Advent and Christmas Liturgy for this year.

Candle Lighting Liturgy

This year’s Advent and Christmas Candle Lighting Liturgy is available for download below. The liturgies were prepared by Lauren Sanders, Indigenous Spiritual Care Chaplain for FIRST UNITED (Prairie Band Potawatomi/mshkodeni bodéwadminwen, Kickapoo Nation of Kansas/kiikaapoa, African American/Black), and Rev. Peter Sanders, Pastoral Advisor.

Advent and Christmas Candle Lighting Liturgy 2023:

https://admin.firstunited.ca/app/uploads/2023/10/2023-Advent-and-Christmas-Candle-Lighting-Liturgy.pdf

You may also want to download our Advent and Christmas calendar for this year.

This year’s theme for Spiritual Care at First United is truth-telling. During Advent, we pondered the truth and reconciliation journey in our podcast, An Uncomfortable Advent. Now, as we approach the Season of Lent, we again focus on truth-telling in our truth and reconciliation journey.

2023 Lenten Calendar:

Lenten Truth-Telling Calendar

 

Donations are suggested and encouraged but not required. At FIRST UNITED we practice community centric fundraising principles and want to highlight the impact that these organizations are making in the community. We encourage you to check them out and support them as you can.

 

This calendar will guide you during Lent, focusing on Call to Action #60. Some days have more than one link for you to click. On some Sundays, the link encourages you to share your story with us at FIRST UNITED. Some days are moredifficult than others. But all of the days help you focus on truth and reconciliation.

Although this Call to Action is directed at “leaders of the church parties to the Settlement Agreement and all other faiths, in collaboration with Indigenous spiritual leaders, Survivors, schools of theology, seminaries, and other religious training centres,” this Call to Action is really about all of us who make up the Body of Christ. We, as followers of Jesus the Christ, are called to build and sustain a community where we “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8) It is our responsibility to do this work with love and accountability, even when we are overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin.

The Lenten Season is where spring begins. Our spiritual lives can reflect that of creation, where the hard but rewarding work of growing can be seen above ground. Explore Call to Action #60 with us at FIRST UNITED.

We would like to thank the Chinook Winds Region’s Journey Towards Indigenous Allyship Toolkit, the United Church of Canada’s 40 Day of Engagement on Anti-Racism, Vancouver Public Library and their awesome Reference Librarians, and Presbyterian Mission Agency of the PCUSA’s 21-day Racial Justice Challenge. These resources and their links to source materials help all of us to the work of justice, the work of being good neighbors, and the work mandated in the Calls to Action.

Pama mine gwabmen,
(Potawatomi for “see y’all again” as there isn’t a word for casual goodbyes)

From FIRST UNITED’ Spiritual Care Team

Chaplain Lauren Sanders
Prairie Band Potawatomi/mshkodéni
Kickapoo Nation of Kansas/kiikaapoa
African American/Black

And Rev. Jennifer Goddard-Sheppard
Interim Spiritual Care Director