Ministry

Calendar

This winter season, you’re invited to join us for justice-focused Advent & Christmas. The Spiritual Care team has put together an Advent & Christmas Calendar, focused on Indigenous Housing Justice. Together, we’ll learn how racism, colonization, and housing systems in Vancouver/the unceded and ancestral lands of the Xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) contribute to injustice and oppression, and what actions we can take to pursue justice.

The calendar runs from December 1 to January 5 and features daily actions that we can participate in alongside each other. This important work is part of our commitment to putting reconciliation into action and advocating for Indigenous Housing Justice.

Advent and Christmas Calendar 2024:

Advent and Christmas Calendar 2024

We hope you’ll join us in participating in these daily actions. Every Sunday from December 1 to January 5, Rev. Lauren Sanders, Indigenous Spiritual Care Chaplain (Prairie Band Potawatomi/mshkodeni bodéwadminwen, Kickapoo Nation of Kansas/kiikaapoa, African American/Black), will share a video relating to week’s Advent theme and the calendar’s calls to action.

Advent Videos by Rev. Lauren Sanders:

Week 1: Hope

Week 2: Peace

Week 3: Joy

Week 4: Love

Lent is a time of prayer and fasting and a time to explore new spiritual practices. One of the most basic spiritual practices that humanity has is our feelings and emotions.

To help us explore and work through complex emotions that accompany grief, Lauren Sanders, Indigenous Spiritual Care Chaplain, is hosting an art challenge for the Lenten season.

You’re invited to join in this weekly practice as Lauren shares her own painting process and guides us through some “wondering questions” around grief. Feel free to comment your answers to the questions. You can also share your painting on social media with the hashtag #PourOutGrief.

All videos will be posted here. Check back every Wednesday to see the latest one!

Week 1: Grief

Week 2: Denial, Shock, Numbness

Week 3: Pain, Guilt and Shame

Week 5: Isolation, Loneliness and Processing

Week 6: Testing

Week 7: Acceptance

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.