Canadian Unitarian eNews | Issue #9, October 2011

Be a Chalice Lighter — Help a
Canadian UU Community Realize a Dream

By Kathleen Provost
CUC Director of Resource Development

DOES YOUR CONGREGATION have a dream?

Would you like to help other Canadian Unitarian Universalist communities realize their potential?

Launched in May 2011, the Northern Lights Chalice Lighters Program supports transformative, grassroots UU initiatives that build healthy and sustainable UU communities in Canada.

The UU Ministers of Canada (UUMoC) and the CUC developed this program to recruit and maintain an ongoing pool of individual donors, who pledge to provide two annual donations toward selected projects.

Northern Lights is a growth program — but the word ‘growth’ can mean more than membership numbers. Literature in the field of growth shows that membership growth comes from strong, consistent, high quality programming, and from congregations developing and fully supporting internal structures suited to their present and future size.

The goal of Northern Lights is to help fund proposals that would bring these conditions about.

The deadline for the first phase of applications has just passed, and we are currently in the process of selecting a recipient. As the Selection Panel comes together, it will consider some of the following:

• How will this project strengthen and shape the whole congregation?
• Will it help the congregation do the basics better?
• Will this project lead to new directions and create new entry points to the church?
• Will this program relieve pressure on “pinch points” that are inhibiting development?
• What impact will it help the congregation have in its community?

Growth data for the congregation, and regional balance in the program are also considered.

In joining Northern Lights as a Chalice Lighter, you will join a growing network of Unitarian Universalists who donate twice a year to make congregational dreams a reality. Please visit the Northern Lights website for more information. Material there can be downloaded to support and promote the program. Brochures will be available in each region at Regional Fall Gatherings.

E-mail Kathleen Provost.

120 Gather to Celebrate Peterborough’s 50th Anniversary

Photos by Margeree Edwards
Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough

Top left: Rev. Julie Stoneberg and CUC’s Central Region Congregational Development staff person Helen Armstrong at the October 2 gala for the 50th anniversary of the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough. Bottom left: MC and Ministerial Intern Ric Jones. Bottom right: A joint performance by Peterborough's two choirs. Top right: The evening finished with an all-ages community square dance.