TURNING POINTS 

Là où il n'y a pas de mémoire commune, là où les personnes ne partagent pas de passé commun, il ne peut y avoir de vraie communauté , et quand on veut former une communauté, il faut créer une mémoire commune.

Where there is no common memory, where people do not share a common past, there can be no true community. When we try to create a vital community we must begin by creating together a common story.¹

What it means is that we Unitarians, we who are a part of this Canadian Unitarian Movement, need to get serious about the study of our history.

Sounds boring to me. You mean to say that instead of studying dead Americans we are now going to have to learn about dead Canadians.

Sounds kind of dull. I tried reading Phillip Hewett's book on Canadian Unitarians once. I must confess that I never finished it. It's not that I'm not interested but...

Do you really think we could keep all of these people interested and awake if we were to present them with stories from our Canadian Unitarian and Universalist Movement?

Of course we could. Canadian Unitarian and Universalist history is far from boring. In fact the last 160 years or so have had some exciting moments. Throughout our history, our liberal spirit has sought its unique expression in this land.

All of us inescapably live within one particular context. If the way we try to live does not express our response to our context, then it is simply a pale reflection of someone else's response to theirs…²

In the 1980s, Mark De Wolfe, then minister of the South Peel congregation, wrote these words,

"Every part of Canada is touched by the sense of the presence of majesty. My grandfather De Wolfe grew up on the Minas Basin off the Bay of Fundy, where the tides daily rise in gigantic waves which swell the rivers in gigantic bores. . . The fisher-folk of Atlantic Canada know the power of the cold winter ocean, the wild northern storms. Across Central Canada we confront the mystery of the Shield, with its glacial memories, its eerie light, its old stones, . . . its endless chains of lakes. . Prairies people know the vast majesty of open space, of land which opens to the sky without barrier, know a world shaped by cloud and growing grain. In the Rockies and up the Pacific Coast, women and men sit between mountains which rise savagely out of the ocean, and walk among trees which dwarf the merely human. To live in Canada is to be confronted with majesty. . . . Canadians are by and large not an individualistic people. We trust collectivities more than rugged individuals. Could it be that this trust in the collective and dependence on collective responsibility comes from - or at least is reinforced by - the fact of living in this majestic land? Living in a land which constantly reminds us of how small we are, are we not likely to huddle together for mutual protection? . . .Could it be that we share with other northern peoples, . . . a commitment to togetherness born out of the harsh reality of Northern life?"³

As Unitarians must we not continually ask ourselves what contribution we are going to make to this dialogue between people and land? Our Canadian Unitarian way of looking at life does have a distinctive contribution to make here. No one else is going to make it for us. If we don't make it, it won't be made, and future generations will ask what happened. Have we tended well our Unitarian and Universalist heritage?

I'm a newcomer to Unitarianism. How did this Canadian Unitarian and Universalist movement get started in the first place?

Let's begin to build a common memory by telling some of the stories from our Canadian religious history.

The Unitarians in Montreal were not that radical. Within North American Unitarianism they were, in fact, comparatively conservative. They emphasized that they were Christians, accepting the miraculous mission and superhuman authority of Jesus.

The first Unitarian sermon preached in Montreal, if not the first in Canada, was preached by Rev. David Hughes of England, on Sunday morning July 29th, 1832. Such occasional preaching as there was, was random, haphazard and always uncertain.

If it had not been for the "saving grace" of Elizabeth Hedge and Elizabeth Cushing, two American Unitarian women living in Montreal, the congregation might never have seen the light of day. The record from the church's first annual meeting of 1842 reads,

"In the summer of 1841 some ladies, who found their position under Trinitarian preaching irksome and difficult to be borne, were determined to make an effort to revive Unitarian Preaching, if but for a short period; and through their impulse, the Rev. William Ware of Cambridge, Massachusetts was induced to come and preach for three Sabbaths."⁴

The congregation in Montreal was the first to be formed north of the American border. Here was a congregation of Unitarians, partly American and partly British, located in a city of the British Empire. If an American minister were introduced into the congregation, he would be literally an alien. If a British minister were introduced, he might prove ill fitting in a congregation that was largely American.

Benjamin Workman, an Ulsterman by birth and the patriarch of Unitarian-ism in Montreal, thought that an Irish clergyman might be the point of reconciliation. He would qualify as being from the "Old Country" and a British citizen, yet, while not American, he would not be English either. On national and racial issues, while perhaps not exactly neutral, he would be comparatively independent and impartial. The call of July 1843 reads as follows:

"We, the members of the Unitarian Society of Montreal, deeply solicitous for the permanent establishment of religious worship in accordance with our belief in this City, and fully impressed with the importance of having a settled Minister among us; and being assured by good information of the ministerial abilities of you, John Cordner, late of Newry, Ireland, Preacher of the Gospel, do hereby unite in giving you a call to become our Pastor; and we promise to give you a salary of one hundred and fifty pounds currency per annum; and further, upon your accepting this our call, we promise you all dutiful respect, encouragement, and obedience in the Lord."⁵

The Rev. John Cordner immersed himself fully in the Canadian context. On New Year's Day, 1860, he said:

"Undoubtedly a nation is growing up here ... which promises to hold no mean place in the future annals of civilization." ... "Our nationality as it grows must savour of the soil on which it grows."⁶

Was Montreal the only place where a liberal religious voice was being heard?

Certainly not. Compton, in Lower Canada, was only about 30 kilometers north of the American border, but the way was long and hard. There were not many roads, mostly footpaths through the hills and mountains. Nevertheless, Christopher Huntington was determined in that year of 1804 to cross into Canada, settle there and preach about Universalism, that new religion of love and salvation. It took courage, for most people disapproved openly of Universalists and were not afraid to say so.

If Universalists aren't worried about hell imagine the really dreadful things they might do!

For the next thirty years or so, Universalist preachers came up from New England to bring the message of Universalism to those living in Canada east. They held their meetings in barns and mills and private homes, be-cause they were not allowed to enter most churches or schoolhouses.

In 1845 Seth Hunting, who had a lumber mill and sawmill in the town of Huntingville, Quebec, gave the land for a Universalist church and a church was built that same year. It is still there today. Our first ever Canadian born minister was Caleb Mallory who came to Huntingville in 1862 serving there till his death in 1882.

I gave sermons, visited the sick, conducted funerals, baptized babies and performed weddings. I remember one New Year’s Eve I drove a team of horses 65 miles. I went to Shipton to perform a wedding and was just able to make it back to Huntingville for the dedication of the church the next day.

At about the same time a liberal wind was beginning to blow along the East Coast of the country. Sarah Allen went visiting by ship down in Boston in 1810 and there she heard of a Universalist preacher named Hosea Ballou.⁷ Sarah brought the Universalist message back to Halifax. She believed that God was a loving father who would make sure that all his children found salvation and health and none would burn in hell. Amid much protest they organized the Universalist Society of Halifax in 1837 and later in 1843 formed a congregation. A minister from another de-nomination went door to door crying,

Don't attend services in that church. Don't read any of their Universalist tracts. Universalists and their families are all "children of the devil". Be-ware! ⁸

North and South, East and West, refreshing liberating winds blew across this land transforming people' s lives. Michael Fox (big Mike) and Margaret lived in Olinda, Ontario. Most people didn't like the native people but not so Mike and Margaret. One day a copy of The Gospel Advocate found its way from Detroit to Windsor, and then to Olinda.

Well finally, This is just what we have been waiting for. This paper set my soul aflame. I'm going to send away for $20 worth of books on this Universalist faith.

And so they did and to their astonishment they received $40 worth of books in return. The exchange rate must have been better back then! And so Universalism came to Olinda and the congregation was founded in 1880.⁹

Back in Montreal in the year 1856, Canadian Unitarianism was moving to-wards independence, from Ireland. Both Cordner and the Congregation were connected to the Remonstrant Synod of Ulster, Northern Ireland. It was inevitable that John Cordner, the minister and Benjamin Workman, the patriarch of the congregation, would come to a disagreement sooner or later. It was a battle between two powerful Ulster personalities. The issue became the wish of Workman to contain the power of the minister through ruling elders. Even though Workman moved the election of elders, no one seconded his motion. (Church politics have ever been thus.) Cordner submitted his resignation. The congregation supported their minister and made the following resolution.

"That this Society has always considered itself as an independent Congregation, governed by its original Constitution and owing no subordination to the Remonstrant Synod of Ulster or any other Ecclesiastical Body."¹⁰

Workman appealed to Ireland informing them that the Montreal congregation had seceded. It is true that the Montreal congregation had never taken the trouble to inform the Synod of what it had done. (Sound familiar?) Cordner replied thus to the charge of unilateral independence:

As to our `secession', to which you refer, permit us very respectfully to say: that we do not feel we have seceded from any thing." The claim that the Montreal congregation belonged to the Remonstrant Synod was never fact; it was only an inference. These inferences, would at once have destroyed our Christian liberty, and progress...Since, however, a misunderstanding has arisen for which we do not consider ourselves responsible, but which we greatly regret inasmuch as it has placed us in an attitude of seeming discourtesy toward your Synod, we would respectfully suggest the propriety of removing our name from your roll as a means of preventing such misunderstanding in future, and rendering our fraternal relations with your Synod more lasting and harmonious.

And so Montreal and Canadian Unitarians were on their own. Elsewhere in the land other streams of liberal religious spirit flowed together. Icelandic Lutherans settling in the Interlake district of Manitoba quickly became Unitarian and brought with them "the vibrancy and enthusiasm of [a] new renaissance. They were a curious blend of romanticism and independence, of socialism and individualism, of religion and rationalism, of poetry and politics." That' s how the Rev. Emil Gudmundson, a big teddy bear of a man with a passion for our religion, described them.¹¹

Their transformation from liberal Lutherans to Unitarians was inspired and led by their heretical pastor, the Reverend Magnus Skaptason:

Where is God's love: eternal, immeasurable, all-embracing compassion? Compare such compassion with the compassion of humans, those ordinary and imperfect beings. Does a father not forgive his child if it has disobeyed? Does he not try over and over again, In every way, to lead it to righteousness? If that fails, then it is not because the father does not want it to materialize, but rather because he does not have the power to bring it about. How is the mother's love for her child manifested? She embraces it with her love; she prays for it if it walks the wrong path; she spreads her arms to greet the lost but later found son or daughter; she does not hesitate to lay down her own life if need be to set her childfree. And how of-ten do people not forgive their enemies? Would you not suppose, beloved friends, that God is equally just, compassionate, and merciful as humans? ... What an absurdity it is to consider God so incomplete, so vengeful, and so ignorant as to condemn the very divine self, when it is acknowledged that all humankind, each and every person, is created in the divine image, whether Greek or Jew, Chinese or African, Tartar or Indian, where all ac-knowledge that all these are the children of God! ... It is our belief and holy conviction that God has given us love in our hearts to palliate life's struggles, to bind us, one with another, to be able to experience the most blessed times in this world, when friend loves friend, when people love their Creator and Sovereign.¹²

Emil Gudmundson described Icelandic Unitarians as a blend of romanticism and independence, socialism and individualism, religion and rationalism, poetry and politics. How Canadian? Or how Canadian!!

They came by their independent spirit honestly like Margrjet Jónsdottir Benedictsson's.

I'm sorry, pastor, I've never been able to convince her to wear her hair in tight braids as the other Icelandic girls do. In fact there's little I'm able to convince her to do. She has a mind of her own.

Ach, Jon, you've done well by her. You've raised a young woman of intelligence, strong will and courage. She'll not be afraid to speak her mind and that will be more important than braids in her hair.

The pastor was right, Margrjet Jónsdottir Benedictsson's strength served her well. She left her country in 1887 for New Iceland eventually moving to Winnipeg, Manitoba. There she discovered the Icelandic Cultural Society, which promoted spiritual freedom, literacy, and human unity and there she found the Unitarian Church.

"I take my religion like I eat fish. I eat the meat, but I leave the bones."¹³

Margrjet worked hard giving speeches, writing letters and articles and circulating petitions to help women. Because newspapers would not publish her words she started her own newspaper called Freya, after the Norse goddess of love. She taught women the value of their independence and rights.

Was it the land? Was it the peculiar people who came to the land? The land seemed to have shaped us perhaps more than we have ever been able to shape it. Mark De Wolfe said it this way:

"If we are to be realistic about our situation, we must begin to accept the fact that our true spiritual home is winter - a period of long dark nights, when what light there is does not dazzle but hangs low on the horizon, when even at noon the shadows are long. Our space is not a space pervaded by the hot lights of the tropics, reverberations of high orchestral quality. Rather, ours is a time and a space of "winter light," a phrase borrowed from Ingmar Bergman. We must learn to be at home in the dark, and to distinguish the true sources of hope which lie not in the denial of our situation but in confrontation, and acceptance."¹⁴

In the Winnipeg Congregation the challenges of the land have grown up people who have in turn challenged our movement. In 1912, Rev. W.A. Vrooman, then minister of All Souls Church in Winnipeg, asked,

"What is our duty? Shall we sit down and congratulate ourselves that we are wiser than the majority? Shall we idly dream of the decay of creeds and complacently wait for the broader religion of the future? Shall we say we are few and feeble and creep like grasshoppers in the sight of the giants or orthodoxy? Or shall we learn the secret and deliver the message of a new evangelism?... 'It is now up to us.' Let us not be the slaves of Unitarian traditions, but the leaders of a world- embracing and world-saving religion. Our duty is clear. Will the churches respond to it?"¹⁵

Such questions seem to be as much of the fabric of our movement as the Canadian Shield. They remain our questions today. They could just as easily been said by Mark Morrison Reed or Anne Treadwell, or Kim Turner or John Hopewell.

Unitarian Christianity in the early 20th century spoke with a strong prophetic voice on many social issues. The Rev. Alexander Thomson of Vancouver:

Official Christianity concerns itself too much with outworn creeds, and too little with the spiritual and everyday needs of mankind. The Kingdom of God as taught by Jesus means the realization HERE of the ideal of universal brotherhood.

The conscription controversy of the First World War raised many conflicting voices in our movement. The Rev. Charles Potter, a New England Unitarian and former Baptist, became minister in Edmonton and soon came under fire from a leading layman, Professor Alexander.¹⁶

The United States continues its so-called neutrality but Canada is at war, Mr. Potter. Canada is loyal to England's stand for liberty. How is it that you, Mr. Potter, do not pray for the King, or for our brave soldiers and sailors? Rather you denounce England's government for its treatment of conscientious objectors. How can it be that YOUR fellow American Unitarians did not fly OUR country's flag alongside the Stars and Stripes during the recent annual meeting in Boston? How dare they call us a "belligerent nation!"

Shortly after the United States entered the war, Boston Unitarians changed their tune. This time it was the Rev. William Irvine, minister of the Calgary church, who was in trouble.

Mr. Irvine I wish to bring two important matters to your attention. Firstly, many do not perceive you to be a loyal subject of the allied cause. Some have even suggested that you are a German agent trying to sabotage Canada's war effort. Secondly, we must be careful what we say. We are in danger of losing our subsidy from Boston. As you know, now that the U.S. has entered the war, the American Unitarian Association wholeheartedly supports the allied effort. They have threatened not to subsidize you, or any minister, who is found to be disloyal to the war effort.

I am not disloyal. However, if the war is being fought for freedom and democracy, it should be fought as nearly as possible under conditions of equal sacrifice. If our youth are called upon to give their lives the least that should be demanded is that manufacturers and the rich should give of their wealth. I am calling for conscription of wealth.¹⁷

Other Western Unitarian voices called for peace building. Their words seem so relevant today- as Canada is again at war.

While our men are fighting in the trenches, we must look forward to the end of the war. We must lay the foundations for enduring peace. Peace as well as war requires preparation. Behind the forces working for war stand the great-organized mechanisms of states, and peace can only be secured by a resolute, voluntary, and continued effort of the people.¹⁸

There seemed to be three ingredients which need to be present and working together if Unitarianism is to be a satisfying, effective and dynamic religious presence in our communities and in this land. These three essential ingredients are the following: buildings, ministers and the third ingredient is perhaps the most difficult and also the one most often missing. Unitarian communities...need vision and the passionate living of a vision. Too often in our Canadian Unitarian history we have drifted and so have missed many opportunities. In the early 1920's for example " All across the country the movement was drifting with no clear sense of mission, at the very time when according to the dreams cherished during earlier years of the war the days of opportunity should be returning." ¹⁹

Oh no. We took up the Social Gospel, especially on the Prairies. It has continued to be a major influence in Unitarian and Universalist thought in Canada. Then there was of course Lotta. She and the USC certainly got us pulling together.

Until the end of World War II, Unitarian and Universalist congregations were only very loosely related to one another. There was usually a get-together of Canadians at some time during the May Meetings of the American Unitarian Association, and occasionally someone talked about more connection, but most of the ties were north and south, from congregations to the AUA or the Universalist Church of America. But in 1947, a new impetus for working together, a dynamo named Lotta Hitschmanova appeared in Ottawa.

On the 10th of June 1945, four people attended a meeting at the Church of Our Father, at Elgin and Lewis Streets in Ottawa, to discuss the organization of a national committee. They got briskly down to business.

You all know I've been working with Charles Joy, of the Unitarian Service Committee in Boston. They have been shipping clothing to the distribution centre in Paris as fast as they can. They think we should organize a committee in Canada to cooperate with Boston and with the USC in Britain. Clothing collection is one thing we can do, but there are a number of other tasks, as well. Elsie, your husband, our minister, was quite positive about working through Unitarian churches.

Yes, Ingi is very excited about it. It will give the churches something to work together on here in Canada. Here are the addresses of the five: Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

Well, it won't do any harm to explore the possibilities. But you must keep in mind what I always tell the Women's Alliance: we in Canada do not work on a denominational, but on a national basis.

We certainly won't stop at Unitarian churches. But it's a place to start.²⁰

So with the support of other Canadian churches, the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada came into being with Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova, a member of the Ottawa Church, its Executive Director. The initial basis of the new Unitarian Service Committee was the five Unitarian churches and their members. Their buildings were the first warehouses receiving clothing and relief supplies for Europe. The Unitarian Service Committee received enormous publicity in Canada, first in the press and on the radio, and then later on TV. The word "Unitarian" and 56 Spark Street became familiar to thousands of Canadians who did not know what it meant. Many still don't. Of course many of us who were Unitarians then were ready to inform them.

And the work that congregations did to establish the Unitarian Service Committee began to build ties between them, ties that were to be strengthened by the growth of membership of the existing congregations through the fifties and sixties. A new form of Unitarian organization, the fellowship, was developed. Between 1945 and 1961, sixteen new congregations, mostly lay-led fellowships, were founded in Canada. It was time to organize some kind of national body to bring Unitarian congregations (and the three remaining Universalist churches) together.

So it was through the USC and through working on relief and social justice that Canadian Unitarians developed closer ties and co-operation.

Yes. Even in 1960 the CUC was hardly more than a dream. In fact, there were discussions about forming an all-Canadian District at the time. Had that happened, our history might have been very different. But personalities and some historical relationships prevented that happening, and the pattern of cross-border districts was developed instead. Something "all-Canadian" was still missing.

It was perhaps natural that something would be created besides the USC to link the growing number of Unitarian congregations in Canada together. Various proposals were made from time to time. At the May meetings of the American Unitarian Association - on the Sunday night after scheduled events were over, Canadian Unitarians gathered, as usual, to party and talk. But we also took time, all too little precious time to acknowledge an unmet need. A step forward was The Canadian Unitarian, a small newsletter which began publication. It cost five cents a copy, and was included in all Unitarian newsletters coast to coast with news of Unitarians across the land.

Then it happened, finally, in 1961, after a process involving the churches and fellowships, just when our associational merger between Unitarian and Universalists congregations was being completed, the Sunday evening meeting of Canadian Unitarians in Boston brought the Canadian Unitarian Council into being. Ironically to meet as Canadians from across the land and to found something for Canada we had to meet in Boston! ²¹

Because the Canadian connection was developed without the service de-livery capacity of a District, the CUC developed much more slowly than it might have. For years the so-called organization lived in a box in the corner of the bedroom of the volunteer secretary, Barbara Arnott.

Yes, when the CUC was formed, I was a member of the Don Heights congregation, where Jay Chidsey was the minister, and a founding officer of the CUC. He persuaded me to help him with the details of keeping the organization going: distributing pamphlets, handling correspondence (only women typed at the time!) and assisting with the publication of Unitarians in Canada Today, our newsletter. And after the first Annual Meeting in 1962, we really got going. I put a desk, a filing cabinet and a telephone in my bedroom: that was the CUC "office."

Yes, in my bedroom. And from then until 1979, I was the "staff" - I attended every Annual Meeting and Every Board meeting except for one when I was in the hospital. I took the minutes, handled the correspondence and all the other bits and pieces that a fledgling organization has to keep up with if it is to survive. I provided the continuity remembering what we'd tried in the past, reminding people of deadlines and obligations, keeping things on track. It was difficult, but it was also a lot of fun.²²

The development of new groups accelerated during the sixties. And our religious community had an appeal for a changing Canadian society. Although Canadians value working together and a more communal approach to solving problems, our liberal religious heritage carries with it a strong emphasis on individual freedom and a mistrust of institutions and organizations. Our tendency to attract "people who wish to be ungrouped" was perhaps strongest during the 1960s. During this period, under the impact of the civil rights movement in the United States, the youth counter-culture, the women's movement, the emphasis on communalism, which had been so much a part of Canada's history, changed. Personal fulfillment came to have increasing value. As a religious community which already valued individual freedom, we provided a "home" for people who make these shifts early.

One thing became clear quickly. While there were some ministers in Canada, many of the groups were too small to have professional staff, or chose to be lay-led. When a Unitarian wanted to get married or have a child dedicated, or when someone died, there was no one to provide rites of passage. To meet this need, the CUC developed a unique service, Unitarian Chaplains.

Eight weddings on one Saturday. This is ridiculous. Something has to be done. We don't need ordained ministers to marry people, celebrate services of union, dedicate children or assist families at the time of a death. We could train lay people to do rites of passages. We could call them chaplains.

Where congregations don't have ministers, they would provide rites of passage for our members. They could also care for those people outside of our congregations who require rites of passage. They could be great ambassadors for our movement.

By the 1980's, a new sense of purpose was arising within the CUC. The theme of the 1982 Annual Meeting, "Shaping Our Future" reflected this growing consciousness. One participant wrote,

"What stands out was the sense of "flow", the development and unfolding of concerns, reflections and ideas, combined with an underlying serious-ness of purpose and of questing . . . a myriad of questions and issues about ourselves as Unitarians kept emerging through intensely profound questions: " Who are we as Unitarians? What do we stand for? How do we articulate and communicate a positive sense of Unitarian identity and purpose?"²³

The 1983 meeting was a real turning point. In a carefully crafted process, the assembly considered its future and made a momentous decision. Out of workshops on spirituality, organization and outreach, the whole group assembled for a "committee of the whole," to look for areas of agreement.

Our workshop would really like to see a paid professional staff member for the CUC, but we don't know how that person would relate to the other denominational people - the UUA staff and the District people. Wouldn't there be a lot of turf issues to work out?

We like the idea of a paid professional, too. We'd want to be sure that the person was able to increase our visibility, maybe through social action and public relations.

We like the idea, but we're worried about the costs. With the salary we can afford, we probably couldn't attract anybody but a retired person or a married woman. (Some Honourable members: Oh! Oh!)

Well, we want a paid professional, and we think we can find the money to get one. After all, if our Unitarian movement is to have any impact on the larger community, we can't just keep talking to ourselves! We've got to get bigger and more effective!

It looks to me as though we have a lot of consensus here. We all have some concerns, but there seems to be really solid agreement that we want a professional staff person.

(amid applause and cheers) "We've all partaken of the process, and we're on the move!²⁴

And so in 1984 the new Executive Director, Kathleen Hunter, was hired.

We haven' t looked back since. The CUC is finally growing up. Strategic planning provides the structure for an organization to take charge of its future. In 1990 congregations across the country were consulted, generating great ideas for our denomination.

We want Canadian curriculum for our Religious Education programs, for our children and for adults.

So many ideas, so many dreams with so little budget. Our strategic plan seemed doomed because of budget. Then a voice, a prophetic one....

We can do this! We need an Endowment Fund, which will provide long-term stability so we can forge ahead with projects congregations clearly want. Come on, Elinor, we can do this together.

And so Herman Boerma and Elinor Knight chaired a national Endowment Fund Campaign, and when the campaign ended in 1995, we had an Endowment Fund of $400,000 which generates about $ 20,000 annually. This allowed the CUC to support the development of groups like the Southern Ontario Extension Committee and the new BC Council. It gave us the chance to provide support for growth projects for congregations, to involve congregations in long range planning, to support the development of religious education programs like Connecting with the Earth and Rainbowmaking. The spirit of generosity is alive and well and the fund continues to grow.

Just in the last few months, we received a major gift of $150,000. A contribution of that magnitude says a lot about our movement and the possibilities before us. Today the Endowment Fund stands at almost $600,000.

"I believe this religion of ours has something important to offer Canadians. I believe the CUC is a vehicle for realizing our dreams for Unitarians and Universalists in Canada. I want it to be a strong organization."

Money in the bank, buildings that meet our needs, growing new members of all ages, more Canadian ministers among us and a new breath of vision and excitement in our bones.

It is an inspiration to us all that people across this land are finding in Canadian Unitarian Universalism a community which warms their hearts, stimulates their minds and challenges them to be active in the social is-sues of this land.

All across this land we are growing vital congregations of people who challenge and nurture us as a community of churches. Fredrik Bergmann, a liberal minister in Winnipeg in the early years of this century, once said, "The greatest thing in life is to grow."

The winds of change are grasping and challenging us. They demand a response. How will we as Unitarians contribute to the ongoing developments in this land? How will we be faithful leaders at this time and in this place to encourage ourselves and others to embrace the full diversity of the human family and be enriched by the rainbow of peoples and cultures and confessions. We are called to be leaders in this dialogue. Let us enter the future strong and confident so that others will know of our distinctive voice in the spiritual and social questions of our day.

No one else is going to make that contribution for us. If we don't make it, it won't be made.

Comment pourrions-nous perdre l'espoir? il y a tant de choses sur le point de bourgeonner.²⁵

How can desire fail? We have only begun to imagine justice and mercy. There is too much broken that must be mended.

Comment pourrions-nous ne plus désirer? Nous venons de commencer à imaginer les possibilités de justice et de miséricorde. Il y a tant de choses brisées qu'on doit réparer.

We have only begun to know the power that is in us if we would join our solitudes in this common endeavour.

Nous venons seulement d'apprendre à connaître le pouvoir qui est en nous. Si nous étions disposés à nous grouper, à unir nos forces...

You have been listening to Turning Points, a CUC Radio One Production, bringing the far apart closer together. Turning Points was written by Ellen Campbell, Elaine Roberts and Ray Drennan. Tune in again next year for the next installment of Turning Points.