First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg's Podcast

2024-02-18 Talks On December 7, 2023, four members of this congregation attended, in different capacities, the All Partner Gathering of signatories of the Winnipeg Indigenous Accord at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Our church is (as of the beginning of 2024) one of 243 signers in this city. Find out what our church people experienced, what they learned, and how we see our future with the A...

2024-08-18 Steve explores our relationships with trees in all their forms: as beautiful forests, as carbon sinks, as lumber and paper, as fire, and as the main source of the oxygen we breathe daily.

2024-09-29 In Part II, Steve continues to explore our relationships with trees in all their forms: as beautiful forests, as healthy environments, as lumber and paper, and as the main source of the oxygen we breathe daily.

2024-10-27 Sometimes we are so anaesthetized to the sounds around us that even the voices of those we love and respect the most become little more than background noise. At other times, we are so focused on formulating our response that we fail to hear clearly what it is that is being said to us in the first place. What would happen if we listened with open hearts?

2024-11-10 The planned sermon blurb was this: William Henry Channing urged us to “await occasions, hurry never.” How often have we seen that, as the pace of life accelerates, the quality of life declines? At a time when calming zones and red-light cameras are being used to slow down traffic in many communities, perhaps we should reduce the speed limit on the highway of life! The delivered sermon w...

2024-11-17 “We live stitch to stitch,” writes Anne Lamott. “And maybe the stitching is crude, or it is unraveling, but if it were precise, we’d pretend that life was just fine and running like a Swiss watch.” When things unravel or are torn asunder, we can give up, wait for a miracle, or strive to repair what remains.

2024-11-24 David Morrison has worked most of his life caring for and helping people, and currently is a volunteer with Community Helpers Unite. David is a board member of several Indigenous organizations, a Pipe carrier and knowledge keeper. He shares tales of a lifetime of being "surprised by joy."

October 6, 2024 In recognition of World Food Day (Oct. 16), social justice activist guest speaker, Brandy Bobier, CEO of Community Helpers Unite, will share her recipe to end food insecurity in Winnipeg. Manitoba Volunteer of the Year for 2024, Carina Blumgrund, will be on hand to offer her insights on the spirituality of generosity she sees in feeding the unhoused in her visits to local tent citi...

October 13, 2024 Despite possessing an abundance of what truly matters, we often stumble through life as if we were deep in debt. Yet our lives often overflow with abundance when it comes to inspiration, good example, and the finer qualities of our people. We need to acknowledge our abundance and spread it around.

October 20, 2024 What are the elements? Well, if you are talking modern science, you are talking about the chemical elements in the periodic tables! But if we look back in time, we see how the elements of earth, fire, air and water have played a huge role in many ancient cultures, often from a philosophical perspective. Some cultures added a fifth element, and more, too! These ideas have carried o...

September 15, 2024 In 1969, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young galvanized generations with the song Teach Your Children. But teaching children well begins with teaching the adults. In working toward the 94 calls to action set by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, powerful learning experiences include participating in treaty walks, attending memorials, and the multi-faceted world of rec...

September 15, 2024 In 1969, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young galvanized generations with the song Teach Your Children. But teaching children well begins with teaching the adults. In working toward the 94 calls to action set by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, powerful learning experiences include participating in treaty walks, attending memorials, and the multi-faceted world of rec...

September 1, 2024 We all struggle with fears, big and small, rational and irrational, but they’re something that we all share. Octavia invites all of us to take a moment and look inward and reflect on our fears, and find solidarity in that your deepest darkest fears are, more likely than not, other people’s fears as well. It’s time that we shed the veneer of superficial confidence and embrace fear...

2024-04-07 - This autism awareness month, join Octavia on a journey into her autistic experience of life, and see a whole new world.

2023-04-16 - Rev. Stefan Jonasson will discuss the spiritual importance of religious community.

2024-09-19 - “I believe that every teacher should realize the dignity of (their) calling,” wrote John Dewey, and I would add that it’s important for society to acknowledge that dignity. Sure, I’ve known a bad teacher or two, but most of my teachers changed my life for the better. Over the summer, I’ve had occasion to reflect on the dignity of teaching.

2023-08-13 - We have the tendency to take ourselves so seriously, because life is serious business. If we don’t have room for laughter, we are missing important moments of connection to our own bodies, to our breath, and to each other.  This week, let us remember the wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes – that there is a time to laugh – as we learn about a comedian ophthalmologist who is helping to...

2024-06-02 - You’ve heard coming out stories, but the first person we come out to is ourselves. Join Octavia as she explores the challenges of self-acceptance when one is afraid of rejection and exclusion.

2024-01-28 - “Sometimes he went to church – preferably to the Unitarian Meeting House, where ideas, not emotions, were exploited,” wrote novelist Laura Goodman Salverson about her father, Larus. Our congregation is distinctive among Unitarian Universalist congregations, but not quite unique, in having been first established among immigrants – in our case, Winnipeg’s Icelandic community. This Herit...

2023-12-31 - Reflections of an Ordinary Life: Looking at the Past (2023), and to the Future (2024, and beyond). Meanderings on an everyday life as lived in Canada 2023 as a Unitarian Universalist and as a Canadian. Also as a sibling, an aunt, a widow, an apartment dweller living 16 plus floors up, with St. Boniface in the short distance and The Forks almost below me.

2024-01-21 - When asked about Unitarianism, a good many of us will use “not” in our answer. We are NOT this, or NOT that. But what are we? Where is the ground on which we stand?

2024-01-14 - It’s hard to move forward if you’re mired in your own past. This is as true for communities as it is for individuals. The more people focus on old conflicts and grievances and disappointments, real or imagined, the more likely it is that their efforts will be retrospective rather than forward-looking. At the beginning of a New Year, it is natural to look ahead towards the promise that...

2024-12-24 - “Lighting trees in darkness, learning new ways from the old, making sense of history and drawing warmth out of the cold,” sings Dar Williams in her playful seasonal ballad, The Pagans and the Christians. There’s no shortage of people prepared to tell us how we ought to keep the season, how we should express our greetings to one another, what we should call our trees, and what the true...

2023-12-10 - Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the preeminent theologians of the 20th century, is best remembered for describing the ethics of Jesus as an “impossible possibility.” Apparent impossibilities really are possible, he maintained, “and lead to new actualities in given moments of history,” but each new actuality is only “an approximation of the ideal.” We long for a fairer world, the good society...

2023-11-12 - Octavia MacIsaac has said that sometimes she has felt judged by what was in her pocket, not by what was in her heart. Come and join her on November 12 for an exploration of giving without guilting ourselves over the dollar amount, and showing generosity without money.