Kamloops United Church: A Centre for Community & Spiritual Discovery.
“Epiphany Exploration 2016” -Videos & Discussion at KUC.

March

    April

Jennifer Henry – “Decolonizing the Heart”
Douglas Todd “Standing up for liberal Christianity. 12 things to celebrate this ‘middle way’.
Will Weigler – “From the Heart: A Creative Journey of Reconciliation”
Leonard Sumner – “REZ Poetry: Music and Reflections”
Anna Carter Florence – “Paying Attention to the Verbs”
Megan Rohrer – “Sacred stories across the gender spectrum”.
Tom Axworthy1 –‘Canada’s Cold Amazon: the need to protect the Mackenzie River Basin’
Tom Axworthy 2 –“Tolerance: An UnderAppreciated Virtue”
Paul Bramadat – “Spirituality after Religion?”
Betty Davies – “Lessons learned from grieving children.”
Arthur Black – “Canada: Still under construction.  Sorry for any inconvenience.”

 Scroll down for more information on the presenters and their topics.

Anna Carter Florence – Paying Attention to the Verbs
If you do a quick survey of any Bible passage, you’ll find that what is true in life is also true in scripture: the verbs dominate. Not adjectives; verbs. It’s what we do and don’t do that preoccupies human beings. And it’s the verbs we cannot imagine for ourselves (live, liberate, forgive, resurrect) that the church offers, and that we reach for. So what happens when we read scripture and let the verbs lead?

Megan Rohrer – Transfiguration: Sacred stories across the gender spectrum     As the first Lutheran transgendered minister, Megan Rohrer has heard some remarkable sacred stories not always  affirmed in some circles…including her own. Be inspired and surprised by this pioneer, gifted storyteller and activist. Megan Rohrer is the pastor of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church and Executive Director of Welcome – a communal response to poverty in San Francisco. Pastor Rohrer was a 2014.. She is an author, artist, activist and educator who speaks on issues of homelessness, sexuality and gender.

Tom Axworthy –
1.  Canada’s Cold Amazon: the need to protect the Mackenzie River Basin The majority of water in Canada flows north, much of it through the Mackenzie River Basin…one of the last mighty rivers of the world where we have a chance to get it right. Tom Axworthy is President and CEO of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation which focuses on Fresh Water and the Arctic and supports democratic participation of First Nations. Dr. Axworthy also is the Secretary General of the InterAction Council which is “an international organization whose objective is to address long-term, global issues facing humankind. As Senior Policy Advisor and Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Axworthy was a key strategist in the Repatriation of the Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
2.  A second session by Tom Axworthy:  Tolerance: An Underappreciated Virtue 
A comparison of the exclusion ideology of ISIS and similar movements with the contrasting tradition of inclusion and understanding. This session is based on presentations recently given in the Middle East and Azerbaijan.

Paul Bramadat – Religion After Religion      Demographic evidence shows us that we are in the middle of an unprecedented period of change in Canada. In particular, what it means to be religious, to belong to a religious group, and to believe in anything – all of these things are in flux. What does it mean for you? For Canada? For religion? And can something like“spirituality”save the day?  Paul Bramadat is Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria, and an author.

Leonard Sumner – REZ Poetry: Reflections and Music
Leonard is a young Anishinaabe artist whose creative work emerges directly from conversations with First Nations young people on reservations and in Winnipeg, where he now resides. Leonard Sumner is originally from the Little Saskatchewan First Nation in Manitoba. Featured in numerous Folk Festivals, including Vancouver and Calgary, and in Winnipeg’s Aboriginal Music Week, Leonard provides a fresh perspective from his generation of First Nations.

Betty Davies – Lessons learned with Grieving Children
Many adults are challenged by having to deal with dying and death, but even more so when the situation involves children. Drawing from her personal and clinical experiences in pediatric palliative care, and from her research findings about sibling bereavement, Betty offers suggestions for accompanying grieving children—the lessons apply to children experiencing other types of loss as well. She is co-founder of Canuck Place, North America’s first freestanding hospice for children, in Vancouver, BC.