Hello from Council Circle!

Kamloops United Church Centre for Community and Spiritual Discovery continues to be a “happenin’” place!! As indicated by our nearly three hour (sorry CC, that shouldn’t happen again!) meeting last week, there is a lot going on.

Dan Hines, our Spiritual Coordinator, was on hand to update us on what has been happening with his many on-line offerings of programs involving spiritual discovery. These have been very well attended with people from both our own community of faith and the wider community across Canada and the USA. We are looking forward to the Climate Forum this week! Sadly, Dan also announced his resignation effective the end of June. He has other opportunities to pursue in giving talks around the world. We will miss him, but wish him well!

Some very good news from our Treasurer! As you know, with the challenges of COVID we were budgeting a deficit of $35,000. However, we were eligible for, and received, a Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy of $32,000. Between that and careful financial work by our staff, we have decreased that deficit dramatically to a very manageable $3,000! God provides!

The opportunities are seemingly endless! Council approved the moving forward of a grant application to the National church to fully fund a new part-time position called Engagement Coordinator. The National Church is very supportive of our initiative of reaching out to the broader on-line community of faith. In addition, there will be numerous ways to celebrate our silver anniversary of becoming an Affirming Congregation. Stay tuned for more to come on that! In addition, we have been offered (and we accepted) a request from Pacific Mountain Region to host a “First Third Gathering” of youthful people up to age 30 for a weekend in October. Exciting times lie ahead!

In the next few weeks, please watch for an opportunity to join us on a couple of Zoom meetings talking together informally and coffee chat style about how we are as a church community in this moment? We have had an incredible opportunity to be self reflective and Council Circle is curious about how that has been for you. What have we learned? This could be the beginning of a beautiful conversation! Again, please “stay- tuned” for more information on these events.

As always, there is much to be thankful for!

Council Circle makes a point of taking time to hear what is happening in and around the church. It is our great privilege to be in this role and we are always happy to hear from the congregation on what is going well and what needs improvement.

If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Michael, Florence or myself. We’d be pleased to help in any way.

Blessings,

Marcia, Chair of Council Circle

PS Our signed minutes for each month are available through Joanna at office@kamloopsunited.ca should you wish to see the actual documents.