Liaisons Gathering
2025-01-28 19:00, 2025-03-25 19:00, 2025-05-27 19:00 (America/Toronto) | Online via Zoom
A time for connection, mutual support, and information sharing.
We are meeting on Tuesdays January 28th, March 25th, and May 27th at 7PM on Zoom.
For more information contact Micol Cottrell at mcottrell@united-church.ca
Register now here: https://regionalcouncil789.formstack.com/forms/liaisons_gathering

HFRC Learning Session for GC45 Proposals Special Meeting
2025-02-04 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Toronto) | Online via Zoom
Please join us for a Horseshoe Falls Regional Council Special Meeting for GC45 proposals on Saturday February 8th from 9am-3pm with a Learning Session for questions of clarification on Tuesday, February 4th from 6:30-8pm (for attendance to ask clarifying questions meeting registration is required). Proposals will be posted on Horseshoe Falls Regional Council website here: https://hfrcucc.ca/regional-council-meeting/ on January 30th, 2025. Registration will open Monday January 6th, 2025.

HFRC GC45 Proposals Special Meeting
2025-02-08 09:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto) | Online via Zoom

ARW Discipleship & Justice Meeting
2025-02-11 10:00, 2025-03-18 10:00, 2025-05-13 10:00, 2025-10-21 10:00, 2025-12-09 10:00, 2026-02-10 10:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Online via Zoom

Black History Month Event
2025-02-14 13:00 - 14:30 (America/Toronto) | Online via Zoom

UCC 360 Anti-Racism Program
2025-02-19 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-02-26 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-03-12 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Toronto) | Online via Zoom
UCC 360 ANTI-RACISM:

Have you engaged in previous anti-racism or racial justice training?
Are you ready to take your antiracism education a bit deeper, within a United Church context?

If you answered yes to both questions, this is for you:

UCC 360 Anti-Racism Program
with antiracism educator Rev Alcris Limongi, and Minister for Social Justice Dr. John Egger.
An in-depth 4.5 hour course offered over three weeks,
sponsored by the tri-regional councils of Antler River Watershed (ARW), Horseshoe Falls (HF) and Western Ontario Waterways (WOW).

Please plan to attend all three Wednesdays: Feb 19, Feb 26, and March 12, 2025 @ 6:00-7:30 PM Eastern
(Note: we take a week break for Ash Wednesday)
Session topics will include:
– A 360 View of Yourself, and developing your Antiracist Personal Purpose (APP)
– A 360 View of your immediate context (your church or regional council context)
– A 360 View of the United Church of Canada
.
(If you have to miss a session a recording of the session will be available, but will not include breakout discussions.)

This is not an introduction to anti-racism, but is intended for people who have engaged in some previous anti-racism training. If you are not sure if your previous anti-racism work has prepared you for this session, contact Thérèse Samuel tsamuel@united-church.ca

Advance registration required. Click to register now.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
There is no registration fee. The costs for this program are fully covered by Antler River Watershed, Horseshoe Falls and Western Ontario Waterways Regional Councils.
For information contact Thérèse Samuel tsamuel@united-church.ca

Bio: Rev. Alcris Limongi

The Rev. Alcris Limongi was born in Venezuela and has been a member of the United Church of Canada since 1996. She has served the Church in different capacities. She was a Th.D. candidate in NT at Emmanuel College and the Racial Justice, Gender Justice and Sexual Minorities Program Coordinator at the General Council Office. She also was the Liaison to the UCW National and to Affirm United. She was the staff lead for the GC40 Commitment to Inclusion, and has served as facilitator of the UC Racial Justice Mandatory training since 2009. As an Ordained Minister she served at Parkdale United Church in Ottawa for five years and currently is part of the Center for Christian Studies in Winnipeg staff team as Program/Educator.
She offers both experience and perspective from our national denomination structures a well from a local-congregational community and based ministries.
Rev. Alcris trained in Courageous Conversations about Race with the Pacific Educational Group. The focus has been identifying systemic racism and racial differential gaps, as well as facilitating Courageous Conversations.
Her own identity as a racialized woman in Canada, her life experience between marginality and privilege in different ways, combined with a sound theological education, and personal and theological commitment to justice, have helped her develop a particular lens, what she calls “the gift of her brown eyes” to the Church. Her passion is to encourage racial majority and minorities to engage together identifying, naming, interrogating, interrupting and dismantling racism. She is a teacher/preacher/facilitator with creativity, flexibility, and openness to respectfully listen and learn from cultural differences. She adds “English is not my native language, which is both strength and weakness. It is a strength because with language I also bring different perspectives of defining and understanding reality”.

This is not an introduction to anti-racism, but is intended for people who have engaged in some previous anti-racism training. If you are not sure if your previous anti-racism work has prepared you for this session, contact Thérèse Samuel tsamuel@united-church.ca

Registration information coming soon.

Flourishing: Spend a day with the Moderator
2025-02-22 09:00 - 16:30 (America/Toronto)
Flourishing: Antler River, Western Ontario Waterways, and Horseshoe Falls Regional Councils
Spend a day with the Moderator, engaging in reflection and energizing activities towards dream-oriented actions for our churches and communities.
Saturday, February 22, 2025, 9:00 am to 4:30 pm (local time).
9:00am -9:30am Registration and coffee/tea
9:30am – Welcome and Introductions
In person
Avondale United Church, 194 Avondale Ave., Stratford, ON N5A 6N4
All around the world – from universities to the United Nations, from corporations to community organizations – people are talking about flourishing. Rooted in belonging, flourishing means living with purpose and joy, and bringing bold collaborative solutions to our world’s challenges.
The Moderator, the Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, wants to bring that conversation to The United Church of Canada. She invites us to connect to one another in hope, with a deep conviction by a belief that, despite all the challenges of church life in this day and age, we can move from despair to transformation – from languishing to flourishing.
Is your church flourishing?
(Perhaps that’s the wrong question.)
Is your church contributing to the flourishing of your community?
How might we truly be a flourishing church in the world? How might we live in deep spirituality, bold discipleship and daring justice, linked from coast to coast to coast in ministry that transforms us and the world around us?
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER: Flourishing Workshop

Ontario Election 2025: More than Tariffs Workshop
2025-02-23 15:00 - 16:15 (America/Toronto) | Online via Zoom
Ontario Election 2025:
More than Tariffs A panel discussion
Sunday Feb 23, 3:00-4:15 PM EST on Zoom
Information to help you faithfully discern your vote and continue advocacy after the Feb 27th election.
Brief presentations by five panel members on selected topics.
Panelists will respond to questions from the audience.

Advance registration required:
https://united-church.zoom.us/meeting/register/Pfy-0rDhQt-l-V5KqspFkw
For more information contact:
Thérèse Samuel tsamuel@united-church.ca and John Egger jegger@united-church.ca

Moderator:
Rev. Éric Hébert-Daly serves as the Executive Minister to ECO and EOO Regional Councils in Eastern Ontario. He was ordained in 2020. He served for 5 years as Responsible, Ministries in French, for 9 years as the National Executive Director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. Éric spent 17 years working in federal political circles and 7 years as a registered lobbyist. He also brings a hope-filled passion for the church.

Panel Members
Charles Barrett is a retired economist, who was actively involved in policy dialogue in North America, and the Asia-Pacific region in international economic relations, human resources development and capacity building. He has broad research experience and has written extensively on Canadian and international policy issues. He is a member of Riverside United Church, Ottawa and Eastern Ontario Outaouais Regional Council.

The Rev. Dr. Jessica Hetherington is an ecotheologian and ordained minister in the United Church of Canada. Working at the intersection of ecology and theology for 20 years, she inspires people of faith to transform their actions in response to the climate crisis. She currently serves as commissioner on climate justice with the World Council of Churches and the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Sign up for her weekly newsletter: Faith. Climate Crisis. Action. (https://jessicahetherington.substack.com/).

Bryan Smith is a long-term member of the Oxford Coalition for Social Justice, an organization committed to work and advocacy on a wide range of social and environmental issues locally in the County of Oxford and across the planet. It stands in for the Ontario Health Coalition and stands up for public health. Bryan is a retired teacher, and is active in providing school lunches and community dinners, and promoting local foods, the avoidance of waste, community events, and public health.

Rev. Jeffrey Dale (they/he) is the Minister at College Street United Church in downtown Toronto. Jeffrey is a harm reduction advocate and community educator, working with harm reduction advocacy groups throughout the Province of Ontario to educate communities of faith and the wider society regarding the needs of people who use drugs.

Rev. Susan Eagle is the minister at Grace United Church in Barrie. She chairs both the Ecological and Social Justice Commission for Shining Waters Regional Council, and the Steering Committee of the provincial interfaith coalition, ISARC, which does policy analysis and advocacy for income security, homelessness and employment rights. She has worked with newcomer and low-income individuals and sole-support families as a community outreach worker, and served on London City Council for 13 years.

This workshop is presented by the Social Justice Network of Ontario Regional Councils (SJNORC) with representation from Eastern Ontario Outaouais, East Central Ontario, Shining Waters, Canadian Shield, Antler River Watershed, Horseshoe Falls, Western Ontario Waterways and Prairie to Pine Regional Councils of The United Church of Canada.
Engage, Pray, Vote.

Godly Play
2025-03-29 09:30 - 12:00 (America/Toronto)

Kids Across the Regions 2025
2025-06-06 - 2025-06-07 | Camp Bimini, 3180 Perth Road, St. Paul’s, Ontario, N0K 1V0, Canada
Registration is now open for Kids Across the Regions:
Child participant registration HERE
Leader participant registration HERE
Question? Contact: Kathy Douglas, Minister Faith Formation KDouglas@united-church.ca

Tri-Regional Affirming Ministries Network Online Gathering
2025-06-07 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Online via Zoom
Saturday June 7, 12 noon
The Tri-Regional Affirming Ministries Network invites you to:
Spring Into Summer and Have a Gay Old Time
Don your gay apparel and joining us online to celebrate pride month.
This will be a great opportunity to connect with others in the three regions who are working on affirming issues, and to share resources and questions with them.
For a link to the meeting, please contact John Egger, Minister, Social Justice at JEgger@united-church.ca

Mission Support Grant Deadline
2025-09-22 08:30 (America/Toronto)
More information here:
Mission Support Grants

Strawberry Thanksgiving and Communion – Online
2025-09-24 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Toronto) | Online via Zoom
Join us online Wednesday, September 24th at 10:00-11:30 AM for Strawberry Thanksgiving and Communion, and take your acknowledgement of Territory to the next level by considering the Spiritual Covenant.
Many congregations who have been acknowledging the territory for the past few years are asking what meaningful action they can take to move their acknowledgment from words to actions. You are invited to Strawberry Thanksgiving and Communion, an online opportunity to begin the conversation about making a spiritual covenant.
You’re warmly invited
to this special event featuring Adrian Jacobs of the Turtle Clan, Cayuga Nation, sharing on the Spiritual Covenant—a reflection on land, relationship, and reconciliation on Wednesday, September 24th, from 10:00-11:30 AM.
Adrian Jacobs will offer a leadership in this workshop and communion service that will inform and inspire the discernment of churches on any traditional territory who wish to consider concrete action to live into their acknowledgment of territory. The workshop and worship will be grounded in history and scripture, and will invite you to deeper relationship with the land and the peoples on the land, and the Creator, Christ and Spirit. (For more information about the Strawberry Thanksgiving and Communion and the Spiritual Covenant, see below.)
The road to a decision about a faithful action by your community of faith is an ongoing journey. Come prepared to engage and to learn, and then bring your reflections to your home church for prayerful consideration.
Bread and Juice for Communion
This workshop will include an online communion service, so have your own juice and bread ready. For juice, you are invited to honour Indigenous tradition with strawberry juice, a local Indigenous medicine. If you would like to make strawberry juice, here is a simple recipe you can use:
https://tworowtimes.com/healthy-roots/jihsodahk-the-leader-of-the-plants/. If you are not able to use strawberry juice, feel free to bring any fruit juice of your choice.
Register in advance for this event:
https://united-church.zoom.us/meeting/register/2BNM7atZRhKNuAGAeO_1nA
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Read More Here

HFRC UCW Fall Gathering 2025
2025-10-18 09:30 (America/New_York) | Regional Councils Office, Hamilton
Print Registration form here: PDF

HF Discipleship & Justice Meeting
2025-10-23 18:30, 2025-10-30 18:30, 2025-11-20 18:30, 2025-12-04 18:30 (America/New_York) | Online via Zoom

Kathy Douglas' Retirement Party
2026-01-16 13:30 - 15:30 (America/Toronto) | Avondale United Church, 194 Avondale Avenue, Stratford, Ontario, N5A6N4, Canada

Zoom Clergy Gathering - Making the Most of Study Leave
2026-01-22 13:00 - 14:15 (America/Toronto) | Online via Zoom
Zoom link:

Topic: Workshop on Study Leave
Time: Jan 22, 2026 01:00 PM America/Toronto
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81883645749?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 818 8364 5749
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Worshiplude 2026
2026-01-31 - 2026-02-01
