South Fraser Unitarians are on summer hiatus.

We carry the light of truth, the warmth of community, and the fire of commitment in our hearts until we are together again.

August 12, 2022

Summer Spirit

Every week during the summer, we’ll suggest ways to feed your spirit through awareness. Try it! You may be surprised at how your eyes and heart open to the season.

This Coming Sunday!

All BC Unitarian congregations will be coming together for an inspiring Summer Service:

It Takes Practice with Matt Meyer.

Sunday, August 14, 11:00 am

Vancouver Unitarian Church

949 W 49th Ave - or - livestream

Our favorite songs, whoever the artist or whatever the style, were created in a strange alchemy of study and inspiration, of strict practice and of letting go.

Spiritual Practice is a similar combination of dedication, muscle memory, and perhaps a little divine inspiration. Join us for a musical exploration of learning to risk, building the muscle memory of courage, and the spiritual practice of relationship when things around us are changing fast.

Matt is a musician and worship leader who has led hundreds of services for UU congregations across the country. He has a degree in hand drumming from Berklee College of Music and serves as Director of Community Life for Sanctuary Boston.

You can attend the service in-person at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver or via livestream at http://ucv.im/live

Learn More About Matt Meyer

Our Summer Pics

We want to see your summer adventures. If you take photos this season, please send copies to Smitty at admin@surreyunitarians.ca to be featured in the Summer Chalice!

Erich: A fly-fishing lesson with Grandpa.

In June, the Wylie-Isocki family went to the Yukon with Skye’s father, Fraser, who grew up in Whitehorse. (He hadn’t been back for 60 years!) They saw lots of amazing wildlife, including many, many bears, bison and foxes, 2 porcupines and 1 wolf. They saw Lake LeBarge, drank the Sour Toe Cocktail in Dawson City, and explored the Carcross Desert.

This month, Erich I. took off for an adventure in Chile. Here he is hiking in the Atacama Desert.

Our UU History: Lucy Stone

Lucy Stone was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts on August 13, 1818.

An early leader of the movement for women’s rights and suffrage, she worked as a schoolteacher for 10 years before entering Oberlin College, the only college then open to women. She was the first Massachusetts woman to earn a B.A. degree.

Stone was reared Congregationalist but became a Unitarian and remained so all her life. She became famous as an orator and traveled widely to speak on behalf of abolition and women’s rights, addressing every state legislature in the U.S. She also worked closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

In 1855, she married Henry Blackwell but kept her own name after marriage. Together, the couple drew up “a marriage protest” against the lack of legal rights for women and read the protest during their marriage ceremony, which was conducted by a Unitarian minister.

Stone organized the American Woman Suffrage Associtaion (1869) and founded a weekly paper, The Women’s Journal, with her husband.

She died on October 18, 1893 and was the first person in Massachusetts to be cremated.

Summer Art Series

Watch here for our Summer Art Series — throughout July and August — featuring summer-themed visual arts.

Sunflowers

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

oil on canvas - size 20 and 30 canvases - 1888-1889

The Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh painted five large canvases of sunflowers in a vase while he was in the South of France (Arles). They became among his most famous works.

The paintings show sunflowers in all stages of life, from full bloom to withering. The paintings were considered innovative for their use of the yellow spectrum, partly because newly invented pigments made new colours possible.

Van Gogh said that the painting held a special significance for him because they communicated “gratitude’.

On March 30, 1987, a Japanese insurance magnate paid the equivalent of US$39,921,750 for van Gogh's Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers at auction at Christie's London. At that time, it was a record-setting amount for a work of art.

Rev. Samaya Oakley

Rev. Samaya will be on vacation/study leave from July 3rd to August 15th. She will be available in case of an emergency.

Deadline for submissions for each edition of the Chalice Lighter is noon on Wednesdays. To send a submission email (admin@surreyunitarians.ca).