These downloadable bulletin inserts can be shared with your congregation and help them stay connected to work and proceedings of the 41st General Council this August in Ottawa.

Download the PDF attached below, copy, and include in your bulletin this Sunday.

Thanks!

From the United Church Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/UnitedChurchCda):

The General Council Executive meets in Toronto, May 7-9 2011. The agenda and several reports are on the web here:

http://gc40.united-church.ca/en/gce/meetings2011

Some is the proposals coming forward are interesting: 

That the National office remain within a 40 km. radius of 3250 Bloor St.; that it be leased space on a subway corridor; that it be "green office space". (translation: stay in Toronto)

Hi all.  I"ve been away for a bit but when I heard that RIck Garland, the national staff person for Youth and Young Adult ministry was cut this week, I wanted to check in here.  There is an ongoing discussion and strategizing on a FB group - United Church of Canada  Response to YAYA Cuts. FYI.

Greetings and anniversary wishes from the Theology and Inter-Church Inter-Faith Committee. As you celebrate the United Church's 85th Anniversary, we invite you to reflect on this phrase from 1 Corinthians 10:17:

"...we who are many are one body..."

and answer the following question:

How do you as an individual, congregation, or ministry of the United Church experience being one body? In other words, what bonds us together as The United Church of Canada?

This has been bothering me for a while now and I want to ask the opinion of some others attending General Council 40 in Kelowna.

Over the past few years (having been accelerated in the past few months), the Vancouver Olympics have overtaken the city of Vancouver and the province of BC (and much of the rest of Canada, in the form of advertising campaigns, etc.). But while most Canadians are reveling in the attention the world will soon focus on our country, injustice and discrimination and racism bubble just beneath the surface.

Hi Gang,

Before anyone panics that I have fallen down a well somewhere I thought I would drop a note to say that I will be gone, except for quick peeks, until the 17th of August.

Later today, like after I go to bed this morning, the family and I will be off to the Muskoka area to hang with some friends in the Lake Rosseau area.  Swimming, sleeping, eating, lathering, rinsing and repeating.

So, General Council is coming.  And since it is longer than any other church meeting, I don't have enough shirts to last from the 9-15.  Plus one day on each end for travel, but those two are optional.

So far I have:

1) "God is coming.  Look busy."

2) My "Jesus Saves" goalie shirt that was my avatar

3) My darwin fish that was my first avatar here.

4) this - http://www.flickoff.org/shop/images/products/t07.jpg

So I need 3 to 5 more.

First question (well, set of questions), I wonder if folks would like to dialogue on from "Called to Be Church"

How do we name our vision of living God’s mission as The United Church of Canada steps into the future?

What is core and essential, what touches the "heart" of the United Church?