Today's newsletter is overflowing with good news and great events to mark on your calendar. I encourage you to read through it slowly, with a cup of something warm. 

As happens each year at this time, many events are scheduled. Those that didn't make it directly into this e-news are still important, and so here are links to other happenings:

Tuesday Night Jazz - December 13th, December 20th and December 27th.
Community Carol Sing - Saturday, December 17th with Gordon Miller on piano
Seasonal Concert and Sing-along with the Great American Songbook Trio - Monday December 19th
A Soulful Solstice Sing-Along - Wednesday December 21st

Feel free to share this newsletter with your friends and neighbours!

Photo by Tim Douglas

Sunday, December 11th, 2022: 10:15AM

“In the shelter of one another, the people live,” writes Padriag O’Tuma. I wonder how you have experienced (or longed to know) the truth of this? This Sunday, we explore the gift of sheltering each other as we gather around the story of Mary’s visit to the home of Elizabeth ... two people whose lives have taken wildly unexpected turns.  

Once again we’ll be celebrating communion and lighting another of our Advent candles ... so if you happen to be joining online, please, take a moment to gather up all you need to participate in the fullest way possible.  See you there!

Rev. Karen Dickey

This Sunday we light the third of the candles in the Advent Wreath, the JOY candle. Opening to joy is one of the paths by which we make way for new possibilities to emerge. As we read in The Book of Joy, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness, the Dali Lama --two people who know suffering well and exude a joy in life-- joy is not contingent on our experience of our outer circumstances. Joy is something deeper, rooted in our convictions. So, for example, if joy is rooted in the conviction that nothing can separate us from the love of God, that Love’s power for life continues to be at work in our world, then our practice this week gives us pause to contemplate what transpires in and through us as we as we open to joy.  

So that once again this week our candle lighting ritual gathers up a number of our voices, I invite you to jot me a brief note before Sunday morning, finishing this sentence: when I open to joy____________________ .

Thank you!  Rev. Karen Dickey

Photo by KaLisa Veer on Unsplash

Sunday, December 11th, 2022, immediately after church there will be a congregational gathering.

We will meet (some in person and some online) on Sunday, December 11th after the worship service. Please join us on December 11th. Lunch will be provided to the in-person group and you will be out of the church by 1:30pm at the latest!

For those participating from a distance, there will be a Zoom meeting covering these same questions starting at 11:45am PT. Click HERE for the post-Service Zoom link. ( Meeting ID: 848 8764 1402 Passcode: 680529)

This year we’re welcoming children to experience the Christmas Story at 4pm on Christmas Eve.  Now we need the cast ... Mary, Joseph, shepherds, angels, townspeople ... oh and a baby.  We’ll keep it simple and a narrator will tell the story.  Contact Karen if you want to be part of sharing this story with children in the neighbourhood.

Photo by lil artsy

Our last Artist Gathering of 2022 happens this Saturday, 2pm - 4:30pm in the Lower Hall.

This is a time for us to make art together.
What you need to know:
- All are welcome, whatever your medium of expression – painting, embroidery, drawing, collage, colouring, poetry……

Join with the Existence Project in celebrating community in James Bay!

On Wednesday, December 14th, 2022 from 11am to 3pm, come along for some community circle time, food, singing, cookie decorating and more. Help build meaningful connections with your neighbours.

Starting in 2016 with homemade interviews of people living on the streets of Victoria, the Existence Project has evolved into creating accessible multi-media projects, capacity building initiatives for the unhoused, and intersectional community events that centre the voices of people with lived experience of homelessness, all with the broad goal of humanizing homelessness.

https://www.theexistenceproject.ca/

The choir will sing on Christmas Eve (December 24th) at the 8pm service, and anybody is welcome to join. Music will be available as of Sunday December 11th and practice files will be sent out that day as well. There will be two rehearsals. The first will take place on Sunday, December 18th from 11:50am-12:50pm (following coffee) in the JBUC Sanctuary. The second will take place on Christmas Eve before the service (exact time tbc.). If you are not already on the choir email list and are interested in joining, please email Jennifer at j.turner@queensu.ca by December 9th.

Photo by David Beale on Unsplash

Come in out of the cold and enjoy a hot brunch with your James Bay neighbours.

Each Thursday - 10am to 12noon in the Lower Hall of James Bay United Church. Access on east side via steps and on the west side via ramp, at the back of the building.

Created and hosted by community volunteers to assist folks during hard times, and to help support community in James Bay.

Questions? Able to volunteer? Contact Joanne.

Are you aware that 14 treaties were negotiated on Vancouver Island between 1850-54? How are these treaties relevant today and why does it matter that we know about them?

James Bay United Church is offering a six session on-line study on Indigenous  and Treaty Rights on Vancouver Island focusing on the Vancouver Island Treaties (formerly known as the Douglas treaties and the Fort Victoria treaties).  This will combine a book study of To Share Not Surrender, videos from the 2017 Songhees Conference on the treaties, guest speakers, and small group discussion. Dates are every second Thursday from 7:00 to 8:30 pm (PT), starting  January 5, 2023. ( January 5, 19,  February 2, 16, March 2, 16.) 

This March, James Bay United will host an Introduction to Healing Pathway/Spiritual Energy Practice workshop, facilitated by Jannice Foreman and Jan Morrissey.

Friday, March 10th, 2023: 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Saturday, March 11th, 2023: 9am - 5pm
Sunday, March 12th, 2023: 1pm - 5pm

The Healing Pathway program was developed by the United Church's Naramata Centre in BC, to enable people to develop the gifts and skills of energy-based healing within the Christian tradition, and to foster the development of healing ministries within faith communities. 

Your James Bay United organizers are Carol Garceau and Judy Krzesowski.

Photo by Jay Castor on Unsplash