For over 10 years, with members coming and going, the Reconciliation Matters (RM) Team recognizes each of us is at a different stage of engaging with the work of knowing and understanding the truth of our Canadian past and choosing to join in the work of reconciliation. Each year the RM Team wonders what it can offer so we can listen, read, learn, understand and move along the reconciliation journey. The team plans and hosts discussion panels, suggests movies and books, organizes tours of centres working for Truth and Reconciliation, plans and leads our participation in major Indigenous Days, urges us to SHOW UP.
SHUC’s Reconciliation Matters Team organized a 2nd Hour Conversation event with Senator Dennis Patterson, facilitated by Rev Dave. Dennis Patterson, senator of Nunavut 2009-2023, discussed his life working with Indigenous people in the north, his passion for justice and the rights of Indigenous peoples, and his unique perspectives as a founder of Nunavut.
In the past number of years, we have learned to show up at Indigenous led events and celebrations to build relationship in person, to be committed allies and to learn what actions we can take as individuals and as a community of faith.
If you check out our Sunday worship services you will see that we take our land acknowledgement seriously, delivering unique and meaningful messages each week. We join the Red Ribbon Skirt Project Vancouver sewing and participate in the annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Walk. We hang red dresses in remembrance of those missing and murdered, wear our orange shirts, celebrate National Indigenous People’s Day, and honour National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
To join our Reconciliation Matters team, please email socialjustice@shuc.ca
We take individual and political action to protect our planet, biodiversity and mitigate the impact of climate change on humans and our more-than-human relatives. We meet once a month, currently on the third Wednesday, to continue working on current campaigns, plan our next campaign, and support each other in the long-term work of climate justice action.
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To support the work of First United we volunteer in leadership roles and in programmes, raise money, and provide necessities for sheltered, housed and unhoused community members.
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Across some decades SHUC has sponsored refugee families and accompanied them as they settle into their new lives in Vancouver and beyond.
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Shaughnessy Heights United Church is an affirming and welcoming community that offers a place for people of all walks of life and at all stages in their faith journey. Whether you’ve been going to church for years, haven’t been in ages, or have never set foot in a church before — from long time believers to the merely curious seekers — we have a place for you.
As an affirming congregation, we are honoured to provide a safe and holy space for members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
What We Do