Inner Life, Outer Living

Homilist: Rev. Shana
Service Leader: Dan Klimke

Much of what I read during our break this summer examined the relationship between the inner life (introspection and reflection on our lives) and how we live out our days. One of the challenges, of course, is that we don’t often have, or take, much time to look inward. When we do, do we feel alignment with who we feel ourselves to be and how we are living? Do others see the person I think I am?

Music:  Chalice Choir
Board Member on Duty: Peter Hancock

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Note: this link will expire 30 days after the service.

To access videos of older services, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca. If you are a member/supporter with access to Breeze, you can see a list of all the services with YouTube links under “My Profile”:

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Eldering

Homilist: Steve Goldberg
Service Leader: Lynne Bonner

Eldering is not a title automatically bestowed by age, nor is it a practice reserved for later life. It is the continuing work of transforming what life teaches us into presence, perspective, judgment, curiosity, and care that can benefit others. Through personal stories, reflection, humor, and music, Steve Goldberg explores five capacities that can be cultivated at any age and deepened over a lifetime. He also considers what generations can offer one another, bringing together the possibilities and digital competence of younger people with the experience and human connection of those shaped by a more analogue world. The presentation concludes with Steve’s original piano music.

Steve Goldberg has spent more than four decades helping individuals, couples, organizations, and communities navigate change and discover new possibilities in times of transition. Today, his work focuses on possibility, purpose, and contribution across generations. He is the author of Renaissance 2040: From Fracture to Repair, Finding the Upside, and Languishing or Blossoming. During the isolation of COVID, Steve began composing and recording ‘healing piano music for a noisy world’ and has since released two albums of original music. At 75, he continues to write, compose, speak, and lead conversations about blossoming at any age

Music:  Jennifer with special guest, Erin Carson DeWolfe (vocals)
Board Member on Duty: Katherine Maas

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Note: this link will expire 30 days after the service.

To access videos of older services, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca. If you are a member/supporter with access to Breeze, you can see a list of all the services with YouTube links under “My Profile”:

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Gratitude & Giving

Homilist: Rev. Melora
Service Leader: Ian Warrender

This month’s theme, ‘agency and acceptance,’ is, in part, about things beyond our control. Bad things – and also good things. This Sunday, we consider what can happen in both situations when we turn to community. When bad things happen, we can find solace and strength in community. When we are blessed with good things, we can lean into gratitude, and share in community.

Music: The Pop-up Children’s Choir will join the Chalice Choir
Board Member on Duty: Loraine Lundquist

Celebrate our Community Brunch!  Stay after the service for a free pancake brunch during which we celebrate the gifts of this UU Community and Members and Supporters are invited to make a financial pledge to support and sustain our UU Community in the 2027 budget year.

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Note: this link will expire 30 days after the service.

To access videos of older services, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca. If you are a member/supporter with access to Breeze, you can see a list of all the services with YouTube links under “My Profile”:

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Born on the stages of Victoria’s premier performance venues, Lust Life has spent more than three decades redefining what a jazz band can be. Since its beginnings in 1994, the group has evolved from a classic jazz ensemble into a genre-blending collective that celebrates musical artistry without boundaries.

At the heart of Lust Life is a deep respect for the jazz tradition. The Great American Songbook provides a rich foundation, but the band’s sound reaches far beyond it—drawing inspiration from Latin rhythms, blues, swing, jump jazz, funk, pop, soul, and contemporary grooves. Every performance is thoughtfully crafted to connect with audiences, creating an atmosphere that’s vibrant, uplifting, and unforgettable.

Lust Life resists easy categorization. Their signature West Coast sound is sophisticated yet approachable, timeless yet refreshingly modern. Rich harmonies, expressive vocals, inventive improvisation, and irresistible rhythms come together to create performances that are as emotionally engaging as they are musically adventurous.

Visit their website: https://www.lustlife.ca/

Hosted by our Reverend of Jazz, Shana Lynngood. All are welcome. Admission by donation. All your donations go to the musicians and are very much appreciated.

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Becoming: Transition to Adulthood

Homilist: Jen Rashleigh and Coming of Age Participants
Service Leader: Karen Christie

Six young people in our community have been exploring the transition to adulthood. In this service they will share what they have discovered about what they believe and who they are becoming as they navigate life in our chaotic world. They have been mentored by some adults in the congregation and shared a camping adventure in July in Strathcona Park. Come hear what they this time of intentional exploration and reflection has led to.

Music:  Christine and Linda Gould (Two piano music)
Board Member on Duty: Liz Graham

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Note: this link will expire 30 days after the service. To access videos of older services, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca.

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Moving through Conflict Together

Homilists: Rev. Melora and Members of the Responsible Relations Team, Jeanne VanBronkhorst & Kent Haden 
Worship Associate: Johnathan Savard

Conflict is an integral part of any thriving community. Conflict done well illuminates what we value and what we fear. When we can move together through conflict with respect, we open ourselves to new insights and deepen our connections with each other.

This service will introduce to the congregation our newly formed UUCV Responsible Relations Team.

Music: Chalice Choir
Board Member on Duty: Nikki Martzke

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Note: this link will expire 30 days after the service. To access videos of older services, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca.

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Beginning Again – Ingathering Sunday

Homilist: Rev. Shana
Worship Associate: Karen Christie

As we begin a new program year together, it’s a good time to reflect on where we are as a community. When we start again, it’s a chance to both appreciate where we have been and what we are building on. It’s also a chance to think about what we might want to do differently—or more, or less of in the year ahead.

Music: Jennifer Mitchell, Piano
Board Member on Duty: Margaret McKelvie

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Note: this link will expire 30 days after the service. To access videos of older services, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca.

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Singing the Sources

Homilist: Liz Graham
Worship Associate: Dan Klimke

Christianity has the Bible, Islam has the Koran, and Jews, the Torah.  Come for a service exploring the diverse sources that our Unitarian Universalist faith draws from in an hour of hymns and readings.

Music: Jennifer Mitchell, piano
Board Member on Duty: TBA

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Note: this link will expire six months after the service. To access videos of older services, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca.

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Intergenerational Dance Party

Homilist: Rev. Shana
Worship Associate: Dan Klimke

It’s become an August tradition to have a service in which we gather to dance together, share our highlights and lowlights of the summer months, and reconnect by enjoying one another’s company on the dance floor. We’ll move to the music, pause to light candles, and offer a few words of appreciation for summer’s gifts.

Board Member on Duty: Shirley Travis

There is no livestream video for the service this week.

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Blessing of the Animals

Homilist: Rev. Melora
Worship Associate: Jesse Invik

Come one, come all! Come bipeds, come quadrupeds! Dogs, cats, gerbils, lizards, fish, teddy bears — all are welcome! In this service, we honour the gifts that animals bring to our lives. Bring your pets (appropriately leashed or caged), beloved stuffed animals, or mementos of your pets (e.g., if your cat would not enjoy such an outing, bring their photo and their favourite toy or collar). There will also be a time to remember the pets we have lost; bring photos and mementos of any beloved animal companion you would like to remember with a candle lighting.

Music: Jennifer Mitchell, piano
Board Member on Duty: Jim Hemstock

To access the video of this service, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca.

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Summer Musings

Homilist: Rev. Shana
Worship Associate: John Hopewell

Summer is often a time of slower pace and long days that can lead to contemplation. What have you been reflecting on this summer? How might you carry the observations of summer into the other seasons of the year?

Music: Jennifer Mitchell, piano
Board Member on Duty: Katherine Maas

To access the video of this service, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca.

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Unitarians Face A New Age

Homilist: Rev. Shawn Gauthier (Video)
Worship Associate: Lynne Bonner

In the 1930s, our spiritual forebears bravely asked: “whether the organized religious movement known as Unitarianism has any real function to perform in the modern world”. Come and hear their bold response, and Reverend Shawn Gauthier’s equally powerful invitations to us all.

This will be a video service provided by the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC). This sermon was recorded in November 2025 at Vancouver Unitarians.

Rev. Shawn Gauthier is the Settled Minister at Vancouver Unitarians. Previously, he served for 16 years as the Minister at the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto. Rev. Shawn loves to travel, to take in theatre and classical music, and to explore alongside his husband Bob.

Board Member on Duty: Liz Graham

To access the video of this service, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca.

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Passages of Poetry and Pride

Wilder Simpson, Homilist
Dan Klimke, Worship Associate

Wilder is a transgender man whose poetry explores what it means—and how it feels—to live authentically and vulnerably in such a harsh and beautiful world. He will share poetry during this service that explores themes of love, loss, grief, transformation, joy and pride. His message will blend the human and spiritual experience, tenderly call in community, and offer permission to find freedom and pride in authentic self-expression.

Wilder Simpson is a poet, an athlete, a creative mind, a presence within a large and loving family, and an academic currently completing a Bachelor of Athletic and Exercise Therapy at Camosun College. He finds access to an unnamable presence of Love that underlies every aspect of his human experience.  Poetry is one way that Love moves through him.

Board Member on Duty: Katherine Maas
Music: Jennifer Mitchell, piano

To access the video of this service, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca.

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Silence and Contemplation

Rev. Shana, Homilist
Johnathan Savard, Worship Associate

I find myself again and again returning to writings about the beauty and lessons of silence. In a world that is in constant motion and so very noisy, it can be a great relief to be still and be quiet. How much can we hear when we are silent? How much better can we get to know ourselves?

Music: Jennifer Mitchell, piano
Board Member on Duty: Katherine Maas

To access the video of this service, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca.

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Life Lessons

Rev. Melora, Homilist
John Hopewell, Worship Associate

If you could speak to your younger self, what counsel would you offer?

Knowing what you know now, having lived the decades you have lived, what life wisdom have you gleaned?

In this interactive, connection-building service, we’ll look at some ‘life wisdom’ written by others, and consider which parts might speak to each of us today.

Please bring to the service:

If you have a poem that has guided you through tough times, or a postcard with words of inspiration you keep on your desk, or a mantra you recite every day, you are invited to bring it to the sanctuary Sunday for sharing on a display table (just for others to see, not keep; you can take it home after the service). Feel free to be creative – if there is a song or an image that highlights an important life lesson for you, bring that too.

Music: Jennifer Mitchell
Board Member on Duty: Peter Hancock

To access the video of this service, please contact communications@victoriaunitarian.ca.

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