What are you longing for? Join us for a three-week Advent Small Group Study about how we can use Longing as a spiritual gift and bring Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love to the world in practical ways.

The Canadian Shield Regional Council is offering the opportunity for individuals to access an Advent Small Group Study created by the Prayer Bench entitled Advent Longing. The Manitou Intentional Learning Community is delighted to announce that Rev. Dr. Shawn Redden has agreed to facilitate this three-session study online via Zoom.

From the Prayer Bench publisher website:

“This Advent Small Group Study invites participants to nurture longing as a powerful spiritual gift through an imaginative pilgrimage in an old-growth forest. It encourages us to notice longing in our ordinary days, recognize its gifts during times of desolation and reclamation, and welcome “thin spaces”—those moments of connection, support, and hope. In the context of a planetary crisis, we explore how to activate Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love in the world God loves.” 

*** Please note that this event has unfortunately been cancelled.

Please join MILC for the Annual General Meeting followed a presentation by guest speaker Rev. Dr. Shawn Redden. Reimagining Our Baptismal Promises in a Post-Pandemic Church

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kindom of God belongs…. Receive the kindom of God like one of these… And Jesus took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.” (Mark 10:13-16)

In the presentation, Reimagining Our Baptismal Promises in a Post-Pandemic Church, Rev. Dr. Shawn Redden discusses how at Baptism, our congregations make a promise to provide spiritual nurture and faith formation for children and all persons welcomed into the Community of Faith. In this talk, Rev. Redden will help us investigate how we honour our baptismal promise in a post-pandemic church when fewer of us can offer traditional Sunday School. We will consider what innovations in faith formation and spiritual nurture we are being called to imagine into reality. Perhaps there is an opportunity in this new era of being Church for us to nurture the ‘child’ in each of us.

Join us Wednesday, November 6th, 2024 @ 6:30pm

St. Peter’s United Church or online via Zoom

Rev. Susan Eagle joins MILC for a talk on Housing and Homelessness where she will draw upon her experience in advocacy work to speak about the underlying issues that contribute to homelessness, strategies for addressing stereotyping and offer advice on doing advocacy work in the church to address the housing crisis. 

Rev. Dr. Susan Eagle currently serves with Grace United Church in Barrie. She is well known for her work with sole support parents, the working poor, persons on social assistance and newcomers to Canada. Susan was awarded the Canada 125 medal in 1993, the Queens Jubilee medal in 2013 and an honorary doctorate in divinity by Victoria University in 2011, all for her work with the vulnerable. In 2010, she was inducted into London’s Newsmakers Hall of Fame and honoured with a public tribute for her leadership in the development of the City of London’s homelessness and affordable housing policy.

There will be opportunities for questions and discussion. Please join us.

Wednesday, October 23^rd at 6:30 pm via Zoom

Join us for a soul-nourishing Pop-up Lunch and Learn Webinar! Dive into the spiritual practices of gratitude and generosity, embracing the sacred seasons of Lent and Easter.

Wednesday, January 24 @ 12 noon via Zoom

Hosted by Rev. Melody Duncanson-Hales from the Canadian Shield and Shining Waters Regional Councils, this session is a unique opportunity to support your Community of Faith Stewardship in profound ways. Don’t miss this enlightening journey through the seasons of the heart.

This workshop will provide information and insights about medical assistance in dying (MAID). Workshop participants will explore how to care for people on their journey and those in their circle of support while knowing that each person will have different experiences of anticipatory grief complicated at times by a moral/spiritual burden. It will be a safe space to ask difficult questions.There will be an opportunity to wrestle with theology and faith, ethics and fear.

Wednesday, November 29^th, 2023, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. via Zoom

Presented by Rev. Kathy Dahmer who works at Health Sciences North (HSN) in Sudbury as a Psychotherapist in the role of chaplain.

More about Rev. Kathy Dahmer:

Rev Kathy Dahmer lives in Whitefish and works at HSN as a Registered Psychotherapist in the role of Chaplain.  She works with patients and families as they navigate MAID and attends the deaths to provide care; first to patient, then to family.  Kathy has extensive experience in providing supportive care in palliation from her many years of work at Hospice.  In private practice Kathy specializes in Emotion Focused Therapy, which is an experiential therapy rooted in attachment science.  Kathy suggests that often the questions from our heads are coming from a need within our heart, and listens deeply for the language of the heart.  These experiences lived and learned contribute to her understanding pastoral care as the greatest reflection of incarnation.  Kathy is passionate about mentoring and modelling pastoral care as a non-anxious presence, able to journey into the deepest of valleys unafraid.

After serving in the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe and the United Methodist English Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rev. Desire Tiriwepi joined St. Paul’s United Church in Thunder Bay in 2022.  Please join the Manitou Intentional Learning Community to hear Rev. Desire share insights on  Advent and Christmas according to the United Methodist Church in Africa and his experience of establishing Intercultural Worship Services at St. Paul’s United in Thunder Bay.

Rev. Desire holds a BA (Hons) and an MA in Religious Studies and Theology from the University of Zimbabwe, and recently earned a Master of Divinity from Drew University, New Jersey, USA.

Monday, December 4th, 2023 @ 6:30 pm Eastern Time

Via Zoom

The Manitou Intentional Learning Community invites you to our Annual General Meeting, followed by:

Bold Discipleship in Practice

Wednesday, November 15^th, 2023

Hybrid meeting: in person at St Peter’s United Church, Sudbury and online via Zoom

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

(A brief business meeting followed by presentations and discussion)

Guest Speakers

Tracy Davis, DLM, Supporting End of Life Journeys

Torrin Maag, Master’s Student, Atlantic School of Theology, Lessons from Young Adults: Discipleship in the 21^st Century

Diane Matheson-Jimenez, Spirituality as Bold Discipleship

October, the time when all good worship leaders start planning for Advent and Christmas!

This workshop will provide opportunities for reflection and discussion of some of the Advent and Christmas lectionary readings and of ways in which we might frame the Advent message in these challenging times. There will be opportunities for group wide and small group work.

Our workshop facilitator will be Rev. Stewart Walker, who currently serves the St. Joseph Island Pastoral Charge. Stewart is an ordained minister with a passion for preaching and biblical study. He has led these sessions for MILC for the past few years, bringing worship leaders together to share their insights into the lectionary readings for the Advent and Christmas seasons.

Please join us for this workshop via Zoom on Saturday, October 28th from 9:30 am to noon.

For more information, please contact Gillian Schell at [email protected].

Participants are invited to make a donation (suggestions $10) to support the work of the Manitou Intentional Learning Community. Please make an etranfer to [email protected]. 

An in person event to engage with Canadian Shield Regional Council online town hall exploring the remit to remove structural barriers to developing and sustaining an autonomous Indigenous Church. Post presentation discussion, light refreshments and fellowship.
Please note, supper is not provided- please bring your own

SEPTEMBER 19
DOORS OPEN 5:30 PM
ONLINE TOWN HALL 6:00 PM
ST. PETER’S UNITED CHURCH,
203 YORK STREET, SUDBURY

Open to all who are interested in learning more about the remit vote, both for your own community of faith’s vote, or our regional response

A learning and networking gathering for United Churches across Greater Sudbury

Are you passionate about engaging in Indigenous justice initiatives in your congregation?

Do you want concrete, helpful resources?

Are you looking for connection and relationships to support you?

Join us for a simple dinner, conversation and exploration.

Wednesday, May 24^th, 2023 @ 5:30pm

St. Peter’s United Church, 203 York Street, Sudbury

Hosted by the Manitou Intentional Learning Community