 Thank you. So again, we could have taken each one of the sessions we've had today and just reveled in it for another hour or so. So I'm just feeling bounty of wisdom and possibility there is. So so grateful, Robin. Thank you. And now we're going to move to another modality and Dave Saade, who has also been part of the kind of emerging work in Calgary around faith and spirituality and climate change, is going to be sharing with us what do you pack for hope. And he is going to be presenting from zoom lens. So welcome Dave. Hi, it's good to be with you. And I'm assuming you can hear me. Thanks, thank you. All right. It's kind of wonderful to be at this part of the presentation because I get to reinforce and celebrate all the good stuff that we've been hearing. I want to share with you some insights and perspectives from two authors and then draw on your perspective as as community. So I'm going to be reading a lot of just short statements from different authors. And I want to use the use your imagination that Robin has started with. Sarah mentioned at the very beginning of our time, leaves falling as blessings from God. And many of these statements are going to feel like a whole bunch of leaves. And if you get overwhelmed by this pile of leaves, I encourage you to just take one and and hold it and examine it and and and let it speak to you. So for the next few minutes, we will shuffle along through these leaves and then there will be some we'll we'll start with with the slides in just a moment. And then at the end, as Sarah said, I want to have you pack for me my knapsack as a way of reviewing and taking some something with something out of the presentations today that that will that we can take with us into the journey in the climate crisis. So yes, let's begin with the first slide please. Okay, I hope to share these insights on what hope is from two perspectives. The first is a book by Jane Goodall, the book of hope, a survival guide for trying times. It's an interesting title, because it's addressing our topic, our quest for hope, and these certainly are trying times and that has come up in some of our our breakup conversation. Jane's book is really helpful as a perspective in considering hope as an individual. Next slide please. I want to supplement that with a perspective from Verona Smiles in her book, embodied hope, a homiletical theology reflection. She speaks about an embodied hope, obviously. She speaks about an incarnational perspective in the collective community. So we have an individual perspective and a collective perspective. And then lastly, next slide please, I will ask you to help me pack what we need for this trip. So we'll begin with perspectives from Jane. Next slide. There we go. What is hope? Well, let's start with what hope is not. Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is not passive. It requires action and engagement. Many, she writes, many think that the world is in a mess and they do nothing about it. They feel helpless and hopeless, without hope, all is lost. But she writes, next slide, hope is contagious. It brings solace in a time of anguish, direction in a time of uncertainty, and courage in a time of fear. We live in a dire environmental nightmare. She acknowledges we certainly hope it's not too late, but we know this will not change unless we take action. You won't be active unless you hope that your action is going to do some good. You need hope to get you going, but by taking action you generate hope. It's a circular thing. So where do you start in a circle? Do you need to have the hope in order to get going? Sometimes you need to get going and do something in order to generate that hope, find that hope, reinforce that hope. That's that circular thing. Hope is not an emotion. And she makes an interesting distinction between herself as a naturalist and a scientist. A naturalist looks for the wonder in nature. A scientist is more focused on the facts and a desire to quantify it. As a naturalist, you need to have empathy and intuition and love. As a naturalist, you are full of awe and wonder. And I think that some of the reflections we've had today have been imaginative and inviting us into that awe and wonder. Hope is different from wishing or fantasizing, but involves thinking about the future with rich imagery. Both to fantasize and to hope are future oriented and with rich imagery. But only hope sparks us to take action toward the hoped for goal. Next slide, please. Good. One more. There are three approaches to the future. She describes you can fantasize about the future, which is to have that imagery and big dreams, but it's play. It's fun. It's entertainment when we fantasize. You can also dwell on the future, but that usually focuses on the bad stuff. What might happen? Or you can hope, she says, envisioning a future while recognizing the inevitability of the challenges. Hopeful people anticipate setbacks. Remember that line when we're packing my bag. You can have hopes for life and hopes for the world. There are four things that are necessary for lasting hope. You have to have some realistic goals and some pathways to achieve them. There needs to be confidence that we can achieve them and then some support to overcome adversity. We don't do this hopeful stuff alone. Goodall has four main reasons for her hope and each one of these becomes a whole explicated chapter in her book. Four reasons to have hope today begins with the amazing human intellect, the resilience of nature, the power of youth, and the indomitable human spirit. What might we take of that into the bag? Now, let's expand on this with Miles Imbodival. Now, she talks about three faithful responses to crises, complex questions. The first one, the first faithful response to a crisis might be to steer clear of it. Let's not face it. Let's not give it any time or energy because what really matters is not what we are wrestling with or stumbling through or tripping over. What really matters is the eternal salvation from sin and death and what matters is to proclaim the gospel for our individual faith lives. The task is soul salvation. It's not necessary or wise, according to this faith perspective, to delve into socio-political or communal concerns because that just is disruptive, not helpful. So here I want to come back to something that was said by Liz that rather than shedding what we are not, this faith perspective would actually be assuming something that we are supposed to be and so this approach is often rule-oriented. The world is suffering and if we have the right faith, the right perspective, maybe we'll survive. And if not, it doesn't matter because we're going somewhere else. A different faithful response, a very different faithful response, is to stand apart from society but not in opposition to it. We seek a balance between social and religious concerns. Christ is in culture but Christ is not against culture and we don't want to take sides. We'll just hold this balanced but the risk here is that we don't take any, we don't make any decisions and we don't take any action. We're just nice. There's a third faithful response, a very different one and that's to proclaim and live the gospel as an alternative to violence and suffering and oppression. Hope here rests on a biblical discourse that is to say we have a common story and we live into that story as well as proclaim it. Hope rests on lament, raising a voice alongside of or on behalf of others. We grieve, we mourn, we recognize and we hold our emotions in a safe place respectfully. We're sharing knowing that something is wrong, suffering is real but it's not an individual pathology. It is a common perceived experience so we hold it together and then we rest on intercession. There is a point in getting involved. There's a reason, there is another possibility we can pivot. Becoming involves change so we have discourse, a story, lament and intercession and then we have to do something. Hope rests on taking direct action. It's not enough to say something is wrong. It's not enough to criticize. It's not enough to say this is bad as sometimes the prophets are misrepresented. It is also important to have a vision of another possibility. There is another way and with that vision comes commitment and then the resources to affect change and then the possibility of taking direct action with the support of others. Here you see some agreement between Miles' emphasis on the embodied collective hope and what Jane Goodall is saying about individual hope. Here we come to, next slide, hope coming in the present body of Christ. We have Christ, the cosmic Christ who didn't just make creation but became part of creation, assumed a place within creation but then didn't just leave because this Christ is collectively embodied now as the body of Christ, the people of God. Christ remains present and active in this embodiment of the collective people and in the continuing unfolding of creation, not just the people embody Christ but creation embodies Christ as life begets life. Life is constantly revealing, restoring, becoming and being fulfilled. So we have the cosmic Christ, the collective Christ and then the Christ in each of you individually as part of that collective community. Lives are more than just immaterial souls. Matter matters. God is among creation acting on behalf of creation for the fulfillment of creation and we're part of it. Shuffling through those leaves now. Hopefully you're not just inundated or buried in them but you can be playfully kicking them around a little bit. I want to pick up some of those leaves, review what Sarah and others have talked about in terms of trinity and the fullness of God, the activity of God and it's time in the few minutes we got left to talk the bag. So I need to turn to you as community but we're not going to go into small groups again. I'm hoping that Kevin can help just monitor the community that's present at the church and Shannon can monitor the people in the community here online. We can take the slides off and maybe go back to the larger kind of vision so that we can see each other. But I want you to gather some stones or gather some leaves. What can we take with us as we go into the work of faithful people, climate crisis and living hope? Sarah said she began a journey without a map. I was thinking to start this conversation. One of the things that we need to put in the bag is a map. Some place that addresses those goals that we want to get to but has tons of opportunities. I can go to Regina heading in any direction. I can get to Regina but there will be changes, right? So with the possibilities there needs to be some intention and it's probably wise to be hiking in the country in the wilderness if people know that at a certain time and I should be at a certain place so that there is some acceptance and some monitoring and the possibility to come looking for me when I get lost because I am a male and I don't ask directions. Okay, what else would you out of what we've said today? Just unmute yourself or raise your hand. Kevin will for somebody there at the church will gather your idea. Oh, songs. Alicia says great, great thing to begin with. What else will we pack in the bag that feeds our hope and supports our journey? I think I would bring, sorry, my Indigenous friends. Well, I'd like to be one of your friends too. I can bring more than my Indigenous friends. What else would you pack? I'd bring a book called Bridging Poverty and Thermos and a Bunch of Coffee Cups. I'm sorry. Very good. Somebody sent poetry that was captured but I like it. Sean online here mentioned good theology about our God and God is needing to be at least as big and vast as the cosmos. Yes, yes. And not just the cosmos above but the cosmos within. We have a universe that we're just discovering that is internal too. But how wonderful. And let's sing about that as well. More songs, more thought, more elements to traditional liturgy. Water, living water, H2O water. Humor. Good. Humor. I'm a very practical person. So I'm thinking what do we need to survive? And I'm thinking about terms like deep growth and simplicity. Simplicity. Okay. When you mentioned being very practical, one of the things that I was imagining packing my bag was a good 25 or 40 feet of rope. Because I need to hang my food from the tree. Still there. I need to know that I can hang on to that rope because there's a little kid in me who's like the kid from the daycare and we need to hang on to that rope so that we don't wander off. Right? Very practical. What else can we take? Wax matches. Matches. A light of fire with when we need one. Very good. Okay. And a first aid kit somebody says. There will be, there will be, we anticipate, what did she say? We anticipate adversity. Okay. There will be setbacks so we prepare for that. What else? A couple more. I just heard fire. Both real. What was that Robin? I said I just heard fire and it made me think of the quote by T.R. Schargen that then helping Liz. The next thing would be love, right? Right. When we discover the power of love, we will, for the second time, discover fire. Okay. And I love what you said about the fire within Liz. All right. So part of the journey is I'm going to get tired. I'm going to get discouraged. I need to hear from you. Tell me again the story about the fire in you and the fire and the source of that fire. Okay. So that, that spark will light mine again. A bed roll. This is well, patience with ourselves and you take time. Okay. What was the first word you used? Learn how to sleep by a tree. Yes. And why do you say that? Why do I need to learn to do that? Because when you're sleeping with your back against the tree, it begins to heal your body at the same time. Okay. Okay. And in order to sleep, I have to give in to it. Release. Yep. I would say we need to pack a willingness to be present with the journey. Okay. I'm present with the journey. Focus only on the destination. And there's an importance of being present in the journey. Okay. Knowledge. Knowledge. Okay. Humility. What Robin said about beginner's mind. Okay. Seeds. Coming on the chat said reenchantment. Okay. Yes. Seeds. Both real seeds and metaphorical. Metaphorically speaking. Okay. Hey, this is Rich and my backpack is getting very big and heavy full of good things. And I'm also aware that we have one more presenter we would like to make space for. Doreen has prepared to speak with us this afternoon. So I just want to give you a bit of a heads up about that. That's fine. Thank you. Thank you. We'll end with thanks and we probably will need to have more than one backpack and we'll share. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. So I just I'm enjoying the diversity of energies and perspectives that are coming to our morning today. And it's been it's also really lovely to welcome Doreen. Doreen Kot who is a member of Parkdale United Church. And they have been on a very practical journey of taking concerns about our climate and our presence on the earth and looking at that from the perspective of being a church with an actual building in an actual place and what they can do to make their building help their building to have a smaller footprint. So we're glad to welcome Doreen to share some of the fruits of their work and some wisdom that she can offer to other churches and congregations that might be considering a similar journey. So thank you so much Doreen. Okay looks like we're about ready for lunch. Well it's been interesting being the last one this morning because my mind has been whirling like everything. My topic was how to create an efficient church building and looking at the earth as a sacred trust but I'm also heavily involved in kairos affordable housing the working group and listening to everyone this morning and going back to Liz's a little comment. Consciousness shifting and that's what's been happening to me for months now. There is a big connection between the earth and our housing where it connects our indigenous truth and reconciliation things. It's all connected. It's amazing. So and definitely reinforced today by all of the three previous speakers. So to explain what happened at our church I have to say that this change for us was not quick and it was not easy. It was definitely an action that we finally had to take and that Dave mentioned that we had lots of setbacks and it didn't work smoothly and we had to figure out how to get along. So all of the previous speakers really matched what happened to us if you want to translate it but I'm going to be very practical and begin telling you that our greening history at the church began with Sandy Navaradie guiding us through a church renovation. What a mess. We taught Sunday school by setting tents up inside the auditorium and the kids went to Sunday school inside the tents. They thought it was great fun but it was pretty hectic. So the result was fluorescent lighting throughout. We got modern doors and windows, improved insulation especially in the auditorium. We changed the airflow to about 75% of the church area and shortly after the renovation pipe insulation was added to several hot water distribution pipes to conserve heat. Now I've started at the end of our renovation for a good reason. I'm going to go back and tell you the process of getting there which was interesting. So it was about 2009 that we decided that maybe we should look at solar and you will all remember that was a pretty expensive proposition. Much dialogue about whether we should do it or not. We couldn't afford it. So here's what we looked like 13 years later. So it's easier to picture the church for those of you on line and here. The first picture was in February 2020, blowing snow off the sanctuary route to begin installing 99 new solar panels. And if you can move the next slide up, you'll see putting a big panel up on top of our church was pretty scary. And no, that was not our minister. So each panel weighed 41 pounds and it measured 40 by 80. Don't forget 99 of them had to go up and that was February. We have the next picture and they all had to go up that ladder. Finally, the last picture was our side during the solar panel installation. Nobody needed weight to improve the world. Thank you. So to back up just a little bit in 2018, the faith and justice committees identified that there were two possible sources of solar panels. Faith in the common good, Reverend Christine Boyle called with a personal call from faithful footprints. And I hope I got all these names right because there's so many different titles and everything. We're all greatly confused about who is who and energy efficient Alberta and a contact with Skyfire. So our council formed a committee of Jim Valshaw, an engineer, thank goodness, and Mark LaBelle, who was a doctor who didn't really know anything about solar except he tried it on his house and it didn't work and he had to do it again. And they were off getting obtaining quotes. One worry, roof work had to be completed. So it was suitable for panel installation. Remember everybody, remember this dilemma before you start to look at solar panels on your roof. So by 2019, faithful footprints had approved a grant of 30,000 for us. And we had signed an agreement with Skyfire to install 99 panels. They're up there right now producing 39.11 kilowatts each. So we estimated that we could produce about 36,000 and some kilowatts a year. But in fact, we actually have done 44,600 saving about 1,309 trees. So the callous we can't figure out how they know how many trees we save, but whatever. Anyway, we got about 100% of our actual use. So the big news was that we actually saved 30,000 kilograms of CO2 from entering our planet. So just I knew I was going to get asked questions. So I phoned Jim Walshaw last night. And I said, is this true that for six months we haven't had an electrical bill? And he said, yes, that is true. So don't forget, though, that we've had an $80,000 investment to get that far. And that it's changing regularly. And you all know what's happening to electricity bills nowadays. So you can go on our Parkdale United Church website any day, look under ministry, and it's published there every day. And you can find out what's going on if you can understand it. So I'm going to back up now. What did we do to get there? Because this is a long time. About 2009 to 2011, it's about 12, 13 years ago, we formed a green team did an environmental inventory that we last updated in 2011. And I discovered last weekend when Project Plowshares was at the church that we need to do it again. But it was lots of fun. We started using and selling fair trade coffee supplies, which by the way, the profit of that pays for our Sunday morning coffee. We got rid of all the disposable kitchen supplies. We discouraged the use of bottled water. We went to work in the garden and did greener gardening processes. We went through all the cleaning supplies, gave them away or did something with them, and bought all new supplies for the cleaning the church and whatever. And then we realized we had to redraft everything because our renters were coming and didn't know what to do. And we had to spend a lot of time getting it all reorganized. Well, as you have already figured out, we got a lot of negative responses and we got a lot of positive responses. And back to what Dave just told us, that it doesn't always work well and you've got to do a bit of work to keep it going. So in 2010, we went to Atco and asked for an energy audit. By July, we still didn't know enough and we were still doing lots of research and figuring out how we should go about this. In September, Reverend Lynn Mackey of Alberta and Northwest Conference advised us that Stephen Colette, on behalf of the Greening Sacred Spaces, was running a practical program developed by Faith and the Common Good to do green audits on churches. And at that time, it cost $500. I don't know what he charges now. But it was the best thing we ever did. It was very enlightening, coming from different eyes and information than ours and included everything from energy and water efficiency, kitchen and washrooms, air quality and our property. It included documenting our faith community activities, not just what the building looked like, what we did, who our connections were and all about changing behaviors. Our report arrived with 32 pages of useful information. Much of this was acted on. We continued to review it and assess our greeting programs regularly and we use this document as a guide. I highly recommend using this. In 2012, Bev DeLonge created an eco audit list and the committee determined which actions could be done. And I think Cecile will say yes, the Tollison family and the DeLonge have been very, very involved through this process the whole time. So we decided we needed water coolers and but we later took them out because people said they weren't clean. So we had to change our mind about water coolers. In November of 2012, we put in low flow aerators on all the hand basins to reduce pot and cold water consumption. No detail was too small. We actually discussed switching from paraffin to beeswax candles. And yes, we've got beeswax now. In 2013, we assessed getting air blade, air blade dyzo, I think they were called dyzo air blade dryers for hands, but we couldn't afford them. $1,000 and it just we couldn't do it. So by spring of 2013, we did some fundraising for a water source for the main foyer for low flush toilets, reducing water from 13 liters to six liters. And that's a lot of toilets in our church and an overseas water project. They were subsequently paid for by running Sunday night movies on a social justice thing. You never know what you could do. In 2013, we ordered our first dissolved laundry soap. And just so you don't, in case you don't know what this is, I'll show you what the soap looks like. It comes in packages like this and we sell it and we use it. And it has no parabens. It's not carcinogenic, no phosphates, et cetera, et cetera. It's made in Moncton, New Brunswick. And they use the money to send kids to school and all sorts of things with this. And we love it. I always, one of these will do your wash. No bottles, no nothing. So that's what we did. So we explored other ideas. We even decided maybe we shouldn't print so many bulletins and use so much paper. We went to Skyfire and asked about solar panels on our homes personally. And then we went around, checked all the window sales because it's a long time since we had done that renovation. And let's see, what did we do next? Oh, so we put in two water filters, one on the upstairs sink and one on the downstairs sink because we grant a lot at Park Daily United. And places like the Foothills Hospital when they came for workshops or bringing in cases of bottled water. So we put the water filters on. That's been the best thing we ever did. So finally, by 2016, the report from the Jan Tollefson Bequest Group arrived, recommending that the church proceed with new boilers, solar panels, and the auditorium roof installation. So according to the last report from our committee, the best thing we ever did was replace those boilers, not the panels, but the boilers. They're 85% efficient and it's reduced our energy bill a lot. So that being done, we started selling shampoo. Oh, we got, we had lots, we've had all sorts of ideas. There's our shampoo. No, it's not a shampoo. And it's called Unwrapped Life Shampoo. And there's very different kinds. It's not just one. And would you believe it? There's no bottle, no plastic bottle. And I got news for you that'll last you about four months. So that's what we do now. And we sell it, we really don't make much money because it's expensive, I have to say. But it goes over quite well. So there you go. You know our story. Well, we learned a lot in the process, for sure. And it's been very interesting because people who rent and come and use our church now know that we're doing this and ask questions about how we do it. So we're able to spread throughout the community the importance of being careful with what you use and how you do things. And again, we know the burden of climate change is falling on people in the far north and the global south. We've contributed the most to this problem. And we all need to be reminded that we are called to look after these gifts that God's given us. So it's just time to take action, as Dave says. Thank you, Doreen. I think I saw that and I wondered what it was. It's just keeping a snack next time she gets hungry. But it wasn't a snack, it was soap. We have some folders that I'll stick out, you can pick up. That's great. Thank you. Kevin, would it be okay if we did about another 10 minutes? Would that be all right? I think so. We took it through into lunch. Yeah, my thought is. We don't need to take a long break. Okay, that's great. Thank you. So if folks can just give us like another 10 minutes, what I'd like to do is I'd like to create an opportunity for us to do a little bit of kind of integration. A little thank you for being the coach around that. I'd like to give chance for us a little bit of integration about what we've been kind of enjoying and receiving today because there's been so much that has been rich and such a diversity of offering and possibilities. So wanted to create time for us to just kind of reflect and say, okay, what has emerged for me today? Okay. So how shall we do that? Oh, it's a question. What's the best way? So what I'd like to do is I'd like to give us each kind of 30 seconds, okay, to just, I'm going to trust you that you can be succinct, to just say one gift. Now I know you've received more than one gift, but if you were to identify one gift that you've received today that you are taking with you, maybe it actually will be the stone that Robin gave us, but one gift that you are carrying forward with you. I'd like you to just take a moment to name that in the group. So maybe we'll start here and Shannon, I will call on people here and then Shannon, you could call on the folk on screen. So this is an exercise in trust on the facilitator's part, right? I am trusting that we will be able to keep it into a brief because we want to respect people's time and the fact that we have lunch and more work to do this afternoon, but we also want to really honor this time we spent together by giving people a chance to voice what they've received and what has been good. So we'll do this a little adventure together. Thank you. I will call on people, but I will have a challenge because I can't see your names. It's not like on Zoom land where I can see everybody's names. So I will probably need your help and that I will probably start for people I know. So you guys can have a heads up about that and then move to the people I don't know. So yeah, so maybe I'll go to Helen first and then Robin and then Elise. If you could share one gift Helen and my gift point of my gift is to see you here today. Maybe because the last piece was just heard, but I love the practicality of your help. It just seemed to put the meat on the bones for me and I need that because I know about the internal connection, the contemplative side, but I need to know some of the how to push it into action. Great. Thank you. Robin and then Elise and then Kevin. I have already offered the same answer. I appreciate the practicality of what you know to hear of, but I'm going to add Wes. Okay. Thanks Kevin and then Jake. So I'm the network coordinator for Baylor McCombish. So it's very nice to hear the story of one community that has been doing this work for a long time that's been connected, that's been using the resources that we have and you know, actually seeing the long term effects of the work that your organization does. It's nice to hear the stories. Okay. Well, in my day job, I'm a pastor and so this rock, as you mentioned, and also the story of Wild Church, those are ones that I'm going to Jake and then this. I'm going to take with me a sense of community. Liz and then Yuta. I'm with Jake. I feel like we're on a journey with Dave's backpack and we're all, there's different gifts and different people and so wonderful to come together for synergy. Yuta and then Doreen. I'll say inspiration. Just the gift of everybody's contributions and how diverse and beautiful. Doreen and then we'll go over here to the lovely lady in the blue neck piece, but we'll start with Doreen here. Oh me? Yes. Well, I'm learning a lot. I am affirming my connection between indigenous culture or housing and this earth and putting it all together. It is amazing. Go ahead. I was really struck by the Holy Mountain and the whole that there were sites were sacred to the First Nations people. It reminded me of my ancestors from the British Isles that there were a lot of sacred sites in Paganism and just that we often forgot them or they were covered over by a church or something. So having that as part of our connection to the Church, the sacred nature of sites. Go ahead. I think the word for me is reconnection, both in terms of people that I was a candidate for ministry from Parkdale nearly 40 years ago and they keep on giving to me in terms of inspiration and love and also reconnecting all the different thoughts that have surfaced here too throughout my life when I was thinking about two years ago how I did this experiment in our United Church in Athabasca, five Sundays of Wiley Church and how that rested with the people that sort of reaffirming that again. So reconnection in many different ways. Lovely. Thank you. Go ahead. Learning so much today. I think Tony's, I would describe it as a liturgy. I'm not sure. The term I'm thinking is his stony liturgy and maybe you wouldn't use that term, but I think that was a real gift that I'll be reflecting on for a while. Yeah, this has been amazing. I think the thing that is resonated most with me is what Robin, I'm also Robin, the social isolation being a modern play and just when you were talking about Wild Church, I just wanted to just grab it with everything I had. So thank you for that. Yeah. One thing that I gathered and it was a reminder of Master Eckhart and the three things to focus on holding action and protest activity. That was much of my life in the last 50 years. I'm life sustaining and creating new life in finding ways to teach peace rather than war, taking the lessons from the stories of my ancestors and to recognize truth in different ways. And the shifting consciousness and waking up of wisdom I think I wrote that out. It's remembering the story of Rip Van Winkle that after a period of time, the world starts to wake up to what's going on around them, opening to the knowledge and wisdom of the environmental biosphere. That's putting it all together. And it's a continuous, has to be done, whether we go off into monastic communities and pray for the earth only, or whether we engage in community with each other and not be afraid to raise our voices to help and remind people that air, water, land, and life are the sacred gifts that we've all been given and that we need to hold on to and draw people back to those if we want to help encourage them to see that they too might be in the deep sleep of Rip Van Winkle and the story of Rip Van Winkle. What happened in 20 years if you woke up was changed. Thank you. I think for me how it's how the practical is rooted in the spiritual, in the knowing that we are connected to the earth, to God, to all of these parts of ourselves that are bigger than just humanity, that there is the non-human world as well. And that's pretty important going forward to Doreen's presentation on Parkdale and how you have kind of incorporated that in your building. And I am from the FCJ Center and we are currently looking at ways that we can do something with our old building as well and see how we can bring that more in line with what is environmentally friendly, but keeping spirituality within them. So I'm very thankful for this morning. I am a rock, reminds me it's like a mini yandesca. So now I will look at it as my sacred place. And also I really learned that hope is not an emotion and hope requires direct action because often we just hope and think, oh I've done my work, I just hope it would happen. So direct action for sure and I'm going to buy Jane Goodall's book. So Shannon, I'm not sure, do we have time? I think so. Okay, all right. So Shannon I'll turn it over to you to invite a brief comment from folks online. Okay, so we had some comments in the chat and maybe in the interests of time I will read some of them and then I will open it up to folks online to add to that. So Deirdre had said the need for consciousness shifting, shifting action and the idea of a green audit. Jim said we are really early in the process so consciousness raising in both the church and in the community at large is the first step, visualizing and dreaming. Sean, earthen spirit, barb, confirmation that we can act. Alicia, community, I'm not alone. Laura, reminder to look to tradition. Magdalena, capacity, do folks online, if you have something else you want to add, just unmute yourself at this moment and speak out. I was just glad we did spend so much time on the spirituality, on some of the background things. If we don't unchain our imaginations and transform our imaginations, we'll keep acting out of the same patterns. So there's something about that transformation of imagination that's really important to all the work that we do. Yes, thanks Sean. Anyone else want to add a word here before we go to our lunch break? Okay, thank you very, oh Laura, go for it. I just, I too thought that the embodied experience of taking time for spiritual practice was very valuable. We had an event a couple of weeks ago where it was more cerebral and I really appreciated this opportunity. All right, thank you. And before I stood up here, I saw a comment in there from Helena, I believe, Elaine about green exodus is one of the things she's going to be bringing us. I want to thank everyone who was a participant. I think that part of the strength of the way we organized this, maybe of an accidental strength, is that all of you are participants. Nobody is, almost nobody is here just to observe, but we're all here actively creating community together and so I'm so glad for all of you who come for the various reasons. For those of us who are in person here, we are going to now take a quick break to grab some food, but we're going to eat together while we hear some of the reports from across the Prairie's North Region and we'll begin with Shannon's report in about let's say 10 minutes or so. So that will give you a chance to eat and not feel like you have to try to talk with your mouth full and listen to what's going on. This has been a time to reconnect in Calgary. For me, coming from Edmonton, I'm getting to know all of you, but really the first time and learning about the good work that's happening down here and now we get a chance to hear very even briefer stories from around the Prairie's North Region and hear what's happening there. They've been listening in, hopefully they're being inspired and motivated to do similar kinds of work in their place, in the place where they come from, but we also want to hear stories about what they've already been doing. For the people who are here in person, I'll just point out there's two signs at the back. One is for our Prairie's North newsletter. So just our little coordinating committee, one of the ways we've been trying to help build community is by making that newsletter. If you get in moment, pick it up, there's two additions there and I think Javik will talk about that later. Also, no pressure, but if you feel like you'd like to make a donation to cover the cost of lunch, that just helps us do other kinds of events too and so there's a little basket there. Of course, no obligation for that. And so for those of you who are online, please take a moment to take a comfort rest, get up and stretch. It's a long time on screen and move around a bit and then come back and Shannon will begin sharing stories and then some of you online will be also, it'll be your turn and many of us will be listening to you. So 10 minutes. If folks are interested in being kept in the loop about activities of wild church or green exodus or some of the contemplative mystic kind of opportunities that Liz will be offering, please feel free to sign up. So I'll just leave this yellow pad here and we'd love to have your name and email address and we can keep you in the loop about what's coming on in Calgary because this is just the beginning. That's a good reminder Sarah and I'll just say, because I know some of you may have other things you need to leave for so I'll just say this right now. If you'd like to learn more and if you, there's also an queries north email address where you will be able to get those updates as well. So you can see that on the back counter and if you have any questions or want to know about other presenters, contact us at the chyrus prayers north at gmail.com and we can definitely connect you back up with anything you heard and with Sarah's organization. Thanks. Let's take a moment to just be grateful again. I'll invite you to take a few breaths in silence and then I'll just close with thanks creator. Thank you. So the next presenter is going to be a different voice from the chyrus queries north coordinating committee. Javid is another member with me, a volunteer with me from Edmonton and we you'll see a little write up in the newsletter but I'll let you about who we are and all that but I'll let you introduce yourself. You have to stand a little forward at home. Well, good afternoon everyone. So as Kevin said, my name is Javid Summers and I am one of a four some that's the coordinating committee for chyrus prayers north. I feel like we're new still but we've actually been doing this for 18 months so we're not really new anymore. But there was a kind of a lapse, I think maybe a significant lapse in terms of a coordinating committee in this region. So we are mostly starting from scratch. And I think our job Kevin described I think is animating some of the work that that has been happening even if there hasn't been a coordinating committee in the chyrus prayers north region, which by the way is over to Saskatchewan and Northwest Territories. And so animating some of that work and then liaising I think between the different local groups and then between the region and national. And so this annual gathering of course is a big part of what we do we did coordinate manual gathering last year in November that was completely virtual and happy that we've got some people in a room now and and doing something hybrid so others can join too. So last year's event we had Stan McKay and Bob Haverlich join us for the learning portion of that and they talked about covenants and treaty and I'll come in with the earth and treaty and helped us think about that for those of you that know Stan, cream and former moderator of the United Church and Bob Haverlich is an author and artist whose work is really provocative and challenges us to think about a relationship with creation in new ways so so that was our annual gathering last year and then kind of coming out of that Bob had a book called the court case of the creatures that came out I think early in 2022 and we were able to host a little I don't know I think we called it a dessert hour or something online for people to hear a little bit from the book and celebrate that so that was an event we coordinated in May. And then the other thing we've been doing is this newsletter which Kevin printed a copy of and there's a couple back there and I think probably every one year would be on the mailing list but if you're not you could sign up and you'll get that so we've done two of those so far and I think we've we as a courting committee have contributed to these newsletters but really the newsletter is designed to kind of showcase the work that's happening in the region so much of what was talked about today for example could be the types of things that we would feature in future newsletters and I think it's fair to say we're always looking for stories to include um maybe I'll just talk about who we are beyond me and Kevin so we have two other Saskatoon based members of our group Amanda Dodge and Sean Sanford Beck and yeah they're uh we're all pictured by the way on this little newsletter um and I think Amanda and Sean are are with us virtually right now from Saskatoon and so yeah the four of us are volunteers we we meet typically once a month for an hour and do this work together and have a lot of fun and um in fact it was so much fun that I wanted to to invite others to join us um there isn't a tremendous amount of work to do um although we could do more if we had more people um but it would be lovely to have more join us and whether it's someone here uh at the San Diego Gathering or perhaps you know someone you know I've in my mind a young person uh or young people that that might be interested in getting involved in some of this this could be a really cool opportunity to connect with some others and get some experience uh in this work so I'll just put that out there we'd be happy to hear from you or people you know who might be interested in joining the Coordinating Committee and make sure this work continues uh at the moment I think the four of us are pretty committed to this but you never know what happens and we wouldn't want to uh to have uh this work lost this momentum lost again as it was in the last few years um I don't know if there's anything else more generally to say about the Coordinating Committee I was going to talk maybe about the finances yeah so it's on the treasure um and uh we we could present a financial statement but wasn't going to do that just briefly talk about the money we managed so we get a $1,000 grant from Kairos National every year uh to cover some of our sort of basic admin expenses bank fees and postage and stuff uh and then of course to fund an event like this and uh we don't do a lot of fundraising um certainly we would welcome donations but uh we're actually the regional body is not a charity so we can't get tax receipts so we don't do a lot of fundraising ourselves so we just rely mostly on the support from Kairos National uh but we also um are uh the bank for the decolonizing group which I will talk about a little bit later so that's actually in terms of financial transactions most of the work that that I've been doing as treasurer yeah I think unless there's any questions I think that's about all I have to say about Coordinating Committee. Just to help bring it up on screen um I'm going to invite Amanda and Sean to say hi um take turns say hi so people can hear your voices and see your faces and then that's all thanks Kevin hi I'm Amanda Dodge um she her pronouns with Midnight Central Committee Saskatchewan and uh yeah Jeva's not kidding the Coordinating Committee is a fun group so if you're interested in being involved please do join us and I'm Sean Sean Sanford and I'm in Saskatoon Treaty Six as well and uh through St Andrews College uh rooted there too so it's a good time we have uh but work does get done eventually uh yeah good to be with y'all today real good thanks you too that's us all right thank you right thanks Javish um and then I'd also like to just ask um Jake um Jake is a pastor here at Grace President here and you've been very kind to be our host today so I'd like to you know hear from you a little bit of what Grace President here is up to sure thanks Kevin thanks everybody it's great to be with you today and uh so um I'll back up a little bit some a little taller than other folks but um Grace has a connection to uh Kyros and the affordable housing project that is happening here in Calgary through Leslie Lee and Leslie is a part of our engagement and service committee here at Grace and so I'm glad to connect on a deeper level uh this morning and this afternoon so Grace has lots of things going on I'll share a few we've been really involved in the work of truth healing and reconciliation uh Grace was one of the uh 10 churches in Calgary that had red paint splattered on its doors in July of 2021 and uh our reaction to that was a little different than others we left the paint on our doors to have a time of community conversation around the meaning of that paint and and what that meant and it embarked Grace on a journey of truth and reconciliation as well so um we worked with Tony and John uh Tony's brother to host a book study uh on their dad's book um these mountains are sacred places we've we've done blanket exercises um we had us a public service of lament actually we're invited people to come and lament the actions that the church has taken and we've shared our history and and so we've we've been on this journey and it's it's an ever-evolving journey um so actually right before we are going to have a mural put on our doors uh that represented truth healing and reconciliation that they incorporated the red paint someone came and painted over it so we have this kind of community mural that's happening on our doors uh unfortunately it happens at 2 a.m so um it's interesting but um so that's uh some of the work we've been doing there we have uh we're a satellite site for the Calgary Food Bank and we recognize too that for a lot of people um you know when Doreen was talking about uh laundry detergent and things like that laundry detergent is one of the most expensive things in the grocery store and so if you have a limited budget how do you laundry detergent so we actually used eco-friendly containers and gave out um biodegradable laundry soap to people uh just to say um here's a way that we can be supportive of you um so um it's it's uh it's a it's an interesting thing that um we've tried to do in uh engaging with the community uh tomorrow night we have our annual chunk or treat party so we turn our parking lot into a place where kids from the neighborhood who live in various apartment buildings and things can come and uh trick or treat and people who have decorated their cars and uh it's just a great time um that allows folks here um we have English language timing classes and we call them English language running for a specific reason reason we aren't a program that uh you know prepares anyone for a test but really it's a way for people who um are new to Canada to come and be a part of a conversation and to break out of the isolation that oftentimes uh folks who are new feel because they can't speak English uh it as well as others and so this is a place to practice English so um it's fun to pop in on those sometimes and hear you know when you're teaching about a phrase like it's raining cats and dogs to hear you know kind of what people think that actually needs so and we know that English is a tricky language as well so it's just a way for people to come together and do a conversation um so uh those are a few of the things that we have going on we help support reset which is here in Calgary and they work with women who are escaping sex trafficking and so we actually provide a house for them that they use and and that's an important part of our ministry um we continue continue to expand looking at um uh earth care and uh how we can do that as a congregation we aren't quite at the stage that Doreen and Parkdale are at but we are continuing to work on that and so um inviting people into earth care as well and so um that's a bit of the ministry that's happening here at Grace uh in in building community and I'm happy to talk more about it um I know that uh remind me of your name yeah uh you yeah me yeah Diana Diana Diana was saying that she worked uh worked at avenue 15 and we are avenue 15 is right across the street they work with um homeless and highly mobile youth and so we're continuing to form partnership with them where we will use eco-friendly containers and hopefully uh food leftovers to create soups and chilies that can be given out to people who stop by the church but also to uh for for youth at avenue 15 so we're continually trying to figure out um how Grace's story connects with the community and how the community's story is a part of Grace's story and so it's exciting work it's challenging work but uh it's it's what we're involved in so thanks for being here today and welcome glad you're here thanks thanks Jake and thank you for hosting us today your hospitality has uh been what made this whole event possible so it's perfect um next up we want to hear a very quick uh thing from Doreen and Leslie about a thing called Cairo's a place to call home and maybe it's known to all the Caldera folks but share it uh so that people in Faskatoon and Regina and Edmonton can learn more about a place to call home who wants to talk okay Leslie you'll you have to interrupt for whatever we'll just back up Calgary Cairo's affordable housing working group is known as a place to call home sort of that's part of the problem naming these things and uh we work in partnerships with the Calgary homeless foundation and cups and home space and it used to be have another name but it's home space now home space holds the mortgage for the four buildings that we have and uh the four buildings are called Longbow in bonus Claire on McLean Trail and the Cadia Place on Heritage Drive and Bagview over in West Calgary United Church and uh we work with those four buildings only and the clients that we have for for those buildings uh come from just about everywhere lately we've had a huge intake of indigenous people people from jails from the street in from the coal cups everywhere and last week we had our first one there was no bed in Calgary at all and we've got them on Thursday and there's no shelter available so I'm sure that's coming down the road um what Cairo's affordable housing does is support the housing in whatever way we can and it's pretty variable depends on what skill you've got how much money you've got uh we do all sorts of things like um well I'll just give you a brief list we work at Longbow with Brad from Cobbs and Bagview that's delivered to the community we work with the new a Cadia uh and bonus uh Calgary Hubs uh whatever uh we go for coffee parties we've done barbecues we've done birthday parties the christmas party's coming up at mcduchel united I personally at Parkdale do what we call Band-Aid and there is no budget when a person like I'll explain Thursday they came from the street and they have nothing in fact most of the people that come to live in these places have nothing and nothing means nothing that means a cold under your head for a pillow no dishes nothing and there is no budget for that so unless we churches or Cairo's provide for that there is no money this person came on Thursday we took beds a table and chairs bedding pillows dishes uh food supply was was organized but sometimes if it's on a Friday night and you can't get to the food bank or whatever they don't even have food so Cairo's affordable housing just fills in I guess wherever it's needed what would you add Leslie I had mentioned to during this recent when we were having lunch that a lot of ours is donations and I know the church here I people here who needed the church and I take them all over to Parkdale United like all the bedding and and and the women's group here also supports it so I buy toasters and coffee pots and inexpensive ones and I take them over and but I was saying that the materials that are new were sort of reusing them so it's like upcycling yeah or recycling and they really appreciate them so but I must say that Doreen and Dan who helps also they're like a this huge team it's just two or three of them right and we need help more than uh for sure can you just tell people the scope of your project like how many you said you own some buildings and how many people you're serving okay uh there the four buildings fold about 490 some people so at any given time for an example Acadia Place has about 90 children we don't have many statistics about who they are but I need to tell you that Harvard University has excellent statistics on our four buildings and that our people have come from London England and Portland Oregon and all over the world actually to see what we're doing at these four buildings as bad as it is people think it's okay I've talked about we talked with people from Regina and they don't have housing first like we do it's whole different whole different whole park I know personally from Band-Aid we had to keep some statistics for cops on many people we were looking after and I know we've housed over some 3000 people at Parkdale and the beds we put in about 40 beds a year and uh the Presbyterian church is being magnificent there are best supporters so we just team it up stuff comes from everywhere all I can say and without everybody's help we just couldn't do it but it's something that the Calvary Homeless Foundation has to look at if they're going to move people into these buildings they better do something to figure out what they're going to use to move men I just wanted to mention that one of the fundraisers that the chirostore so they can see just one of the camera now yeah anyway just still not in the camera doesn't really matter one of the things that the group here at Grace has done in a number of groups is we do the coldest night of the year walk every February towards the end of February and the fundraising from that walk it's a national walk and they raise I think last year's about 11 million dollars nationally but anyway Calvary the the chiro's portable housing group is one of the recipients for the walk we do and all I was going to say was what the money is used for is to help keep down the mortgage for one of the buildings and thank you this the building they're doing it now which is one of the place to call home but initially we were doing it for a Katie place and what happened was we were paying this down I mean quite gradually mind you and some an anonymous person saw what we were doing and they paid the balance of the mortgage on the Katie place they were they never we don't know who they were because it was a church-based thing and we were raising this money they paid off the balance so then we could go to help raise for no I mean bank piece or after Katie that's always been at so support the tools maybe so it's just a real hands-on and I one last point of view that it's wonderful to meet people and it's phenomenal for truth and reconciliation goals and the United Church edge did okay a request that I made last year until they ran out of money so they they look at us as a truth and reconciliation avenue for their work thank you very again your your energy and very much we have five more short little presentations before we'll secure again from Shannon the next two or three are online so I think it is Catherine is next and she's from Regina Kyros Regina right so that would be me filling in for Catherine I'm Laura Stewart and Catherine had to leave for a couple of hours but I have her report so reading Catherine's words as I prepare to write this report I marvel at the journey of Kyros Regina over these past few years from our initial meetings in June and August of 2019 to discern whether to start a Regina group or restart it through our startup in September that year and our last in-person meeting in February of 2020 before the pandemic changed everything we have managed to continue to survive and thrive Kyros Regina met 11 times from September 2021 until October 2022 during the past year there were two working groups the guaranteed livable income which disbanded at the end of May and the eco justice or formerly climate justice and both groups also met monthly some of the activities in which we were involved this past year include but are not limited to a march for basic income in October 2021 promotion of the for the love of creation conversations to James walks led by two of our members and of course the work of promoting various letter writing campaigns and petitions the city of Regina developed a sustainability framework which was completed this year and our group participated in feedback towards this framework we had several guest speakers at our meetings over the course of the year for example Peter Gilmer from Regina anti-poverty ministry about their work advocating for justice for the poor in Regina and Saskatchewan as you heard we do not have a housing first program here Kerry Munn-Ven from Citizens for Public Justice and Cameron Esler from the David Suzuki Foundation spoke to us about the 1.5 degree target for municipal climate action Vicki Albedkoff from Saskatoon and Barry Morris from Vancouver from the United Church and Chantel Morrow Feskeuk and Sarah Semelov from Integrated Community Ministry Saskatoon spoke to us about the United Church Guaranteed Living Income Initiative our main event this year was the creation care in our places of prayer workshop October 15th we were able to offer our 32 participants a theological reflection on creation care examples and experiences of churches which have done retrofitting what is involved in a retrofit and some of the resources available to communities looking to do this work including things like how to get in an environmental audit done and some of the financial aid that's available the response to the workshop was very positive and our hope is to do some follow-up work with this we expect to very soon have recordings from the workshop available on the Kairos Canada YouTube channel and we'll also have a place where you can look up some of the resources that we gathered so if you're interested in that look us up on our Kairos Regina Facebook page and watch for that in closing I would like to thank all our members for their commitment and enthusiasm to the work of Kairos in Regina in particular I want to thank Dan Beverage who has stepped down from the role of convener his leadership passion and knowledge have been inspiring thank you Dan respectfully submitted by Catherine Cameron on behalf of Kairos Regina thank you thank you so much Laura and thank you Kairos Regina for the work that you've continued to do you're one of our more active groups in the previous north region next up we have Sean is going to give a report for Wendy from Lethbridge right yeah hey folks so Wendy was here earlier this morning and she didn't give me a full report to give she just realized she had to go to another event some sort of double looked herself as we do and so she gave me a list of the various things that that she's involved with now it's it's interesting one of the things that we've noticed as a coordinating committee is that there are several Kairos collectives or Kairos working groups in the in the bigger areas but we also have a number of what we call micro regions which are which are areas within within the bigger region where there's just maybe one or two individuals and they don't necessary and they always tell us this they're they don't necessarily meet as a Kairos group and they say Kairos has been sort of defunct for a while and then they and then they give us these lists of all the things that they're involved with and it really it made us think this was a key reflection for us is that in some ways it doesn't matter whether an individual or even a group is called Kairos or not it it matters that the work is being done and we're just grateful that people still self identify as Kairos involved or Kairos inspired or Kairos supported or even Kairos curious people so Wendy is one of those folks in in Lethbridge and she does a lot of her work through the United Church congregation which is McKillop United Church there's a couple of United Churches in Lethbridge but McKillop is the one she's involved with and their social action justice piece and social action committee so they've been she just wanted me to share that they've been heavily involved with opposing open pit coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rockies which yeah sounds like a really good idea doesn't it they've been working hard against that when it when it came up I think it was last year that that was going to the government was trying to get that started again they've been involved she's been involved with a number of affirming events and so that's not sort of officially Kairos but we can see where the different social justice webs all intersect with each other so affirming work she's been involved with conversations around the Buffalo Treaty now don't mistake the Buffalo Treaty which is about the return of the bison into free roaming great prophetic herds which will signal the rebirth of Turtle Island don't mistake that for the sort of silliness that goes on between Saskatchewan and Alberta governments looking for whatever they're up to I won't get into that so she's been involved with Buffalo Treaty stuff and also doing some work on crafting land acknowledgments and she mentioned John Snow within that as well that I've been learning from from John and also the the issue that I think was brought that Laura brought up to around guaranteed basic income as another piece so they've been they've been busy doing stuff in Lethbridge and like I say it's not always a Kairos group but it's Kairos identified and Kairos friendly people and there's there's a lot of them out there so thank you very much thank you Sean and our next presentation report will come from I think it's Bruce and Bruce is with uh Bruce and um Cecile are with Keepers of the Water I think are you Keepers of the Water yeah are you able to say Water is life so what does an activist look like my mentor gifted me with this t-shirt recently there's no such thing as a winnable war and so when I got sent off at the church after studying to become a DAC and a minister between 1997 and 19 and 2001-2002 I got sent to Athabasca it's on the border of Treaty 8, Treaty 6 the river defines the boundaries of those treaties the Athabasca river is the only undammed large major river in Alberta and they're working to keep it undammed so that the river has the right to flow as it belongs to and should be able to um so long story in 2020-19-2002-2003-2004 we imagine what this piece means in a time of war the Gulf War was going on George Walker George Henry which one was the war at the time and I was a child of a war veteran who was nearly killed in Poland when the Canadians sent canoes for the soldiers to float down the river to capture an island by Nijmegen and it was a disaster story and he was hit with a rocket propelled grenade and so he survived and I was taught that war is evil it's become part of my mantra and so peace initiative then we got into parties started reactivating himself as an activist because he got burnt out and had a slap suit sending to stop the pulp mill in Athabasca the pulp mill in Athabasca is the cleanest pulp mill along the river because of this action of these people who were protesting the cruise missiles and they used to put on bottle drives to pay off the fine that was given to them and potentially the embarrass the company and they said no no no no no because if they never had any way that they could ever pay off the cord ordered settlement under a slap suit the Athabasca region is a sacrifice zone you heard that this morning the sacrifice zones the Athabasca river north of Athabasca is a sacrifice zone it's where laws are different people about development and development and the current plan that we're fighting strongly against you want to bring up okay um is if you're going to dump pens ponds back into the river this plate of poly got to never been fine for dumping the water into the bay of the river in bc murray edwards and his his clan have never been charged with the break so um so what we do we started out as the keepers of the Athabasca and a few years later we paid some money and they organized this plate in munar 350.org we had the healing walks along the Athabasca river around the circuit by the tennings ponds at sun car and sin crude those were 11 mile 11 kilometer walks we had five of them in six years we had all the ministers the heads of the heads of all the churches in tyros came to Athabasca to have a meeting to go on a tour um i was away at the time during holidays to use the Athabasca river that was where they started um so what we have today so i said about starting indigenous climate action aerial garanjay and that group are indigenous people talking about climate change and climate action so we rolled along and in 2006 first nations people at port resolution for good home started keepers of the water movement and they brought and started and issued a proclamation you can see that on our website there's lots of information on our website but the story many of the people i'm i'm not one of the elders that remembers the whole story and that's my job is to remind them where they came from where they're going they plan to go to cop 27 they should be hanging up with kairas working together because i don't want to go i'm not going but we have we're planning on sending delegates to region but we should be coalescing and talking with other people at the same time so that we have france walk all that france walk all that case now that's why he's famous around the world he's from fort smith across the line north of alberta northern alberta that's why paulette paulette case gave the indigenous people a spot to fight lives in the north started to give rights back that's probably one of the goals on our behalf are with us i'm not sure who's on the list i've been given thanks to mr politician creator war room and the environmental terrorists were causing you know just information about what's going on in alberta that was the best fundraising gift we ever had because we're proving that we weren't doing anything wrong and so i'm a hundred thousand dollar budget within two and a half years i know there's seven times that amount of money so we're growing we have the resources and i get to sit back let the chief accountant bookkeeper this group have to manage the projects that we're working on and you can see them all on online and kairos actually helps send our senior elder nazi scouting to listen to desmond to do for jennifer henry and me and she were there when desmond to do spoke to the truth and we have lots of friends in fort mary we the story is out there and we're gathering those stories we're videotaping and getting elder stories and that's part of our education we put these in zoom has been a wonderful tool to help us connect not have to gather a way can you sure organize of the zoom really thank you thank you bruce um bruce this is our i've never met you before today but i have um one thing you didn't mention that keepers of the water partnered with council of canadians to put on a three-part series at the u of a and i've attended some of those online and uh there's still one more to go and i think those videos are also being recorded and it's specifically about the type tar sands tailing pause so if anyone's interested in learning more about those they will be i think those will be available too we have two more presentations javid you're up next um and so we're now into not so much kairos groups but groups that kairos sort of works alongside this is javid you're going to talk about the decolonization yeah so my gateway into kairos i guess i was kairos curious at one point and then i uh during this decolonization group which um i think we settled on the world affiliated with kairos i'm not sure not everyone in the group was like super keen to be like yeah we're kairos but we we are affiliated with kairos and uh most of us are located in Saskatchewan in fact i think i'm the only member in alberta and here's our sort of official definition we're a group of settlers committed to dismantling colonialism with the goal of facilitating educational conversations among settlers from primarily christian faith communities about decolonization and systemic discrimination in order to equip learners for advocacy and action so we've been around for two years now and uh we've coordinated i think maybe five events in total in the last year um well that that annual gathering learning event uh in november was was a decolonizing groups event with stan mckay and bob haverlich and then in may of this year we did a virtual event uh with rose roberts and striker calvez about um land acknowledgements and so that was a two-day two evening virtual uh event that we did um that was excellent and um learned about thinking about land acknowledgements and a bit of a fresh way and then in august uh we did a on the land event at muskeg lake uh crenation uh and harry uh lafond and germaine lafond and elaine and stenchad meyers were our teachers there and i think we had about 40 or so people there for uh most of us saturday and uh and a wonderful time of being on the reserve there and learning and uh sessions uh coming out of the book healing haunted histories by elaine and and chad meyers um so yeah we're continuing our work i think at the moment we're we're trying to think a bit more about how um we can do more advocacy type of work as opposed to in the last few events it's been a lot of education and that's important and that should lead to advocacy but we want to think a bit more uh um consciously about how we can do advocacy and one last thing i want to say is we have a partner with the treaty land sharing network in saskatch one um and i don't know how many people uh know about the treaty land sharing network i um don't want to say a whole bunch about them but they're doing really awesome stuff and they have a great website and um definitely would encourage you to check them out um and i think there's rumblings of people around over to trying to do similar things and and i would certainly be excited to see that happen so um yeah i'll end there thanks thanks javid um yes uh the last one is not so much a group but an event that's happening actually next saturday in edmonton that i'm involved with so this one is um kind of a cool event that was kairos was invited into to help partner um as as a sponsor as a supporter just um in name it's a reparations fund and it's happening so a year or so ago somebody a donor an anonymous donor in edmonton donated about a hundred thousand dollars to the king's university um to be used for projects that would support um reconciliation and reparations and um some some of the the recipients wisely decided to gather an advisory council of indigenous people to guide the disbursement of that fund but also to connect with churches to make sure that we keep replenishing that fund and using it as um not just a one-time gift but as a kind of seed money for ongoing projects the calls to action the 94 calls to action um they have specific calls that are are spoken to the churches and sometimes we have used our voice to help petition the government to take action meaningful action and the governments have a lot of responsibility in that way but as christians we wanted to also do our part in our own way and so this is a specifically a church based fund not seeking donors necessarily outside of churches to sort of do matching funds into this fund matching donations into this fund to to build it up so that it can be a sustainable fund that continues to be governed and managed and used by local indigenous people to share to support events and um that groups that are um healing working towards healing in the end of the region so that fund I think it's called I might be wrong on the pronunciation but it's called the pep cat naso in fund and um you will find out more about these either through our facebook group the kairos perry north facebook group through the e newsletter that we've been building and um or by sending an email to that email address kairos perrys north at juneville.com