July services at Gimli Unitarian Church

Gimli Unitarian Church will open for the summer season on Sunday, July 1, 2018, and continue with services on the "odd Sundays" of the month (that is, 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sundays) until September 2. Services are at 11:00 a.m. in the congregation’s landmark building at 76 Second Avenue. Dress is casual — after all, it’s cottage season! 

Please note – The service originally scheduled for July 29, “Reclaiming the Moral High Ground,” has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict. For those who will be in town, check out What Walaa Wants, Indigenous Shorts, and Sweet Country, which will be screened at the church that day as part of the Gimli Film Festival.

July 1 – Amid the Noise and Haste – “Go placidly amid the noise and haste,” advised Max Ehrmann in his poem, Desiderata, “and remember what peace there may be in silence.” Although I’ve struggled against the temptation to rant and rave over the past year or so, despairing over the sorry state of public affairs, now more than ever it is important to remain calm and focused.

July 15 – Loafing on the Porch – “Night after summer night the supper dishes went unwashed while we loafed together on the porch watching fireflies seed-stitch the dark with gold,” wrote Clementine Paddleford. As people become more divided and distracted and overwhelmed, I am reminded that I once quipped that one of the purposes of the liberal church is “to bring front porch values to backyard neighbourhoods.”

July 29 – Cancelled – Reclaiming the Moral High Ground – “The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville, while “morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.” In this time of rampant legalism and dubious morality, is it possible to turn the tables so that democracy is built on a moral foundation?

Rev. Stefan Jonasson will preach at all three services in July.

Summer services begin July 1

Gimli Unitarian Church will open for the summer season on Sunday, July 1, 2018, and continue with services on the odd Sundays of the month – July 15, July 29, August 5, August 19, and September 2. Services are at 11:00 a.m. in the congregation’s landmark building at 76 Second Avenue. Dress is casual — after all, it’s cottage season! 

No Yuletide Service This Year

Since some of you have asked, we regret that there will not be a Yuletide service this year. Please join us in July 2018 when summer services resume at the Gimli Unitarian Church.

Sunday, September 3, 2017 – Incomplete But Astonishing Journeys

Sunday, September 3, at 11:00 a.m. – Incomplete But Astonishing Journeys – In his book, The Immense Journey, anthropologist Loren Eiseley wrote, “We will travel as far as we can, but we cannot in one lifetime see all that we would like to see or to learn all that we hunger to know.” This unquenchable thirst lies behind both the spiritual quest and the pursuit of scientific discovery, yet still we undertake the journey. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

Services are in the Gimli Unitarian Church's landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!

Sunday, August 20, 2017 – The Longer View

Sunday, August 20, at 11:00 a.m. – The Longer View – “Whatever discouragement, pessimism, and despair there may be today is often a result of too great absorption in the present,” wrote George R. Dodson in the early 20th century. “The gloom due to the short sight is dissipated by the courage, hope, and faith that come with the long view.” At this critical time in history, only a longer view will save us from despair. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

Services are in the Gimli Unitarian Church's landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!

Looking across Axarfjörður from Tjörnes. (Photo by Stefan Jonasson.)

Sunday, August 6, 2017 – Thought and Memory

Sunday, August 6, at 11:00 a.m. – Thought and Memory – In old Norse mythology, the two ravens who perch of Óðinn’s shoulders are called Huginn and Muninn – “Thought and Memory” – and they fly over the world daily. According to an ancient verse, Óðinn says, “I fear for Thought, that he may not return / But I fear more for Memory.” On Íslendingadagurinn weekend, we will consider this wisdom from the ancient manuscripts. Rev. Stefan Jonasson 

Services are in the Gimli Unitarian Church's landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!

The Norse god Óðinn flanked by his ravens, Huginn and Muninn,
from an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript.

Sunday, July 16, 2017 – How Much False Witness Can We Bear?

Sunday, July 16, at 11:00 a.m. – How Much False Witness Can We Bear? – According to author Damian Thompson, counterknowledge is “misinformation packaged to look like fact – packaged so effectively, indeed, that the twenty-first century is facing a pandemic of credulous thinking.” As barefaced lies have been rebranded as “alternative facts,” we may have reached a tipping point in the spread of misinformation and willful disinformation. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

Services are in the Gimli Unitarian Church's landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!

Calumny of Appeles by Sandro Botticelli (circa 1496), which depcicts King Midas, attended by Ignorance and Suspicion, extending his hand to Slander, accompanied by Fraud and Conspiracy.