Sunday, July 16, 2023 – Lazy Days of Summer

Sunday, July 16, at 11:00 a.m. – Lazy Days of Summer – “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer,” sang Nat King Cole. I’m content just to be lazy. At times, we all need a chance to step back from the busyness of life and simply relax. 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!

Summer Services at Gimli Unitarian Church – 2023

Summer Sundays at the Gimli Unitarian Church Second Avenue near Centre Street – 11:00 a.m. – Everyone Welcome!

July 2 – Once Upon a Time (and Repeat) – How often have we heard someone say, “That’s just a story?” Yet we humans are, by nature, storytellers. It’s how we roll in the shire. We’ll explore why our everyday stories are so important in our quest for meaning. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

July 16 – Lazy Days of Summer – “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer,” sang Nat King Cole. I’m content just to be lazy. At times, we all need a chance to step back from the busyness of life and simply relax. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

August 6 – Restless and Rooted – So often in life we find ourselves torn between two equally compelling desires: to stay put and to venture forth. We’ll honour the restlessness of our ancestors while celebrating the many generations who have called this community home. Rev. Wayne Arnason & Rev. Kathleen Rolenz

August 20 – Our Ground of Being – Paul Tillich defined God as “the ground of being” or “being itself.” Such a philosophical understanding of divinity stands in contrast to the personal God or gods that many believe in. What is it that commands your ultimate commitment in life? Rev. Stefan Jonasson

September 3 – Kodak Moments – Photography has lost most of its magic since its invention, and the camera of old has been supplanted by the smartphone, but it’s impossible to overstate how the photograph has changed our lives in countless ways. 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, July 2, 2023 – Once Upon a Time (and Repeat)

Sunday, July 2, at 11:00 a.m. – Once Upon a Time (and Repeat) – How often have we heard someone say, "That's just a story?" Yet we humans are, by nature, storytellers. It's how we roll in the shire. We'll explore why our everyday stories are so important in our quest for meaning. – 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!

Summer Services 2023

Yes, Gimli Unitarian Church will be open this summer! We have five services planned: July 2, July 16, August 6, August 20, and September 3. All five services are at 11:00 a.m. Watch this page for details.

Summer Services at Gimli Unitarian Church – 2022

Gimli Unitarian Church will re-open for the 2022 summer season on Sunday, July 17, 2020. 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! 

July 17 – Life Interrupted – The past two years disrupted our routines and tested our spirits. What did we lose? What have we gained? Where are we going?

July 31 – An Unwanted Reformation – Icelanders love to brag about the country’s peaceful conversion to Christianity around the year 1000. By contrast, the Reformation was embroiled in conflict and violence. And it was largely unwanted.

August 14 – A Cosmic Viewpoint – This year, NASA released the most amazing images ever of galaxies beyond our own. So why does religion still seem locked in an Aristotelian universe?

August 28 – Our Sources of Authority – Over two centuries, Unitarianism evolved from a Christian sect into a tradition claiming multiple sources. Do our roots still influence us? Do they matter? Or have we become a kind of spiritual tumbleweed?

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

Sunday, September 2, 2018 – How Conventional Is Wisdom?

Sunday, September 2, at 11:00 a.m. – How Conventional Is Wisdom? – The familiar expression “conventional wisdom” has become so commonplace that few people remember, if they ever knew, that it only entered the lexicon sixty years ago, following its appearance in John Kenneth Galbraith’s book, The Affluent Society, in 1958. While Galbraith used the term to describe “the ideas which are esteemed at any time for their acceptability,” often uncritically but not necessarily without merit, many people have come to think of conventional wisdom as something to be debunked, for it is often disproven upon closer examination. This leads me to wonder whether Galbraith was really talking about wisdom in the first place – or if wisdom is really all that conventional. 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!

Prof. Orlando Ferguson's flat earth map of 1893.

Sunday, August 19, 2018 – Progressive Revelation and Insatiable Desire

Sunday, August 19, at 11:00 a.m. – Progressive Revelation and Insatiable Desire – “When you live for the cause that progressively unfolds and reveals itself, your desires are under progressive transformation,” said Henry Nelson Wieman, “but when you live for satisfaction of them they are fixated.” I think I’ve just discovered why I remain hopeful and even optimistic despite my chronic malaise, why I am insatiably curious even about subjects I’m presumptuous enough to believe I’ve already mastered, and why I’ve never seemed to be fully satisfied when I’ve accomplished (or helped to accomplish) anything. Wieman’s insight helps to explain why we always seem to be on a quest for something more. 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!