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Outreach Committee

The Outreach Committee is one of the ways that Hillhurst United Church engages in issues related to social justice and the environment. 

Mission 

Inspired by the words and actions of Jesus, the Outreach committee addresses issues of social justice and the environment through education, advocacy and action with the intention of fostering spiritual growth and nurturing real transformation in the local and global community.

Themes

  1. Social Justice
  2. Environment
  3. Giving 'Light' for Christmas

Contact

Greg Powell (Commitee chair)

Take part in Hillhurst’s outreach discussions on our blog.


Social justice

A just society is one where each member has the opportunity to develop spiritually, to pursue dreams and to meaningfully contribute to the growth and development of the community. In this definition, we think of society as local (Hillhurst, Calgary, Alberta and Canada) and global (low-income countries, high-income countries, north, south, east and west). While we are a long way from considering the whole world as a “just society”, we will strive toward this vision one step at a time.

Current activities

Homelessness/housing

Affirming

The “Affirming” process is our way of affirming members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community within our congregation and community. Historically, the broad Church has actively excluded this group and treated some individuals as incomplete and unholy. We every person is a child of God and deserves to have their soul honoured accordingly.

One June 22, 2008 our congregation voted to accept the following as our statement of affirmation:

Hillhurst United Church commits to be an inclusive community of faith that follows in the Way of Jesus under the banner “whoever you are, wherever you’re at, we welcome you on the journey.”

We strive to accept each other as equals and welcome the ministry and participation of all persons regardless of age, gender identity, health, race, sexual orientation, differing abilities, religion, ethnic background or economic circumstance.

We hope that in all that we do, including our worship and community life, God’s unconditional love is experienced. We do this trusting God is with us on the journey.”

More information about the Affirming Process is found here. 


Past activities

Zambia

In August 2008, three members of our congregation travelled to Zambia on an exposure tour. 

Jacob Schlinker was a youth participant and Kim Locke and Greg Powell were adult participants seeking to be exposed to different ways of thinking and different eyes for viewing the world.

The outreach committee helped Jacob, Kim and Greg share their stories upon their return.

Link and learn

As part of our endeavours to understand homelessness, Tim Stock-Bateman, formerly with the Calgary Urban Project Society, led a discussion on issues of homelessness.

Homelessness-themed month – bulletin inserts

To share some of our learnings with the congregation, we inserted pamphlets in our bulletins over the course of a month.



Environment

Current activities

Water

We are currently planning a major water campaign for launch in the fall 2008. Some of the components of the campaign include

100-mile diet

To encourage people to think about the carbon footprint of our food, in September we will lunch on food that has been sourced from within 100-miles of Hillhurst. This is no small feat but can be done! The inspiration for this meal came from the book by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon entitled The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating.

Past activities

Water



Giving ‘Light’ for Christmas

For the past two years, we used the period before Christmas to encourage people to consider the impacts of over-consumption on the environment and on society.

Jay Baydala from Christmas Future joined us to share what he and his organization are doing to divert some of the $1 trillion North Americans spend at Christmas time to where it is needed most – in low-income countries.

See the Giving Light for Christmas page for more details and lots of ideas.