13 Nancy Hartling: The Senate, Guaranteed Income, Faith and Justice, and more!

01/25/21 • 47 min

Senator Nancy Hartling has deep roots in frontline work for social change. In this conversation, we hear how even as a child she was seeking to understand the experiences of others and wanting fairness for all. She offers us a short primer on the role and function of the Canadian Senate. Then she and Laura discuss Guaranteed Livable Income and why this idea is an important conversation for Canada today. Senator Hartling is a member of the United Church and is a living example of how faith, and hope, and political life can be well integrated.

Nancy J. Hartling was appointed to the Senate as an independent Senator for New Brunswick in November 2016. With a career focused on families and social issues, she is well versed on mental health, poverty, violence against women, and affordable housing. She has advocated extensively for socio-economic issues facing families, particularly single parents and their children. Senator Hartling is a dedicated proponent of social justice and human rights and is an advocate for issues relating to mental health, diabetes, and Basic Income.

Get involved:

As the movement for a Guaranteed Livable Income continues to grow among the people of The United Church of Canada, an emerging Guaranteed Livable Income network is seeking individuals to come forward to help grow the effort further as they plan actions in 2021! The network's co-chairs area Barry Morris and former Moderator and retired Senator, the Very Reverend, the Honorable Dr. Lois Wilson. In the eastern Regional Councils, this work of this network is supported by another former Moderator, the Very Reverend Dr. Marion Pardy. Please contact Lori Neale at [email protected] for more details, and to join the network.

You can reach us by email at [email protected] .
Remember you can always find more what’s happening with Justice, Mission, and Outreach by visiting the website, https://ucceast.ca/justice-mission-outreach-2/ and by joining the Facebook Group, Justice and Mission – UCC Atlantic.

Get involved:

Previous Episode

Don MacDougall - Contemplative Living and Justice Seeking

Contemplative practices and ways of living are complimentary practices to working for change. In this episode Laura talks to Rev. Don MacDougall, a wise teacher, leader, and mentor of Spiritual Direction and contemplative living. They dig into the differences between dedicated practice and spontaneous practice, why “mindfulness” might not be the best word to describe the practice, and how it is important for all of us to have ways that we attend to our hearts and minds while working for change in the world. Don describes what was missing for him after 8 years of preparation for ministry and how a journey into contemplative ways of living and working helped.

Don MacDougall has served with several congregations around the Maritimes; at Dalhousie University in Halifax; in youth, young adult and outdoor recreational leadership through Camps Sherbrooke Lake and Kidston, and the NS Dept. of Recreation; he has given leadership in adult learning at Tatamagouche Centre; and most recently with education for contemplative living, spiritual direction, and spiritual leadership. He is a graduate of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, and a founder of the Atlantic Jubilee Program for Spiritual Deepening and Guidance (now Contemplative Pathways), with a special interest in the spiritual journeys of men. He lives with his wife Lois in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Don mentioned a book called The Original Vision: A study of the religious experience of childhood , by Edward Robinson. (1983, HarperCollins Publishers)

You will find this episode and past episodes at Making Hope Visible.

Remember you can always find more what’s happening with Justice, Mission, and Outreach by visiting the website, https://ucceast.ca/justice-mission-outreach-2/ and by joining the Facebook Group, Justice and Mission – UCC Atlantic.

Music

Morrisson's jig - Leslie's march by Aislinn is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.

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14 Anti-racism and Intercultural Vision with Adele Halliday

Meet Adele Halliday, the Anti-Racism and Equity Officer, for the United Church of Canada. Adele has served related positions at the national offices of UCC for 15 years. In this conversation, Adele explains clearly the differences between racism, racial justice, anti-racism and what it means to hold an “intercultural vision” in the United Church context. She offers concrete examples of areas of racial injustices that are happening in the church. This conversation reflects how important it is for local communities of faith to be engaged in anti-racism work. Adele shares some of the spiritual grounding that keeps her going in this work: “It’s my calling.”

This new position was created in response to the United Church’s commitment to becoming an anti-racist denomination. In this role Adele will help the church live into its commitment, which will take continuous effort, reaching out to all parts of the church, equipping leaders, engaging with anti-racist practices, building on past efforts, weaving together theology and concrete strategies.

We are blessed to have Adele choosing to share her passion and her skills with us in these times!

Your portal to UCC anti-racism resources and actions is https://united-church.ca/social-action/justice-initiatives/anti-racism.

In the conversation, Adele reads from "A Vision for Becoming and Intercultural Church". The full document can be found here: https://united-church.ca/community-faith/being-community/intercultural-ministries/vision-becoming-intercultural-church

We are gradually building a list of resources related to racial justice issues in our eastern Regions. You can find that list here: https://ucceast.ca/justice-mission-outreach-2/racial-justice/