by Emily Searle-White

Over the last several months, I have had the pleasure of working with other EUUers to prepare our upcoming Fall Festival: Nature Within and Around Us. We are looking forward to welcoming Dr. Nicole C. Kirk as our guest speaker, who will explore our connection to nature with us and invite us to reflect on how these connections can spiritually ground us and also motivate us to work for social justice.

We already have a wide array of workshops planned, with topics ranging from what dual citizenship means for social justice to the scientific process, as well as some reflections on the recent “Me and White Supremacy” workshop in which around 15 EUUers participated during the summer months. On the retreat committee, we have worked on registration, talked about workshop scheduling, discussed music for the Sunday service – all topics we usually discuss during the lead-up to a retreat. But this time, it does feel different.

We aren’t going to be able to be in one big room with everyone, as much as we would like to be. So, we are trying to get creative! We have been working, and will continue to work, hard to think of ways to bring that feeling of community. We are also trying to allow for some wiggle room (literally!) in the schedule so that folks can go out and perhaps enjoy nature during the retreat, if weather and time allow, or at least get the chance to move their bodies a bit between Zoom sessions. And at the same time, we are finding more and more ways that an online retreat can help us as an organisation make proper strides toward accessibility.

We are so looking forward to having you all there!