The Canadian Government has issued a new “Canadian Anti-Spam Law” (CASL for short).   This legislation takes effect July 1st.   The legislation requires you to give  formal consent  to continue receiving emails from Unity United church.  Without that consent, you will no longer receive the Heartbeat (our Unity community announcements) or the congregational email blasts that announce events like a death in the community or a show we’re hosting.   The timing could NOT be worse.   We recognize you may be on holidays.   We recognize you may not check email during the summer months because you are busy with family, friends and farming.   So, here is what Unity is asking you to do: 

Between July 1 and September 1, PLEASE send an email to the church unity@csolve.net which MUST include the following: -your name -your email address -your statement of consent (which is just you saying, “I give permission for Unity United Church to send me emails”.)     We regret that if you don’t respond by September 1, you will not receive any more emails from us after that date. (It’s not us, it’s CASL).   Thank you for your assistance. We will respect your wishes.

  It’s not very often that a church will say “Please, DON’T come here.” This is one of those rare occasions. Remember I talked about the need for temporary inaccessibility to become fully accessible? Well, that’s what we’re dealing with here at Unity. From Thursday June 19 to Monday June 23 our church building will be closed so that concrete which has been poured (as part of our ongoing accessibility project) will have a chance to cure (that means set up and dry for people like me who can’t speak “builder”.) We regret this inconvenience. As luck would have it, the worship committee had chosen June 22, 10:00am as the date and time to worship aboard The S.S. Keewatin in Port McNicoll. The timing was/is perfect.   Please note: The Keewatin is an historic ship. As such, it has many staircases. Washrooms are located ashore: there are none aboard for public use. (Google Keewatin and Port McNicoll to get directions if you’re planning on coming).

This isn’t just a glass door: this is a doorway that makes our church accessible to the community. Behind this door is a lift (although most of us keep calling it an elevator.) For the first time in our church’s history, every level of this space will be accessible—the narthex, the fellowship hall, the choir room/Godly Play room and of course,  the sanctuary. In time, this lift will be operational. It will be used on Sundays of course, but not just on Sundays–and not just for church activities. Our church has already been used as a concert venue, a registration centre, a polling station. In the past, our church has even hosted birthday and anniversary parties. But people with mobility challenges often missed those events and occasions. In a little while, that will no longer be the case. We are grateful to God for the blessing we have received. We are grateful to so many people as well: the building committee which includes Brian Jones, Brian Stanley, Gord Walker and Maureen Parsons (and a few more people who couldn’t make the photo op.) We thank our builder, Harry NoordeGraff and all of his employees. We are also extremely grateful for the work our M.P. Bruce Stanton did by helping us with our grant application. Special thanks also goes to Living Waters Presbytery for hosting the workshop three years ago at which we heard about those accessibility grants. We’ll let you know when the lift is ready for public use.  Stay tuned!