Gimli Unitarian Church

Since 2012, the Gimli Unitarian Church is the only Unitarian congregation in the Manitoba Interlake still holding regular services. It meets on the "odd Sundays" of the summer months and generally holds a Yuletide service on the Sunday before Christmas. For service details, please go directly to the Gimli Unitarians webpage.

Gimli Unitarian Church

76 Second Avenue near Centre Street

Gimli, Manitoba

Sunday, December 20, 2015 – A Time for Sweet Surprises

Sunday, December 20, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. – A Time for Sweet Surprises – The poet Margaret Sangster described Christmas as “the time of the year for the sweet surprise.” With the passing years, it becomes harder for many to feel surprised as the Yuletide approaches and yet we wait and hope. And with some luck, sweet surprise and delight may yet visit us. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

A Celebration of Candlelight and Carols. All are welcome. Refreshments will follow the service.

Gimli Unitarian Church is located at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street.

Sunday, September 6, 2015 – The Good We Seek for All

Sunday, September 6 at 11:00 a.m. – The Good We Seek for All – “The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain,” claimed Jane Addams, “until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.” On Labour Day weekend, we do well to reflect upon what a good and just society looks like. 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, August 30, 2015 – From Chaos to Creation

Sunday, August 30 at 11:00 a.m. – From Chaos to Creation – “Invention,” according to Mary Shelley, “does not consist of creating out of void, but out of chaos.” The old mythologies teach us to believe in creation ex nihilo – out of nothing – but is creation not better understood as the emergence of order out of chaos? 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, August 16, 2015 – Faith in Things Unseen

Sunday, August 16 at 11:00 a.m. – Faith in Things Unseen – The most precious things in life are intangible for most people and our deepest values stand upon beliefs we cannot prove and experiences we often cannot articulate. Even those of us who fancy ourselves humanists and materialists have a faith in things unseen. 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, August 2, 2015 – May I Change Your Mind?

Sunday, August 2 at 11:00 a.m. – May I Change Your Mind? – Some years ago a Buddhist magazine, Tricycle, sponsored “Change Your Mind” Days across the country, involving meditation events in public places. The title was a pun on the usual way we think about “Changing Your Mind,” which usually means changing your opinions. It turns out the changing your opinions may be even harder than changing your mind through spiritual discipline. In fact, it turns out that changing your mind by changing your opinions takes a special kind of spiritual discipline. Rev. Wayne Arnason and Rev. Kathleen Rolenz

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 19, 2015 – Surprised by Joy

Sunday, July 19 at 11:00 a.m. – Surprised by Joy – “Life is a series of surprises,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, and it certainly seems to be true. And while it’s also common to hear people, especially bosses, say, “I don’t like surprises,” I’ve been surprised by joy so often that I relish the surprises that come my way. 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 5, 2015 – Stumbling into Heaven

Sunday, July 5 at 11:00 a.m. – Stumbling into Heaven – Heaven has been the topic of several books in recent years, from imaginative volumes like The Five People You Meet in Heaven to the wishful thinking of pop theology like Heaven is for Real. The Universalist showman P.T. Barnum insisted that heaven isn’t a place at all, but rather a state of being right here on earth. 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!

A slice of heaven: Spruce Sands, Manitoba (Photo by Stefan Jonasson)

Summer Sundays at Gimli Unitarian Church – 2015

Gimli Unitarian Church will open for the summer season on Sunday, July 5, 2015, continuing on the first and third Sundays of the month until the final service of the season on Sunday, September 6. 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 5 – Stumbling into Heaven – Heaven has been the topic of several books in recent years, from imaginative volumes like The Five People You Meet in Heaven to the wishful thinking of pop theology like Heaven is for Real. The Universalist showman P.T. Barnum insisted that heaven isn’t a place at all, but rather a state of being right here on earth. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

July 19 – Surprised by Joy – “Life is a series of surprises,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, and it certainly seems to be true. And while it’s also common to hear people, especially bosses, say, “I don’t like surprises,” I’ve been surprised by joy so often that I relish the surprises that come my way. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

August 2 – May I Change Your Mind? – Some years ago a Buddhist magazine, Tricycle, sponsored “Change Your Mind” Days across the country, involving meditation events in public places. The title was a pun on the usual way we think about “Changing Your Mind,” which usually means changing your opinions. It turns out the changing your opinions may be even harder than changing your mind through spiritual discipline. In fact, it turns out that changing your mind by changing your opinions takes a special kind of spiritual discipline. Rev. Wayne Arnason and Rev. Kathleen Rolenz

August 16 – Faith in Things Unseen – The most precious things in life are intangible for most people and our deepest values stand upon beliefs we cannot prove and experiences we often cannot articulate. Even those of us who fancy ourselves humanists and materialists have a faith in things unseen. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

August 30 – From Chaos to Creation – “Invention,” according to Mary Shelley, “does not consist of creating out of void, but out of chaos.” The old mythologies teach us to believe in creation ex nihilo – out of nothing – but is creation not better understood as the emergence of order out of chaos? Rev. Stefan Jonasson

September 6 – The Good We Seek for All – “The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain,” claimed Jane Addams, “until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.” On Labour Day weekend, we do well to reflect upon what a good and just society looks like. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

Sunday, August 17, 2014 — The Affirmative Life

Sunday, August 17, at 11:00 a.m. — The Affirmative Life – “To live the affirmative life is to adopt a positive attitude towards the whole of existence,” wrote Horace Westwood. “Our affirmations must bear some relation to what is real or what may become real.”  As heirs to the ages of the past, yet belonging to a future yet unknown, we are called to affirmative lives.  Rev. Stefan M. 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, August 3, 2014 — And If We Fail?

Sunday, August 3, at 11:00 a.m. — And If We Fail? – Risk is a part of living. In a world where insurance, security systems, and RRSPs are promoted to give you peace of mind, no one likes to talk about the fear of failure. This sermon looks at risk, reward, and failure — in school, in business, in relationships, as issues in religious living — and since it's Festival weekend, we'll have to include a look at Iceland's recent experience with economic disaster and rebound for life lessons. Rev. Wayne Arnason and Rev. Kathleen Rolenz

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 20, 2014 — Radical Moderation

Sunday, July 20 at 11:00 a.m. — Radical Moderation – The late Elliot Richardson declared, "I am a moderate — a radical moderate."  The very phrase seems like a contradiction, but is it really?  Amidst the shrill pronouncements of radicals and ideologues, public discourse might benefit from some radical moderation — in religion, in politics, and in everyday life.  Rev. Stefan M. 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 Sundays at Gimli Unitarian Church

Gimli Unitarian Church will open for the summer season on Sunday, July 6, 2014, continuing on the first and third Sundays of the month until the final service of the season on Sunday, August 31. 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 6 — The Possibility of Purpose – “From this belief in the possibility of purpose in my own life,” wrote Frederick May Eliot, “I go on to the belief in the possibility of introducing purpose into the social life of groups and communities and nations.”  Have you considered the purpose of your life lately?  And if you have, does your life’s purpose have something important to say to the community?  Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson

July 20 — Radical Moderation – The late Elliot Richardson declared, “I am a moderate — a radical moderate.”  The very phrase seems like a contradiction, but is it really?  Amidst the shrill pronouncements of radicals and ideologues, public discourse might benefit from some radical moderation — in religion, in politics, and in everyday life.  Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson

August 3 — And If We Fail? – Risk is a part of living. In a world where insurance, security systems, and RRSPs are promoted to give you peace of mind, no one likes to talk about the fear of failure. This sermon looks at risk, reward, and failure — in school, in business, in relationships, as issues in religious living — and  since it's Festival weekend, we'll have to include a look at Iceland's recent experience with economic disaster and rebound for life lessons.  Rev. Wayne Arnason and Rev. Kathleen Rolenz

August 17 — The Affirmative Life – “To live the affirmative life is to adopt a positive attitude towards the whole of existence,” wrote Horace Westwood. “Our affirmations must bear some relation to what is real or what may become real.”  As heirs to the ages of the past, yet belonging to a future yet unknown, we are called to affirmative lives.  Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson

August 31 — Beyond the Reach of Tides – Henry David Thoreau was a saunterer, not a sailor.  Pondering the ocean depths and the fate of shipwrecks, while strolling along the beach, he yearned “to place my gains beyond the reach of tides.”  Are we ever really beyond the reach of life’s tides and trends?  Should we even want to be?   Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson

Sunday, December 15 — MAKING PEACE WITH CHRISTMAS

Sunday morning, December 15 — ARBORG UNITARIAN CHURCH, 11:00 a.m.

Sunday evening, December 15 — GIMLI UNITARIAN CHURCH, 7:00 p.m.

MAKING PEACE WITH CHRISTMAS — In recent years, there's been much prattle about the so-called "War on Christmas," the successor complaint to the old demands to "put Christ back in Christmas," as if Jesus had somehow gone missing for those who sought to honour him. Much like the wars on poverty, drugs, and terror, the "War on Christmas" is a bogus conflict that masks the real problem — some people want to take the Yuletide hostage for their own narrow views and partisan ends.  Let's make peace with Christmas instead — peace with our own conflicted memories and feelings about the holiday, peace with our families and friends, peace with merchants and even malcontents, and most especially peace with our neighbours who keep the season differently but who keep it holy nonetheless.  And having made peace with the season, may we then go forth as agents of peace in the world.

All are welcome! Refreshments will follow each service.

In Arborg, participants are invited to bring apparel, toys, or nonperishable foodstuffs for The Mitten Tree, which will be presented to the local Christmas Cheer Board.

In Gimli, the service will feature a celebration of candlelight and carols.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Sunday, September 1 at 11:00 a.m. — OUT WHERE WE BELONG — My family doctor recently introduced me to the notion of “nature-deficit disorder,” the hypothesis that many modern maladies can be traced to a lack of quality time outdoors. I thought we were having a philosophical discussion but it’s entirely possible I was being diagnosed. — Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson

Services are in the congregation’s landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!

Sunday, August 18 — Menacing Moralizers

Sunday, August 18 at 11:00 a.m. — MENACING MORALIZERS — “When the body politic is immune to moralizers,” writes A.C. Grayling, “they merely appear comical.” But there’s nothing comical about the prudish moralizers who try to creep into others’ bedrooms and living rooms through public policy. In some places, they’ve become a menace to individual freedom! — Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson

Services are in the congregation’s landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!

Sunday, August 4 — Leaving Home

Sunday, August 4 at 11:00 a.m. — LEAVING HOME — In May, we said goodbye to the home that Kathleen’s parents built and where she lived her entire childhood. All of our lives we take our leave of places that have meaning for us. The leaving-home experience of the Icelandic immigrants that we honor during Icelandic Festival is a big part of this weekend. How we make meaning of these leave-takings will be the focus of this sermon. — Rev. Wayne Arnason and Rev. Kathleen Rolenz

Services are in the congregation’s landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!

Sunday, July 21 — Patience and Other Virtues

Sunday, July 21 at 11:00 a.m. — PATIENCE AND OTHER VIRTUES — This service explores particular qualities foundational to promoting greatness, both collective and individual.  How might they be especially relevant for our faith? — Rev. Millie Rochester

Services are in the congregation’s landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!

Sunday, July 7 — Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves

Sunday, July 7 at 11:00 a.m. — WISE AS SERPENTS, HARMLESS AS DOVES — Instead of the Flaming Chalice, the symbol of Hungarian Unitarians is the serpent and the dove, an allusion to the biblical verse, “I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Are we? — Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson

Services are in the congregation’s landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!

Summer Sundays at Gimli Unitarian Church

Gimli Unitarian Church will open for the summer season on Sunday, July 7, 2013, continuing on the first and third Sundays of the month until the final service of the season on Sunday, September 1. 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 7 — Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves — Instead of the Flaming Chalice, the symbol of Hungarian Unitarians is the serpent and the dove, an allusion to the biblical verse, “I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Are we? Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson

July 21 — Patience and Other Virtues — This service explores particular qualities foundational to promoting greatness, both collective and individual.  How might they be especially relevant for our faith? Rev. Millie Rochester

August 4 — Leaving Home — In May, we said goodbye to the home that Kathleen’s parents built and where she lived her entire childhood. All of our lives we take our leave of places that have meaning for us. The leaving-home experience of the Icelandic immigrants that we honor during Icelandic Festival is a big part of this weekend. How we make meaning of these leave-takings will be the focus of this sermon. Rev. Wayne Arnason and Rev. Kathleen Rolenz

August 18 — Menacing Moralizers — “When the body politic is immune to moralizers,” writes A.C. Grayling, “they merely appear comical.” But there’s nothing comical about the prudish moralizers who try to creep into others’ bedrooms and living rooms through public policy. In some places, they’ve become a menace to individual freedom! Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson

September 1 — Out Where We Belong — My family doctor recently introduced me to the notion of “nature-deficit disorder,” the hypothesis that many modern maladies can be traced to a lack of quality time outdoors. I thought we were having a philosophical discussion but it’s entirely possible I was being diagnosed. Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson