Upcoming Events

A giant art installation of an emergency beacon at last September’s Supercrawl got lots of Hamiltonians talking about their own emergency experiences and worries. Among those were extreme weather events like flooding, windstorms, and heatwaves.

Are we ready? We don’t think so. That’s why we’re growing a multi-stakeholder network to help our community be better prepared.

Join us and:

• Learn extreme weather projections for Hamilton over the next 10 - 20 years.
• Hear Hamilton’s emergency manager explain why you need to be ready to look after yourself and your neighbours in the first 72 hours of an emergency.
• Learn why social networks are good for your health from Hamilton’s air quality and climate change project manager.
• Hear why extreme weather impacts are hardest on our most vulnerable neighbours.
• Meet the artist who created the emergency beacon.
• Help to identify CREW Hamilton’s network goals.

Hear from speakers including:

• Christopher McLeod, Artist
• Don McLean, Hamilton 350
• Connie Verhaeghe, Senior Emergency Management Coordinator
• Andrea McDowell, City of Hamilton Public Health Services
• Trevor Imhoff, City of Hamilton Public Health Services
• Libby Cook, WrapAround Services
• and more to come!

We hope you can make it!

St. Kateri Tekakwitha: Building Bridges to Reconciliation

Includes a Native Peoples' Mass, Keynote Address by Tom Dearhouse, followed by a Festive Indigenous Dinner.

A GREAT EXPERIENCE AWAITS! ALL ARE WELCOME...

5.00 pm Eucharistic Celebration (Native Peoples' Mass) presided by Fr. Daryold Corbiere-Winkler, CSB, an Ojibway Basilian Priest.

6.00 pm Keynote Address on The Relevance of St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Healing and Fostering Relationships with Indigenous Peoples and the Earth by Tom Dearhouse.

7.15 pm Festive Indigenous Dinner by Aboriginal Flair Catering

The cost of the Dinner Ticket is $20 which will be collected upon entrance.

Complimentary Tickets for Indigenous participants are available.

For registration and more information go here

You are invited to Greening Sacred Spaces Ottawa's first gathering for our new Energy Benchmarking Program. Ottawa faith communities will discuss their past and present energy projects so that we can share and learn from each other. Please join us at 7pm on Monday, April 29 at Kitchissippi United Church (630 Island Park Dr). Light refreshments will be served; all are welcome.

Property and finance committees often struggle to figure out how much an energy retrofit costs and how long they will take to pay back that cost. You have told us that it is difficult and time consuming to calculate a financial payback that can help your team make the right business decision.

Our webinar presenter is highly knowledgeable about project costs and savings. He will talk about how quickly your investment may be paid back by reducing heating bills and CO2 emissions in several energy conservation scenarios including: maintaining a heating system, smart thermostats, window replacement, roof insulation and reducing thermal stacking.

3 Things you will learn:

• How should I decide which conservation projects to choose?
• Which types of projects likely pay for themselves in a few years and which never pay off?
• How big are greenhouse gas emission reductions from various conservation projects?

Don N. Dewees, BSEE, LLB, PhD, Economics

Presenter Bio:

Donald Dewees is a Professor Emeritus of Economics and of Law at the University of Toronto.  He holds an engineering degree from Swarthmore College, an LLB from Harvard and a PhD in Economics from Harvard.  He retired from the University of Toronto in 2011 after 40 years of teaching but he continues to be active in research and teaching.  He served as Director of Research for the Ontario Royal Commission on Asbestos, has held many administrative positions at the University and during 1998 he served as the Vice-Chair of the Ontario Market Design Committee, which advised on the design of the competitive electricity market.  He is currently a member of the Market Surveillance Panel of the Ontario Energy Board.  His research is in environmental economics and energy economics.  Recent papers include ‘The Price Isn’t Right’ published by the CD Howe Institute in 2010, and ‘The Impact of Sub-Metering on Condominium Electricity Demand,’ with Trevor Tombe published by Canadian Public Policy in 2012.

At our JEM meeting last year, we explored the themes of awe and wonder in our relationship with Earth with Dr. Heather Eaton.

We want to begin uncovering the connection between the process of decolonisation and climate change. The recent IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report and the subsequent COP 24 [Conference of the Parties] meeting in Poland again urge us to find ways to challenge our skewed relationship with planet earth, our common home.

Decolonisation is a transforming process in which we seek to:

• Privilege Indigenous voices so as to learn and be transformed by them
• Recover the wisdom within Indigenous cultures, especially the ways of being in relationship with the land and its many species
• Challenge our dominant worldview of settler-society

The high levels [per capita] of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada can be understood as a long-term impact of the settler-worldview with its focus on exploitation for profit. Can the transforming and unsettling process of decolonisation draw us, as individuals and as a society, into a new worldview, new relationships with the land, water and each other.

Can we again discover how wonder and awe are integral to the human experience?

Audience: Religious communities, staff and collaborators. However, the public event on the evening of May 22, 2019 is open to anyone who wish to attend.

Dates: This event will take place over two days.

• First day, May 22, will consist of reception with dinner followed by a public event. The invitation for the reception is extended ONLY to leadership/treasurers of religious congregations. It will take place from 4:45-6:30 pm. The dinner reception will be followed by a public event which is FREE and open to EVERYONE. RSVP required. The event will take place from 7-9 pm.
• Second day, May 23 from 9-3:30pm, will deliver various presentations and panel discussions and is open ONLY to religous communities, staff and collaborators to attend.

Price: There are three different ticket prices:

• May 22, dinner attendance $30 (invitation extended only to leadership/treasurers). The public event that will follow is FREE and can be attended by anyone. RSVP required for the public event.
• May 23, attendance $30. Open ONLY to religous communities, staff and collaborators.

Accommodation: accommodation available at Loretto College (site of the Mary Ward Centre). Please, call 416-925-2833 and ask for Alice Gomes.

Deadline for registrations: May 13 , 2019

Contact us for more information at:

Varka Kalaydzhieva

416-467-8070, ext.2676

jemcanada@outlook.com

Places of faith anchor and shape our communities. Yet many congregations are facing declining attendance and insufficient funding to maintain and operate their historic buildings. These important community assets are in a period of transition, and the Eastern Ontario area is no exception.

What is their future? How can they continue to contribute in a positive way to their communities? Whether it is to keep their doors open through collaborations to generate new revenue streams, making strategic real estate decisions, or meeting community needs under a new ownership structure, the future of these places depends on urgent collaboration among faith group leaders, community organizations, elected officials, the heritage and business communities, universities and more.

Join us at this unique event where local faith groups, heritage and community organizations will share their experience, concerns and creative solutions to the challenges confronting places of faith in Eastern Ontario in an interactive and engaging format.