News from CCS and the CCS community
There is no actual typical. That is as true for CCS students as it is for the rest of the world. CCS’s signature leadership program, Learning on Purpose, attracts a wide-range of students ~ diaconal, lay, ordained, Anglican, United. There are often students from the Sandy Saulteaux Spiritual Centre and other theological schools, various denominations…
“Since graduation I have searched for con-ed that offers the depth and breadth of content as well as the educational style CCS gave me.”
On a cold November night in East Gwillimbury, armed with a live band, two projectors and about 100 glowsticks, 40 people gathered at Sharon Hope United Church to sing, dance and pray along with songs by Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip. Our theme was Courage, and the many forms it takes in our daily…
Intense. Spiritually enriching. Faithfilled. Expanding. World-opening. Learning on Purpose: Changing Leadership for a Changing World is two weeks of focussed leadership training, in community, intended to help leaders to dig deep and expand outward. The next Learning on Purpose will be offered June 11 – 23, 2018 in Victoria, B.C., at Christ Church Cathedral, a short…
What is more joyful than cookies and music? Gathering with friends to sing together, eat the cookies, enjoy a glass of hot cider and a whole lot of conversation! Twenty friends of the Centre came together on Friday, December 8 to sing Christmas hymns and carols, interspersed with breaks for chatting, drinking hot cider, and…
Diaconal ministers seem to love to connect. And November was a month for gathering. Lori Stewart (not pictured), CCS Development Coordinator, stopped in Kitchener for coffee with Ellen Baynton-Walker, Margaret Collard, Meghan Gilholm, Marilyn Burnard, and Katharine Edmonstone .
The Enneagram is a system which identifies nine different personality types as a map for personal development. CCS grad Roland Legge reflects on using the Enneagram in his coaching practice. Recently I took nine-months of intensive training through the Deep Coaching Institute to learn a coaching model that uses the Enneagram. It is all about…
The Central Committee of Diakonia of the Americas and Caribbean (DOTAC) met this month in Vancouver. DOTAC is both an international and ecumenical organization that connects and gathers those engaged in diakonia. Check them out here http://dotac.diakonia-world.org/. Diaconal Gathering at Carey Hall, UBC, Thursday, November 9, 2017 Shout out to Ted Dodd and other members of…
CCS grad Annika Sangster has published a delightful retelling of the story of the Good Samaritan called Neighbours. We recently talked about the genesis of the book and gaining the confidence to share her creativity. Details for purchasing Neighbours are at the bottom of the article. Neighbours emerged from a Vacation Bible School with…
“In my understanding, spirituality is about a sense of connectedness or a search for connectedness: Connectedness within ourselves or a feeling of “being at home” within ourselves; connectedness with others in relationships; connectedness within the wider community or the world; connectedness with the universe or creation and the mystery that we might call God—a connectedness…
CCS program staff person Janet Ross reflects on Music and Spirituality in the Rupertsland News. Music has had a significant place in my life and in some ways has been a “character” or perhaps more accurately a kind of dialogue partner in my life story. Music has invited me into new spaces of existence and existentiality,…
Diaconal minister Karen Tjaden reflects on a week at the Sandy Saulteaux Spiritual Centre with Indigenous community leaders and settler allies to reclaim the homebred, the homespoken, the homegrown, and the homemade. Photographs from Michelle Owen’s experience at the Feast for Friends. Centred around the sacred fire, a wonderful community based on an immersion experience…
Program staff David Lappano shares thoughts about two fall learning circles. This October the Centre has offered two learning circles – Ministry as Listening and Grief and Loss. Students were surprised at how much they learned from each other by beginning with sharing a significant sound in their lives. The sound of water lapping under…
Join CCS principal Michelle Owens for an evening with ecumenical and international partners in diaconal ministry. The Central Committee of Diakonia of the Americas and the Caribbean, DOTAC, will be meeting in Vancouver. Along with CCS, they will host an evening gathering on November 9 to celebrate the many and diverse expressions of international and ecumenical…
Above, students in the Ministry as Listening learning circle participate in a mirroring exercise. For the past week, seventeen students have gathered at Woodsworth House to explore Ministry as Listening. Participants include a certificate student, in the ordination stream at the Atlantic School of Theology, a continuing studies student, taking the learning circle for interest,…