Meeting
By Michael Wilson Pastoral Letters March 13, 2026

Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking:

March 15 Worship Service Video

 

 

Join us for Sunday morning worship at CUC is at 10:00 AM with the He/SheBrews Café following in the Van Roon Community Hall

 

  • Holy Week Services
    • Palm Sunday – Sunday, March 29
    • Good Friday – Friday, April 3 – featuring the cantata “The Rose of Calvary” with 10-piece orchestral ensemble
    • Easter Sunday – April 5 – with communion, trumpet, organ, flute (and the usual cast of characters!)

 

 

  • Please remember that this Sunday, March 15 is our Annual General Meeting. It will commence immediately following a light lunch after worship. It is an important time in our life together as we look at amendments to the constitution (see below), receive financial reports, vote on nominations, and consider becoming an Affirming Congregation.

 

  • The Annual Report has been posted on our website. You can read it here: 2025 Charleswood United Church Annual Report Hard copies are available at the church and will be at the Annual Meeting March 15. Audited Financial Statements are available from the church office or by email request.

 

  • In advance of our Annual Meeting on Sunday, March 15 we have posted the revisions made to our church constitution which better reflect our current practises in ministry. To read the revised constitution please click here: https://charleswoodunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/DRAFT.-CUC.-Constitution.-Final.pdf The document begins with notes to explain the changes made. Printed copies are available on request and will be provided for tables at the Annual Meeting.

 

  • We were saddened to learn of the death of our dear friend Harvey Waterman on Wednesday evening. A funeral is being planned for Saturday, March 28 at 2:00 at the church. Please remember Harvey’s beloved wife Shirley and all of their family in your prayers this week.

 

 

 

Dear Friends

 

Welcome to worship for Sunday, March 15, 2026.

 

Reading between the lines. Or maybe more accurately, reading between the reports. That is my aim with this letter. To help you read between the reports as we come to this year’s annual meeting on Sunday. To help you clarify a few things which are exceedingly important, somewhat confusing, and overall, very positive.

 

Revising the Constitution

 

The constitution of Charleswood United Church is routinely amended so that it reflects the reality of the ministry of the church. Sometimes that is quite dramatic as in 2006 when we amended it to move from ten standing committees to five. Sometimes that is relatively minor as the year we had to remove all references to Presbytery since Winnipeg Presbytery ceased to exist. Often it is a matter of wordsmithing and nothing else. Last spring at the direction of Church Council, our Chair Janet Goddard and Vice Chair Anne Burns began the process of revising the Constitution to bring it up to date. Their task was very detailed for two principal reasons. The first was that we hadn’t done so for several years. And the second was that most of our committees had been effectively put on hold during the pandemic which threw our volunteer terms out of sync.

 

Janet and Anne have done an exceptional job of re-ordering our governance structure so that it more accurately reflects who we are and what we do. One of the challenges of that process was holding fast to the idea that a volunteer should only be in one ‘elected’ position at a time while wanting to honour that several people contribute in a variety of ways. The category of ‘corresponding member’ allows for an elected person of one committee to participate in the life of another committee or to continue participating after an elected term has expired.

 

Affirming Ministry

 

We didn’t intend for the vote to become an Affirming Ministry the day after PIE Day (the national day of celebration for Public, Intentional, and Explicit inclusion) but hopefully we will find that coincidence a blessing. As you can read in the Annual Report, the vote on Sunday is a culmination of a year and a half of discernment and education. We believe the reputation of Charleswood as an accepting and welcoming congregation as cited in the 2021 book “Thriving Churches” by Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd and the 2025 book “The Untied Church of Canada” by Brian Arthur Brown will only be enhanced by taking this step. Please read the proposal on page 34 of the Annual Report in order that we can all make an informed decision. In keeping with the hope that this is a discernment process and not merely a democratic one, we will be conducting this vote by secret ballot and will only move forward if an essential consensus is reached.

 

Meeting our Financial Obligations

 

At last year’s Annual Meeting we passed a budget that was pretty straightforward. It called for expenses in 2025 of $544,775, which included all of our operations and the loans payments for the roof project of 2024. What it didn’t and couldn’t anticipate was a sinkhole in the parking lot and the de-certification of our boiler last spring. Both of these unexpected challenges needed immediate address. The end result was that we spent much more than we expected in 2025 AND we received much more than we expected as many of you responded to these crises with immense generosity. As a consequence, it is more difficult than usual to say if we had a balanced year.

It depends how you look at it as you will hear on Sunday. But let it be said we came to the end we came to the end of 2025 in tremendous health and with a couple of generational expenses paid for.

 

Hopefully these notes ‘between the lines’ will help you arrive at the Annual Meeting with a few questions answered and ready to share in this important moment in our life as a faith-filled community.

 

Grace and peace,

Michael

 

 

 

  • For news and events, please have a look at Life & Work on our website: Life and Work

 

 

  • Did you know you can support this ministry by e-transfer, automatic withdrawal (PAR), and gifted securities, in addition to weekly or monthly cheques? For Offering Information please visit: https://charleswoodunited.org/support/   Thank you for your generous support.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Wilson / About Author
Michael’s involvement in the wider church has included ministry with children and youth, membership on the National Division of World Outreach, supervision of campus ministry, and the Ten Days for Global Justice National Committee. He has been blessed by the opportunity to represent the United Church of Canada in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Africa on different occasions. Michael has taught at the University of Winnipeg – Faculty of Theology and is past President of the Conference of Manitoba and North Western Ontario.
More posts by Michael Wilson