CLAY Workshops
When you arrive at CLAY on Thursday, August 10th, you will select the TWO workshops you want to attend.
Choose ONE workshop from Group A and ONE workshop from Group B.
Workshops will take place on Saturday afternoon.
GROUP A - choose one
PRAY, GIVE, LEARN, ADVOCATE: WORKING TOGETHER TO END GLOBAL HUNGER
Bringing rural and urban Canadians together in support of ending global hunger, While providing hope to people around the world through food, you can also learn more about farming and what’s involved in growing food.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Skills development workshop on how to take photos and capture moments that tell a story.
GLOBAL CLIMATE ACTION: YOUTH, COP27, DECOLONIZATION AND COOPERATION
What do you know about climate change work at the global level? Is there a place for youth there? How could that work be done in a way that honours Indigenous peoples and voices from the Global South. Come hear and talk with young adults who participated in the United Nations climate summit, COP27, and asked just these justice questions during their time in Egypt. Hear their stories of hopeful connections and some surprising discoveries.
GROWING UP BIPOC IN THE CHURCH
A conversation that will include participants. Led by a panel and facilitated by Rev. Steve Green on things they wish they knew or had been told growing up in the church as BIPOC youth.
Panelists: Averey, Ros & Hanna
JUGGLING
Looking to try something new and step a little out of your comfort zone? Learning to juggle is great exercise for your body and mind. During this interactive workshop you will be guided though a series of challenges to teach you to juggle three balls. You are invited to let go of your inhibitions and learn a new skill that will not only give you a little jolt of joy, it will improve your reflexes, hand-eye co-ordination and peripheral vision. You will work through a series of challenges using peacock feathers, scarves and juggling bean bags. The aim is to have fun, get active and not only learn to juggle, but learn a little about yourself. Your instructor, Craig Douglas, is a comic-juggler who has performed his high-energy one man show in every province in Canada and on cruise ships in the Caribbean and Europe. He has even opened for Charlie the Karate Chimp (that’s true.) Craig has taught thousands of people to juggle. You could be next.
WELCOMING THE STRANGER
Join our group for a closer look at the settlement of newcomers (refugees) who have just arrived in Canada. Crossing Borders, a group of Kitchener Waterloo high school students who have just arrived in Canada will talk about their experiences. We will also give you a chance to role play to give you some idea of what might be some challenges if you had just arrived in a new country, not to visit, but to live because you can't go back to Canada because of war. Let's learn how you can make a difference in a newcomer's first year in Canada. The ideas may surprise you.
GROUP B - choose one
MIGRANT WORKERS
Learn about a congregation’s efforts to minister to Spanish speaking migrant farm workers: the joys and difficulties, the hopes, and challenges. St. Alban’s, Beamsville seeks to operate as a centre for active ministry with Latin Americans. Often the work of ministering with Latin Americans stretches the boundaries of the values, attitudes, and assumptions of a typically ‘conservative’ and ethnically homogenous community in the heart of Ontario’s agricultural lands
Speaker: Rev. Dan Tatarnic
WHY WE GATHER (INTERGENERATIONAL APPROACH)
Why Gather? Why Bother? What we tend to miss whenever we talk about church growth of any kind is this: why does any of this matter? The pandemic offered a particularly helpful lens into that fundamental question. When we could no longer be together in our normal ways, why is being together still worthwhile? More importantly, in the revelatory upheaval of a global pandemic, in all that we have learned about who we are and how we want to be different as human beings, do worshiping communities have anything meaningful to contribute?
Speaker: Martha
MINDFULNESS
Cheryl will guide you through a mindfulness practice, and will give you some tools to continue the practice at home. Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present in the moment and aware of our thoughts and feelings without judgment. It can improve overall well-being by helping individuals have a better experience of life, relate better with others, and worry less about the future and past.
DISCOVER VOCATION
In this workshop, participants will engage with some of the gifts our Christian tradition gives us for the important work of vocational discernment. What makes life meaningful? How are we called and equipped to serve God and one another? How do followers of Jesus make big life decisions about career, family, identity, and more? Using the resource “My Daily Discoverment” we’ll dive into these questions and more, and open ourselves to God’s call upon us, as individuals and as a community.
Speaker: Andrew Hyde
SOCIAL JUSTICE IN FOCUS
How does your community relate to social justice? In this session, we’ll look at the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and how they relate to our own communities, exploring their assets, who faces barriers to accessing those assets, and how that connects to sustainability. Then we’ll challenge ourselves to take action, and think of how we can make our communities more sustainable places to live.
