Winter Eliot 2023: "Changing Our Stories" with Rev. Anne Barker & Liz James

Registration is now closed for this camp. Please consider one of next year's camps instead! 

Covid Protocols for Winter Eliot:
1: If eligible, you must have the most recent covid booster. Please plan ahead for this, it can take awhile to get an appointment.
2: On Arrival Day, before leaving home, you must take a covid test, and only come to camp if you test negative.
3: For the first 48 hours of camp, indoor masking will be required.
Note: More details on these protocols will be available to registered campers.

Changing Our Stories

Program Description: 
Stories have power.
And they can change lives – especially our own.

Join Liz James and Anne Barker for a humour centered approach to the power of story and the possibilities of change. 

We’ll start with our (mis)adventures and the different ways we’ve shared them. Then we’ll explore the gifts, challenges, and messes that can come from changing how we tell our stories. 

As a group, we’ll work through some of the practical concerns:
    Does changing a story change the truth?
    Can a fresh version of an old story really make a difference?
    What are you reaching for … and are your stories taking you there?

 You don’t need to be a ‘Story Teller’ to enjoy this workshop. You will want a way to keep track of your thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

Participants will generate and ponder a variety of events and experiences. Then together we’ll practice shaping, sharing, and reimagining our stories – and the magic they might do when they get out into the world.

Biographies:

Liz James and Anne Barker met in 1999, at the Unitarian Congregation of Saskatoon, and haven’t stopped plotting since. Collectively, they are the UU humour podcast “The Cracked Cup Podcast”, celebrating how ‘the cracks are how the light gets in… and often how the light gets out!’   Both currently live in Saskatoon – Treaty 6 territory and the homeland of the Metis.  Their hobbies are writing, crafts, and learning to pause so someone else can get a word in edgewise.

 You can find The Cracked Cup Podcast here: The Cracked Cup (crackedcuppodcast.com) or on your favourite podcast carrier. 

 Liz James (she/her) comes from a family that expresses love through practical jokes.  She was partway through seminary when she realized that she was not well suited to Ministry… She was prone to spending meditation time composing Facebook status updates in her head, needed Anne to kick her under the table to remind her to ask people “and how do you feel about that?”, and was constantly blowing off the assigned reading to play elaborate and extremely theologically and historically specific pranks on other seminarians.  One of those pranks ultimately turned into the UU Hysterical Society, which grew to become the not for profit Mirth and Dignity… Liz has a vision of UUism that is unafraid to screw up, filled with joy, and does not require background reading.  You can learn more about the Hysterical Society at uuhystericalsociety.com 

Reverend Anne Barker (she/her) is a UU minister, currently creating a community ministry adventure centered around “Making Meaning Together”. She recently completed 14 years in parish ministry, before relocating to Saskatoon with her wife Lori and their rescue dog Maisie. Spending time with Liz reminds her to lighten up and take more chances. Anne also volunteers as president of the UU Ministers of Canada, and is 1/3 of the Canadian Unitarian Council ‘National Voice’. For a better sense of her work, check out her 2021 Confluence Lecture: Confluence Lectures - Canadian Unitarian Council Conseil unitarien du Canada (cuc.ca)