Sharing Stories and Prayers
Note: If you have an event to share, please scroll down to the events section. Thanks!
Sharing our stories through the newsletter is an important way that we stay in touch as a regional council.
We welcome submissions of:
- Prayer requests
- Photos
- Good News stories from your congregation or network (feel free to include where you see God at work!)
- Church anniversaries (especially significant milestones), Covenanting services, Services marking the opening or closing of a church or congregation.
- Media stories about your community of faith or network (from big news outlets to tiny community papers/blogs)
- New ideas/projects from your community of faith or network that you would like to share as inspiration to others.
- Items your congregation is looking for.
- Innovative ideas that might inspire other congregations
Notes: Prayer requests can be for individuals or communities of faith. To respect privacy, we always double check that the person (or community of faith) being prayed for is ok with us sharing their name and/or story.
Guidelines: Please email the story (and photo if applicable) to Natalie Matkovsky (nmatkovsky@united-church.ca). The EOORC News is normally published on Wednesdays. We ask that all submissions be sent by Tuesday at noon. Depending on the space available in the newsletter (and other upcoming dates), Natalie may choose to move non-time-sensitive items to other dates. In certain circumstances, we may not be able to publish every story, but we’ll do our best. (We also need to keep the newsletter a reasonable length, and work to feature a variety of congregations and networks rather than the same ones all the time.)
If you are sharing a photo and your photo includes people, please make sure you have asked everyone in the photo whether they are ok with this photo being shared online. The EOORC News is published online.
When possible, please write a short paragraph as you would like it to appear in the newsletter. If your news item is longer than 100 words, please consider writing a short introduction paragraph, and we can then link the longer document for those who want to read further.
Sharing Events
If you are organizing an upcoming event and would like to share it with the regional council, the first step is to make an event posting on our EOORC website. Please note that, after you fill in the form and submit the event, it will not immediately appear online. All event postings are verified by our Communications Assistant, Natalie Matkovsky (NMatkovsky@united-church.ca). This helps us to avoid spam postings. Once Natalie approves your event, it will be available online.
If you do not see your event in the Events calendar by the end of the next business day, if you are not sure if your event submission worked, or if you need technical assistance, please contact Natalie Matkovsky (NMatkovsky@united-church.ca).
Accessibility and posters: If you share a poster, please also include all relevant information in the event description. Many people (including those who are blind or have limited vision) use screen readers, which cannot read your poster. Posters can also be hard to read on mobile devices, especially if they include a lot of small text. We would be glad to see your poster, but please also include all relevant info in plain text.
Congregational Events
We would be glad to share events from your community of faith in our EOORC Events Calendar. This is a good way to let other churches know about your upcoming event. For churches without a website (or without a website calendar), posting on the EOORC calendar also gives you an online link which you can then share by social media, email, congregational newsletters, etc. The link to the events calendar is always in the EOORC News. Each week, we also briefly feature all events in the coming week.
Types of events:
Sometimes, congregations share events which are mainly for the congregation and their local community. These are local events. They might include meals (a Turkey Dinner, Mother’s Day Tea, Sunday School picnic), sales (Bake Sale, Book Sale, etc) or other events (concert, neighbourhood drop in, etc). While we are happy to share your event on the EOORC Events Calendar, we encourage communities of faith to focus on local publicity for these events. You could put up some posters around your community, ask a neighbouring church to include an announcement about the event, and (often best of all!) personally invite friends, family and neighbours. These will be the most effective publicity methods for these events.
Sometimes, congregations share events which have a wider regional interest. This might include major milestones in the life of the congregations (like an important anniversary, a covenanting service, or an opening or closing service.) It sometimes includes event supporting wider networks (like a concert for Multifaith Ottawa or a church dinner supporting one of our camps). It could also include a learning event (like a workshop on grief, a session on refugee sponsorship, or a Then Let Us Sing hymn sing) or a special children’s activity (like a VBS). Finally, events involving several congregations (like a local Pride Parade or a church picnic with several congregations) would fall into this category. For these events, please start with a submission to the EOORC Events calendar, and then contact Natalie Matkovsky (NMatkovsky@united-church.ca) if you would like your event to be featured in the EOORC News.
Regional Council and Network Events
If all of your event details are confirmed, the first step is to make a posting on the EOORC Events Calendar. Then, please contact Natalie Matkovsky (NMatkovsky@united-church.ca) if you would like your event featured in the EOORC News. When possible, please send Natalie your information in the format that you would like it in the EOORC News (for example, a short paragraph and a poster).
If you are still working on event details, but would like to give us a “heads up” or start promoting the event, please contact Natalie Matkovsky (NMatkovsky@united-church.ca).