The Metchosin Challenge Speaker Series was started in 2017 to demonstrate the church’s involvement with world issues and challenge the community to aware of those issues so they could make better informed decisions and actions.

The eighth year’s theme was: St Mary’s Metchosin Church Challenges You to Live Better

In person and on Zoom

The 2024 speakers were:

  • Feb 21st - Peter Scales: MAID and Dying. Recording found here.
  • Feb 28th - Amanda Wills: Exercise as Medicine. Recording found here. Passcode: =d51XN!w
  • Mar 6th - Audriano Montiero: Pain Management. Recording found here. Passcode: ^v^1F9A9
  • Mar 13th - Haley Vecchiaelli: Understanding Dementia.
  • Mar 20th - Don Anderson: Understanding Parkinson's Disease.
  • March 27th - Dr. Alida Moonen: Cancer Survivorship.

The first year’s theme was: Big Issues Facing the World.

2017 speakers were:

  • Andy MacKinnon – Ecologist & Metchosin Councillor: Protecting Species Diversity.
  • Geoff Strong – Climate Scientist & Anglican Work in Africa: Climate Change and Humanity.
  • Elizabeth May – M.P. Green Party: Food Security and Sustainability.
  • Wally Eamer – Deacon: What I Learned Working with First Nations.
  • Nancy Ford – Deacon: Caring for the Marginalized: Tent City and Homelessness.
  • Rev Herbert O’ Driscol – Theologian: Challenge to Care for Our Creation.

The Second Year was the 70th Anniversary of the signing of the International Human Rights document. So our theme was Human Rights.

The 2018 speakers were:

  • Christie Johnston – A Founder of a Girl’s School in Malawi, and a Biology Teacher at Pearson College: Girls’ Rights to Education.
  • Moussa Magassa – Head of University of Victoria Human Rights Board: The Right to Equality,  1st Right of the UN Declaration on Human Rights.
  • Lorna Williams: Rights to Your Language and What Happens to People Whose Right to Their Language Is Threatened.
  • Elizabeth May – M.P. Green Party: International Women’s Day and the Rights of Women.
  • Bob Yates: The Right to Play, the 31st of the 1948 Human Rights Declaration. Threats to Children’s Right to Play and the UN Right to Leisure.
  • Catherine Morris – Human Rights Lawyer in Canadian and World Courts: The 70th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. What Do Human Rights Have to Do with Lent?

The third year’s theme was: Empowering People for Action: A Lenten Challenge.

The 2019 speakers were:

  •  Elizabeth Hazel and Robert Gifford: Climate Change Paralysis, and How Do We Get Through It.
  • Sabine Lehr – the Intercultural Association: Getting Refugees Established and Empowered.
  • A Three-Person Panel: "How to Raise Empowered Children for the Changing Future".
  • Edie Charlie and Kirsten Spray – Founders of Orange Shirt Day: Reconciliation as Empowerment.
  • Daniel Allen: Empowerment of Living One’s Authentic Self. A Story of a Transgender Father, Advocate, and Volunteer.
  • Elizabeth May – Green Party of Canada: A Challenge to Become Empowered into Action to Protect the Future.

The fourth year’s theme was: Little Things That You Can Do That Make a Difference.

The 2020 speakers were:

  • Paige Erickson-McGee: Invasive Plants in Your Garden and How to Conquer Them.
  • Rich McCue: Conserving Energy One Home at a Time.
  • Claudia Copley: Wild about Gardening - How to Garden to Preserve Native Insects.

In 2020 We Did Not Complete Due to Start of Covid lock down, but had 3 more speakers booked. They were.

  • Derek Wullf: Grafting Fruit Trees to Preserve Historic Genetic Stock and Citrus Farming.
  • Dave Lovekin: The Practicalities of Renewable Power.
  • Fiona Hammersley Chambers: Preserving Our Farming Genetic Heritage by Preserving Seed.

The fifth year was all on Zoom and the theme was: Hope in a Changing World.

The 2021 speakers were:

  • Robert Gifford: How to Get Beyond Dragons of In-action.
  • Nicole Bates-Eamer: Climate Migration Solutions.
  • Elin Kelsey: Optimism in the Face of Our Challenges.
  • Fiona Hamserly-Chambers: Seeds of Hope.
  • Shea Wyatt: Exploring Climate Change Solutions for a Sustainable Future.
  • Paul Manly – MP Green Party, Nanaimo-Ladysmith: Sum up Hope in a Changing World.:

The sixth year was also on zoom and the theme was: Embracing Change.

The 2022 speakers/events were:

  • We joined another group to jointly present a live evening with Tzeporah Burman and Andy McKinnon at Bilston Farm, Metchosin Rd.: Climate Change Ad Protecting Species Diversity Activism.
  • We joined UVic on a zoom presentation: Watershed Moments- Spirituality, Forest and Fresh Water.
  • Three-person Debate/ presentation with Tzeporah Berman, Deondre Smiles and Christina Zenner. Followed by live discussion on our Zoom link: Resisting Structural Evil 
  • Cynthia Moe-Lobeda: Piggy Backing on UVic Structural Evil. 
  • Dr Edward Ishiguro: Emerging Human Infectors in a Changing World:  What Have We Learned from Covid-19.
  • Jim Cornelius – Retired Executive Director of Canadian Food Grains Bank: Food Security Sovereignty and Distribution.
  • Lara Lazon: Risk Taking and Resilience in a Changing World.
  • Matt Humphrey: Pilgrimage as a Tool of Personal Change.
  • Lauren Burton: Behavioural Change for Conservation.

The seventh year’s theme was: Children Asked Questions That Most Concerned Them.

The 2023 speakers were:

  • Melanie Kelman – Volcanologists National Resources Canada: How do Volcanoes Affect Us.
  • Theron Finley – UVic Geology: Earthquakes and Tsunamis on Vancouver Island.
  • Afzal Suleman – UVic Engineering: Star Wars Technology That Exists Now or Might Be Coming.