Blog

Jesus is executed, just like so many men and women around the world. What does it mean to endorse the punishment used to kill Christ? What are the ways people with profound truths are scapegoated?

On this sixth week of Lent, Rev. Alexa speaks with Sara Hildebrand of the Love My Neighbour Project – an interfaith partnership with UNICEF Canada to pay it forward. They are inviting every Canadian that gets a vaccine to buy one for someone in economically depressed countries. For approximately $10 each, every vaccinated person in Canada can help speed up the vaccine rollout for all global citizens (cost
to be confirmed by UNICEF)

On this fifth week of Lent, Rev. Alexa speaks with Greg Cook and Lorraine Lam, outreach workers at Sanctuary Ministries of Toronto; a place in the heart of Toronto where you can go to be seen and celebrated, walked with and cared for. Guided by the Gospel, the heart and centre of this community are the very people who are often excluded in the mainstream; those experiencing poverty, lack of housing, addiction and mental health crisis. At Sanctuary, they can get meals, health clinic support, art programs, street outreach, Sunday services, and so much more.

On this fourth week of Lent, Rev. Alexa speaks with Dr. Aathish Iyappa who works at the Nair Hospital in Mumbai (Bombay) India. He consulted on the first case of COVID19 to be diagnosed in Mumbai. His 1600 bed hospital was covered to an 1100 bed COVID hospital. Dr. Aathish speaks of the lack of drugs in the early days in the early days of the pandemic, the hospital filling up and having to turn patients away, as well as the losses and miracles of life he has witnessed throughout the pandemic.

On this third week of Lent, Rev. Alexa speaks with Saima Mafat and Hanan Baalbaki from Nisa Homes. Saima and Hanan support Muslim women and children seeking safety from intimate partner violence across Canada.

On this second week of Lent, Rev. Alexa speaks with Clive Anderson, a trauma responder who has been present at violent catastrophes such as the 2018 van attack in Toronto. In the first months of the COVID 19 pandemic, Clive was called to no less than 20 long-term care facilities to offer assistance to staff and families.

On this first week of Lent, Rev. Alexa speaks with Michael Shewburg, Executive Director of the Five Oaks Centre in Paris, Ontario. Michael describes how, in the early days of the pandemic, Five Oaks pivoted from its normal retreat offerings to being a place where those newly arriving in Canada, often as migrant workers, could safely isolate and quarantine.

Happy New Year! We’re done with Matthew. Now we get to hang out with Mark. What’s with all the talk of the end times? Mark 13:24-27. Thoughts from a Death Row prison cell. Hope as resistance. Music by Emorie, the Sun Harmonic and Bri-anne. Words by Ramiro Gonzales and UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima speaking about World AIDS Day.

It’s Christmas Eve and we have a fun, lofi, campy retelling of Luke’s Nativity narrative with a brief time of reflection. Yes, perhaps the Christmas story isn’t historically accurate, but the meaning we bring to the story and how we tell it is the beginning of our call towards how we are to be in God’s world.

Special guest Emelda De Coteau of Pray with Our Feet sits down with Bri-anne (across the Internet) to talk about the revolutionary power of joy and love. Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11. John 1:6-8, 19-28. Music by Emorie and Drew Brown. Words by Sarah Are from A Sanctified Art.

In honour of International Day of People with Disabilities, the Rev. Alexa Gilmour, minister at Windemere United Church in Toronto, spent some time in conversation with PhD candidate Elizabeth Mohler about disability, the church, the Advent story and the assumptions that are often brought forward when one listens to these familiar biblical texts. We are fortunate to be able to sit in on this conversation.

Happy New Year! We’re done with Matthew. Now we get to hang out with Mark. What’s with all the talk of the end times? Mark 13:24-27. Thoughts from a Death Row prison cell. Hope as resistance. Music by Emorie, the Sun Harmonic and Bri-anne. Words by Ramiro Gonzales and UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima speaking about World AIDS Day.

It’s Christ the King Sunday. What does it mean to speak of Jesus as a “King” or a “Master”?
Special Guest Jeffrey Dale joins us to talk about his work advocating for safe consumption sites, the tension of using politically charged language to describe Jesus, and wondering what would it mean if we just took Matthew’s words at face value. Music by Jesse Peters.

Jesus tells a parable about a master, some slaves…and about $9,000,000.  Who is complicit? Who is vulnerable? What would it mean to believe those who are scapegoated?