Bashaw United Church

You might have seen this heart-warming story last week. Joshua Dyer, a 14 year old boy from Herefordshire, England, was asked in school to write a poem for a local veterans group concert, part of the Remembrance Day observance this year. He came up with a short piece called “A Thousand Men Are Walking” that […]

Why is Zacchaeus short? If you’re not familiar with the story, the gospel of Luke records that Jesus was passing through Jericho and the local chief tax collector, a guy named Zacchaeus, comes out to see him with the rest of the crowds. Jesus meets him and invites himself over to his house for supper, […]

We’ve talked about “holding space” for someone, and “authentic listening” on this show before, and how powerful and important this type of human connection is for the soul. Well, Alan Richards is a man who specializes in just that. In church language we call it “pastoral care”, and Alan is really good at it!

Oh, Jesus. Sometimes you say the darndest things. It’s another one of those tricky parables, a simple story on the surface, but with a deeper, more powerful question to wonder about. We’re still travelling with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke and he’s been teaching important lessons with these short, pithy parables. Here’s one about […]

There’s a federal election in Canada very soon. Please be sure to vote, if you haven’t already. That’s all, just please vote. I won’t say more about that, but I will just add that I think the gospel story this week is rather timely. And I’ll certainly talk about that. In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus tells […]

Author of “Radical Wholeness” and “New Self, New World”, Philip Shepherd’s work aims to transform our disconnected experience of self and world. Philip lives on a small island near Toronto, and offers private coaching, weekend workshops, retreats and keynote presentations, and we had the privilege of recording a conversation with him during a “Radical Wholeness” […]

“Come, you thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest-home! All is safely gathered in, safe before the storms begin.” It’s Thanksgiving this week, in this part of the world anyway, and these words by Henry Alford are probably going to be sung a lot. They’re the opening lines of a chestnut of a hymn […]

Lately, we’ve been making our way through the Gospel of Luke. We’re mid-gospel, Jesus has turned towards Jerusalem (spoiler alert: I won’t tell you what happens there) and, on his way there with the disciples, there’s some pretty dense teaching with a lot of stories. Parables of the the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the […]

Have you ever asked yourself “who am I?”, “what are we doing here?” or “what does it mean to be a human?”. We talk a lot on this show about identity, connection, relationships, community and creating meaningful living. This question really ties all of those themes together, so there’s a lot to unpack and explore.

I’ve been known to express some pretty progressive, even radical, ideas here. As always, I hope that I’ve also been clear that, in sharing my beliefs, I have no expectation that others will share them, nor that anyone would agree or understand them as “right” just because I said them. Rather, I hope to make […]