Sermons from the East End

It's the first Sunday in the season of creation, and Rev. Bri-anne ponders what it is for The Word to be a bridge.

"A bridge simply reaches.
One shore to another.
It says:
I see there is distance,
but distance is not destiny,
and separation is not the end of this story.

That is what the Word has been doing
from the beginning."

📖 Scripture: John 1:1-18 In the beginning was the Word...
📕 Reading: A Song of Faith (2006) (excerpt) God is Holy Mystery...

🎶 Music: Bridge Over Troubled Water by Paul Simon

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⛪️ East End United Regional Ministry is an Affirming (🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ positive) community of faith, part of the United Church of Canada in Toronto.

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From Luke’s gospel to a cellar wall in wartime. This Remembrance Day reflection asks how we hold faith and memory together when the world keeps breaking our hearts.

📖 Scripture: Luke 20:27-38 Jesus discusses the resurrection

🎶 Music: I Believe by Mark Miller

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⛪️ East End United Regional Ministry is an Affirming (🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ positive) community of faith, part of the United Church of Canada in Toronto.

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In this poetic reflection, Rev. Bri-anne dreams of rain that falls on everyone, and a Spirit that floods every forgotten corner. From soup kitchens to shelter lines, from food banks to border crossings, a vision of mercy poured out...until even the dry things say yes.

📖 Scripture: Joel 2:23-32 I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten...

🎶 Music: Healing Rain by Peter Verity, performed by Bri-anne Swan.

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⛪️ East End United Regional Ministry is an Affirming (🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ positive) community of faith, part of the United Church of Canada in Toronto.

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Rev. Bri-anne weaves together a love story, a community’s fight to protect the water, and Psalm 42’s cry of longing. A reflection on rivers, resistance, and the ways water keeps calling us home.

📖 Scripture: Genesis 1:26-31 God creates humans in their image. Then there was evening, and there was morning. The sixth day.

🎶 Music: River by Joni Mitchell, performed by the East End United Choir.

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⛪️ East End United Regional Ministry is an Affirming (🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ positive) community of faith, part of the United Church of Canada in Toronto.

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Rev. Bri-anne invites us back to the first liturgy of Genesis 1—when creation sang “let there be” before we paved paradise and called it progress. A reflection on covenant, kinship, and the Earth still singing.

📖 Scripture: Genesis 1:1-19 and there was evening, and morning, the first day...

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⛪️ East End United Regional Ministry is an Affirming (🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ positive) community of faith, part of the United Church of Canada in Toronto.

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On this Cosmic Sunday, we turn our gaze to clouds, golden hour light, and Holy Mystery. Through Joni Mitchell’s lyrics, John’s gospel, and A Song of Faith, we explore Creation as relationship—both intimate and cosmic. Even when the sky feels heavy, or when we confess “I really don’t know life at all,” still the light shines.

📖 Scripture: John 1:1-18 In the beginning was the word... (From the First Nations Version)

📖 Reading: Opening stanzas from A Song of Faith (2006)

🎶 Music: Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell, performed by the East End United Choir.

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⛪️ East End United Regional Ministry is an Affirming (🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ positive) community of faith, part of the United Church of Canada in Toronto.

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Before Jesus even speaks, there is a woman quietly falling apart in the kitchen...

In this episode, Rev. Bri-anne reflects on the story of Mary and Martha—not as a rivalry between contemplation and action, but as a sacred dance of discernment. 

Come and sit, if only for a moment. There’s a place for you here...whether your hands are calloused from service, or your heart is tired from trying to keep up.

📖 Scripture: Luke 10:38-42 Choosing the Better Part

🎶 Music: Everybody Sometimes by Emorie

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⛪️ East End United Regional Ministry is an Affirming (🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ positive) community of faith, part of the United Church of Canada in Toronto.

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What does it mean to share good news in a world overwhelmed by bad news? In this episode, Rev. Bri-anne explores Luke 10 and the radical vulnerability of discipleship. Drawing on themes of evangelism and spiritual community this sermon speaks directly to the congregation at East End, but offers wisdom for anyone seeking meaning, connection, and hope in uncertain times.

Whether you're part of a faith community or spiritually curious, hear how God breathes life into dust—and sends it out with purpose.

📖 Scripture: Luke 10:1-11 The Seventy Are Sent Out

🎶 Music: Dust in the Wind by Kansas
Sung by Bri-anne. Guitar by Raymond at Acoustic Lounge (thank you).

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⛪️ East End United Regional Ministry is an Affirming (🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ positive) community of faith, part of the United Church of Canada in Toronto.

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Sermons from the East End is a sermon podcast brought to you by the people of East End United Regional Ministry, part of our online ministry serving those both within and beyond the East End of Toronto, Canada. 

This Pride episode of Sermons from the East End is a lyrical reflection on the queerness of God, the holiness of queer bodies, and the love that refuses to be caged by doctrine or fear. Drawing from John 1 and Jeremiah 1, it is a blessing for those long silenced, a rally cry for sacred defiance, and a reminder: you were never a mistake. You were always part of the story.

📖 Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-10 God calls Jeremiah (read by Simon Meyers)
📖 Scripture: John 1:1-18 In the beginning was The Word (from the First Nations Version)

🎶 Music: All Belong Here by The Many
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East End United Regional Ministry is an Affirming (🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ positive) community of faith, part of the United Church of Canada in Toronto.

Let's Get Social

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Sermons from the East End is a sermon podcast brought to you by the people of East End United Regional Ministry, part of our online ministry serving those both within and beyond the East End of Toronto, Canada. 

In this episode of Sermons from the East End, Rev. Bri-anne delves into the transformative power of mercy. Reflecting on the story of Jesus and Bartimaeus, along with her experiences as a spiritual advisor and friend to death row inmate Ramiro Gonzales, we explore the question: who deserves mercy?

Join us as we consider the complexities of justice, compassion, and the radical call to mercy in a world that often seems more focused on retribution.

Scripture: Mark 10:46-52 Christ heals blind Bartimaeus

"When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!'

Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!'"

Music: Lovely Needy People by The Many
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★ SUPPORT THIS PODCAST & THE MINISTRY OF EAST END UNITED★
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/72635?v2=true

East End United Regional Ministry is an Affirming (🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ positive) community of faith, part of the United Church of Canada in Toronto.

Let's Get Social

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Website

Sermons from the East End is a sermon podcast brought to you by the people of East End United Regional Ministry, part of our online ministry serving those both within and beyond the East End of Toronto, Canada.