Cedar Park United
Cedar Park United is on the progressive end of the Christian neighbourhood, taking the Bible seriously, but not literally, engaging the sciences and arts in our ways of following Jesus, and learning and re-learning how to live with respect in Creation, while creating as wide a welcome as we can for all who seek wisdom, belonging, and common purpose around the Dream of God for the world. We're so glad you're here!
Episodes
Speaking to the gathered congregations of the West Island and Beyond United Churches cluster, Pastoral Minister Jessica Gauthier invites us all to consider how often we are tempted to clutch our time, resources, and energy as if we could have control by holding on tightly. But we can’t take any of it with us... Holy abundance is poured out extravagantly, not hoarded. What if we lived the same way, she asks, spending our time, our t...
Distilled to essence: Parting words of joy and encouragement from Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones
In the week leading up to her last Sunday with the community of Cedar Park United, Rev. Elisabeth met with Ernie Bauer, teacher and member of Cedar Park United, for a beautiful 90-minute conversation about resistant joy, generosity, the Holy Spirit at work, and the role of progressive Christianity in this very complex time.
Thank you for liste...
Our Trinity Sunday worship was an invitation to wonder at the mystery of God as Love in relationship. Through music and scripture, we listened, sang, and shared in a service shaped by the worship life of those who live at Saint Andrew’s Residence, as they experience it each Sunday afternoon with our Pastoral Minister, Jessica Gauthier. Listen as she shares what “Sundays in the Solarium” are like and adds context to her role of walk...
Welcome to the Cedar Park United Podcast!
In her final sermon as Lead Minister of Cedar Park United, Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones invites us to “turn” a sacred text together to encourage us all in our journeys of faith and witness. Which text…? Well, that’s for you to find out as you listen. Her parting message to this community of faith, however, is clear: "God has equipped you. God’s got you. You’ve got this. It’s your turn. Car...
Today we welcomed new members by affirmation of faith and by child-dedication–what greater affirmation of a faithful future held safe in the hands of God can we have? As Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones put it in her reflection on Lydia, one of the pivotal “matriarchs” of Christian life and witness, these new members are “rich purple cloth to add to the tapestry of this community’s Gospel story.”
In holy conversation with Scripture, the Quran, and two women of faith – Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones and Dr. Afra Jalabi – we explore what holy Love looks like when humans embody it for the sake of others; it looks remarkably like compassion and mercy, and it is stronger than hate.
Thank you for listening! You can connect with Cedar Park United here:
The beloved 23rd Psalm helps us to explore God’s shepherding presence through life’s darkest valleys, and across the bridges to a faithful future. As a community about to begin a new chapter as Rev. Elisabeth’s retirement approaches, we’re faced with the question: How will we bridge the gap between this chapter and the next? All the cumulative stories of our faith, found in Scripture and in our experience, point to a dynamic moveme...
What happens when someone’s unique talents are touched by a Gospel of love, compassion and hope? Listen to today’s conversation between Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones, Pat Mayberry and Heather MacIntosh and be inspired by this “Gospel according to everyone.”
Hear the Gospel reading of the conversion of Saul from Acts 9:1-6, (7-20), in the livestream recording.
The song Conversation was composed by Pat Mayberry and performed by Pat Mayberry...
Today is the 2nd Sunday of Easter — Holy Humour Sunday! Rooted in ancient tradition, it’s a day to let Easter joy rise in laughter, music, and surprise. This isn’t silliness for its own sake. It’s a celebration of the outrageous good news: Christ is risen, and joy has the last word. And to this, Candidate Minister Jessica Gauthier brings in the laughter…
Hear the Gospel reading from John 20 and 21 in the livestream recording.
Connec...
In this, her last Easter sermon as Lead Minister of Cedar Park United, Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones reflects on the 13 different sermons she’s preached on Easter, and how none of those sermons could preach to today. To this Easter, 2025. This year we need resurrection to be real, and specific, and concrete, and tangible, beyond doubt, and particular. This year, we need a resurrection more than ever!
Hear the Gospel reading from Luke 24...
In today’s reflection, from the 5th Sunday in Lent, Candidate Minister Jessica Gauthier invites us to reflect on love that overflows—love so generous it might seem wasteful. What do we hold back, and why? What might it look like to pour ourselves out with that same fearless devotion? Perhaps “foolish and ruined…”
Hear the Gospel reading from John 12:1-8 in the livestream recording.
Connect with Cedar Park United here:
God’s “Nevertheless” of forgiveness for sins is strange wisdom, and stranger still when we witness those who have power using it to condemn and punish “to the full extent of the law”… and beyond. What can God’s strange wisdom offer to us, and to our human community, in these troubling times? In this reflection from the fourth Sunday in Lent, Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones invites us to consider the question: Is there ever a circumstance ...
The weekend of March 21-23, 2025 was one of connection and community across faith dividing lines for Cedar Park United and Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, to find common purpose in movements of compassion. In today’s podcast, you’ll hear the sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones during the Erev Shabbat Friday evening service at Temple, as well as the message delivered on Sunday morning at Cedar Park United by Rabbi Dr. Lisa Grus...
If Lent is a seasonal discipleship journey, then week two’s “rest stop” is at the station called “Lament!” You might prefer to drive on by, but please don’t. Jesus stopped here, in tears and anguish, to name hard truths, to ask God some pointed questions, and we can too. Jesus also resumed his journey, refreshed, renewed, and encouraged. And as Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones reminds us in her reflection, we can, too.
We stand at the threshold of both Lent and our Annual Congregational Meeting—a season of discernment, decision, and challenge. Everywhere we turn, we are encouraged to seek power, security, and control. Yet in the midst of this pull, God calls us to move forward in love, courage, and trust. In today’s reflection, Candidate Minister Jessica Gauthier invites to consider that what looks beautiful can also be dangerous, and what seems ...
Welcome to the Cedar Park United Podcast!
Today is the grand finale of the Season of Epiphany – a season where we are trained to see God’s love and life unveiled, made clear in flashes of insight and spiritual wisdom, and in holy moments of encounter with glory in and beyond the created world. Today’s Gospel is the pinnacle of these moments of epiphany, telling a story of deep wonder and mystery when three disciples “get it” that t...
Last week, we heard some “Plain Speaking” from Jesus. Blessings for the poor, hungry, grieving, and persecuted. To those who are socially well-positioned, a challenge to wake up and pay attention. When the things that give us stability and control fall away, how will we respond? Today, we sit together with the discomfort of Jesus’ next words: “Love your enemies.” It sounds simple, but living it? “It’s Complicated!” Jesus invites us...
Luke’s telling of the “Sermon on the Plain” is Gospel for our times, and for us as we try to live the Way of Jesus in a world where the gap between the poor and ordinary on the one hand, and the ultra rich on the other, is massive and getting larger. In today’s reflection, Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones reminds us that in God’s eyes– and love – the poor, the grieving, the hungry, and the persecuted are the favoured ones – and that this ...
We catch up with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke; we cheer for the hometown boy, preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth; we watch in awe as three men leave their livelihood as fishermen to follow him. But mind “the gap” in the middle! Watch for trouble! Was it/is it good trouble? And what does it have to do with us? Rev. Dr. Elisabeth Jones invites us to ponder these questions.
Hear the Gospel reading fromLuke 4:14-30, Luke 5:1-11in th...
Our Way tells us that God is Love and that we are made in the image of God. In 1 Corinthians 13, we find one of the most well-known descriptions of love in our tradition… but living this love is not always easy. On this communion Sunday, Candidate Minister Jessica Gauthier invites us all to the table, to Re-Member the Body of Christ, and find in this meal the grace and strength to keep loving, no matter what.
Hear the Gospel read...
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