Six Ways From Sunday

Eric Gaudet has spent the last decade as Bashaw's local friendly pharmacist, getting to know families and individuals in this small town and becoming an indispensable part of the community as a primary care provider. In a rural community without a hospital and with family doctors in extremely short supply across Alberta, the role of a licensed prescribing pharmacist is super important. But that's...

Lorne Gushue is a member of the worship committee at Yellowknife United Church, an affirming church located in a large public building in downtown Yellowknife. In the aftermath of wildfires that threatened homes, health and livelihoods, the needs of the local community have been top of mind for Lorne and the rest of the leadership team of their church. A church that is currently without a full tim...

It feels like we're all facing one kind of storm or another right now, whether it's the strain of increased living costs, interest rates and inflation, or the lack of affordable housing, or the pain of feeling isolated, lonely and disconnected. Debt, food insecurity and homelessness are on the rise and the number of Canadians who feel optimistic about the future is dropping. Humans are suffering....

Robin has a way of always presenting a new and refreshing perspective on an old story. Miracle stories, like the feeding of the 5,000 or the gospel story of Peter walking out to Jesus on the water, are stories that we've heard so many times we almost forget to "think" about them. So in this episode we're diving into some miracle stories and talking about how our common interpretations of them have...

Donna Ross is a 33-year educator. She is a Cree-Métis from Saskatchewan and member of the One Arrow First Nation, Treaty Six territory. Donna began her teaching career as a classroom teacher with Tsuut’ina Nation and continued to support First Nations learners in subsequent positions with Siksika and Stoney Nakoda Nations, and is currently an Indigenous Designer of Learning with the Calgary Region...

Shandi is a queer poet and organizer in Lethbridge.  In this episode we discuss the origins of Shandi's incredible poetry, the genesis of her bold and impactful community project called the "Coming Out In Faith Monologues", and her own personal faith journey and coming out story. We also talk about violence against the LGBTQ2S+ community and the importance of going beyond celebrating during Pride...

Victoria Bucholtz (She/Her) holds a doctorate in History from the University of Calgary, with a cognate field in gender theory. Victoria is a LGBTQ+ facilitator and currently teaches at Mount Royal University. She is a transgender rights activist, entertainment producer, and drag queen. An avid mountaineer, skier, and dog mom, she lives in Calgary, Alberta in the Treaty 7 Region. You can also lear...

Jason Clark has worked in youth ministry for many years and has recently moved to our little town of Bashaw, Alberta where he's now running the Bashaw Youth Foundation, working with youth at the Bashaw School and also getting involved as a leader in our Bashaw United Church. His energy and creativity seem to be endless, and already in the past few months of living in the community there has been a...

The Christmas season is a time of giving, generosity and coming together as a community, no matter where you live. But there's something going on in the tiny little community of Bashaw that is unusual and almost inexplicably magical, and it is literally transforming lives. You could look at the Sugar Plum Ball event, or the Angels Among Us campaign, you could study the impacts of the Bashaw Food B...

"From The Wild" is a web film series that explores incredible journeys in wild food and beautiful, wild spaces. Its creator, Kevin Kossowan, is an award winning filmmaker and foodie who has worked with Michelin Star chefs and filmed on almost every continent on the planet. He's been a blogger since the days when you had to explain to people what a blog was, and his craft of storytelling combines w...

Finding our place where we feel a sense of belonging, purpose, security and happiness is what all of us hope for in life, and Mandy seems to have found all of it right here on Main Street, in Daysland, Alberta. But like all great rewards it hasn't come without great risk and hard work. This is the story of Mandy's giant leaps of faith that led her into the world of business and have helped to revi...

Vik Maraj is the co-founder of Unstoppable Conversations in Edmonton, AB. He helped create and lead an international high-growth education company, developed curriculum and taught hostage negotiation for Canada's National Police, resolved international disputes within the UN, and galvanized an almost unthinkable billion-dollar collaboration between some of the world's largest energy companies, aca...

What is this, a podcast studio, a community theatre stage, or a church? The answer is yes, it is all three. And on any other given day it's also a movie theatre, a space for worship, for grief support groups to meet, for a baptism, communion, funeral or a wedding. In other words, it's a space for creating community. Here in Bashaw we've found that community theatre productions are an amazing way o...

Ary Vreeken is the Alberta regional representative for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, a partnership of 15 Canadian churches and church-based agencies working together to end global hunger. It is estimated that up to 828 million people on our planet currently do not have "food security", meaning they do not have regular access to enough nutritious food to live healthy and active lives. Here in Canad...

Holy Moses! is the name of this year's summer church program for kids, happening right now at the Ponoka United Church and starting up on Monday at the Bashaw United Church. It's the first in-person summer day camp that we've been able to run in three years, but it's a program that Robin King and Lori Miller have been planning and delivering for about 12 years now. This summer we've also been real...

Affirming Connections is an organization that's placing itself at the intersection of faith communities in southern rural Alberta communities and the LGBTQ2S+ community, making valuable connections among churches interested in becoming an "Affirming" ministry. As part of their work, Affirming Connections created a series of videos called "Small Town, Big Impact: Stories and Strategies from the Aff...

I love stories about big and impactful things emerging from small, unlikely places. So the story of Rainbow Camp popping up from the tiny, remote Northern Ontario community of Thessalon - a camp that is changing and saving lives - was one I really wanted to learn about and share with you! Ten years ago Harry and Chris founded Rainbow Camp for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, creating a safe space where teens fro...

I was recently sitting in a movie theatre, half way through watching Dr Strange - Multiverse of Madness, when things started getting pretty deep and existential! Thinking about my own life, the concept of other potential parallel realities and universes, it occurred to me that the Marvel universe and the enormous world of comic book superheroes in general, is so incredibly rich in stories that off...

One of the many organizations Lewis is involved with is the Parliament of the World's Religions. As a trustee and member for many years, Lewis has shared his Indigenous culture and spirituality at global tables and conversations that he describes as being like "the Olympics of world religions", in that they gather in a different city once every four years to bring together leaders from many nation...

Working as a freelance writer for the the United Church Observer 20 years ago, Jocelyn realized she had a passion for journalism and for sharing stories that inspire, inform and challenge her readers. Over the last two decades she has seen journalism evolve into the digital realm, the rise of social media, and also the transformation of the Observer to what is now Broadview . The magazine and webs...

We've just celebrated Easter, tulips are breaking through the soil as snow banks quickly melt (again), and our faith communities are returning (again) to in-person events. As we collectively re-examine what it means to be in community, to engage with our congregations, to meet the evolving needs of individuals, it's clear that "getting back to normal" is never going to take us where we want to be....

Tara Shannon's childhood nickname "Bear" took on a whole new identity when 3 years ago she began drawing rabbits and bears and her sketches turned into powerful and tender moments of conversation and reflection between the two illustrated characters. "Rabbit and Bear" became her outlet for years and years of thoughts, anxiety, depression, grief, magic and wonder. And one day, to Tara's surprise, o...

My friend Ben Campbell is a tough person to write a bio for, so even deciding how to describe this podcast episode and our invigorating conversation is challenging. I first met Ben through a video project where we did some winter filming at his family's ranch near Black Diamond, in the Alberta foothills. While his parents spoiled us with their warm and friendly hospitality I remember spotting a ph...

Pandemic restrictions are lifting again and the heaviness of two years of pandemic living is starting to feel like it could begin to lift. Spring is right around the corner and the Earth is beginning to stir with the promise of new life. And, this week we marked the beginning of the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday. We're also getting back to in-person programming at Bashaw United Church, with some...

Ernest wears a lot of hats (insert bald joke here lol), but like all of us, he's not defined by his career or various roles in life. In this episode we talk a lot about purpose and what creates a meaningful life, we talk about some of Ernest's spiritual journey, passions and entrepreneurial projects, and we unpacked his recent experience at a meditation retreat that had a dramatic impact on his li...