Church Life

It’s a common scam: find the leader of a do-gooder organization. Change your display-name so that an email looks like it’s coming from that executive to their staff. Ask the colleague not to phone, but rather communicate only by email, since the senior minister is 1-in a meeting 2-at prayer or 3-otherwise occupied, and request gift cards. My staff knew to call or email me anyway and ask if this was really me. They prepared a warning for others. 

I told one fellow pastor my philosophy, shared more than once from the pulpit: if I were standing in… Read more

Josh Del Rosario has worked at TEMC as digital coordinator since 2016. He began working as our youth ministry coordinator in January of 2024. He is a champion team player, always working to help others on the staff to do our work better. We talked about his older work with us, his newer youth work, and his life and faith.

Tell us about yourself, Josh.

I grew up here in a Filipino household. We came to Canada… Read more

I’ve gotten to know someone who’s newer to worshiping at our church’s 9:15 service. She calls herself a “whooper.” If a song is particularly good, she whoops. ‘Not my fault,’ she said. ‘You guys led the good song.’

Recently we rang the bell and she prepared to whoop. To her astonishment, someone whooped before her. She looked around. There’s another whooper at Timothy Eaton?! The whoopers found one another and rejoiced. He’s been around a little longer, though inactive until recently.… Read more

Friends I am so glad to introduce you to one of the most innovative ministries I know in Canada, and worldwide. Because they’re coming to our church.

A Rocha is an evangelical ministry of creation care and conservation. It started in Portugal—the word is Portuguese for “the Rock,” after the place of its founding. Located on the southwestern coast of Portugal, it is a major migration point for birds flying between Europe and Africa, and was threatened with… Read more

So here’s a wild idea for the new year. I usually resolve to lose weight or spend my time more wisely or take up some hobby that actually takes decades to learn. This far more reasonable. 

What if we worshiped in different spaces?

We have lovely spaces for worship in our building in addition to our magnificent sanctuary. Three of those seem perfect for our early service: the atrium, the west chapel, and the chancel. We do worship in each on special occasions already, but… Read more

As many of you know, TEMC is proud to have recently amalgamated with a Welsh United Church. Wales has more than 1500 years of church history. But if you're like me, you're relatively unaware of that history. So I've planned a pilgrimage to Wales, devoted to learning about Christ's work through the church in Wales, past and present. Wales inherited a unique strand of the Christian tradition called Celtic Christianity. The Celts, called the Galatians in the Bible, were a people with a vast territorial expanse north of the Roman Empire. With no written language,… Read more

An opinion piece made the rounds among us pastor types recently. Its author was saying goodbye not just to a congregation, but to pastoral ministry. It’s an old and creaky narrative that congregations are stuck in their ways. We clergy fancy ourselves more forward-thinking than our timid flocks. It’s also a… Read more

“How long’s it been since you’ve sat in this office?”

“I was last here when mom died. Before that it was when I got married.”

She has been at our church her whole life. Her mom died more than a decade ago. She was married some 30 years ago. I joke that she should come by more often at less momentous occasions. She graces my poor humour with a half-second’s smile. 

My office is chock full of books. There are six comfortable… Read more

Written By Rachel McMillan

A few months ago, I was gifted the privilege of taking a trip down bookish memory lane. A few of us, including Rev Lori, went to town attempting to organize the TEMC library. On that first day, we weeded and organized and sneezed through the dust of books that had sat untouched for many years.

If you have ever been inside the library, you know it is a bookish haven by virtue of its design alone. There is a cozy window… Read more

I loved my first Easter here. The music was loud and thumpy. The crowd was boisterous (y’all even laughed at the jokes! Most of them...). The choir was its electric self. The band and Stephen did their usual best and then some. The preacher didn’t ruin things too badly. We managed to mark Jesus risen and reigning. And the children! An overflowing, bubbling over mass of children. Nupur was invisible at the children’s moment, covered up by so many children.

At 9:15am that is.

… Read more