Rector’s Cupboard Podcast

What happens when we look back at the faith communities that shaped us and ask, Where are those people now? Have they remained where they started, or have their experiences led them somewhere unexpected? And what can we learn when we listen to the stories of those whose journeys have unfolded differently than our own? In this episode, we welcome Ken Best, therapist and longtime friend of Todd. They reflect on the formative church culture they shared and the ways their lives have diverged and intersected over the years. The conversation invites listeners to consider how other people's experiences can help us reinterpret our own past—and perhaps move toward a more hopeful future. This conversation also marks the beginning of our new Community Mental Health Talks series with Ken. What would it look like to create spaces where people feel seen, understood, and free to be themselves? Join us on June 22 for the first talk in the series, Queerly Beloved, an evening exploring how we can better understand and support the queer people in our lives. More information about this event here.

We recently had a storytelling evening in our garage studio. In this episode, we share a recording from this event featuring writer and lawyer Jonathan Wright, host of the podcast Hello Unknown, which has just released its second season. Jonathan invites us into the hidden layers of the human experience through stories that blend history, imagination, and spiritual reflection. We heard two (and a half) stories that evening. Coffee, the first story on this episode, For Keeps, which was not recorded but is available now on the second season of Hello Unknown and talks about the POGs phenomenon of the 90s. We also were treated to some new work, in a draft form, from a story Jonathan is working on for the next season of Hello Unknown. Jonathan’s stories explore how seemingly ordinary moments can reveal deeper questions about identity, connection, and the ways we make meaning. Through his thoughtful storytelling and personal reflections on faith and creativity, Jonathan invites listeners to pay attention to the small details that illuminate our shared humanity. The episode becomes a meditation on the power of narrative, how it shapes us, unsettles us, and draws us toward the unknown with curiosity and grace. We hope you enjoy the episode and highly recommend you check out all of Jonathan’s stories on Hello Unknown.

We are very happy to welcome back returning guest and friend of the podcast, Julian Davis Reid. Julian is a gifted writer, musician, speaker, theologian, and pastor and spoke with us about his new album, Vocation, in particular the song Moan: For Hearts of Flesh. Julian’s work is deep and thought provoking. It often walks a line between joy and pain, mixing the two together, demonstrating how one informs the other. His work articulates musically what can often be so difficult to articulate in other ways. It speaks to a hope that does not deny reality or skirt around pain or difficult topics but rather asks, what does faith look like here and now, in the midst of this. If you want to check out Julian’s work (which we would highly recommend), you can check out Julian’s website, which has links to his music, both solo and other projects, as well as his music video for Moan: For Hearts of Flesh, which we reference in this conversation.

You have likely noticed that hope is apparently in short supply these days. Talk of politics, rising authoritarianism, and political unrest reveals a present despair felt individually and collectively. Stories of effective hope can change the world. Land of Dreams is changing the world for many people. Hearing the stories of this place might well inspire hope for you. Because someone had hope, there is life in a place that was lacking life. If Rod and the crew at Land of Dreams can picture life and growth and transformation and community in a plot of land surrounded by major highways, then, perhaps, we can picture life and growth and community and transformation in the various desolations that surround and us. At Rector’s Cupboard we are familiar with the question, “What can you say that might give me hope?” Well, there is a lot to say that is hopeful. One of the answers we can give is to invite you to listen to this episode. Enjoy. Land of Dreams is located on Treaty 7 territory in Southeast Calgary.

Welcome to season 7 of Rector’s Cupboard! Do you sometimes feel like all we do is talk about America? While many Canadians would see Canada as distinct from the States, we are influenced by our neighbours to the south. In Alberta, the provincial government is supporting the banning of books. Some of the political and religious currents in Canada look very similar to those in the United States. In the first episode of our new season, we speak with a Canadian writer and professor who has described the relationship of the neo-charismatic Pentecostal movement and the rise of Donald Trump. André Gagné is Chair of the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. He is also a host of Spirit, State and Society, a podcast exploring how the global Pentecostal and charismatic movements intersect with politics, culture and society. We speak with Gagné about his 2024 book, American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and End Times. Gagné’s book is enlightening if somewhat disturbing. His work speaks not only to the American context, it also brings to mind similarities and differences in Canada. If you’d like to find Gagné’s work, such as his podcast and recent articles, you can check out his Concordia faculty page. Definitions: Expository Preaching – this style of preaching that seeks to detail the meaning and intent of a particular biblical passage. Articles Discussed: “A shadow war on libraries”, CBC The Fifth Estate, February 7, 2025 “New Alberta school books order bans explicit images of sexual acts”, CBC, September 8,2025 “Man arrested after driving child-size pink Barbie Jeep through Prince George, B.C.”, CBC, September 8, 2025 Tasting Notes: We kicked off the season with two tastings. The first was a lovely 15-Year-Old Highland Single Malt Scotch Whiskey from Balblair Distillery, in the North of Scotland. For our second tasting we went a bit more local with Barrel-Aged Family Reserve Gin from Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery. This gin is not your typical gin. While we tasted it neat, if you wanted to mix this, Ken suggests trying a blueberry tea cocktail, with hot tea and an orange slice to bring out the citrus and oak notes in the gin.

This is our third and final instalment of our series with Orthodox theologian and friend of the Cupboard, David Goa. This series has focused on the topic of fundamentalism, how it is expressed within the church, from several sides. If you haven’t listened to the first two episodes in this series, we’d encourage you to go back and take a listen to them before diving into this conversation. In today’s episode, Todd and David speak of the challenge that encountering the living God presents to fundamentalism and how this challenge is hopeful for those professing Christian faith. Discussing the work of William Cavanaugh in his recent book, The Uses of Idolatry, we consider how encountering the living God is fundamentally unmanageable. This unmanageability can be experienced as distressing and fearful for people as it can be at odds with that which we assume is certain, is foundational, that which we may hold sacred. But in this place, we can come to understand the presence of God rather than our presumptions about God. We hope that you have found challenge and encouragement, perhaps, hope in these conversations. Thanks for listening. If you’d like to explore these ideas more, we invite you to read the books that these conversations have largely centred around. Minds Wide Shut: How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us, Gary Saul Morson and Morton Shapiro, 2021 Wonder Confronts Certainty: Russian Writers of the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter, Gary Saul Mortson, 2023 The Uses of Idolatry, Williams T. Cavanaugh, 2024

You have likely heard, and perhaps said, that we live in a world that is very polarized. Too often, communities of faith have contributed to this polarization rather than offered help or healing to a divided world. David Goa has been, and continues to be, a formational voice for Rector’s Cupboard and for the work of Reflector Project. David has been running Philosopher Cafés in his home province of Alberta, Canada around the topic of “The New Fundamentalisms and How They Divide Us.” He has drawn from the work of Gary Saul Morson and Morton Schapiro in describing how openness to the other person is a more hopeful and faithful way of living than being closed and fundamentalist. Saul Morson refers to a notion that he calls the “congregation of the blessed.” This is the idea that anyone and anything outside of a particular group becomes seen as suspect or even evil, “Where people belonging to one faction (or faith, or denomination) feel that they are not just in a particular party, but are part of the congregation of the blessed, fighting demonic forces.” David and I recently had three conversations about the new fundamentalisms and the possibility of finding a better way forward in faith, belief and worldview. Part one of this series considers how fundamentalism, rigidity and suspicion of others can be unfortunately understood as faithful when it is actually fearful. David Goa is a thoughtful and helpful guide through a consideration of how our faith and worldview might grow up past a kind of spiritually adolescent fundamentalism.

Today is Good Friday.In Christian faith, today and Easter Sunday are two of the most important days of observation. We often, on Rector’s Cupboard, refer to what is happening in the world, the news, politics, culture. In Christian faith, Good Friday is always more than news of the week. It is at the heart of the faith.With that in mind, we offer a Good Friday reflection. The reflection is intended as an invitation to spiritual contemplation. What does it mean that Jesus was alone on Good Friday? What does “Christ Alone” entail? Wherever you are at, in terms of faith and belief, may you know God’s presence and blessing and hope this Easter weekend.