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What Can I Expect on Sundays? A meaningful and friendly experience! But to give you a full sense of what takes place on Sunday, let's start from when you arrive.

If you reach here by car, you should know there is free parking We have a church parking lot, and the parking is free on Sunday mornings at the Green P parking lot across the street. You can also reach us by subway, with a short bus ride ( the 124 from Lawrence Park Station at Yonge).

Now that you have arrived, you are ready to enter the church building through the glass doors. 

Worship begins at 10:30, but many people arrive a few minutes early to get settled. Take a seat anywhere, there are no reserved seats, and we don't have pews. Don't worry about getting hot or cold. We have central heating and air conditioning, provided by our geothermal system. 

Shortly before the service begins, some gathering music is played—a prelude, and then a choral piece by our choir. Next, one of our ministers ( we have 2) walks in and welcomes us all. We hear a bit about what the service will be about, followed by a land acknowledgement. Then we take a few deep breaths, and sing our first hymn with the choir.  The words appear on the television screens. 

If you have children with you, we have a Sunday school program and nursery care for the little ones. 

After the first hymn, the minister invites us to share the peace of Christ with each other. This is followed by everyone getting up to shake hands or bump elbows. This takes a few minutes - we're friendly people! Many of us walk all over the sanctuary greeting each other, no need to stay in your seat. 

On the screens in the sanctuary, you'll see the faces of people at home greeting each other. Our services are live streamed, and people attend from all over the city, the country and the world. We like to keep them in the service, so we use the live feed on our screens throughout the service. This provides close captioning for everyone, including people who are in the sanctuary. There are also hearing enhancement headsets available at the back of the church. 

Sunday School: Next, once people have taken their seats again, the minister will provide a mini sermon for the children. After that, the Sunday School teacher leads the children to rooms where they will engage in their own activities. If you would rather keep your children with you, that is fine as well.  

Sermons: Next,  a congregational member will read scripture, and the minister will deliver a sermon that applies the Bible's wisdom to our modern world. We believe in making our faith very relevant to what is happening right now. The sermon is usually followed by an anthem performed by the choir that amplifies one of the themes of the sermon and/or scripture reading. ( If you would like to see a sample of our sermons, please go to sermons page on this website. If you would like to see a whole service, there are many on our YouTube channel.) 

After the anthem, the minister offers a prayer for the life of the congregation, nation, and the world. The minister then makes some annoucements about upcoming activities at the church. 

The service ends with a hymn, a blessing and a final musical offering—the postlude. That's the official end of the service, but most of the time, people hang around for twenty minutes or more to talk, have a coffee, meet some new people and hang out. We play jazz music in the sanctuary to help keep the mood light. We believe Christians gather to nurture joy, so we encourage people to enjoy themselves at the end of the service, hopefully buoyed by a feeling of hope - the good news. There is often a sermon circle after the service, where the minister who gave the sermon meets with people in the library to discuss whatever they found interesting, challenging, or to talk about whatever comes up.

After church educational sessions: Our church's committees also often hold educational sessions after the church service at noon. The Affirm committee tends to do this once a month down the hall in the Bradford Room. They've hosted videos and guests speakers on topics as diverse as trans issues, autism awareness, the trouble with banning books, disability awareness, homosexuality in the Bible, among other topics. This is a chance to learn and talk about an issue in depth. These sessions tend to go until 1:30 pm, with a light lunch provided.

When there isn't a session after church, people hang out talking in the gathering hall, having cookies, coffee and conversation with old friends and newcomers like yourself. By 12:30 most people have gone. We're a friendly place, and people like to stick around! We hope you will come by in person or online and see if we're a good fit for you on your spiritual journey.