The Rev. Dr. John Joseph Mastandrea
The Rev. Dr. John Joseph Mastandrea became minister of spiritual growth and pastoral care development at Metropolitan United in 2000. John Joseph cut his teeth in the Etobicoke area of Toronto and now resides in Cabbagetown, he is "connected with the urban landscape, with the internal and eternal song."
He has Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Master of Divinity, Master of Religious Education, Master of Arts and Ministry of Spirituality degrees , all from the University of Toronto. John Joseph completed his Doctorate from Chicago Theological Seminary, May 2009. Ordained in 1989, he is a certified Labyrinth Facilitator, Stephen Leader, and Spiritual Director following in the footsteps of Ignatius Loyola and Teresa of Avila. John Joseph believes in nurturing body, mind and spirit. Monday to Friday at the local gymn, reading and meditating daily weaves three key components of life. Nurture for self to nurture for others. This is the credo he lives by. John Joseph is a Christian Mystic who lives by these words.
“The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares.” Henri Nouwen
John Joseph has served congregations from the Maritimes, Saskatchewan, northern Ontario and rural Quebec to urban and suburban parts of the Greater Toronto Area.
John Joseph's volunteer work for the church and community includes: Chairperson of the Toronto South East Presbytery Pastoral Relations Commission, membership in the Toronto Area Interfaith Council, Police Chaplin to 51 Division, Membership in the Toronto Rotary, Chair Person the Toronto Rotary Community Services Committee and Chair of the World Aids Concert Committee a benefit for Casey House. Volunteer ministry has included positions as chairperson of the Worship and Liturgy Committee of Toronto Conference for four years, chairperson of the Mission Committee of Toronto South Presbytery, chairperson of the Planning and Development Committee and co-chairperson of the Christian Development Committee in York Presbytery north of Toronto, chairperson of the AIDS Committee of York Region since 1998, and member of the Pastoral Care Committee of York Central Hospital in Richmond Hill. He represented Canada as a delegate to the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, in February 1990.
Today John Joseph seeks to meet people where they are and build the capacity for relations between people in a diverse spectrum of society.
Dr. Mastandrea's Thesis: 
Mastandrea - Even The Rocks Will Cry Out (2.6 MB)
Jan 12
As we say goodbye to 2011 the word patience comes to mind. As we have experience many high roads and low roads it is patience and perseverance that has seen us through to the close of the year.
The Poet Phyllis Webb writes
Patience is the wideness of the night
the simple pain of stars
the muffled explosion of velvet
it moves itself generally
through particulars
accepts the telling of time
without day's relativity. ("Patience")
The two lines that hook me in this compelling work are
“Patience is the wideness of the night and the simple pain of stars.”
In the epicenter of the proclamation “Happy New Year” there is little room left for the simple pain of stars. And yet the year past has pain and travail in its winding road. I think of the brother-in-law who died leaving behind a wife and two children. And for many of us there would have been family and friends who have left this earth, but whose memory burns brightly inside us. It is the saying goodbye that is wound of our heart. The wound takes time to heal. The wound reminds us of their presence in our lives.
On the World Scene we witnessed the death of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Vaclav Havel.
Václav Havel 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician.
A Nobel Peace Prize nominee, he was the ninth and last president of Czechoslovakia (1989–1992) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He wrote more than 20 plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally.
Havel was a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, that proposed the establishment of theEuropean Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. He also received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of Canada, the freedom medal of the Four Freedoms Award, the Ambassador of Conscience Awardand several other distinctions.
Vaclav Havel took the helm of leadership and brought Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic to new uncharted territory as they boldly embraced democracy for the first time.
He is noted for many sage words. This is a noteworthy word from Vaclav Havel,
“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
Vaclav Havel offered words of hope to the people of the Czech Republic and to many former eastern bloc countries. Vaclav brings hope to the west and wider world.
Hope carries us through the dark days.
As Phyllis web has written “Patience is the wideness of the night”
As we bid farewell to the nights of 2011, we do not say goodbye but hold many fond moments close to the heart.
We bid hello and welcome to days of 2012. This year brings the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. The end of the Napoleonic Era witnessed the longing for justice, rescue and freedom for all in the advent of the abolitionist movement.
Changing times then and now stirs us to ask the question of Micah 6:8
“What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?"
Do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God?
For me 2012 ushers in the great hope that we and especially myself will rediscover that seminal quality of communication that is a live connection by phone or face time that instills that vibrant quality of human emotion and experience.