500 episodes listed below
Preaching for hope under pressure.
Sermons from Trinity Cathedral Portland collects sermons shaped by worship, personal memory, and close attention to scripture. Its speakers move from cataract surgery, funerals, March Madness, foot washing, and wartime family separation into reflections on hope, blessing, justice, and belovedness.
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Sermons from Trinity Cathedral Portland presents Christian preaching as a meeting place between worship, memory, scripture, and the moral weather of the present. The episodes do not stay abstract for long. They begin with tangible scenes: a child asking why her Air Force father has to leave, a person finding order through ironing, a sanctuary lit from one small fire, a cataract treatment that makes the world suddenly brighter, or a funeral that becomes painfully uncomfortable. Those concrete openings give the sermons their shape. They let theology arrive through lived detail rather than through slogan or formula. The feed is rooted in the church calendar, with sermons from Lent, foot washing, Easter, and ordinary Sundays carrying themes of hope, blessing, ritual participation, grief, and resurrection. It has a distinct concern for power. Speakers return to empire, authoritarianism, war, captivity, civic control, and the people left vulnerable by those forces. At the same time, the tone remains pastoral. Even when the subject is conflict in the Middle East, child death, funeral grief, or abandonment, the sermons look for practices that sustain human dignity. Hope is not presented as cheerfulness. It becomes a disciplined way of seeing: looking on the heart, honoring children in the present, remembering blessing under pressure, and trusting that death does not have the final word. The preaching is also comfortable with humor and texture. March Madness, applause after sermons, theater-kid candor, fancy sherry, and awkward church etiquette all appear without breaking the reverent frame. Scripture is treated as a living conversation with real social consequences. Jesus, Samuel, David, Abraham, Nicodemus, Fotina, and the disciples are read alongside contemporary anxiety, family memory, and communal worship. The result is a sermon feed for listeners drawn to thoughtful, justice-conscious Christianity that still values ritual, prayer, and sacramental life. It is measured, vivid, and often tender. Its best episodes linger where faith has to face sorrow, power, and uncertainty, then ask what kind of hope can still be practiced there.
Made for: For listeners who want Christian sermons that connect scripture with grief, public life, ritual, and moral responsibility. It especially suits people drawn to reflective preaching with pastoral warmth and social conscience.
What sets it apart: The show stands out through its grounded sermon craft: ordinary objects and personal memories become entry points into scripture, power, hope, and healing. Its register is reverent without being insulated from war, politics, grief, or the awkwardness of church life.
Weekly reflections from Trinity Cathedral, a progressive urban congregation in downtown Portland, OR. Whatever you believe, you are welcome: no exceptions!
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Christmas pageant that keeps Mary, Francis, and the manger scene immediate.
This sermon turns the nativity into a tactile pageant, moving from a teenaged Mary played by a 13-year-old through shepherds, wise men, and the 1223 Greccio tradition tied to Saint Francis of Assisi.
Two Bible translators unpack Scripture's hardest passages, from Revelation's 666 to the Witch of Endor.
Catholic arguments with pint-table warmth.
Daily headlines under Christian judgment.
Catholic homilies for the next faithful step.
Catholic teaching for ordinary discipleship.
Serious Bible questions, patiently reasoned.
A 13-year-old girl steps up to play Mary as the host launches an impromptu Christmas pageant during the sermon.
Bishop Diana Akiyama reveals how ironing wrinkled cloth helped her find order amid the abstract challenges of priesthood.
A personal reflection on military family life, deployment fears, and the impact of war, using the speaker's father's Air Force experience and Operation Desert Storm as a backdrop.
A sermon reflecting on the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a source of eternal hope that challenges worldly powers and affirms life beyond death.
Bishop Diana Akiyama reflects on finding concrete tasks like ironing to bring order out of chaos, connecting this human desire for control to the disciples' confusion over Jesus' teachings during Easter.
This episode explores the connection between religious ritual and theatrical performance, focusing on the tangible experience of foot washing during Maundy Thursday as a form of active participation.
The speaker recounts attending her Aunt Jean's funeral, where the pastor's intense altar call for salvation fell flat in a somber setting.
This episode discusses Welcome Sunday at Trinity, highlighting church activities and contrasting the welcoming theme with challenging scripture passages from Deuteronomy and Paul.
This episode explores the tension between Jesus's statement about bringing division and the quest for unity in the church, contrasting it with secular models of unity in government and online debates that often involve coercion or conflict.
This episode explores the significance of mountaintop experiences in religious scripture, particularly the Transfiguration of Jesus, while reflecting on their spiritual and physical dangers.
This episode explores the biblical story of Martha and Mary, examining the tensions around work, hospitality, and gender roles that the passage evokes in contemporary listeners.
This episode explores the significance of Pentecost in explaining how early Christianity spread from a small group to a global movement through divine intervention and spiritual transformation.