St. John the Compassionate Mission is dedicated to outreach and care for vulnerable individuals and families in Toronto, especially those living in poverty or on the margins – all are welcome!
We’re an apostolate of the Carpatho-Russian Diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, serving under the Omophorion of Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa (ACROD). (See our history and mission.)

Hours of Service – everyone is welcome!

Something new

Tap/click the picture to see a PDF (~150 kbytes) with details on a new program at the Mission.

Nurturing community while breaking bread at Saint John’s Mission

February 24, 2025 Joel Levy Community & Culture, Lifestyle, Shopping, The City - Toronto Guardian

Saint John’s Mission, a charitable organisation based in Toronto, stands out for its multifaceted approach to community service. At the heart of its operations is Saint John’s Bakery, a unique social enterprise that not only produces quality sourdough bread but also provides meaningful employment opportunities to marginalised individuals. I recently visited the bakery and the church next door to chat with with Priest Nicolaie the Executive Director at Saint John’s Mission. He was able to give me a deeper understanding of the mission’s daily operations, the bakery’s origins, and its broader impact on the community.

Father Nicolaie (far left), guests and staff say some words before they eat lunch at Saint John's Mission

The Beginnings and Vision

Saint John’s Mission, also known as St. John the Compassionate Mission, was founded in 1986 by Father Roberto Ubertino. St. John’s Bakery, an integral part of the mission, started as a social enterprise initiative to provide meaningful employment and skill development opportunities to marginalised individuals, including those with disabilities and newcomers to Canada.

The bakery’s origins are deeply connected to the mission’s vision of community building and personal empowerment. The mission’s bakery began from the inspiration of an unhoused Hungarian ex-baker. This initiative aimed to create a sense of belonging and community through the art of baking traditional sourdough bread

The bakery’s recipes have roots in Brittany, France, where Father Roberto learned the art of making traditional French sourdough bread.

Daily Operations and Impact

Saint John’s Mission begins their operation at 5 AM, from Tuesday to Saturday, to bake, serve meals and create a sense of community. With an average of over 250 people served daily, the mission emphasises the importance of sharing meals and stories, fostering relationships, and providing a space where everyone feels welcome and valued. While I was visiting, I got to see the staff and the guests break bread together while they chatted about new updates in their lives.

Saint John’s Bakery next to Saint John’s Mission on Broadview.

The bakery operates with the same ethos. It not only produces high-quality organic sourdough bread but also serves as a training ground for individuals, including those with disabilities and refugees who might not speak English. The bakery’s social mandate is clear: to prepare employees for permanent work beyond its doors while providing individual healing and skill development.

Challenges and Growth

Over the years, the mission and its bakery have faced various challenges, from balancing bread production with staffing needs to maintaining the vision of community-oriented growth. Despite these challenges, the bakery has received numerous awards and recognition for its social impact and quality products.

Priest Nicolaie explained that while the bakery could have expanded significantly, the decision was made to prioritise personal connection and community values over rapid growth. This careful balance ensures that the bakery remains true to its roots and continues to make a meaningful impact on the lives of those it serves.

Support and Future Projects

Saint John’s Mission constantly seeks support from the community. Volunteers are always needed, and donations of food and resources are greatly appreciated. The mission also encourages people to buy their bread and sweets, which directly supports their programs.

Looking to the future, the mission has plans to open a new space on Queen Street, combining elements of the bakery with a reconditioned thrift store, artisan market, and gallery for local artists. This new venture aims to further integrate the community’s talents and resources, providing additional support and opportunities for those involved.

Saint John’s Mission and its bakery are exemplary models of how social enterprises can create lasting positive change. By focusing on quality products, community engagement, and individual empowerment, they continue to make a difference in Toronto. To support their work, consider volunteering, making donations, or simply enjoying the delicious sourdough bread and sweets they have to offer.

For more information, visit their website.

A new fridge for Good Neighbours

The commercial refrigerator donated by the Burnbrae Farms Foundation has arrived at Good Neighbours in Scarborough. The fridge is now contentedly in service in the kitchen there, as shown in the photo below.

We are grateful to the Foundation for their generosity.

The Pre-eminent Experience

By Metropolitan Meliton (Hatzis) of Chalcedon (+ 1989)
(Delivered in the Metropolitan Church of Athens on Cheesefare Sunday, 8 March 1970)

My brethren, the Lord scolded nothing as much as hypocrisy. And rightly so, for He saw in her that there is always the greatest danger of complete delusion, that is, the angelic-looking luciferian light. The power of hypocrisy is indeed awesome. Both for those who live it and exercise it, and for those who suffer from it. And hypocrisy is dangerous, because it corresponds to a deeper psychological problem of man.

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Man wants to appear like someone he is not. Even before himself and before God. And so he escapes from truth and simplicity and of course from repentance and salvation.

In a few hours outside this church, outside its serenity, in the streets of this city, the Carnival parade will take place. Do not despise or ridicule them, or criticize me for mentioning it. It is not at all unrelated to the greatest problem of hypocrisy.

Pay attention this year to the Carnival with respect and deep reflection. It is an ancient phenomenon and it is a phenomenon of the deepest and most anxious problem of the human soul, to be freed from his daily hypocrisy with an anonymous, dionysian expression of new hypocrisy.

Carnival is a tragic figure.

He seeks to be redeemed from hypocrisy by pretending.

He seeks to burn all the various masks he wears every day with a new, more improbable one.

He asks to evacuate what is repressed in his subconscious and to be liberated, but there is no freedom, for the tragedy of the Carnival remains unsolved. His deepest problem is to be transformed.

Here, then, is the place of the Church, near the Carnival. Near those who seek transformation, the central message of Orthodoxy - the Transfiguration.

Let us not condemn, then, the Carnival, but let us stand under his mask to hear his anguish, his plea and his tears.

I repeat, Carnival demands the deepest message of Orthodoxy, wandering in the streets of the city: The Transfiguration.

And he is the most honest and honorable of the hypocrites.

You might think I’m joking. Absolutely not. There is no more serious problem for the Church at this time. It is not possible for the Church, and in fact the Orthodox Church, our Church, to be understood as irrelevant to life, to the times, to the agony of this hour, to the burning problems of this moment, merely as a city on a hill that is hidden and thought about. As a Church we are entangled in the journey of the human race, in this great adventure, called History, leading to the perfection of the eschaton.

Pretending it to be yesterday, we are absent from today and tomorrow is coming without us.

Speaking at the Fourth Pan-Orthodox Conference in Geneva, I had said: “Yesterday is long gone, not even today do we live, the day after tomorrow will overtake us.” I repeat this more intensely today. Because it is the truth beyond self-hypocrisy, that the simplest, easiest way to deal with problems is to ridicule and criticize and contrast them, like the Priest and the Levite of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. But the wound is here and it is screaming.

Who can responsibly tell us that all these shocking events and phenomena of the new generation of humanity, the provocative music, the provocative dances, the provocative clothing, this entire global youth revolution, are outside of any historical, evolutionary reality? If all the small minded, all the willingly blind, all the antiquarians and all those who boast about the virtue of their time, conspire to criticize all these things, the Church owes it to them to stand with a theandric understanding, incarnated like her Lord in the midst of a new world, having come from afar, and to hear this anguished cry, which springs from all these things we consider provocative. This world, which is coming to the forefront of history, has something to say to us with all these phenomena.

The so-called provocation of us old people, should be taken into account by the terrible fact that one of the characteristics of our time is the enormous distance that exists in the succession of generations, that is, the generation that comes after me has a distance of three generations. How do we claim to understand this new generation that is coming, if we are not the Church of Christ constantly incarnate, constantly transfigured and constantly transformed?

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We will not survive as separated Christian Churches and Confessions from this coming wave if we are not all united in Christ Jesus. It is time to get rid of the anti-patristic idea that the Church could only interpret divine Revelation up to a certain point in history. We must, in addition to the patristic spirit, assume as a Church the divine responsibility and courage and bravery of the Fathers and theologize Christ, the Gospel and the Church. Not with legalistic poison, such as, for example, a physical conception of the Church, but of the Church as the Body of Christ, living in the Resurrection.

My brethren, we are now entering Holy Lent and within our depths we await the drama, the miracle and the experience of the Resurrection, the pre-eminent experience of the Orthodox Church. Let us walk towards this vision and experience, not unforgiven, not unforgiving, not in mere fasting of meat and oil, not in hypocrisy, but in divine freedom in spirit and truth. In the spirit of truth, and in the truth of the spirit

Two videos about the community at St. John’s

1) Narrated by Father Nicolaie, this 3½-minute video gives an introduction to the mission and people of the St. John’s community.

2) This 3-minute video introduces the viewer to the people and activities of the Mission’s affiliate in Scarborough, Good Neighbours Drop-In.

We are grateful to Peter for volunteering his time and skill.

Contact us to find out more about how you can contribute as a volunteer with the Mission or Good Neighbours.