Artisan Church
Sunday Gatherings @ The Japanese Hall: 487 Alexander Street V6A 1C6 Vancouver, BC, Canada

The prayer Examen is an ancient practice of the church, meant to be a review of where we have experienced God in our days and, conversely, where we might have missed God. There are as many ways to pray the Examen as there are people in the world. This past Sunday our Pastor of Spiritual Formation, @nelsonboschman lead us through this practice as a community. The podcast is up now, and contains the live audio from our MegaZoom gathering as well as some background music to help create space for meaningful reflection. We’ve also uploaded the video from that gathering to our YouTube page. In our bio is a link to a simple guide for praying the Examen. This is more than reviewing the yearit is asking for God’s eyes and heart in order to see well our journey with Christ.

WORK OF THE PEOPLE SUNDAY EXAMEN MEGAZOOM, 10:30am this Sunday. As has become our annual tradition at the start of a new year, our Pastor of Spiritual Formation, @nelsonboschman will lead us in a time of gentle, spacious reflection on our past year as well as looking ahead, using the practice of Examen. Go to the link in our Instagram bio to view the resource we’ll be using, in case you have opportunity to read and/or print a copy ahead of time. The Zoom info will be emaile...d out on Saturday afternoon. Hope to see you there! (If you are not on our mailing list and would like to be, DM us with your email address.)

Join us this Sunday, Jan. 3, as we continue our tradition of meeting quarterly with our neighbouring churches in the DTES for a time of communal worship, story-sharing with Aaron White (Jacob’s Well), Cheryl Bear (First United), and Christina Dawson (Street Church). Zoom info will be emailed out. If you are not on our mailing list and would like to join the gathering, DM us and we’ll send you the log in info.

This is Val. If you’ve been around Artisan you’ve probably met this wonderful, lovely, up-beat lady. We’re posting this to let you know that she has been experiencing some health challenges her mom is in the hospital waiting for a surgery to amputate her leg, and Val is stuck in her home because she was in contact with someone who tested positive for Covid and must now quarantine for 14 days. As you can imagine, this has caused much emotional and financial strain for Val. ...Here’s where we can help. Val is a registered vendor for @megaphonemag, and makes a living selling these publications. Recently, Megaphone released their 2021 Hope in Shadows day-planner featuring winning photographs from a contest open to the homeless and low-income vendors (approximate size 9.5" x 6). These day planners are $20 each. In our bio is a link to purchase these planners. If you simply mention ‘Val Fielding’ in the comments at check out, she will receive $10 from each purchase, plus tips! Let’s show Val our love and support by spending generously and tipping extravagantly! #PeopleofArtisan

Maybe the place we can experience the wonder of this season is in the moments we stop and listen to our very own breathing. To pay attention to the rhythm of ruach (breath, spirit, wind) already inside us and to realize that the Divine with us is not in a building we must journey to, but is in the animating breath of what makes us alive. Scott Erickson @scottthepainter

EMBODIED ADVENT: A new sermon series The season of Adventwhich means ‘arrival’ or ‘coming’ begins this Sunday. It may seem weird to be doing a series on embodiment during a pandemic: when it’s hard to remain embodied, when physical touch is a health risk, and when our beloved ‘incarnational’ gatherings aren’t the same. On the other hand, maybe this is the best and most important time to be reflecting on these themes! For the past three months we’ve been looking at the New ...Testament letter, 1 John. A big emphasis has been practicing the way of Love, as embodied by Jesus. Embodied Advent will be an opportunity to delve deeper into what this looks like through various human experiences: pain & trauma, joy & pleasure, power & oppression. We’re deeply grateful and excited that @hillaryliannamcbride who is an expert on embodiment and calls Artisan home will be joining the preaching team for the season and helping us engage these crucially formative topics through the lens of Christian faith. We hope you will be able to join us at our MegaZoom gathering this Sunday as we kick off this new series and the season of Advent. The Word became flesh, wrote John, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). That is what incarnation means. It is untheological. It is unsophisticated. It is undignified. But according to Christianity, it is the way things areincarnation means that all ground is holy ground because God not only made it but walked on it, ate and slept and worked and died on it. If we are saved anywhere, we are saved here. And what is saved is not some diaphanous [or transparent] distillation of our bodies and our earth, but our bodies and our earth themselves. Jerusalem becomes the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2). Our bodies are sown perishable and raised imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:42). One of the blunders religious people are particularly fond of making is the attempt to be more spiritual than God. FREDERICK BUECHNER

I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas: we are never alone. Kate Bowler

Merry Christmas from the Artisan staff team: Nelson, Scott, Terri, Rebecca & Danny! Nelson Boschman Pastor of Spiritual Formation Scott McTaggart Pastor of Community Formation Terri Boschman Pastor of Children & Family Formation... Rebecca deBoer Administrator Danny Unrau Part-time Transition Pastor See more

A blessing for those who have a love/hate relationship with screens Lord, this whole Covid thing just sucks. It’s not what any of us would have chosen; nor would we wish it on anyone else.... It’s caused so much pain, anxiety, and loss, and together we grieve those losses. God have mercy. Christ have mercy. Spirit have mercy. God, we’re exhausted from needing to have almost all human connection mediated through a screen. YouTube church just isn’t the same. We miss singing together. We miss hugs. We miss actually coming to Your Table, to receive bread and wine, to eat and drink in remembrance. Watching a concert from my living room isn’t the same either. Nor is FaceTiming with my family members. One less Zoom meeting is what I mostly wish for these days. God have mercy. Christ have mercy. Spirit have mercy. At the same time Blessed are we who also recognize that the possibility of real connection existseven through our screens: this gathering of a worshipping community. this birthday hangout. this cocktail of staged readings and songs. Blessed are we who know that something still happenseven through our screens: that bonds are formed that friendship is nurtured. that loneliness is diminished. Blessed are we who even have screensand wifi connections. God, make us grateful for these less-than-perfect, less-than-ideal technologies. Cause us to remember, name and hold dear that which has happened in our livesthe growth, the challenges, the beauty, the surprises, the new connections madeeven through our screens. God have mercy. Christ have mercy. Spirit have mercy. Amen. @nelsonboschman

Often thinking of and praying for the Funk family and baby Edmund. Love you guys! @l_funk @nathanielfunk

Throughout the pandemic we’ve had the opportunity to work with several local non-profits in the DTES. We funded a meal at the Jim Green residence, provided food containers for groups serving meals in the DTES, and supplied several pull-carts to CCAP (Carnegie Community Action Project) to help make deliveries to Camp KT and the surrounding area. At our last in-person gathering, Spencer Andres of the Artisan Outward Support Sub-committee encouraged usto think about four thing...s in our relationship to our neighbours in the DTES: our head, heart, hands, and pockets. HEAD: Educating ourselves on what the needs are in our community. Looking beyond negative narratives and seeing the people and their stories. HEART: Leaning in with love and seeking to see these challenges in our neighbourhood with compassion. HANDS: For those that are comfortable, asking how we can get involved - looking for actions, however small to help. POCKETS: The pandemic has hit all people, but not all people equally. There are many organizations that need financial support and there are some very practical ways to get involved. For example, the Camp KT Shower Fundraiser is a practical way we can contribute from our finances toward this basic need. (For more info and a link to the GoFund me page, see the link in our bio.) Please do ask any of the Outward Support Subcommittee members if you have any questions, or let us know if you have any ideas. The subcommittee is composed of Bev Kochuk, Kathy Kwon, Scott McTaggart, and Spencer Andres and it’s purpose is to advise and consult the Lead Team on actions to consider during the pandemic. We prayerfully consider how Artisan can support organizations, groups, and people living and operating in the DTES neighbourhood in a humble, no-strings attached, Christ-like manner that is consistentwith Artisan's mandate to join God in the renewal of all things.

Our series on 1 John is coming to a close. Next week we will begin our journey through Advent. Podcast for this past Sunday’s sermon is up, and you can re-watch via YouTube. (Link in bio)

From this past Sunday’s Home Liturgy one take on what it means to practice incarnation.

Well, I as a history of positive thinking expert can tell you, sometimes we just need to find the beauty in the truth inside of what is. And right now what is is that space betweenwhere we don’t yet know, where we’re stuck in uncertainty and uncertainty is horrible. So, a blessing for that. Kate Bowler