Around Town: Merry Christmas!, VST & Northwest: $10 million, Migrants Day

I’d love to see a few more of these around town. It’s uplifting to drive by this scene, which is around the corner from our house in East Van.

Merry Christmas to everyone. And I’ll wish everyone a Happy New Year as well, because, my next update will be out sometime in the first week or two of 2026.

VST & Northwest

Two local schools have just received early Christmas presents from the Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative.

Vancouver School of Theology (VST) and Northwest College and Seminary have each received grants of just under $10 million (USD).

A release from the funder stated:

Lilly Endowment Inc. has approved a new round of grants to help theological schools in the United States and Canada work collaboratively with other schools and church-related organizations to strengthen their preparation and support of ordained and lay pastoral leaders for congregational leadership now and in the future.

These 45 large-scale collaboration grants, ranging from $2.5 million to $10 million, represent the latest round of the Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative, which is helping theological schools enhance their educational and financial capacities – all with the aim of supporting current pastoral leaders and preparing aspiring pastoral leaders with the skills needed to effectively lead congregations from  a wide variety of contexts.

The theological schools receiving grants are affiliated with a broad range of church traditions, including among others, evangelical, mainline Protestant, nondenominational, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Catholic and the Black church. Collectively, these schools will work collaboratively with nearly 400 other theological schools, colleges and universities, congregations, church agencies, denominations and other religious organizations to educate and support more effectively both aspiring and current pastoral leaders of churches.

VST, on the UBC campus, is partnering with The United Church of Canada, and its seven affiliated theological schools across Canada for this initiative.

Their December 5 release stated:

The Vancouver School of Theology has received a grant of $9,923,200 USD from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish ‘Reimagining Theological Education Across the United Church of Canada Affiliated Schools: Confronting The Narrative of Decline.’

The United Church of Canada (UCC) is observing its centennial. [This project] is part of a church-wide effort to disrupt the narrative of decline. This intention is signaled by the Strategic Plan of the UCC, which identifies ‘growth’ as the overarching priority.

Closely related to the prioritization of ‘growth’ is an emphasis on leadership. Vancouver School of Theology joins the United Church of Canada in affirming that there is no single factor more critical to the future of the church than excellent pastoral leadership.

Barton Priebe is President of Northwest College and Seminary.

Barton Priebe, President of Northwest – based on the Trinity Western University campus in Langley – announced the good news to his community:

Northwest College and Seminary has been awarded a $10 million [$9,987,692] grant from the Lilly Endowment for our ‘PROPEL Project: Rebuilding the Pastoral Leadership Pipeline for the Next Generation of Leaders.’

A December 11 release from the school added more:

The PROPEL Project responds to the urgent shortage of pastoral leaders, with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada estimating a need for 625 new pastors annually over the next 12 years due to retirements alone.

Together with 14 partner organizations, this unprecedented five-year collaboration will scale Northwest’s successful pastoral leader recruitment and preparation model, conduct evidence-based research on pastoral competencies and church needs, establish sustainable financial systems through endowment funds and create resources that benefit the broader theological education community.

The PROPEL Project will feature collaboration with church networks across Canada, and Canadian and US research organizations and seminaries, including Fellowship Pacific, Fellowship Prairies, Association d’Eglises Baptistes Évangéliques au Québec (AEBEQ), Fellowship Atlantic, Fellowship International, Baptist General Conference, Youth Workers Community, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the Competency-Based Education Network, Sevensided Consulting, Séminaire Baptiste Évangélique du Quebec (SEMBEQ), Trinity Western University, Kairos University and Bexley-Seabury Seminary.

The PROPEL Project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. . . . Since [2021], it has provided grants totalling more than $700 million to support 163 theological schools in efforts to strengthen their own educational and financial capacities and to assist 61 schools in developing large-scale collaborative endeavours.

Northwest is currently part of ACTS Seminaries, but that network will be dissolving next spring. Northwest will remain on the TWU campus; go here for more information on that transition.

International Migrants Day

The church that offered a home for the grieving Filipino community (and beyond) following the Lapu-Lapu Day tragedy this spring is hosting an art exhibit this week, leading up to International Migrants Day, which is today (December 18).

A December 11 report in the local Philippine Asian News Today (Reyfort Media) helped to publicize the exhibit: ‘Churches mark International Migrants Day 2025’:

For the first time, the Diocese of New Westminster of the Anglican Church of Canada at its Diocesan Synod passed a resolution  encouraging the parishes in the diocese to mark December 18, or the nearest Sunday (December 14), as International Migrants Day (IMD) in their churches.

The Rev. Expedito Farinas, the congregation at St. Mary the Virgin South Hill Church and its Migrants Ministry have been marking this day liturgically for several years.

International Migrants Day highlights not only the contributions of migrants but also the problems and challenges in their living and working conditions everywhere.

Why December 18th? The date coincides with the United Nations adoption in 1990 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The Convention sets out the responsibility of countries to protect the rights of migrants in their territories.

Canada has not ratified this Convention, as with other migrant-receiving states in Western Europe or North America. Canada has also not ratified the International Convention concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers adopted in 2011. I know what you are thinking: Bakit hindi? Why not?

If you go to Sunday worship at your local church, ask if  they can participate to mark IMD. It can be through hosting a cultural event, supporting grassroots migrant organizations like Migrante, engaging in discussions to learn more about migrants and their issues, opening the church doors to migrants to share their stories and break bread with them and dedicating the church Sunday service to all migrants and maybe in the languages of the migrants in the area, e.g. Tagalog, Ilokano, Spanish.

Go here for the full article.

Here are the events:

• Art Exhibit, December 14 – 18, 10 am – 4 pm: The church invites the public to the exhibit of several murals of Filipino community artists, in close collaboration with Migrante BC and the PANCIT Art Collective.

• Taize Worship, December 18 at 7 pm: All are welcome to songs and short prayers to honour migrants. Refreshments and hot drinks will be served.

St. Mary the Virgin South Hill is at 808 East 50th Avenue.

Events are listed below, but there is also an Events page and a Jobs page on the Church for Vancouver site.