If there is one thing most people can agree on these days, it’s that our society is deeply fractured and getting more burdened and broken by the day. A growing chorus of sociologists, philosophers and economists is saying that these… Read more →
Since 2011, CityGate Leadership Forum has coordinated the Planted Community Food Network to help seed a cultural shift in Greater Vancouver away from haphazard food charity, toward a sustainable local food system – opening access to affordable nutrition by building on the… Read more →
The perennially hot debate over the role and value of independent schools received some welcome hard data with the release yesterday of the latest report from the Cardus Education Survey. Begun in 2011, this ongoing survey of high school graduates… Read more →
In late November, the City of Vancouver released the Housing Vancouver Strategy to replace its Housing and Homelessness Strategy (2012-2021). Despite having exceeded several of the key targets it had established for this midway point in that 10-year plan, city… Read more →
Last week the Vancouver Foundation released a much-anticipated update to its landmark 2012 Connections and Engagement report on loneliness and community life in Metro Vancouver. This update, like the original report, provides hard evidence for trends most of us know… Read more →
Last week, for the fourth time since first being elected in 2008, Mayor Gregor Robertson convened a meeting with faith leaders at Vancouver City Hall, to seek their assistance in addressing homelessness and affordable housing. Nearly two dozen senior clergy… Read more →
Jonathan Bird wrote about the year-long Vancouver Consultation process for the national Faith Today magazine. Vancouver is rightly celebrated for being one of the most liveable urban regions in the world. Yet Vancouver’s very success has contributed to profound spiritual… Read more →
The Vancouver Consultation kicked off in January and February by bringing together pastors and non-profit executives into nine focus groups based on which part of the City of Vancouver they ministered in. Out of the 309 congregations and 122… Read more →
The Vancouver Consultation is a year-long process to engage the diversity of the church in a kind of “spiritual census” of the city – discovering what God is doing around town; documenting best practices and innovative forms of mission; and… Read more →
Christians around the world observe the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity each January. This year the Week fell on the 18th to the 25th, and I was delighted to prepare myself for it on the 16th and 17th by… Read more →
