A Parish Story from the Downtown Eastside | Vancouver, BC

Artisan Church, under the leadership of Pastor Erin Glanville, has been on an evolving journey with the Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighborhood in Vancouver, BC—a place as complex as it is vibrant. After attempting a “parish model” to become rooted geographically in two different neighborhoods, the parishes merged back together in 2016. Artisan’s unusual theological “location” was shaping relational connections that persisted even as people had to move out of the neighborhood. 

Erin shared that while there is a substantial core that live and/or work close to the church, many people live, work, or are drawn from other places. Erin's previous pastoring experience at Grandview Church was deeply shaped by the parish model, and her colleague Scott McTaggart has had a long-term commitment to neighbourhood involvement in the DTES. Even so, increasing housing and financial insecurity in Vancouver has made stability a privilege. In addition to questions of identity, the church  and its staff are grappling with what it means to inhabit the neighbourhood in that broader context.

Facing the tension of being a “scattered” congregation and wondering about their role in the immediate neighbourhood, Erin along with pastoral intern Tim Gabuna designed a 13-week series exploring the theology of place. They traced the biblical arc: from creation, where God turns space into place, to displacement through exile and wandering, to a rooted hope in new creation. This series invited members to reflect on how God creates place amidst human dislocation and how Artisan could live into that example.

A significant test of their commitment came through their relationship with the Japanese Hall, where they meet and where their staff rents office space. When a leadership shift at the Hall threatened the stability of their agreement, Artisan chose relational over contractual power, aligning themselves with the hall’s greater vision. This choice reflected their core desire to be a witness to the love of Jesus in their place. 

Artisan embraces its unique identity—one of sanctuary, peacemaking, and renewal. Gathering in a neighborhood stereotyped as being full of need, the church’s need for the neighbourhood’s welcome has flipped the script and given them grace to accept their own limits: congregants, many of whom are healthcare workers, frontline workers, chaplains, former pastors, and justice-seekers, arrive on Sundays with many layers of fatigue. 

“I think we’re at our best when we come with completely empty hands.”

Erin Glanville

The series helped them to see their identity as a scattered community with limited margins as an opportunity. Putting their story in conversation with the Biblical story of dislocation, exile, and sanctuary opened up a new vision for what God does in dislocation. To that end, they are piloting a project called Caring for Caregivers, which will explore how to offer respite to frontline workers more intentionally.

In this neighbourhood, the church stewards spaces of celebration, contemplation, art, and play, echoing the longstanding hospitality of the neighborhood, but engaging in line with the church’s existing strengths and resources. They see themselves not as replicating the work of the nonprofits that surround them in the neighborhood, but as offering a sacred space where frontline workers and others engaged in the work of caregiving can come and receive sanctuary.

Visit Artisan Church online: https://artisanchurch.ca/