New People. New Churches.

Artizo has had an exciting start to a new year of training in 2025, with growth across the board: new apprentices, new trainers, and new training churches.

We’re thrilled to welcome six new apprentices into our Vancouver training cohort, bringing us to nine total in training. We hope many of you can come and meet them at our Meet the Apprentices evening on November 17th at the UBC Golf Club. Even if you aren’t able to make it, learn more by visiting our apprentices page.

This year, we’ve also widened the reach of our training through partnerships with six training churches across the Lower Mainland, all members of the Anglican Diocese of Canada. These partnerships make more specialized placements available for our apprentices, and also raise training capability and hunger within each congregation. King’s Cross, St. Peter’s Fireside, St. John’s Vancouver, St. John’s Richmond, and Good Shepherd Richmond continue to partner with us from last year, and we’re glad to welcome St. Timothy and St. Simon’s church in North Vancouver this fall.

Even as we add training churches, we’re able to offer a deep, consistent apprenticeship in every location through our team of Artizo Trainers. Our trainers meet regularly as a team for equipping, encouragement, and prayer in our work. Training requires more intentionality than simply providing an internship or a part-time job, but the results are exponential for both ministry development and the growth of seasoned, stable churches in our diocese that are centered around God’s word. We’re thankful that the Rev. Mark Tubbs, of St. Timothy’s, has joined us.

Within the immediate Artizo ministry team, we are thrilled to welcome Phill Pearson into the role of Assistant Director of Training. Phill will continue pastoring at St. Peter’s Fireside while dedicating a part of his time to helping Artizo widen our reach across Canada. Ben Roberts will continue to serve as Artizo’s Director of Training and as a minister at St. John’s Vancouver, while taking on some additional responsibilities as the Executive Director following David Short’s retirement from the role. While Susan Norman has officially retired from her work with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, we are grateful that she has agreed to continue serving as Assistant Trainer with us.

As the Artizo team grows, our goal is to support training in every parish across Canada by establishing additional regional cohorts, and developing resources to support training in individual churches. We are thankful for your continued support as we aim to fill Canada with the sound of God’s word.