Tag Archive: UBC

It’s Been A Year

My awareness of the Covid-19 virus and it’s devastating and multi-varied symptoms, started in January 2020. A member of our Origin Church congregation had traveled home to Wuhan with her son for Chinese New Year. She texted my wife and I, saying something wasn’t right. People were sick; it was hard to get information. I started looking.

Within a couple of days I read a tiny article saying that Wuhan was going to be locked down. We texted and encouraged her to make her way home to Canada if they were healthy and she could leave. She made it.

Once in Canada she went straight from the hospital and quarantined with her son in the apartment for 21 days. Yes that’s right — 21 days! She did this voluntarily and in consultation with her family doctor while the rest of us were still trying to figure out if there was really a problem. She and her son were fine, but she was stunned that there were no questions and no instructions at YVR.

Sometime in the middle of February I heard a strange alert on CBC that come from the CDC asking organizations to begin making or reviewing plans to be shut down or continuing with limited operations for several weeks. This was strange! I had never heard such an alert in my life. So I came home that night around 9 PM and asked my family, “What would you want to have in the house if we had to stay at home for two weeks?”

Wow, the looks and the incredulity. But they answered, “Chocolate and toilet paper.” So off I went right then at 9:15 PM to the Superstore and did a big shop for extras that we would want to have in the house if we were here for two weeks. Yes, I bought chocolate and toilet paper.

Then I started following a couple of people on Twitter who were providing almost hourly updates on what was happening in Italy and Iran. Wuhan, Italy and Iran were part of my regular prayer and intercession for days. The images of people dying or dead in the streets were shocking. This was no ordinary flu. Our lives were about to change.

On Sunday March 8th 2020 our congregation gathered on the UBC campus. But I felt strange. Our team of students and staff decided that we were not going to shake hands at the doors and that because we were not sure we could safely administer the Lord’s Supper we were not going to include this in our gathering. These decisions did not feel easy. We tried to work out plans for gathering safely, but we were planning in the dark. We also decided that we would not reach out and touch the shoulder of our neighbour for the blessing at the conclusion of the service. We started socially distancing on March 8th. That’s the last Sunday we gathered publicly since the beginning of the pandemic.

By the next Sunday, 15 March 2020, the UBC campus was rolling up the carpet, shutting the doors, and moving online. So did we.

It’s been a year.

Prayer of the People, 10 July 2020

Heavenly Father,

You have done marvellous things. Your Creation speaks of your majesty and skill. Your Cross speaks of your wisdom and love. How could we have known you except that you have drawn us into your communion? Thank you for this grace; you have immersed us into the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We rejoice in you. You have loved us with an everlasting love. You have lifted us up out of the pit. You have lightened the loads we were carrying. We adore you and praise you.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! You have spoken words of life to us and quickened our spirits to respond.

Holy, Holy, Holy are you, the LORD God Almighty. May your Sovereignty over all powers and principalities, kingdoms and authorities be known. We hunger and thirst for your righteousness, right here, right now. May your mercy infiltrate our relationships.

Forgive us Lord. We have neglected your Word. We have forgotten your Word. And We have even rebelled against your Word. Create in us a clean heart and renew in us a steadfast spirit that the joy of your salvation may burst forth in new songs. 

Fill us with your Spirit, that we may have enter your abundant life.

We need more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. We need the power of your Spirit to activate all the gifts in service to your Church and in our neighbourhoods.

We lift up to you our UBC campus family and the Nagata family who recently lost a dear son in an accident; please comfort all who are experiencing the loss of a friend and family member.


We lift up to you the researchers at UBC who are seeking to understand the Covid-19 disease and our responses to it. Grant them wisdom and breakthroughs for the common good.

We are seeking you Lord in all our relationships, so we pray as Jesus taught us. (Join me in praying the Lord’s Prayer.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was in the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast, 10 July 2020.

Our No Name Life

I have a friend who found life in Vancouver and particularly life in the UBC campus community disturbing. Her move from a country in Eastern Africa did not prepare her for just how economically segmented life can be here. It is possible to go about life in Metro Vancouver unaware of economic disparity and the impact of poverty. It’s possible to not the know the stories of people and families bearing up under the weight of scarcity. One could live in the campus setting of UBC without getting to know the poor and sharing life with them. 

While one might speculate that my friend’s participation in the apparent uniformity of university life only cloaked the poor, that would belie the reality: it is possible to believe that one has no relationship with the poor or to live as if the poor do not exist or matter in any neighbourhood. But she is right, for many of us in Vancouver we live very segmented lives. Our homes and hospitality are not graced with the poor. We are not doing life “with” each other.

Yet, Jesus believes we have a relationship with the poor. He said as much in the story of Lazarus and the man with no name. Apparently the quality of our relationship with the poor reflects whether or not we have a name in Kingdom of God. Do you have a name? (Read Luke 16:19-31)

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30 “ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

My friend — she does have a name, but in respect to her I am not calling her here — found it strange that her daily life did not obviously intersect with the poor. She was disconcerted with the fact that daily life was not shared communally across economic lines. Her disturbance has stayed with me all these years. Why aren’t more of us disconcerted too? How can we read the Bible and feast on the teachings of Jesus without being disconcerted by a no name life? How can we know Jesus the Risen Saviour and have no real passionate movement toward the poor?

This week I had two encounters with a poor man called Alex. In my heart as I pray for him, he is Alex the Great; he could be my son. The ravages of drug addiction are apparent and hunger stalks him. In our first encounter after a conversation about how he was doing, where he was staying, and how he felt about the day, I asked his name and told him mine. We chatted a bit more and then I made to leave. I was a few steps away, and praying for him, when he called out to me, “Hey what’s your name?”

Ah, that question stirred up life in me and my soul rejoiced as I answered, “My name is Craig.”

Prayer of the People, 6 October 2019

Informed by Ephesians 2:10 & Psalm 100.

Risen Lord Jesus, We come today seeking to know You and Your communion with Your Heavenly Father and with Your Spirit. You understand us better than we understand ourselves.  You walked among people and saw into our hearts and ways.  We want to walk with You through our lives, our decisions, our work.

Our spirits want to Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship You with gladness;
And come before you with joyful songs.
We Know that You are the Lord our God.
You made us, and we are Yours,
we are Your people, the sheep of Your pasture.|

We enter Your gates with thanksgiving
and Your courts with praise;
We give thanks to you and praise Your name.
For You are good and Your love endures forever;
Your  faithfulness continues through all generations.


We lift up to You the people of Kashmir and ask for Your protection and Your joy.  As Hong Kong protests have turned violent and the political tensions have come to UBC campus, we ask for wisdom, truth, and righteousness. We pray for the Canadian elections; may you open us up to discuss and search for policies that foster life and godliness; may we elect people who are pursuing justice.

Lord, make us a people who delight in Your creation and join You in the good works you’ve prepared in advance for us to do.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Please join me in praying the Lord’s prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.


Prepared by Craig & Ellen O’Brien

The Stranger Friendly Campus

Stranger Friendly Campus: Theological Pressure Points for Christians

Recently I hosted a discussion with the University Multifaith Chaplains Association at UBC. This lively group of people meet twice a month forming a learning and leadership community.

We live in an age that has never had such easy access and opportunity to appreciate and value the differences and commonalities in the world’s ethnē. Yet we also live in an age in which it remains just as easy to demonize the stranger as it has always been. Openness to the stranger is something I believe we want in the commons. Creating a stranger friendly campus is not easy and it will surely be challenged further in the days to come.

As nationalism raises its voice as an expression of xenophobia I have been searching for theological pressure points within the Christian conversation that lead might lead a person toward becoming a raging xenophile.

I chose only six pressure points for our discussion. Each pressure point is accompanied by Scripture. I am not providing the theological work but hopefully you as readers can make the associations. The first pressure point may be the most important one for creating movement and a willingness to encounter a stranger. It requires me to humbly manage the tendency to promote my opinions and quick judgements as truth. This questioning of my own assumptions creates generosity, invites trust, and leaves room for God to show up. The Emmaus Road (Luke 24:13-35) encounter is the account of Jesus, the Resurrected Lord, showing up and being received as a stranger by two disciples on their journey. I believe we will have to train ourselves for this pressure point in an age of manipulated feeds and censured news. This first pressure point is the required posture for every picture and byline we read on the Internet. Pressure point #1 is the growth mindset applied to relationships.

Pressure Point #1. My assumptions about the stranger are probably wrong.

“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”  Hebrews 13:1-3, NIV

Pressure Point #2. I am part of a minority story… too.
“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.” Exodus 23:9, NIV

Pressure Point #3. Perceived weakness is not all about a lack of personal responsibility.
“Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.”
Acts 5:42-Acts 6:1, NIV


Pressure Point #4. The academy is a transactional relationship yet has potential for genuine friendship.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my  commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down on’e life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:9-17, NIV

Pressure Point #5. The stranger may be the one from whom I receive and share in God’s blessings.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, or all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:26-29 NIV

Pressure Point #6. Being “sent” requires becoming the stranger who is received.

“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” Matthew 10:40-42, NIV

Extra Thoughts and Music

Unfortunately, some places develop a hostile and pervading ethos of suspicion toward the stranger. These places seem to know and perhaps relish in their stranger-unfriendliness. I grew up with two phrases that treated being the stranger as a common experience and as a spiritual experience. These phrases have been memorialized in songs. “Rank Stranger” tells of leaving a community, coming back and then experiencing “home” and its people as strange, even objectionable. A second song is confessional too. “I’m just a Wayfaring Stranger,” I’m just passing through. These confessions do not guarantee empathy for the stranger or outsider but they do tap into pressure points within my theological stream.

Prayer of the People, 25 August 2019

Heavenly Father,

We rejoice in you today as we enter your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You have given us a seat at the table through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ. This grace is real to us through Your Holy Spirit who pours out your love into our hearts and does not disappoint. Thank you!

Thank you for lifting us up from the pit of despair.
Thank you for redeeming us from the destructiveness of our sin.
Thank you for transferring us from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of your Son.
Thank you for causing us to sit, walk, and stand with you.

We fear that we are not as beautiful, successful, unique, powerful, and loveable as we need to be. Oh Lord, this fear holds us down, winds us up, and drives us into all kinds of self-righteous, protective, and problematic decisions. Help us Lord! Give us wisdom from heaven to order our steps and help us to think rightly about ourselves and this world we live in. Let the joy of your salvation work powerfully within us.

Give us courage Lord to extend our hands to others with mercy and grace.
Give us courage Lord to open our mouths against injustice and racism.
Give us courage Lord to proclaim the goodness of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
Give us courage Lord to interrupt unbelief and loneliness.
Give us courage Lord to turn strangers into friends.

As our friends and family return from countries and assignments all around the world, we ask you to fortify them with your love. We lift up the people of China, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Brazil, Yemen, Syria and Turkey — grant them true wisdom, peace and freedom Lord; may hate, fear, bitterness and violence — the tools of the evil one — not be the tools of their leaders. May your Word flourish in all these peoples and may you raise up brothers and sisters for us through the Gospel of Jesus.

We yearn for your Kingdom to be fully established in our hearts and on our campus so we pray as Jesus teaches us:

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

Prayer of the People, 21 July 2019

Heavenly Father,

We praise you and rejoice in your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Your delight and joy is evident in the beauty of your creation. We see your mystery and majesty expressed in the glories of the night sky and in the wonder of energy passing from  neuron to neuron between synapses. 

There is no space that has kept you from your Creation. We believe for you have revealed yourself. You have made yourself known. You have not left yourself without a witness. 

Even our sin has not kept you from us. Though it ruined our view, though it kept us in darkness, you have ripped the dividing veil through the obedience of Jesus Christ and have given us grace to receive you through your Spirit.


You have triumphed over rebellion.
You have triumphed over pride.
You have triumphed over sorrow.
You have triumphed over despair.
You have triumphed over apathy.
You have triumphed over death.

At the Cross it looked like you got tripped up by death. But we are reminded that You laid down your life — for you gave Jesus authority to lay down His life and to take it up again. And so He did! And you have given us grace to call Him Lord.

Hallelujah!
Oh what love!
We live in the glory of your resurrection, 

Now what shall we say? If you are for us, who can be against us? So, how long Lord? How long shall we wait?

As we wait Lord, your children are calling out to you in our struggles. We intercede today for the dear people of Sudan, Yemen, Columbia, and Venezuela. Bring peace Oh Lord, and raise up witnesses for your Son among them.

We intercede for Iran, Britain and the US, who seem to be on a collision course for conflict. We ask for peace in the whole Mediterranean region so that people may thrive in the knowledge of you.

We intercede Oh Lord for our brothers and sisters who living, serving, and pouring out their lives in the neighbourhood around Oppenheimer park here in Vancouver . We ask you for the grace to love our neighours well. May your Spirit bring more life out of the chaos.

We intercede for the dear student families we met during the Kids Activity Evenings who reside in the space between what they know and what they don’t yet know. We ask that you would give them light and wisdom to see and to be embraced by You.

We ask this in the Name of Jesus and we pray as He taught us…
( join me in the Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.