Alzheimer’s Daily Living Tips will look at various activities of daily living, such as bathing and feeding and offer strategies to provide day-to-day care while promoting the dignity and independence of the person with dementia.

Understanding Parkinsons will give an introduction to parkinsons disease, signs and symptoms, statistic and research.

The themes of the Sunday readings throughout Lent offer an opportunity to examine our faith in the light of Easter.  This year we will be using a study guide called “Call Him Saviour” which will help us understand why we call Jesus Saviour and how the weekly Bible readings in Lent offer us themes which illuminate our understanding of this central fact of the Christian faith.

The study continues on  Wednesday evenings in Lent at 7:30 p.m.

It is so easy to see the petty annoyances of life (like snow snarling the traffic) as something put there just to get in the way of all the very important things I have to do today! It is a normal part of child development for very young children to see themselves as the centre of the universe. It is essential for their survival for them to do so. But one of the important things for growing human beings to learn is that they are in fact not the most important person in the world, but one of billions. Real maturity consists in learning how to find the balance between seeing ourselves as the centre point of all that happens on the one hand, and feeling so insignificant that no one would notice if we were not here on the other hand.

And that is precisely what the particularity of Jesus means. Why would God choose to become human in one particular person at one particular time in one particular place? The fact that Jesus lived as an individual means that individuals matter, that no human life is insignificant and that being created in the image of God makes every human being a VVIP (a very very important person). At some stages of our lives, and in some circumstances, we need to emphasize that each person matters before God, and that no human life is expendable. There is nothing that any person has done that diminishes them in the eyes of God and makes them completely unlovable by God. The actions of evil people may make it impossible for them to imagine
being loved by God and therefore they condemn themselves to an eternity of suffering in God’s absence, but every human life is sacred, no matter what people do with it. The importance of the individual also means that each one of us has the ability to make a difference in the world, to be the one who did the right thing or said the right thing at just the right moment to bring healing and hope to another person or situation. To say “Oh what can I do? I’m only one person” denies the God-given ability to change the world that each of us contains. To say “The world would be better off without me” is a denial of the joy in God’s heart the moment we were born. Jesus in his earthly life did not touch every sick person, did not forgive every sinner on earth, did not hold every child or bless every home. He was limited by his humanity to what he could do there and then. Limited yes, but he did not let those limitations prevent him from reaching out when and where he could.

The fact that Jesus lived as part of a particular community in a particular political, economic and social situation, however, does not limit the significance of what he did. Through his self-giving, even unto death, he changed the lives of those he had not met even down to our own day. His particularity had a universal significance. Those of us who follow him have a special responsibility to reach out in the name of Jesus to those on the margins of society, those at home and far away whom most of the world has forgotten, and to ally ourselves with all those of every faith and none who work to respect the dignity of every human being.

And so as we live in this in-between time (between Christmas and Easter, between the Incarnation and the Resurrection) let us recognize that each one of us has the capability of making a difference in the part of the world where we live: in action, in prayer, in giving, in advocating, in walking beside those in need. Let every individual remember that he or she is called to act in this particular place, in this particular time, just as Jesus did, so that all of God’s creation may be blessed.

Under the leadership of Everett Fleming and his Campaign Team (Mary McLean, Carol Burke and Leslie Saffrey) we have exceeded our goal of $210,000 by raising $295,895, a whopping 41% above the goal (figures as of Dec.31).    In addition to supporting the work of the Diocese in many areas, this will mean over $148,000. will be coming back to St. Augustine’s over the next five years.  This would not have been possible without the diligence of our visiting and phoning teams as well as all of you who have made a one-time gift or a pledge.  The participation rate at St. Augustine’s was one of the highest in the Diocese, and our reaching a 141% of our goal makes us one of the most successful of the 115 parishes in block 3.  Well done!