In person and online.

**We begin this Sunday our annual Financial Stewardship focus.  Thanks Val for all your leadership here.  If you have missed any of the lead up, please click the links below to read!

Stewardship info

As well, if you are not able to join us Sunday, your financial stewardship package will be mailed out early next week.

First reading - 1 Samuel 1:4-20
Canticle - 1 Samuel 2:1-10
Second reading - Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25
Gospel - Mark 13:1-8

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Listen in each week to "For the Coming Day" A weekly podcast contemplation and song inspired by the gospel reading.  Available at the link below (scroll down) or on your smartphone.  Produced by Aaron Parker and rev. Jonathan:
https://anchor.fm/for-the-coming-day

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I have a friend who is leaving a domestic abuse situation and she is in need of household items (kitchen appliances/flatware, bed linens, bathroom linens, etc). She also has 3 children (sorry, I don’t know their ages but I can find out) and she is unemployed. I’m wondering if people may have such items that they’re trying to get rid to consider contacting me and I’ll get them to her?

If you do, please contact Erin at e_miller@shaw.ca or 7805541466

Paul is playing two sets of 80's, 90's and soul covers at Fargo's Capilano on November 19th. Nathan Carroll is playing guitar and singing a few songs as well.

Hope to see you there!

Facebook event link: https://fb.me/e/2DSC2Xemj

There’s still a place for you.

Thursday, October 7 at 10:00 am

Ending before Advent at the end of November.

e-Mail Anne (wildrosie7@gmail.com) and she will send you this weeks excerpts from An Alter in the World.

Come and enjoy a relaxing time of  conversation on Thursdays as we  reflect together on excerpts from Barbara Brown Taylor‘s best selling  book,  An Altar in the World - a Geography of Faith. Taylor begins by reminding us of the words of the 12th century mystic, Mechtild of Magdeburg: “the day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw–and knew I saw–all thing in God and God in all things`.  It is in this spirit Taylor invites us to discover altars everywhere we go and in nearly everything we do. So bring your coffee and gather around the (virtual) kitchen table or perhaps just settle into a comfortable chair as we enjoy each other's company and delight in recognizing  the Holy in the Ordinary.

St. Augustine's has a long history of acknowledging human diversity in all its forms.  We understand God's creativity is expressed in the differences between us.

However, there are some groups that have not always been received well by the wider church, and past hurts make it very difficult for church to be a space of healing.  In this spirit, it has made sense to make an overt statement of reception for LGBTQ2+ communities.  Thanks to Lindsay Batke for helping spruce up the sticker design above.  Production costs of these 50 "safe space" stickers have been covered so we are happy to share to you for free or to a local business or church.

Introduction

For years, the land adjacent to St. Augustine’s Anglican Church has been slated for development.  After many great tries, it has become clear that it is not well suited for a large housing structure or other such initiatives.  Instead, the church has decided that the land be re-wilded and designed to serve both the church and the neighbourhood with community green space.  (The Annex building as well will be updated for use as a multi-use space for church and community.)

Guiding thoughts

• The current greatest detriment to the earth is a mass lack of biodiversity.
• All places are intrinsically sacred, and yet both indoor and outdoor spaces may or may not highlight this fact and invite people such and experience.
• We have a great asset in Permaculture which is a practice of high-level design applied to lifestyles and to landscapes.  Permaculture mimics natural systems by working with nature while also creating abundance for human life.  It includes regenerative farming practices, productive systems design, and forest tending.
• The life of St. Augustine’s is centered and funded by folks who are part of the Sunday morning community, but seeks to also be home to a multiplicity of communities: the Sunshine Garden, neighbourhood members, space-users, service organizations, and the arts, so it will make sense to engage members from these communities from the very beginning.
• We do not need to rush a ‘final product’.  The process is the product and success will be found in growing relationships, relationship to the earth, and common learning.

Our first steps are to develop a Vision and Values statement for the land and to brainstorm/imagine design elements that might suit this project. What is your vision for the space? Look at the ideas below and let Jonathan know any brainstorms (rector@staugustinesedmonton.com)

Possible Design Elements

• Memorial benches
• Circular path for seniors/mobility with walkers/wheelchairs with seating along the way?
• Kid trail on the way to school (safety and sightlines)?
• Like we slow water on a landscape to let it soak in, how can we slow people down as they engage the space?
• Create winter community spaces using lights, microclimates, structures, art, etc.?
• Winter events with choir, lights, food?
• Create hill space both for seating for an amphitheater (think about water capture also)?
• Limestone path for mobility?
• Labyrinth either dedicated in circle or as the path system itself?
• Natural playground elements?
• Memorial garden?  Pet memorial garden?
• Reflexology stones (for bare feet)?
• Large stones for sitting / meditating?
• Art and sculpture elements throughout?
• Poetry signs with changeable messages (changed seasonally)?
• Educational elements / signs?
• Permanent lemonade stand table that kids could book and use?
• Small things to invite kids in - sculptures, hidden surprises?

Tree ideas

• Fruit orchard?  (Maintenance the big issue here)
• Memorial trees?
• Old growth forest?
• 1000 year tree project?

Biodiversity Features

• Song bird habitat?
• Aspen forest space?
• Prairie grass space?
• Milkweed for monarch butterflies (sightings in Fulton this year!)?
• Native plants?
• Indigenous elements / medicines?
• Berries?
• Perennial, no maintenance food?

Others Ideas?

The Community Garden and church are working together to create a neighbourhood winter festival On

Saturday, December 11th 6-8pm

Please plan to come by!

Kid's activities

Warm beverage

Bon fire

and more!

We do sometimes have people pop by the office looking for help - usually for food.

It is nice to have some grocery cards handy to give out.  If you are at the grocery store and think to grab a $25 gift card I would be most happy to recieve it.  Otherwise, donations to the "rector's discretionary" end up being offered in the same way.

780-466-5532

office@staugustinesedmonton.com

rector@staugustinesedmonton.com

More church info at www.staugustinesedmonton.com