Public worship has returned
We are pleased to welcome you back to in-person worship at St. Augustine's.
Beginning with the July 11 service, pre-registration was no longer required. You are now allowed to sing and to receive both bread and wine for Eucharist. However, for the time being we’ll still be observing social distancing, and masks must still be worn to sing and when you are moving around the building. Communion is administered through intinction (wafer dipped in the wine), and not served from the common cup.These eased precautions are contingent on infections remaining low in southern Alberta and throughout the province, in anticipation of the day when COVID-19 is no longer a threat.
Background information and current precautions are available here.
For those not able or not ready to participate in public worship, we continue to record each Sunday service and make them available via livestream video. We encourage you to join us using your home computer or mobile device. To watch, please follow the instructions and links shown further below.
Livestream Prayer and Worship
Facebook users can watch on Facebook Live on our St. Augustine's page here or for those of you who are not on Facebook, you can click the link below which will take you directly to the livestream. Livestream links for home worship will be posted here approximately 15 minutes prior to the service.
Click here for July 25 Sunday service livestream @ 10AM (Stream will go live at 9:45 AM)
Click here for the August 1 Bulletin
The Daily Office
Links for these services will become active right at scheduled time
Morning Prayer, 9:00 AM, July 30 https://youtu.be/BEaIC6nMJNw
Evening Prayer, 6:00 PM, July 27 https://youtu.be/DgYfKWuHsZY
Compline, 8:45 PM, Monday, July 19 https://www.facebook.com/staugustinesanglican
Schedule for the Daily Office
A note about ‘Spiritual Eucharist’ services
What is spiritual communion?
Spiritual communion is an ancient practice of the church which takes place during exceptional circumstances when individuals or communities desire to receive the Holy Eucharist but are unable to do so through no fault of their own. This would include the persecuted, prisoners, the gravely sick, and all who are denied access to the sacrament.
The book of common prayer on p, 584 states: "But if a man, either by reason of extremity of sickness, or for want of warning in due time to the Curate, or by any other just impediment, do not receive the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood: he shall be instructed that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and stedfastly believe that Jesus Christ hath suffered death upon the Cross for him, and shed his Blood for his redemption, earnestly remembering the benefits he hath thereby, and giving him hearty thanks therefor; he doth eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul’s health, although he do not receive the Sacrament with his mouth."
Is it allowed in these circumstances?
Recently, clergy from the Anglican Diocese of Calgary received a letter from our Archbishop, Greg Kerr-Wilson, in which he discusses the use of Spiritual Communion in online services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other important things, he says “I am, therefore, writing to say that those priests who wish to offer this form of ministry certainly have permission to do so.”
What do I need to do?
Simply be present for our services (either the livestream or the video recorded version, later), prayerfully participate, and when we come to that part of the service where you would normally come to the altar and physically receive communion, instead, simply join the celebrant in the short prayer which is printed in your service bulletin. It is that simple.