This workshop, which is part of the “My Smartphone Hates Me” series, will actually be for anyone — a phone-owner or a non-phone-owner — who wishes to learn about how artificial intelligence — AI — has already become an important part of our lives, from banking to medicine and to pretty much all domains in between. The latter half of the workshop will be geared more for those who wish to learn how to use the AI capabilities of their smartphones and/or tablets. This will be an “entry-level” workshop; therefore, absolutely no background knowledge is required. Feel free to drop in: you will likely be pleasantly surprised to learn that AI is not all that scary after all!

The process of finding a name for our new parish is now underway. Do you have a name that you wish to suggest? If so, a ‘suggestion box’ has been made available. It will be in the church during services right up until Sunday 5 October and is also available during regular office hours in the office. If you would like to suggest a name for our new parish, please complete the half-page form that is housed with the Suggestion Box, citing the reason(s) for your choice. Before completing the form, please read the instructions on its reverse side first. The name of our new parish will be decided upon using a secret ballot at a special vestry meeting, hopefully to be held on Sunday 23 November.

Click here to read the document that outlines the entire process from start to finish. Thanks are offered to our wardens for the countless hours that were spent in working through this process with our priests and Archdeacon Amanda.

On Sunday 25 May, our amalgamated parish elected its first parish council, thus beginning a new chapter in our shared history. With that move, we became self-governing, with the Rev’d Karen Nelles as our priest-in-charge and the Rev’d Canon Steve Harnadek as our associate priest.

Information on what our wardens and the rest of Parish Council have been doing and are currently doing can now be found on the Parish Council subpage. You can find that page by clicking on the link in the dropdown menu at the top of the screen or, if you prefer, by clicking here.

Parish Council’s most pressing current task is to oversee the choosing of a new name for our parish. That process is detailed above in the article entitled “Your Suggestions Are Welcome”.

In addition to the food bank, please do not forget our long-standing commitment to the Inn of the Good Shepherd. We continue to actively support the Inn by preparing hot meals on a rotating schedule. Our most recent such day was Monday 2 June when a team of volunteers — and this could have included you! — met at 10:30 in the kitchen at the Inn to prepare a tasty lasagna dinner. Carol Arnesen will happily provide details to those who wish to join the team next time. Perhaps the next time the meal will be eagerly devoured grilled cheese sandwiches!

The first Sunday of each month will be ‘food bank Sunday’. All items collected will be donated to the St Andrew’s Food Bank in Corunna. Much needed items are canned fruit, snack crackers, Manwich, canned chilli, canned pasta with meat, juice boxes, and men’s and women’s deodorant, shampoo and conditioner. At this time, they do not need canned beans or soup. They do not take clothing or empty containers.