Jean Vanier, Founder of L`Arche, Wins 2015 Templeton Prize

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www.larchelethbridge.org
Jean Vanier, Founder of L’Arche, Wins 2015 Templeton Prize
London, U.K., March 11, 2015
Jean Vanier, the founder of L’ARCHE, a ground-breaking
international network of communities where people
with and without intellectual disabilities live and work
together as peers, has been awarded the 2015 Templeton
Prize. Valued at £1.1 million (about $1.7million USD),
the Prize is one of the world’s largest annual awards
given to an individual. It honors a living person who
has made exceptional contributions to affirming life’s
spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery,
or practical works. Vanier joins a distinguished group of
44 former recipients, including Mother Teresa, Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, and the Dalai Lama.
L’Arche Press Release
www.larche.ca/en/press/templeton
“As you know, people with intellectual disabilities are
not able to assume important roles of power and of
efficacy. They are essentially people of the heart. When
they meet others they do not have a hidden agenda
for power or for success. Their cry, their fundamental
cry, is for a relationship, a meeting heart to heart. It
is this meeting that awakens them, opens them up to
life, and calls them forth to love in great simplicity,
freedom and openness. When those ingrained in a
culture of winning and of individual success really
meet them, and enter into friendship with them,
something amazing and wonderful happens. They
too are opened up to love and even to God. They are
changed at a very deep level. They are transformed
and become more fundamentally human.”
Jean Vanier Statement on winning the Templeton Prize
www.larche.ca/en/press/templeton
April 2015 / Page 1
Message from the Board Chair of L’Arche Lethbridge
It has been a busy year at L’Arche Lethbridge: Doug
Wiebe completed twelve stellar years as our community
leader and is now on a well-deserved sabbatical; Tim
Wiebe is now installed as our new community leader
just in time to assume leadership in the implementation
of our new four year community mandate. We also
want to thank Phil Klassen for his outstanding service
as Board Treasurer and wish him well in his future
endeavors. We want to welcome Francis Rankin and
Lew Dennis as new Board members and thank them for
their willingness to serve.
The new mandate recognizes that the greatest gift
that L’Arche Lethbridge has is its people! To me that
has been obvious since my first contact with this
community several years ago. In the new mandate
we are called to grow in depth and integration of the
Identity and Mission of L’Arche.
Jean Vanier often refers to L’Arche communities as
“Communities of Peace”. This is, I think another of
L’Arche’s major strengths, one which can be a model
for the world. In his recently published book Signs:
Seven Words of Hope” Vanier asks “What is it that unites
a community? Isn’t it its mission, which is also its
goal? If there’s a lack of clarity about the community’s
vocation and purpose, it is harder to live together”.
He goes on to say “The strength of L’Arche is that its
mission is deeply human. L’Arche is about helping
people with a disability discover their human value,
their personal beauty, and the importance of their own
individual conscience….At the heart of L’Arche’s life
is the joy of communion.
Our Board is committed to ensuring that our local
L’Arche community can live out the mission as a
“community of Peace” living together in joy. Your
past financial generosity has been so helpful to us. We
continue to need your support as we move forward
in achieving our new mandate to deepen our Identity
and Mission.
Bob Campbell
Board Chair
April 2015 / Page 2
Bob Campbell, Board Chair of L’Arche Lethbridge
Reflections from L’Arche Community Leader
We have just lived the time of Lent in the Christian
calendar. Lent is the forty days leading up to the
feast Easter when Christians celebrate the death and
resurrection of Jesus. Remembering the Easter story is an
opportunity to reflect on our own experiences of living
death and re-birth. L’Arche Lethbridge has been living
this story over the past several months.
Every four years the community enters into a process of
writing a new Mandate and of selecting our Community
Leader/Executive Director for the next four years. In
June of 2014 we completed this process and created a
Mandate for June 2014-June 2018. During our previous
Mandate we grew by adding our third home, Amani,
welcoming five people with a disability and five new
Assistants.
Our new Mandate is calling us to integrate this growth
and to deepen in our understanding of the Mission of
L’Arche.
a strong sense of call to carry the Community Leader role
at this time. I believe that our shared life together is a sign
to the world around us that a way of peace is possible
between diverse people.
I am excited about our new Mandate and about working
together with community members, our board, friends,
volunteers and donors to bring it to life.
As we live this time of transition, the death of our old
Mandate and the new life that comes with our new
Mandate, I wish to thank all of you who support L’Arche
through your gifts of time, prayer and donations. Without
your contributions we could not carry on the work of
L’Arche in Lethbridge.
Peace,
Tim Wiebe, Community Leader
I was selected by the community of L’Arche Lethbridge
to be Community Leader for the next four years. My
spouse, Tamaki has been a member of L’Arche since 1997
and I have been a member since 1999. We have both
had the privilege of living in L’Arche homes as well as
holding other leadership roles in the community. I feel
April 2015 / Page 3
Community Events & Volunteering
Prayer Night: Every Tuesday at 7:30, upstairs at First Baptist Church at 1614-5th Ave. South in the
Fireside room. Enter by the North door.
Potluck: We look forward to meeting you and breaking bread together on the first Tuesday of
every month at 6 pm, downstairs in the gymnasium of First Baptist Church. Enter by the west
facing door. Potluck will be followed by prayer night upstairs.
There are various opportunities for volunteering within the L’Arche community, including:
• Join with other Community leaders and volunteers as a member of the L’Arche Board of
Directors (Board meets monthly except in July and August).
• Volunteering around the houses—Various options
For more information, and for an updated calendar of events, please visit our website,
www.larchelethbridge.org
To allow us to continue to be good stewards of your money, and decrease our ecological footprint,
we would like to encourage you to receive future newsletters and updates by email. To do
this, please email [email protected] with the following: I give my permission for L’Arche
Lethbridge to send me newsletters and other updates by email.
L’Arche Lethbridge needs to raise $50,000 externally annually. The value of salaries and materials devoted to this fundraising
is about $5,000. All funds are used to provide homes and support for adults with developmental disabilities. Thank you to The
Warwick Printing Co. Ltd., and Haul-All, for excellent service and prices.
April 2015 / Page 4