Celebrating Halloween in Mactalla

Mactalla hosted a Spooky Nights Party last Friday for Halloween. 

The team worked really hard to transform Mactalla into a haunted house for the night, Saorsa prepared games and Braerannoch provided a DJ for the night. Everyone came in wonderfully creative costumes; some scary, some funny and some cute as a button (or bunny). Take a look at all of our pictures from the night in the video below. 

Exploring Our Mandate

Anthony visited the community last week to support us in updating our current Mandate.
What is a Mandate you ask? A mandate looks at the vision of L'Arche Inverness. It helps us to see our priorities for the next three years.
We invite all of our community members and friends of the community to help us update our mandate.
You could help us too if you have any ideas or suggestions. Below are some of the questions we ask when looking at our priorities for the next few years.

What has been good in 
 L'Arche Inverness ?

What has been difficult in L'Arche Inverness

What do we need to do more of?

What new things should we do to help us grow?

If you would like to help us with our mandate by offering feedback please email Holly at holly.hiles@larche.org.uk

please send this by November, 24, 2014.

Thank you,
All at L'Arche Inverness

Celebrating 40 Years of L'Arche UK

L'Arche UK Celebrates 40 Years!

 21 members of L'Arche Inverness travelled to Canterbury last weekend to take part in L'Arche UK's 40th anniversary.
L'Arche members from all around the UK met for a weekend of remembering, celebrating and giving thanks for 40 great years together.
Therese Vanier who sadly passed away a few weeks prior to the event was acknowledged for her contribution to forming the particular identity of L’Arche in the United Kingdom. 
Eileen Glass;Vice-International Leader, delivered a wonderful talk alongside readings from Ministers from around the UK. Fiona Smith; minister at Ness Bank Church in Inverness took part in the weekend and L'Arche Inverness were pleased to have her represent the community. She is pictured above. 
There were gleaming smiles all around as the sun shined throughout the pilgrimage along the cobbled streets of Canterbury.
A community gathering will be held early September to share photos from the event.
Ideas have started blossoming in Inverness as we think about celebrating 40 years of L'Arche Inverness next year.

      Therese Vanier

       Thank You For A Successful Open Day 

Thank you to those who came along to our Open Day last Friday. Look at all the generous donations we received for our raffle sale. We are touched by the amount of support from our friends and family which made it such a special day. 

 It was great to see so many familiar faces and we are pleased to have met some new friends too. 
We are well on our way to reaching our fundraising goal of attending the L'Arche Jubilee in July. 
Our grand total for the day was £551.27!
Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen. 

If you are interesting in making a donation towards our attendance of L'Arche Jubilee or would like more information on what it is please contact the  Holly at: holly.hiles@larche.org.uk
or tel: 01463239615   

We look forward to hosting another open day in the near future, until then keep checking out our blog for upcoming events.   

Our Easter Holidays

Thank you to all who attended out Easter Celebrations.
We began with the Footwashing ceremony at Ness Bank church on Maundy Thursday. Rev. Fiona Smith joined us for our feast and we are grateful for her hospitality in the church hall. Alison Francis; a volunteer and long term friend of L'Arche Inverness helped prepare for the day and we are ever so thankful.
The Stations Of The Cross followed on good Friday with Syd playing the role of Jesus. We had a gorgeous warm and sunny day for the occasion which made the walk around Braerannoch's garden all the more enjoyable. Anne Richter; an assistant in Brae, set up our prayer space very beautifully as you can see in the the picture.
Easter Sunday was a huge success and again the weather was absolutely gorgeous. We had a great turn out of friends and family and enjoyed singing, dancing and playing games. The highlight of the day was taking part in our Easter Egg hunt where little handmade Rabbits were found; kindly donated to us by the Knitting Ladies from St Mary's in Beauly.  We hope everyone Enjoyed their Easter.
 

Sad news as we say goodbye to a dear friend

It is a sad time for L'Arche Inverness as we say goodbye to our dear friend Barbara Wilson.
Barbara sadly passed away on Saturday 22nd March 2014.

Barbara had been admitted to hospital for some treatment and while it had always been our intention to welcome her back home unfortunately it was not to be the case. We are to be comforted by the fact the staff at the hospital were amazing, they looked after Barbara's every need in such a compassionate manner and welcomed family and friends at all times.

Barbara in latter days was never alone in hospital;she was surrounded by family, friends and community members day and night. Those who knew and loved her well supported her throughout the last days of her life.  

Barbara had been a member of L'Arche Inverness since 1986 and will be sadly missed by all.

Mactalla will be hosting a story telling on Tuesday 1st April at 7pm.
All those who wish to pay their respects may do so during the evening. 
The funeral will take place at the Inverness Cathedral Wednesday 2nd April at 11am. Followed by internment at Alness Cemetery at 1pm. 
A light buffet lunch will be served at Mactalla; please feel free to arrive any point after the service.  

For further information please phone main office for details.

A Warm Welcome to Anthony Kramers and Louise Redwood

 

Anthony and Louise will be visiting our houses and workshops this week. They are hear to LISTEN about how our year has been. They will offer FEEDBACK on what has been good and what has been difficult this year. They will  discuss and look at the priorities of our MANDATE. They will help us look at our hopes and plans for the future.
We are looking forward to seeing them both again and hope their stay in Inverness is enjoyable.
If you see them around the workshops or homes please offer your best Inverness Welcome so they can feel at home!