Senior living at its finest

Shepherd Village values its long standing association with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada and its ability to offer faith based "senior living at its finest" to our residents. We are pleased to have a team of staff chaplains and pastors available to service the spiritual needs of our residents and offer over 25 weekly religious programs! This team of dedicated professionals is led by the Director of the Spiritual Life Department.

Shepherd Gardens Life Lease Residence offers resident-driven weekly gender specific Prayer Meetings and Bible Studies as well as the hugely popular Thursday Evening Devotional Hour featuring the ministry of area clergy. In addition to our staff chaplains being available for pastoral care, Shepherd Gardens is serviced by a popular resident chaplain.

Shepherd Manor Seniors' Apartments offers weekly gender specific prayer meetings. In addition to these larger group meetings, there are also small group prayer meetings on each floor with the floor prayer leader serving as a spiritual care volunteer for the residents of particular floors.

Shepherd Terrace Retirement Suites offers a wide variety of services and programs including many different age-specific religious services and programs sponsored by the Spiritual Life Department. These include monthly denominational church services in addition to weekly programs such as Sacred Song & Story, Reflections and Spiritual Quiz and Humour led by our Chaplian as well as various visits by outside church musical groups.

Shepherd Lodge Long-Term Care offers floor specific, weekly spiritual life programs as well as monthly denominational church services. A team of volunteers help porter interested residents to the Sunday Morning Service at CITV and are available for social visits.

Church in the Village

Church In The Village (CITV) is our interdenominational evangelical congregation made up of residents and community members meeting in a state-of-the-art sanctuary located beside the Community Hall. CITV is pleased to offer the following regular programs:

Weekly Prayer Meeting every Tuesday at 10am (September - May)
Interactive Bible Study & Prayer Service every Wednesday at 7pm
Friday Fellowship at 7pm with a variety of interesting features
Sunday Worship Services at 10am and 7pm

CITV also hosts special seasonal services and events such as Good Friday Service, Remembrance Day Service and Christmas Eve Service in addition to other special events such as memorial services, sacred concerts and mission rallies.

Presently over 12 denominations are represented in our congregation and all of our services have a strong age specific focus including singing of hymns, large print material, one hour services, no standing required, a variety of interesting guest speakers as well as special music and preaching geared toward residents' needs and issues. Communion is served one a month with individual communion available to those who cannot attend services. All of our services are televised throughout the village. A weekly bulletin and a monthly calendar are available to those who attend the services and upon request to all other residents.

Volunteers and staff are available to assist residents to attend the service(s) of their choice.

Palliative & Grief Support

The Spiritual Life Department leads the team that provides palliative and grief support at Shepherd Village. This includes everything from providing emotional and spiritual assistance to the resident and their family, helping facilitate end-of-life issues and assisting in the funeral arrangements in order to assure that a resident's passing is handled in a dignified and compassionate manner. Resident grief support is available as required. Quarterly Memorial Services are offered where families are invited back to the familiar space of Shepherd Village for a final tribute.

Alpha For Seniors

Shepherd Village is pleased to offer 'Alpha for Seniors', a cross denominational Bible Study method which allows the individual to explore Christianity in a non-threatening environment. This will be offered for the first time in the Fall of 2007. Alpha for Seniors will look at various needs which the seniors experience. Some needs of seniors include: the need to be heard, fear (facing the unknowns of eternity), and the need to forgive, be forgiven and freedom. The course provides an opportunity for seniors to ask questions and be heard, an opportunity to learn and grow.

Staff Chaplains

Shepherd Village is serviced by a competent team of certified and highly personable chaplains who are available for confidential and faith specific spiritual support delivered in a compassionate and caring manner with great sensitivity to the various religious convictions of our residents. Our chaplains work with the multi-disciplinary team to offer excellent spiritual and religious care including crisis support, palliative care, grief support, social visits and pastoral counselling. Included in their work is hospital and rehab visitation and funeral service support when needed. Our chaplains also work closely with area clergy to provide various denominational specific programs as well as with our residents' church pastors to assure that contact with their home church is maintained while at Shepherd Village. A chaplain is on site seven days a week and available on-call, after hours.