About Augustine College

President's Welcome

Welcome to Augustine College on the web. Sadly the web provides only a pale imitation of the real thing, which is composed of flesh and blood characters, the likes of whom the students tell us are not to be found elsewhere in the decaying vestiges of the erstwhile famous Universities.

Here our Alumni insist there is genuine collegium, where loneliness is unthinkable and boredom impossible: Even the Alumni from our one week summer course share the same sentiments.

The reasons for this are not hard to find. We teach because we love to teach, and our rewards are the satisfactions that are already beginning to flow from this project.

For those joining us, remember you are our only real accreditation. Your behaviour in all respects, not only intellectual performance is our accreditation. Strive to live a life worthy of Our Lord

John Patrick

Professor, History of Science, Medicine and Faith
President of Augustine College.

History

In September of 1997 Augustine College opened to its founding class. This was the realization of the vision of a number of local university professors and laymen who felt led to found a new kind of institution for higher learning. Our intent is to provide qualified students with a time of rich and integrated study, food for both the spirit and the mind.

Augustine College offers an opportunity for dedicated students to study, for one year, the basic foundations of Western intellectual and cultural tradition. We are convinced that such study is done best in an atmosphere of sincere and articulate Christianity, which has sustained both faith and humane culture since the days of the early Church.

Traditionally the foundational subjects taught in Christian educational institutions have been known as the "liberal arts": "liberal" because of their association with freedom, "arts" because they represent the highest achievements in the major spheres of human knowledge. At Augustine College our aim is to furnish each student with the keys to the great heritage of Christian wisdom which secular society neglects. This requires linguistic and mathematical training as well as exposure to the Bible, Church history and intellectual tradition.

Christians believe that answers can be found through God's revelation in history. To be sure, that revelation is chiefly in the Scriptures and in the life of Christ and is therefore accessible to all. But Christians have always recognized that to achieve a fully articulate faith demands familiarity with the great achievements in the arts and sciences that build the framework of higher education. Augustine College answers the need for a place in which the enduring questions of human life can again be studied at the level they deserve and against the background of the Christian story.

• 2006 Augustine College community newsletter
• 2004 Augustine College community newsletter
• 2003 Augustine College community newsletter
• 2001 Five Year Report (pdf | 60KB)

Statement of Faith

The faculty, staff, and board of Augustine College desire above all to live out a faithful and disciplined Christian life, both as individuals and as a community. Although we have come together from a diversity of church backgrounds (already including Presbyterian, Baptist, United Church, Anglican, Methodist, and Roman Catholic), we share a considered desire for thorough­going faithfulness to the Lordship of Christ, submitting to the authority of Scripture and the foundational teachings of the Church.

We are called to unity in love of Christ (John 17) and seek to live by the first things of faith and, in the root sense, exercise an evangelical duty to the world in which we have been placed.

We subscribe without cavil to each of the clauses in the earliest general confession of the Church known as the Apostles' Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic* Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

* "universal"

It is our prayer that our students will come to share our conviction and enthusiasm for the great heritage of our common faith.

The College Crest:

• The Shield of Faith (Ephesians 6:15-17)
• The Cross of Christ (Galatians 6:14)
• The Book (Isaiah 55:10-11)
• The Quill (Matthew 13:52, Psalm 45:1)
• The Lamp (Psalm 119:105)
• The Hart (Psalm 42:1)
• "credo ut intelligam" -- "I believe, in order that I may come to understanding." -- Anselm of Canterbury

Board of Directors:

• John Patrick (President)
• Paul H. McKechnie (Treasurer)
• Wayne Nimigan
• Robert Kidd

Members Committee:

• Board of Directors
• Faculty
  • Edmund F. Bloedow
  • Doug Hayman
  • John Patrick
  • David D. Stewart
  • Edward Tingley
  • Wesley Warren
  • Mark Whittall
  • Lorraine Links
• Bart Geleynse (Alumni Representative)
• Robert Kidd (Friends of Augustine College Representative)
• Matthew McCormick (Resident Student Advisor)
• Sally Patrick (Fund Raising)
• Tony Quon (Admissions)
• Wayne Nimigan
• Craig Appleyard
• Sarah Kidd

Advisory Board:

• David L. Jeffrey (Chairman)
• Larry Eshelman
• Andrew J. B. Stirling
• Douglas C. Ward

Chaplain:

• Rev. Doug Hayman

Augustine College 18 Blackburn Ave
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 8A3, Canada
(613) 237-9870, fax: (613) 237-3934