About us

The Good Samaritan Society, a Lutheran Social Service Organization, is a not-for-profit, registered charity with over 65 years of experience providing specialized health and community care services in innovative and caring environments.

Corporate Office

8861 75 Street, Edmonton, AB

goodsaminfo@gss.org

1-780-431-3600

Faith Statement

Our Lutheran Roots

Preamble

The Good Samaritan Society has grown far beyond its originally planted seed among Lutheran congregations in greater Edmonton. So what is the Lutheran component for the organization we are today? Currently, the majority of people in the organization (clients, resident, employees) are not of Lutheran affiliation. The generally accepted term “faith-based” affirms a spiritual component, but does not provide the content. Our organization is committed to the conviction that “faith based” makes a difference which we want to keep and nurture.

Operative Assumptions

The Good Samaritan Society (GSS) and Good Samaritan Canada (GSC) are not the Church. While the contributions to GSS/GSC by the community of believers are invaluable and honoured, the organization has not been, and is not, an arm of the church. The promotion of ‘the faith’ is the Church’s mission, not that of social ministry. In promoting wholeness, social ministry includes the nurture of faith.

GSS/GSC shares the gifts which the Lutheran understanding of spirituality offers and aims to do that in an outcome-directed way which all stakeholders can comprehend and foster.

The only component we can expect of all the people involved in GSS/GSC are the value statements which shape social ministry. The rest of the following information provides the source, the story, the connectedness, and the motivation on which those statements are founded – whether one shares the faith or not.

Identifying our faith-based strength

Presupposition

There is a BEING beyond matter. Most humans call that being God.

Lutheran Beliefs

God is self-revealing in all the ways God chooses, but has done so in two particular ways:

  1. In the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
  2. For Lutherans, Jesus and these Scriptures are sacred, and alone authoritative for faith.

They proclaim the following:

a. God reigns over creation and the church.
Also those who do not know this or don’t think so are under God’s reign, serving God. Cf. Luther’s two realms.
b. Jesus is God in matter (incarnate) who reconciled all creation to God.
All creation is set free by Jesus from judgment and condemnation.
c. God’s inclination toward all is love.
God cares for all creatures. Every person is of value. There is quality beyond all distinctions.
d. Grace is the life-blood of faith.
All are reconciled, forgiven, justified. Grace is ours just for the believing: faith is trusting this grace.
e. Wellbeing is God’s intention for all.
Shalom, translated ‘peace,’ means total wellbeing. That inclusive wellness is what Jesus modeled, and the Good Samaritan showed.
“I have come that they may have life and have it in all its fullness.” – Jesus. John 10:10b
f. All wholesome work is a vocation in God’s realms, equally honored.
The ‘priesthood of all believers’ makes every one of us and our work equally holy.
g. We seek to do ‘the Good.’
Free from fear of punishment, and free for loving service, Lutherans are not driven by rules but by doing the greatest good we can imagine. ‘Don’t worry, live!’ counseled Luther saying, Sin boldly, but believe even more boldly.
h. Word and Sacrament create, build and nurture the faith that lives out love gracefully.
These are our core gifts, again, whether one shares the faith or not.
We ask all to join us in living out their substance:

Resultant values and life-nurturing indicators

  1. Confidence. The world is in God’s hands. (Countering despair.)
  2. Wholeness of care, including one’s spirit, is fundamental to all beings.
  3. Forgiveness restores wholeness.
  4. Love nurtures well-being.
  5. Gracious dignity for every person is shown, regardless of what distinguishes each.
  6. Well-being, one’s own and the others, is sought.
  7. Respect for all work and workers as vocation is honoured.
  8. Commitment to, and joy in, doing ‘the Good’ motivates us.
  9. Hopefulness. The last word belongs to a Friend, the most exemplary of all “Samaritans” – Jesus of Nazareth!
  10. Opportunity for Word and Sacrament is provided
    1. for all in our care who are thereby nurtured;
    2. or the equivalent for those whose spirituality is variantly nurtured.
  11. We invite all to live out the inclusive compassion of Jesus.

Bring Joy to those in Care

As a charity, The Good Samaritan Society raises funds to provide loving care and quality service to honour the diverse population we serve. Donations to our charity allow us to enhance the programs and services we offer to more than 6000 people.

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