Here's the latest new resource to share - the Faith in Later Life website, which is a one-stop online resource of ideas and good practice for the churches' work with older adults. It's supported by a number of Christian charities working in this area. Take a look!
It's been a while since we've posted on this blog, and it's gratifying to see that although the Through Life Discipleship project is currently dormant, this website still attracts a couple of dozen visitors every week.
Here's the latest new resource to share - the Faith in Later Life website, which is a one-stop online resource of ideas and good practice for the churches' work with older adults. It's supported by a number of Christian charities working in this area. Take a look!
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Long time, no post (things have been so busy!) but news of a dementia training day for churches later this year has spurred me back into action. The day will take place at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. The day is organised by a number of people connected with some of the larger denominations in the WM region, but is open to all. Contributors and a few workshop themes shortly to be announced - more details will be posted here in due course.
We've recently heard about a new book edited by two very experienced reflectors on issues of ageing, faith and spirituality: Keith Albans and Malcolm Johnson (eds), God, Me and Being Very Old: Stories and Spirituality in Later Life (SCM Press, 2013). I'll try and review it here once I've had a chance to read it.
If you've been listening to the news this morning it won't have escaped your notice that Britain is hosting the first G8 summit specifically dealing with the growing challenge of dementia care worldwide. You can get the whole conference streamed live here and and read more about the three priorities (driving improvements in health and care; creating dementia-friendly communities; and improving dementia research) here.
In 2014 St Peter's Saltley Trust are planning to work together with the WM Region Churches' Forum to organise a one-day gathering of church-based projects engaged in work with the frail elderly and those with dementia, exploring our theology of ageing and good practice in developing worship, care and discipleship with those groups. More information will appear on this blog as plans progress - do contact us if you want to be kept informed. I've been re-reading Acts recently and have been struck again by the early churches' attentiveness to the needs of potentially vulnerable generations. In Acts 6, the dispute between the 'Hellenist' and 'Hebrew' believers over the distribution of funds, and the resultant selection of seven trustworthy men to administrate it, turns around a concern not to neglect the needs of the widows in the group. Later, in Acts 9, widows are again present in significant numbers in the church in Joppa, where Peter raises Dorcas from the dead. No doubt widows could be variously poor or rich, but in both cases lacked the social protection provided within the social context of the time by their husbands. It was a mark of the common life of the early Christian community to step in and support those who were vulnerable in that way. This is a challenge to us in the contemporary church to continue to care for those who are vulnerable through and after bereavement or who lack family support - yes, those who are elderly, but also people at other stages of life.
However, the Dorcas story in Acts 9 tells us something else in addition. Dorcas was not simply a victim, a passive recipient of the church's care. She was 'full of good works and acts of charity'. This reminds us of the importance of not simply 'doing to' potentially vulnerable individuals and groups within our churches and communities, but also of allowing them to minister to us, and to do 'good works and acts of charity' for themselves. In his 'Acts for Everyone' commentary, Tom Wright reminds us that Dorcas was just one of countless faithful Christians over the centuries who have quietly and effectively played their part, and in reflecting on Dorcas and on the 'widows' in Acts it reminds me of my own grandmother who after the death of her husband still continued to be 'full of good works and acts of charity', volunteering for a bereavement counselling service, cooking meals for 'elderly' people in her road (who were not infrequently younger than she was) and supporting her local church in all sorts of other ways. How best do our churches support, care for and resource older people who may have their own support needs but who also want to continue to make a difference in the lives of others? I've noticed a number of articles and resources about loneliness recently. Loneliness can strike at any age (most people go through periods of loneliness as teenagers, or as young adults moving to a new job or town, or witness reports recently about the number of single-person households, not least due to high divorce rates in middle age). But it's often particularly an issue for older adults living in their own home but finding it increasingly difficult to get out an about.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation have just released a 'loneliness resource pack' with practical ideas to help individuals and groups understand and make positive responses to loneliness within their communities. Take at look here. One of the most impressive online banks of stories and reflections on doing church and mission differently is that produced by the Church Army's research unit (formerly The Sheffield Centre). Amongst their archived bulletins are a series of nine case studies - Discovering Faith in Later Life - researched and written by Michael Collyer with the aim of 'challenging and encouraging the church to take the needs of older people seriously'. The series features organisations undertaking discipleship and missional work with and by older adults, work around spirituality in residential care settings, practical projects to address bereavement and isolation amongst the elderly, and think-pieces on creating church for older adults.
New research by the Chartered Institute of Phsyiotherapy and YouGov found that round two thirds of those surveyed feared the physical and mental toll of rising retirement ages - 61% fearing being too tired to work their full hours and 65% fearing developing a serious illness which would impede their ability to continue to work.
What is a Christian response to the issues of later retirement? Is it right that people should work longer in order to plug the gap in pension and social care provision? Is it to be welcomed that older people can increasingly continue to express their vocation and offer service to others through paid employment for as long as they like, without an artificial retirement age? Should older workers instead give up their space in the labour market to make room for the new school- and college-leavers to enter the workforce? And whatever the answers to these questions, how can Christian employers and local churches exercise proper care towards older workers? And if the churches can increasingly no longer automatically rely on a large pool of recently-retired people to maintain some of their bread-and-butter work, how can this work be continued? (With thanks to the Association of Christian Teachers for highlighting this research in one of their recent e-briefings). Friday 28 June's 'Church Times' contains several features on life and spirituality after retirement. For me one of the most thought-provoking comments comes in Andrew Norris' article 'A time of growth' (p. 24): he notes that we typically think of life taking a sort of parabolic curve upwards and then downwards as our 'human powers and capacities' increase into adulthood and then diminish in later life. But, he argues, this is to ignore the important spiritual work of later life - especially around important landmarks such as retirement, which offer an opportunitiy to
Great to spend some of this morning with Mark Fisher from the Generations Project, Solihull, an ecumenical initiative to gear up local churches to work with older adults in residential care settings. Mark is asking interesting and important questions about the meaning of old age. In earlier life people ask us 'what do you want to do when you grow up?' or 'what will you do when you retire?', but much more rarely about how we are going to prepare for 'fourth age', or indeed what our faith says about the meaning of age. Read more and contribute your own ideas via the 'Why Pappy?' thread of the Generations Project website.
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AuthorsIan Jones is Director of St Peter's Saltley Trust. Archives
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