And on that note, we're increasingly aware of a number of projects across the region dedicated to helping the church respond to the challenge of dementia, many of which are not currently in touch with each other. Could each of these benefit from greater networking? Let us know your ideas.
A really helpful article about living with dementia by John Swinton in the Church Times last week (based on his new book: Dementia: Living in the Memories of God (SCM Press): 'Who am I, when I have forgotten who I am?' Amongst other things, he notes that we tend to invest heavily in the idea of our identity being bound up with cognition, but this not need be the measure of our selves. He quotes approvingly Christine Bryden's personal account of pre-senile dementia: 'I believe that I am much more than just my brain structure and function, which is declining daily. My creation in the divine image is as a soul capable of live, sacrifice, and hope, not as a perfect human being, in mind or body. I want you to relate to me in that way, seeing me as God sees me'. We love God not only with our minds, but also with 'heart, soul and strength', and even if our cognitive memory fades 'memory is etched into our bodies, but it is also firmly embedded within our communities'. Social theorists such as Maurice Halbwachs have recognised for some time that memory is collective - perhaps this is something which the challenge of caring for people with dementia is only now beginning to animate? If so, how can local churches stand alongside people with dementia and be that collective memory?
And on that note, we're increasingly aware of a number of projects across the region dedicated to helping the church respond to the challenge of dementia, many of which are not currently in touch with each other. Could each of these benefit from greater networking? Let us know your ideas.
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AuthorsIan Jones is Director of St Peter's Saltley Trust. Archives
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