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Church Champion Story: Good News
Faith in Later Life Church Champion Judi, leads the Seniors work at Clevedon Baptist Church in North Somerset. Here she tells us more about a midweek outreach event which the church hosts for seniors, called Good News. When the pandemic allowed people to meet once again, albeit at 2m distance, our church launched an event…
Past Event: Caring for those with Dementia – Saturday 3rd February
Seminar Leaders Friederike Hamilton is a Queen’s Nurse who leads the development of care and dementia care for the Pilgrims’ Friend Society, a Christian charity that provides care and support for 600 older people across the UK. Stephen Hammersley is the Chair of Faith in Later Life, a charity set up to inspire…
Offline
It wasn’t all that long ago that remote communication took time, money, and effort. I still remember standing in line for the payphone in halls at university, and eventually having my call cut off because I ran out of coins. And it was there at the sprightly age of 18 that I sent my first…
Loving My Neighbour Living With Dementia
When it comes to loving our neighbours there are so many situations and so many different ways it reminds me of the Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet, ‘How do I love thee?’ There are ways we love individually, one to one, and collectively through our churches. My church is on the edge of one of the…
Three Advent Stories: While Shepherds Watched
This carol reflects one of the most astonishing encounters of the Christmas story. On one level it is that familiar and well-loved story. Shepherds were in the fields among smelly and not-so-bright sheep. They had no power or influence. They had nothing to bring the baby King. However, the glory and the random beauty of…
Three Advent Stories: Good King Wenceslas
The story doesn’t end well for the ‘Good King’, but it is an inspiring story of kindness and service and tells a much-needed message, not just at Christmas, but for Christians all year long. The carol we know today was written in 1853 by John Mason Neale to a traditional folk tune and was written…
Three Advent Stories: O Holy Night
The central character of this stunning song was Placide Cappeau, a wine merchant and the mayor of Roquemaure, France. In 1847, to the surprise of people in his town, the parish priest asked Placide to write a Christmas poem. Placide’s only qualification at the time was his love of writing poems. The result was “Cantique…
Seniors Ministry: Where to Begin
Following on from our recent interview with one of our ambassadors, Fiona Costa, about the wonderful Cafe Concerts at her church, she shares a few helpful tips for those of us thinking about starting something new for older people: You may be thinking that it would be a good idea to start some sort of…
Introducing the Torch Trust
Let me introduce you to David. Around four years ago he very suddenly lost the sight in one eye. No warning, it just stopped working. Investigations found a rare condition and David was assured that it was very unlikely to happen in his other eye. They were wrong. A year or so later, David woke…
9 Ideas for Outreach to Rural Seniors
How can we reach out to older people over the Christmas period? Our church is in a village in Cheshire. A few years back we had a rethink about how to reach our area. We realised there were two groups we had real opportunities with: families and retired people. We were doing a lot to…