News at the Parish Church of St Peter de Merton with St Cuthbert, Bedford

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Dear All

One afternoon, back in May, there was a little tea party along Bushmead Avenue. About a dozen people were there, including Margaret Ann Tibbs, who we'd invited to be with us. The purpose of meeting was to take our thinking about our ministry to the elderly a little further.

Perhaps you'll remember what Margaret Ann said in church: about the explorations she'd made and the reflections she'd had about all this- the change of demography which meant that there is a much greater proportion of elderly people around today than there has ever been; the opportunities that psychology shows us there are in later life for completing and perfecting and fulfilling our human journey – as well as the difficult physical and mental changes that often happen, too; and the important part Christian communities can play in the latter parts of human life, as the tasks of old age lead so many to rediscover the faith they had laid down amidst the busy demands of earlier life.

Margaret Ann's challenge to us was to recognise the importance of ‘Autumn People', to feed them and to use them and their many gifts and skills to enrich the world around them.

We explored ways in which this might be done. We acknowledged the importance of sharing memories, of telling our stories and listening to those of others. So many people have said how much they enjoyed Tricia's interview with Molly Edmonds in last month's ‘Network.' We all have our stories to tell. We wondered if a way to share them might be to create a questionnaire that we could all fill in which allows us to say as much or as little as we want about ourselves and our lives. Perhaps we could include more personal ‘story-telling' in our services?

We recognised that so much of what church is about is community. So, how do we build community in a place that does not have a natural one? Could we occasionally put on a faith lunch, with some kind of talk that might be relevant and useful to those who live around us? Do we need to do more fact-finding about the people who live around St. Peter's? Are there ways that we can integrate our work better – such as introducing and involving some older people into the work of Grapevine?

So many questions! But we all came away feeling encouraged and energized, and thinking how our age profile at St Peter's could be either a problem – or an opportunity. That how we see each other and our potential is vitally important; and how we find new ways of bringing people together is a vital thing for us to be doing. Perhaps this is one of the keys to our way forward...

As I hope you will know by now, I will be away on sabbatical from September to the end of November. One of the things I hope to do is to explore a different experience of ‘church'; in October, Janet and I will be going to India, to work at the cathedral at Chennai. It will be a very different culture, certainly, but it's a chance to see another way of being church, and of learning something new – at least to us. The details of how things will be at St Peter's we'll share next month, but please continue to hold in your prayers our discernment of these important things.

And thank you for the way you all continue to support and enable our life among you.

All my love

Mike

 

For a full calendar of the events at St Peters click here