Heya Tom (et al)
I won't quote all of your previous two e-mails. If anyone is keen
enough, they will go back and look for themselves. But, just to set
the tone, in your first e-mail, you said (in part):
Is any one else intentionally working on this in their congregations, or are there any authors on the subject who may even be able to show some places that have had some wins in this regard.
I could not claim to be intentionally working on this (that
sounds far to deliberate and well-organised, which I have never been)
but my current experience in a congregation that others would describe
as geriatric caused me to read your two e-mails with interest. You
sounded so lonely in the second one that you have moved me to add my
two cents' worth.
You are right in so far as you say nobody seems to be grasping
the concept of ministry BY the aged. The sad thing from my point of
view is that a few too many people in my congregation (certainly not
all of them, by any means) and a great many people elsewhere have so
accepted the normality of an absence of ministry BY the aged, that,
whenever anything needs to be done, the cry is "but we are
retired now!"
And yet, as I have already hinted, there are signs of real
hope...
This is, by most standards, a tiny congregation. It has around 60
Confirmed Members in total and perhaps another 20-25 who are
associated with us. There are a couple of school-aged children (6 and
9) loosely attached to us (their mother attends regularly) and then
nobody else between there and about 35. There are three people
(including the aforesaid mother) in their 30s and then nobody else
until you get into the 50s. The bulk of our (small "m")
membership is 70 or older. We even have an impressive number in their
90s -- not a very promising prospect for mission, one might
think.
In two weeks' time we are holding an election of Elders. One of
the Elders, whose term has just expired, is standing for re-election.
She is 81! She spends a great deal of her time each week "looking
after the old people", 90% of whom are younger than her! She also
plays the organ most Sundays. There are three other candidates
(nominations don't close for a few days yet) and all of them are 70 or
older. Even though I expect to retire in the next 3-4 years, only two
members of the Church Council are younger than me.
The Congregation doesn't have a Sunday School (why would we?) or
a youth group (same comment) but has a solid record of meaningful
interaction with the local community. It also has a pretty good record
of acting ecumenically whenever it can persuade either of the other
local denominations (Anglican and Catholic) to work with it. Together,
the three churches staged "The Sights & Sounds of Christmas"
(a dramatic presentation) three years running -- with around 1300
visitors -- and then, after a break of one Christmas, staged the
similarly-conceived "Sights & Sounds of Easter" just
before Easter last year.
This year the Congregation, after a great deal of research,
staged a genuine Passover meal, complete with authentic Jewish cuisine
and heaps of Jewish customs, right down to haggling over the purchase
price for a sacrificial lamb! Together we learned a great deal and our
guests (mainly from the community rather than from church folk)
learned even more. [Keep your eyes open for a book on the subject
which we hope to publish soon.]
So far as worship is concerned, people from elsewhere would
probably describe it as "traditional" (and I have attended
Tom's "traditional" worship at Parkes -- it would be very
similar, I think) and local people feel somewhat out of their depth
when they attend other Uniting Churches that feature guitars, data
projectors, amplifiers etc. We sing hymns from AHB and TIS and we even
have a choral group that feeds in a steady trickle of "new"
hymns -- though still in the "traditional" genre. The
prayers are fairly "normal" and we follow the Revised
Lectionary (UC version).
But my experience of the worship (even though I am the one who is
out the front for most of it) is that it is authentic, inspiring, warm
and very meaningful for those who are present. Visitors often comment
on the friendliness of the people, something that they pick up in the
midst of worship, not just in the cuppa afterwards.
These elderly people minister to me, I have no doubt on that
point. I hope it is mutual but suspect that God has sent me here to
teach me a thing or two! Several years back I was closely involved in
the operation of one of the Uniting Church retirement villages in
Sydney and I learned there that the elderly really do have a ministry
all their own. They are able, almost without any encouragement from
well-meaning people like me, to minister effectively to each other
and, if we youngsters will let them, even to us.
People talk of the Uniting Church as a grey church and quote all
those NCLS figures with dismal groans. In this Congregation we don't
see the lack of a youth group or a Sunday School as diminishing in any
way the particular ministry to which God has called us. Old people are
authentic members of the People of God in every sense of the
word.
Alright, I'll stop boasting now. :)
-- Tom (the other one).
--
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Tom Pardy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Coopernook Web site: <http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pardy>
AUSTRALIA
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