Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine,
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
Christine Rossetti (1830-94)
Dear friend
The period before Christmas can be a particularly busy one. Here at Growing Old Grace-fully we too have been swept up in the busyness as we have been developing a pack of ideas for and from parishes to help in “Welcoming Older People” which we are hoping to launch early in 2017.
We want this pack of ideas to inspire practical actions that support the growth of later life friendly parishes in our own Diocese of Leeds, as well as beyond our Diocese. It is our hope and our prayer that this pack really makes a positive difference when it comes to support older people and valuing their gifts. Every topic we consider focuses on “What your parish can do” in a variety of areas including:
- Vocation in Later Life
- Growing a Dementia-Friendly Parish
- Being Mortal
- Tackling Loneliness
- Caring for Carers.
We are so grateful to have been given a generous donation towards the production of this pack by The Grail Society. This means we can get the pack designed and laid out to make it easy to use. We aim to have printed packs available by Spring 2017, and we hope the 8 Chapters will be available even earlier for downloading on our website. We will make sure we let you know when they are ready, as well as how to get your copy.
In last year’s Christmas Newsletter, we included an excerpt from a talk by John Bell of the Iona Community who made the surprising statement that “Advent and Christmas are about old people”.
Last Christmas Day, on Radio 4’s “Thought for the Day”, John developed this idea in more detail. He spoke about preaching at midnight mass in Dundee when he asked the congregation:
“I wonder who among us was once a shepherd? I wonder who among us was once a wise man? There was an outburst of laughter when I asked who had once been the hind legs of the donkey.”
John continues:
“For many people, their introduction to the Christmas story will have been through taking part as a child in a school or church nativity play. Maybe this explains the origin of the phrase, ‘Christmas is a time for the children.’
The irony of it all is that there are no children with leading roles in the Christmas story. Jesus was not born in a kindergarten surrounded by infants wearing their father’s dressing gown or their mother’s tea towels.
Most of the main players are old – Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon and Anna have their elderly status clearly underscored in the Bible. The Shepherds would not be toddlers; and the wise men wouldn’t be wise unless they were old. In those days wisdom did not come through attaining a Ph.D in your mid-twenties.
The Christmas story is, rather, about God expecting older people to enable a new and surprising thing to happen.
I saw this truth alive and well last week when I visited a Roman Catholic church hall which has become the welcome centre for Syrian refugees. Most of those helping out were retired. None had experience of relating to Arabic speaking Muslims before. But like the people in the nativity story they felt somehow summoned to welcome and enable a new thing to happen.
So if you once were a shepherd or an angel or even the hind legs of the donkey, don’t let Christmas simply be a time for regression therapy…..particularly when now as always, God is looking for older people to be the midwives of the new things that need to happen.”
John Bell, Christmas Day 2015, Radio 4
Warmest thanks for your interest in and support of our work across the Diocese.
We wish all Growing Old Grace-fully’s friends and supporters God’s richest blessings for Christmas and the coming year.
Pippa Bonner, Trustee Carol Burns, Chair Anne Forbes, Trustee
Paul Grafton, Trustee Cath Mahoney, Trustee Mgr Peter Rosser, Trustee
Rachel Walker, Project Worker Ann West, Trustee