Author: Rhoda Wu

Update on re-opening of churches

  By

On 23rd June the Prime Minister stated that places of worship are now able to resume collective acts of worship from 4 July. However, this means putting in place many measures to keep people safe and not all churches will be able to hold Mass at the moment.

Click HERE for a letter from the Archbishops in England which states ‘We welcome this news with great joy’, but cautions ‘we tread carefully along the path that lies ahead’.

It goes on to explain:

‘It is important to reaffirm that, at present, the obligation to attend Sunday Mass remains suspended’. 

‘Please be aware that there will be a limit on the number of people who can attend Mass in our churches. This will determined locally in accordance with social distancing requirements. We therefore need to reflect carefully on how and when we might be able to attend Mass. We cannot return immediately to our customary practices. This next step is not, in any sense, a moment when we are going ‘back to normal’. We ask every Catholic to think carefully about how and when they will return to Mass’.

For up to date guidance from the Diocese, please click HERE.

Bishop Marcus Stock states:

‘Although there is a deep desire to resume the sacramental life of the Church, many parishes will need some time to assimilate the guidance and to put the necessary framework of procedures in place before they can open.’

‘More detailed information about when and how our churches may re-open for public worship – and, crucially, how to book, as numbers are still strictly limited – will be available from individual parishes and/or published on parish websites‘ – please see your own parish for details.

LITURGY IN TIMES OF VIRUS by David Jackson

  By

In his April pastoral letter, Bishop Marcus writes: ‘Liturgy means a “common work of the Catholic Church… the participation of the People of God in the ‘work of God’. The liturgy is “the source and summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed…the font from which all her power flows.”’ We can all bring to this conciliar description, our own memories of mass-going. At my age, ripened by mass going and ‘serving on the altar’, I come from memories of using a Knox missal in the 1950s (the smell of its pages lingers yet!), to mass with an iPad. No smell left!

I think my understanding of the richness of the ‘liturgy’ as the ‘common work of the Church’ has been immeasurably enriched lately by a realisation of two other parallel more personal ‘works’ which link us to the Church’s liturgy so that its  full power to transform us may be unleashed.

What are these two experiences?  In ‘Novo Millennio Ineunte’, (Entering the New Millennium) Pope St John Paul described worship as ‘contemplating the face of Christ’ A beautiful image. As an impressionable youth, I now see that I confined the ‘face of Christ’ to His ‘real presence’ in the liturgy of the Eucharist. I ignored the Catechism answer to the question: ‘Where is God?: ‘God is everywhere’. A slick answer which left the conundrum intact, my own experience disengaged.    

The Holy Spirit now tells me that the ‘face of Christ’ can be found in two intertwined places: in the depths of my own heart, in the hearts of all others and in the spaces between us. Secondly, I can recognise the face of the ‘universal Christ’ in the whole of creation.

I laughed and played as a boy with pals and fell in love with woods, dales, rivers and the life of birds and flowers. But I never made the link from these to that holiness I had been taught was to be found only in ‘going to church’. Perhaps this had to come later. But our human history, story, myth, poetry and song have been records created by those ‘seers’ and mystics who discovered the face of God ‘everywhere’!

The parables of Jesus jump out from a close natural insertion into and empathy with a divine-soaked interplay between the natural and human, and hence divine, world. The fig, the mustard tree, the vine, sheep, sowing seed, sweeping the house, stewardship, work – all both reveal and hide the Kingdom of God. We note ‘treasure’ but miss noting where the treasure is hidden – in a field!  Fields can both hide yet reveal God!  The bread and wine of the Last Supper meal presume a felt sense of the divinity in all things and all things human – deliverance, freedom, human dignity – a sacramentality prior to but meant to mould our appreciation of the seven.   A discovery of the Universal Christ hidden (pretty well!) in pals and in the whole of nature can lie dormant, waiting for the Holy Spirit to judge when we are ready to ‘get it’!  Celebrating these experiences of the ‘real presences’ of the Universal Christ has brought a new perspective and framework to the liturgy and the Eucharist. Older age gifted and blessed with the conviction that everything is holy, nothing is profane unless misused.

Setting our experience of the liturgical sacramental life, in its place in the context of our own sacramentality and ‘sacredness’ and the sacramentality of all created matter, brings a rich experiential new dimension  to the conciliar description of the liturgy as ‘the source and summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed… the font from which all her power flows‘. As members of the Church we strive to see the Mass as such.

As individuals, we struggle to bathe in the ever-flowing font or fountain of love which is the Trinity present in and as our very being and in and as all things,  Finding, acknowledging and ‘contemplating the face of Christ’ deep in our own hearts and in every morsel of the creation from galaxy to atom, brings such a transformation to participation in the Church’s liturgy, that it is thereby freed and more able in turn to work its transforming power in us.

We give thanks for the ‘God with us’, the lesson of the Incarnation. In the Holy Spirit, we can see that having joined together into and becoming what we eat – the Body of Christ – we are thereby transformed into being ‘missionary disciples’. The ‘work’ of the liturgy urges us to ‘work’ for justice, peace and care for our common home. Liturgy and our mass-going is not simply an end in itself but also the means for our own on-going transformation for a distinct Gospel purpose: to enable us to recognise the real presence, the face of Christ in all, especially in the faces of the poor and in everything. The liturgy brings us back full circle in thanksgiving to Jesus, ‘really present’ in the bread and the wine, prepared by an appreciation of Christ ‘through whom all things were made’ (John: 1: 3) ‘really present’ in the whole of creation.  

Any lessons for a time of lockdown?  We join on-line Eucharists from the Pope in the Vatican, to those in our own Cathedral and parish churches. These celebrations can be framed and supported by the immediacy of meeting and giving thanks for the permanent presence of Christ in our hearts, in the hearts of all and in all our now heightened appreciation of the first book of creation – nature and our place in it. This we can celebrate round our tables, at home, in our meals, in our walks of contemplative silence. 

How can we learn to recognise the ‘face of Christ’ in our own hearts? That is the topic for another time – a contemplative one.

David Jackson. (With thanks and acknowledgement to insights provided by the writings of Julian of Norwich, Teilhard de Chardin, Richard Rohr, Ruth Burrows and many others)

About David

After 9 years as a priest teaching at Ushaw, David left to embrace the equally rewarding ministry of marriage, now to Teresa for some 46 years, blessed by three children and symmetrically 6 grandchildren. He retired in 2011 from being the Diocesan Interfaith Advisor after a career as a RE teacher and inspector for Bradford LEA. He tries now to tie activities round Justice and Peace with eco-care for our common home, all linked to the practice and study of contemplative prayer.  He is a member of Pax Christi and ACTA. He supports Teresa in her voluntary work in Bradford with Asylum Seekers, contact with whom reveals Jesus of the Gospels.  He admires the work of the Columbans, the songs of St Leonard Cohen and all the flights and lives of birds.

David says of himself: ‘I enjoy gardening, reading, walking in the woods, drinking a little too much red wine and watching rubbishy box sets’.  

We are very grateful to David for this insightful piece on Liturgy in these Virus Times.

Prayer week focusing on prayer for/with Older People

  By

From Sun 7th June – Sat 13th June The Pilgrim’s Friend Society are having a week of prayer for older people and the issues affecting them.

Take a look at this user friendly prayer resource, or check out their blog posts throughout the week including blogs from Faith in Later Life and Linking Lives on topical issues about later life.

The prayer resource is excellent for use at any time, why not print it off and use it as a prompt whenever you need it.

Why not also take a look at the other excellent free resources on the Pilgrim’s Friends website including resources for churches and detailed dementia information sheets, or their helpful booklets. You will be sure to find something that is helpful for you or your church/organisation.

Loss and Resilience in Older Age

  By ,

How can we understand our reactions and responses to the current time?

This coronavirus pandemic is a strange, roller coaster time of ups and downs in our daily lives. We are very likely worried about others and ourselves, on alert, and at the same time want distraction and any good news stories. Maybe our routines and immediate plans are currently up in the air……

Yet we live in the same place with the same view out of the window and with the same community around us. How much of our daily lives have changed and for how long? This coronavirus pandemic will pass. We live in a country with a National Health Service that is free, staffed with skilled hard-working doctors, nurses, carers and other valued, dedicated staff. Staff and supplies are under pressure but we are perhaps relieved we live in the UK.  We will also be concerned about our sisters and brothers worldwide. We are told news every day. This is a mixture (currently in March) of worsening statistics, news stories of dedicated work by medical and local authorities, communities singing and exercising from balconies and lots of other creative ways to stay connected and fit, despite this new term “social distancing.” Some of us are rationing our intake of worrying news. We may also be hearing heart-warming stories and seeing cartoons that make us smile.

Life’s Ups and Downs

Many of us are feeling all kinds of emotions. Some remember previous national and personal hard times. We know from life experience that we have mostly weathered and come through loss of many kinds: family, health, money and work difficulties, ruptured relationships, uncertainties and unexpected challenges. We have also experienced many positive aspects in our lives, and more to come!

And… we have got through to where we are now. Some have had a lifetime of raising families, years of work, acquiring skills and knowledge, having periods of happiness and fulfilment and may on the whole be mostly satisfied about the small and large contributions we have made, and in some ways continue to make to others.

However, at present we may find our mood and outlook changes during the day so that we are experiencing ups and downs. I have just spoken to my 90 year old mother a hundred miles away. She spent the morning reading (in her view) a depressing newspaper article about future country finances and then sat in the sunshine in her garden enjoying the flowers. This morning I felt anxious listening to the news, but then listened to The Archers and went out for my daily walk and saw the daffodils, looking colourful and beautiful whatever is going on around them despite the earlier floods. They flower every year whatever is happening!

We may be worried about our families and friends. Are they well? Will they stay well? Will we manage to get our food and other requirements? Will those unable to work have enough money to manage, jobs to go back to and have time and space for their children to do some schoolwork, have some fun and ways of releasing their energy? Will teenagers and others facing external exams be supported through the next few months and through the next academic and life changes in their lives?

And how do we find peace and distraction when we need that? We have the wisdom and experience of older age to know how we cope in difficult times. Perhaps we pray more and find our religious belief helpful and then we can cry out in our own way: why is this happening to me and to them? Sometimes we doubt our religious faith. Do we have the resilience to cope with this uncertainty? How long will this last? Will we stay well?

I worked for many years supporting people through bereavement and loss, and to a limited extent I still do! You may wonder why I am mentioning loss. We may currently be fearing loss or bereavement or worry about change and having to live a different life for the moment. Our routines and networks are disrupted. We may be grieving for the freedom to go out and meet others or have visitors calling round. We wonder about people’s jobs, and anxieties about paying bills, rents and mortgages, Perhaps we have “lost” our peace of mind?

 A Loss, Change and Bereavement Model

One of the most useful, enduring bereavement and loss models, in my view, is from Stroebe and Schut that focuses on how we each individually may respond to loss, bereavement and change, including a changed perception of our current life and the world around us. You may be familiar with it. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t. After many years of offering it to people I have learnt a number of points:

  1. You are the person who knows best how you think and feel and you are the expert in that, even if at times it doesn’t seem like that. Others can try to empathise with how you think and feel. 
  2. There are two main types of responses we may find we are using, as follows:

a) FEELINGS – You may respond to loss, change and bereavement by feeling sad, panic, angry, guilty, disorientated and experience a number of emotions. You may be very aware of feelings and trying to work through your emotions of loss.

b) MANAGING & PLANNING – You may be someone who manages loss, bereavement and the perception of a changing world by trying to plan and manage it, allowing yourself to plan for the future, be distracted and sometimes even deny to yourself it is happening.

3.  Neither of these ways are either right or wrong – the way of feeling the emotions, or the way of planning a way through – they are both alright and are just how they are.

4. We are all different but you may encounter some difficulty if you get stuck  either with only feeling the feelings or only trying to cope and plan too much.

5. We usually learn to oscillate, move between, expressing emotion and working towards a future. So, a mixture of both a) feeling the feeling and b) managing the situation towards the future is needed, so this is not an “either/or” but a “both and” way of dealing with our lives. That is why it can seem like a roller coaster experience: up and down.

We all have our existing losses and now with Coronavirus we are dealing with the anxiety of the immediate future. This can compound the feeling of loss for us depending on the losses we are already experiencing.

Resilience

An important point to offer is that those working with people who are experiencing the challenges and positives of everyday lives often use the word resilience. Here resilience isn’t defined as being brave and positive all the time. What is meant here, in my view, is that a resilient person is one that can hold the difficult and positive stuff together and continue in their lives.

We all have ups and downs but in older age we have usually realised that we have come through a lot of life and can hold what we have experienced from the good times and the challenging experiences at the same time. So we are usually quite resilient even when it doesn’t feel like it!

Let us keep supporting each other through this in whatever way we can. When this corona virus time comes to an end we can look back together and see how we came through!

Pippa Bonner March 2020

‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you’ – a helpful booklet

  By

We have produced a short booklet containing both practical information, tips for coping with our current situation, and prayers and poems to uplift and encourage.

Recognising that many older people may not have email or are less familiar with using the internet, here at GOG we decided to put together this colourful booklet and have sent it out to nearly 200 people on our contact list, for whom we had no email details, only a physical address. Our hope is that this will bring some small blessing to those who receive it through their letterbox.

You can also view, download, share or print an A4 version of this booklet below:

Download Printable Booklet (Catholic version)
Download printable Booklet (General version)

There are two versions – one that is more suitable for those connected with the Catholic church (Catholic version) and the second which has less specific Catholic content but still includes prayers and scripture (General version).

PLEASE NOTE: this printable version is designed so you can print it off yourself on A4 landscape and staple it at the left hand corner or left hand side, (as most of us do not have a long arm stapler to staple a booklet in the middle!)

Why not print it off and send it to a friend who would benefit from some encouragement and help at this time?

Alternatively, send a link to this page by email or Whatsapp to your friends and family.

If you would like to reproduce this booklet yourselves to distribute in hard copy A5 booklet form, please contact Rhoda at growing.old.gracefully@dioceseofleeds.org.uk for the original artwork.

In addition, if you would like to add your own organisations’ details to the back of the booklet before distributing, or work with us on an amended version for your area, please be in touch with Rhoda – we are more than happy for this to be a blessing to people in other networks and areas.

Holy Week at Home

  By ,

Remembering the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ is of paramount importance to all of us as Christians, and this year we doing this in unfamiliar circumstances; but God is not limited by walls, or any other physical restrictions – He will draw near to us as we draw near to Him.

See our page on ‘Holy Week at Home’ for messages from Pope Francis and Bishop Marcus, together with many useful links

Prayers for our time

  By

A Beautiful Blessing from John O’Donohue

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
John O’Donohue
Beannacht/Blessing (for Josie, my mother), Echoes of Memory.

Click on THIS PAGE on his website to hear John reading this blessing, and others

A Coronavirus Prayer

Loving and healing God,
We turn to you in prayer,
confident that you are with us and with all people in every moment.
We stand before you as a people of hope,
trusting in your care and protection.
May your faithful love support us
and soothe the anxiety of our hearts.
Generous God,
fill us with compassion and concern for others, young and old,
that we may look after one another in these challenging days.
Bring healing to those who are sick
and all who work in our medical facilities.
Give wisdom to leaders in healthcare and governance
that they may make the right decisions for the well-being of people.
We pray in gratitude for all those in our country
who will continue to work in the days ahead in so many fields of life
for the sake of us all. Bless them and keep them safe.
O God of creation and life, we place ourselves in your protection.
May the mantle of your peace enfold us this day and tomorrow.
May all the saints of God, pray for us. Amen.

Lockdown – A Poem penned by Brother Richard

This poem, written and shared on Facebook by Richard Hendrick on 13th March, went ‘viral’ and was shared across the world as it chimed with our hearts in the midst of this crisis.

Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.

But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.

So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.

Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing

The Calming of the Storm Mark 4: 35-41

  By

A reading and reflection by Pippa Bonner

At the hospital where I am a volunteer on the Chaplaincy Team I sometimes ask a patient if s/he would like a Scriptural reading as part of the Eucharistic Liturgy. If they do not have a preference I often offer The Calming of the Storm where Jesus calmed the waves. It is written out in full further down the page.

I think the ups and downs of the stormy waves can sometimes reflect a Patient’s experience. The up and down of the waves perhaps images the ups of hope, recovery and good and compassionate care. The downs might be about pain, anxiety and uncertainty. I will usually listen and chat to a person first and try to get a glimpse of how they are without probing, and how much energy they have, before offering a Reading.

However if they would like to read or hear the Calming of the Storm I encourage them to imagine themselves in the scene, which is in the tradition of Ignatian spirituality. Are they in the boat with Jesus? Perhaps they see themselves in another boat, in the sea itself or on land watching the scene? I never ask them what they have chosen. And though the story is a familiar one to many, placing oneself in the scene doesn’t suit everyone.Jesus might seem a little severe at one point in the story, but is he taking command of a difficult situation and perhaps encouraging his disciples to wonder who he is? Personally I believe that Jesus, human and divine, as human, although compassionate, got tired and frustrated that the disciples were still untrusting and not apparently becoming aware of who he might be? Now, we are encouraged to believe the divine, Resurrected Christ unconditionally loves us and understands our fear and doubt at times when we are anxious and uncertain..

In the Corona Virus time of anxiety and uncertainty I offer this Reading to you. This translation is from The Jerusalem Bible.

                             The Calming of the Storm  (Mark 4: 35-41)

With the coming of evening Jesus said to his disciples ” Let us cross over to the other side.”  And leaving the crowd behind him, they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him. Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped. But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, “Master, do you not care? We are going down.” And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea: ” Quiet now! Be calm!” And the wind dropped and all was calm again. Then he said to them: “Why are you so frightened? How is it you have no faith?” They were filled with awe and said to one another:  “Who can this be? Even the wind and sea obey him?”

A Reflection from an Older Person during Coronavirus- tide

  By

A friend shares her reflections on the day to day of self isolation in a down to earth way, ending with a poem.

Hopes, fears and thankfulness.

I have been referring to Corona Virus as CV. It has just occurred to me that CV is also short for Curriculum Vitae which is what we sometimes have to write when we apply for a new job.

What might I add to my imaginary CV CV about this period we are going through? What am I learning about myself? How am I dealing with the worry and uncertainty? What do I value in life? How are my family, friends and neighbours? What can I do? Can I pray more?

Most importantly I need to remind myself this CV time is temporary and will pass.

 I am currently having to stay at home like all of us, socially isolating ourselves from others:  going outside only once a day maintaining the appropriate distance from other people. I am a younger older person who is usually fit. I am fortunate. I have a part time job which I love. I don’t live alone. I live with my husband. We have enough money to buy food and I thank God that we have our NHS so that any medical treatment we may need is free. We have a TV, computer, radio, books and I am knitting. Jigsaw puzzles are another distraction as are sudokus.

I try to ration the amount of news I listen to as it can get worrying, though at times it is also reassuring. I am so grateful to all NHS workers, supermarket and delivery staff, workers in Care and Nursing Homes, teachers looking after key worker and vulnerable children. The list is long…..

We have five grandchildren but we haven’t had them in our house recently or gone to see them or their parents because like everyone else’s families they too are socially isolated. One granddaughter came to the door to deliver a card and her mother had to remind her not to come in as she was running to hug us. A sad moment for all of us but not a permanent situation. We know where our family is. They are not missing. They are not refugees. They have houses. For some their work has stopped temporarily or altered. They are well and if they get ill, will have access to medical care. I worry about my mother who lives alone a hundred miles away, but she is receiving support and we are in contact at least daily. My sister sat in her garden with her briefly on Mother’s Day. We know these restrictions won’t be for ever.

I have recently learnt video calling on my phone! So has my mother. So we can look at each other every day on the phone! I have listened and watched one grandchild practising her reading. I have read stories to another two looking at the pictures I show them and we can chat and sing.

I have been online and watched the Sunday Mass from Leeds Cathedral. I was concerned I might feel too much of a remote spectator and miss the companionship of fellow parishioners. Indeed I did miss them. But there were nearly two thousand of us “taking part” and I knew some of them were “there.” I joined in the hymns printed below the screen. I have long believed and realised that wanting Communion (Spiritual Communion) is as good as physically receiving it. Ability to receive daily Communion has been a privilege but if this is already not so easy with fewer priests, perhaps this is one way of becoming accustomed to it. Masses where we can go and physically participate in our Parishes will return.

Join Leeds Cathedral online here

One niece living alone with three children is temporarily feeling overwhelmed with three different sets of schoolwork coming through online. It is a pressure for everyone: particularly where there may be alone and with one or no computer in the house. Two of the family are a nurse and doctor and I worry particularly for them that they will stay well. I have asked local Retired Sisters to pray for them along with the long list of requests they have from others!. There are daily examples of community singing and exercises on balconies in housing complexes around the world. So many people are saying that in the future there might be more positive community living appreciating our neighbours. Already on my daily walk I am noticing passers-by are saying hello. The air seems clearer as there are fewer cars and I can hear more birds sing! And I am appreciating what we do have more than I did in the past. I took a lot of it for granted. And there is more time to pray for those living with poverty, broken relationships, injustice, war and illness.

One of the things I hope to be able to add to my CV CV is that I will have learned to live more in the present, rather than dwell too much in the past about what might have been or worry excessively about the future. I keep trying to appreciate the “now”, the spring flowers and trees outside, the good news I read about, the acts of kindness, the humorous cartoons and jokes people are sharing. I believe resilience is about holding the painful stuff in our lives alongside the positive in the “now.”

 I have reread this week this poem by Helen Mallicoat printed on a weekly website www.NewPilgrimPath.iethat you can subscribe to for free if you wish. It has weekly poetry, music and reflections. You may be familiar with this poem already but I believe its message is particularly significant in CV times.

  I AM  
 by Helen Mallicoat
 
 I was regretting the past
 And fearing the future…
 Suddenly my Lord was speaking:
 “MY NAME IS I AM.” He paused.
 
 I waited. He continued,
 “When you live in the past,
 with its mistakes and regrets,
 it is hard. I am not there.
 My name is not I was.
 
 “When you live in the future,
 with its problems and fears,
 it is hard. I am not there.
 
 My name is not I will be.
 
 “When you live in this moment,
 it is not hard.
 I am here.
 
 My name is I AM.”                     

Living and Dying Well – some useful websites and books

  By

As we are not able to run the conference at this time, we thought we would remind you of some useful websites and books on the topics of living and dying well. We hope you benefit greatly from exploring this content.

Useful Websites for your perusal:

The Art of Dying Well:   https://www.artofdyingwell.org/

This excellent website based on an ancient Catholic tradition called Ars Moriendi offers practical and spiritual support to anyone faced with the prospect of death and dying, including helpful articles and videos.

Christians on Ageing:   https://christiansonageing.org.uk/

A resource for churches: a voice for older people and their life of faith and hope. Interesting articles and up to date news.

Dying Matters:        https://www.dyingmatters.org/

Well known website and movement to help people talk openly about dying, death and bereavement.

Sue Ryder:      https://www.sueryder.org/      

Scroll down on the home page to find their useful publication ‘A Better Death’.

A few recommended books for further reading:

If you click on the title it will take you to where you can read more about the book or purchase it if you wish.

Between Living and Dying: Voices from the Edge of Experience – Ruth Scott

Dear Life: A Doctor’s story of Love and Loss – Rachel Clarke

With the End in Mind: How to Live and Die Well– Kathryn Mannix

The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully – Joan Chittister

God, Me and Being Very Old – Keith Albans and Malcolm Johnson