Re-imagining ministry with older people

Debbie Thrower
Sep 15, 2020
2 min read

Updated: Sep 17, 2020

Re-imagining Ministry with Older People – Webinar on Wednesday 23 September with Rochester and Canterbury Dioceses (5.00–6.30 pm).

You are most welcome to join a webinar on ministry with older people. There will be sharing of recent research on outreach opportunities to care homes during Covid-19 times, developing local Anna Chaplaincy ministry, phone ministry, community singing and spirituality in older age.

The event will include presentations, workshop breakout rooms and a question-and-answer session. This is a Rochester and Canterbury diocesan event but will be relevant to anyone with an interest in ministry alongside older people.

The keynote address will be:

Research findings – what are we learning? Julia Burton-Jones will explore the impact of Covid-19 on older people’s lives and how organisations are adapting to respond in new and creative ways. Including information gathered from the Anna Chaplaincy team in Kent on their ministry alongside local care homes, and the findings of a recent review of Anna Chaplaincy in Rochester Diocese. Julia is Anna Chaplaincy lead and dementia specialist for Canterbury and Rochester Dioceses, and national church lead for Anna Chaplaincy at The Bible Reading Fellowship (BRF).

This will be followed by the opportunity to join a workshop breakout room on one of five topics:

Two’s Company Telephone Befriending. Find out how phone befriending can be used by local churches to respond to the growing issue of loneliness among older people. This presentation will outline what is involved in establishing a local Two’s Company telephone befriending project and answer your questions. Presented by Jeremy Sharpe, National Director of Linking Lives UK (LLUK), and Angela Caley, Two’s Company Coordinator for LLUK.
Anna Chaplaincy. Julia Burton-Jones will introduce Anna Chaplaincy as a way of offering spiritual care to older people of strong, little or no faith. She will outline how Anna Chaplaincy is working both nationally and within Rochester and Canterbury Dioceses.
Anna Chaplaincy in the local context. Judith Andrews will speak about Anna Chaplaincy in the Thanet deanery, where she is involved in establishing SW+FT – Silver Wholeness for Thanet. Judith is a Reader and lead Anna Chaplain for Thanet; she was commissioned as Anna Chaplain in September 2019, marking the launch of Anna Chaplaincy in Canterbury Diocese. She is based in St Laurence benefice in Ramsgate and is a member of the board of Age UK Thanet.
FRIENDly Singing. A group singing session for older people and their carers was set up by the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral at the start of this year. During this webinar you will hear how your church community could do something similar. Presented by Adrian Bawtree, Second Assistant Organist, Canterbury Cathedral.
Spirituality in older age. We will explore the spiritual challenges and opportunities that come with growing older. Older age is no guarantee of spiritual maturity. But if as younger people we set out to seek life through relationship with God, then older age and all it brings will prove to be an essential part of this journey. And older age is not too late to begin. Presented by Chris Chapman, former Spirituality Adviser for the Diocese of Southwark and the Southwark Spirituality and Age Group (SAGE).