Church Contacts

for ST PETER’S & ST JAMES’S - Parish Office 01789 840262 stpeterswellesbourne@fsmail.net
Contact Amanda Bayley, Administrator, at the Parish Office for general enquiries, baptisms and wedding queries. The Office is open 9.30 - 11.30am Tuesday to Friday. St Peter’s website: www.stpeterswellesbourne.org.uk
Vicar: Rev’d Kate Mier, The Vicarage, Church Street CV35 9LS Tel 01789 840262 katemier@waitrose.com
Curate: Rev’d Wendy Biddington, 72 Mountford Close CV35 9QQ Tel 01789 840953
R.C. ministers: Father David Condron, The Presbytery, Kineton CV35 0LL Tel 01926 640275
Rev’d Ralph Watkins, Deacon, 35 Hammerton Way, Wellesbourne CV35 9NS Tel 01789 841883
Methodist Minister: Rev. A. Laird, 48 Warwick Place, Leamington Spa CV32 5DF Tel 01926 426084

I used to stand on my head and do cartwheels...

... and I used to be able to do a lot of other more useful things too, which I can't any longer. Many of us older people bewail that we can't do what we used to. We sometimes feel that we're losing control over our lives. We have valued our independence and our ability to be active. Society in general makes us feel bad about these things because so often we define people by what they do and we applaud those old people who are still wonderfully active and independent. People seem to talk about old age as a problem to be solved, and the issues focused on are largely physical rather than spiritual. Our older age is the next stage of our journey in life. Like any stage it has own particular purpose, its particular joys as well as sorrows.

It is certainly a time when we do more remembering and reflecting and this is one way of securing our identity, affirming the way we value ourselves or feel we are valued by others. We have more time to look back and notice what we have been through. We almost certainly notice we have come through very hard and difficult times. We can see also so much to be thankful for, so many things we've been spared. Our memories help us to hold on to our identity. Thank goodness that when our memory gets confused and fragmentary, God remembers us completely, totally. Nothing is lost or wasted in God's hands.

I try to remember the old people I valued when I was growing up. They were the ones who had time for me. They were really interested in my life and listened to my problems. Their longer perspective made them good mentors for me. They were still learning themselves, trying out new things and even changing. They laughed a lot too! They were encouraging. They were interested in politics and the wider world but without always comparing it unfavourably with their younger days. It's our illusion, as we get older, that things used to be better than they are – probably a reflection of our physical condition.

I remember going to see my mother in the hospice the day before she died. She told me all about the young woman who'd been nursing her that day and where she was going with her boyfriend that evening!

When I was in my forties I met up with a much older woman whom I hadn't seen for a long time. I can remember saying to her that it didn't feel like 20 years since we last met. She said quite casually, “Well I have prayed for you every day!”

Of course I can't stand on my head but I can pray. I can pray when I can't sleep at night. I can pray especially for young people who are slogging away, trying to juggle too many demands and getting stressed out. It's God's job to bear the unbearable whatever age or stage we're at. But perhaps as we're more aware that we've less control over our lives it's easier for us to hand our lives over to God's care, asking him to carry what we literally can't bear ourselves.

St Mary's Warwick Lent addresses this year have a session at 6.30pm on 3^rd April led by James Woodward called Finding God in Aging. Anyone want to come with me to hear him? (I'll be wearing my hearing aids.)

Tina Lamb christophertinalamb@tiscali.co.uk