Older People

If you are amongst those folk who are regarded by the world as ‘the older generation’, you can expect to receive a warm, friendly welcome at South parade. In most of our congregations, we have a good number who have already reached the age of retirement or are approaching it.

There is lots going on for and amongst our older folk, and you can consider yourself invited to any events that you see detailed on our newssheet page. If you would like to know more about anything you read about, don’t hesitate to contact the church office.

Especially, we have our ‘Retired persons Fellowship Lunch’, at 12.30 pm on the second Friday of every month, at Headingley. There are lots of weekly ‘Small Groups’, many of which are attended by older members of the fellowship, and another older group meets on Monday evenings, calling itself …… ‘The Monday Evening Meeting’!

Another addition to our programme is a monthly meeting, on the fourth Wednesday afternoon. This is called ‘The Barnabas Bunch’, and we meet at 2.00 pm. Barnabas was a great teacher/evangelist in the New Testament. His real name was Joseph and Barnabas was his nickname. It means ‘Son of Encouragement’, and we all felt that we are all called to be encouragers, to each other and anyone else we might meet, who needs support in any way.

This monthly meeting is a time of friendly, informal fellowship, in a very light-hearted atmosphere, with a time of worship (we sing mainly the old favourite hymns!), and of course, the obligatory refreshments! Everyone is welcome, regardless of age!

We are now beginning to think and talk in terms of the THIRD and FOURTH generations, and are exploring ways in which these age groups can interact together, spiritually, practically, and socially. The third generation means those between 55 and 75 years of age, and the fourth generation is for those over 75. But whichever you ‘fit into’, we want you to know how glad we would be to see you at South Parade! Join us at any of our services, or the events mentioned above, and give us a try!

Ron Phillips – Retired Persons Worker