‘Children, love must not be a matter of theory or talk; it must be true love which shows itself in action.’
1 John 3:18
The Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill, writes...
Dear Friends,
This year my annual Lent Appeal falls at time when most of us have to tighten our belts. Many will face real hardship; some will lose their jobs and livelihoods. So I ask for your support this year knowing I am asking a lot. But the financial crisis is also world wide, affecting millions of the world’s very poorest. That’s why I ask you to dig deep and offer your continued support so that we can make a real difference in a practical demonstration of God’s love to a hurting world.
In my Lent Appeal this year I want to focus on helping the elderly, particularly elderly poor people – and for the home element, for the first time, I am asking for nominations of suitable recipients.
In India, the Shanthi Mandiram care home (run by the Mar Thoma Church, supported by CMS) provides accommodation for up to 33 impoverished Dalits who would otherwise receive no care at all.
Classed as ‘untouchable’ by the Indian caste system, the centre’s residents include the old, and those who suffer from physical disabilities or poor mental health.
It provides care, love and fellowship to people who have always served others, but now have no-one of their own.
I hope that we can be generous enough to fund a whole new floor for the home, at a cost of £13,600, as well as contributing towards their annual bill of £6,600 for food and medicine, to help provide care for even more members of the local elderly community.
But we shouldn’t see older people merely as recipients! In many cases they are the ones providing care. Older people make up the backbone of churches – not just in the UK, but also around the world – and they are often at the forefront of providing help for their own families and communities.
In Sub-Saharan Africa many adults of working age grow ill and die as a result of the Aids pandemic and, more often than not, it is their parents who end up caring for the grandchildren. In Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, 60% of orphaned children live with their grandparents.
In Swaziland, the Anglican Church helps people like Lizzie, who spends each day caring for her three grandchildren Sabelo (3), Nkosinathi (8), and Ncobile (3), whilst trying to raise some money to survive. She has receeived help from the church and gets food from a charity which lasts for about two weeks of each month. She occasionally takes a loan and uses this to buy some goods that she can sell at a small profit to the richer people in the area. Other times she begs for food and clothes for the children. She has a small plot of land that could provide food but she has no one to plough it and tend it.
As older people focus their resources on caring for their children and grandchildren in societies with little or no pension provision they may neglect themselves, often going without in order to provide for others.
USPG: Anglicans in World Mission is working with local churches in these areas and in parts of Asia, to enable older people to care for their grandchildren and to keep healthy and independent. So part of this year’s Lent Appeal will go to help USPG maintain its support for church projects helping elderly people in Swaziland, Namibia and Bangladesh.
And as usual, my Lent Appeal will also help those closer to home – and I’ve written to our clergy asking them to nominate potential recipients.
One of the groups already selected is the Cheadle and District Home Link Scheme, which provides care and support for the elderly and housebound to help them remain in their own homes for as long as possible. Working with local doctors and other health professionals, social workers and clergy, the scheme supports those who are lonely or isolated and people who rarely see anyone outside their family circle.
The co-ordinator meets the users and either matches them up on a one to one basis with a volunteer, or arranges attendance at a range of resources offered by the scheme, which includes a day centre, a luncheon club, a befriending service and phone link, voluntary transport with adapted mini bus, a drop in centre and even small social groups which meet in isolated rural moorland areas.
This scheme is just one of many exciting and innovative initiatives being carried out quietly, without much fanfare, by dedicated volunteers throughout our diocesan area and I want us to support as many as possible so they can continue their important work.
I invite you to give generously to my Lent Appeal this year, so that together we can support these groups working to support elderly people both here in the Midlands and in other parts of the world.
+Jonathan Lichfield
|