Pippa Cramer MBE: Caring for our Seniors

Older adults are the fastest-growing age demographic across the Western world. There are 12 million over-65s in the UK, and this figure is set to rise in the years ahead.  

My heart aches when sadly this precious generation gets overlooked and marginalised. We have so much to learn from our elders, all of whom have enormous amounts of life experience and wisdom, and all of whom deserve our respect, our love and care. There is such a need here. 

Continue reading more, or watch the interview with Pippa Cramer below.

Older people have always held a special place in my heart. I think this all stems back to my childhood, where I spent a lot of time with my incredible grandparents - I adored them, and just loved hearing their stories and learning from them. Having also worked for many years in the NHS as an Occupational Therapist, I found that one of my favourite parts of the job was when I worked alongside older patients!  

As we are all living longer, sadly this also means that many are suffering more profoundly with physical illness, dementia, and mental-health struggles. Following the pandemic, I have seen loneliness and isolation rapidly increase amongst the older generation, with many losing their confidence and consequently feeling on the fringes of society even more. Whether housebound or anxious, sick, or frail, older people still have a real need for community and connection, especially when the loss of loved ones and friends increases as we age. Jesus calls us, his people, to love our neighbours, whoever they are and wherever they are at. With the increasing number of our neighbours now likely to be older, and possibly facing bereavement, there is an increasing need to reach out to them and provide hope, comfort and community.

For many years now, I have longed for the profile of this generation to be raised, and for older people to be valued and respected as they deserve - in our families, our local communities, churches and in society.  

After a lot of prayer, I came up with the idea of starting a group for seniors called Connections at Holy Trinity Claygate, my local church. I would love to stress the importance of prayer here. I prayed for a very long time before we actually started this group! I was acutely aware that God needed to be leading and guiding every step, every decision, and every potential team member. Our vision for Connections was to provide a safe and welcoming place for older people to come to, where loneliness and isolation could be reduced, and where people were given the opportunity to hear the gospel and discover the difference Jesus can make to their lives.

Connections has now been running for 12 years and is one of the largest church-based groups for seniors in the UK. It runs weekly, centering around a variety of activities such as mini hand massages, seated exercises, carpet bowls, Special Interest Tables, as well as a gentle Thought for the Day. Love and care are the values that remain at the heart of Connections; copious amounts of coffee and delicious home-made cakes are served, and our large team are consistently on hand to come alongside our guests, listen and offer pastoral care and support, introduce people to each other and help everyone feel at ease. Building relationships and friendships are so key. From these wonderful connections, trust builds, which in turn, gives permission to speak more about the Lord and His love which we know is the most important gift we can share.   

We have tried various evangelistic courses with our seniors, yet none of them seemed to resonate or work that well with this age group and there seemed to be a real lack of resources here. Over the years I have prayed so much about this, and now we are at the very exciting point of launching a new evangelistic series for older people, called Hymns We Love.

Hymns We Love is a gentle and very accessible series that uses well-loved hymns to share the good news of Jesus and key truths about the Christian faith. Many in this generation have grown up singing these hymns at school, church, or Sunday School, and they have therefore proved to be a perfect way to connect with seniors and help them engage with the gospel. The series comprises five video sessions, each one looking at a different hymn – the story of the hymn writer, how the hymn came to be, and the Christian message behind it. These video sessions feature beautiful renditions of the hymns, filmed in a historic English village church, along with testimonies and prayers. Week by week, the series aims to take guests on a faith journey from understanding who God is to making a personal commitment to him. 

There are also three introductory sessions: for Christmas and Easter, and a third which can be used at any time of the year. The talks are also available in script form, so if more appropriate, they can be given live – perhaps shortened or adapted. Hymns We Love is extremely versatile and can be used in church groups, community groups for seniors, care homes, small groups or even individually in a person’s home. It has been such a joy to work on and develop this and my big prayer continues to be “for hundreds of thousands of older people to be given the opportunity to hear the gospel and discover how much God loves them”. 

More information about Hymns We Love is available from The Good Book Company’s website – thegoodbook.co.uk/hwl

About the Author: Pippa Cramer, MBE, is Pastoral Care and Seniors Minister at Holy Trinity Claygate, co-founder of the Daily Hope free phone line and Ambassador to Faith in Later Life.