A lovely bright sunny morning dawned for our first ‘in person’ event for a while and it was so good for the core team to be together with some additional friends. The venue was Queen Edith Chapel, which has worked so well for us in the past and did so again. We enjoyed 2 hours of great fellowship with worship led by Laurence Wood and refreshments from the team.
David Farrer set the scene by describing the two charitable objectives of CCT. Rachel Simonson (Project Worker) thanked those who made it possible for her to do this work, and spoke to the first one: The setting up of a Christian care home in Cambridge.
She described two current possibilities which in time could deliver this goal and asked for prayer along the following lines:
- For our relationship with Pilgrim Friends’ Society, for their continued growth and their excellent work
- For a potential Christian Care home and school in Cherry Hinton (Parish of St Andrew’s)
- And of course anything else the Lord might choose to do…
Thanks extended to Josh Hawkes for his amazing help with publicity in recent weeks!
Next Carmel McDonnell (Care Home Liaison Officer) spoke about the complementary objective: the resourcing of churches to provide spiritual support to those in care homes in Cambridgeshire. Carmel gave examples of the benefits the work of leading services in care homes is having and the reasons why it is vital. She presented a possible outline of a simple service with well known hymns, simple prayers and a Bible passage with comments and she demonstrated using a CD player with recorded hymns.
Hilary Bugden, Mary Burdett and Anne Jarvis added additional input. A clear voice, not too fast, song words in a large font (maybe with a picture on each page to identify) were helpful tips. We can capitalise for just a few more years on care home residents being familiar with the Lord’s prayer, hymn words etc. One care home has a grand piano but the importance of music (however it is delivered) was stressed, it has the power to calm agitation and bring a real peace. The intergenerational possibilities were mentioned and all testified to what a blessing it was to be involved in this ministry.
Anna Gannon spoke of her role as a volunteer chaplain at Addenbrooke’s and also the one-to-one visits she makes to people in care homes.
Anne spoke about the ministry of the printed word and how literature produced by Good News For Everyone (formerly the Gideons) amongst others is so useful in care homes and almshouses. Ann had laid out a wonderful literature table with free resources.
Joan Russell shared her own (40 yr+) journey with PFS and how comforting it is to know that the decision has been taken – for whenever the time is right.
Robin Agnes shared movingly from Isaiah 61 and other Bible passages to exhort all of us to keep praying about this work, to keep doing it and to keep encouraging those we know…
We hope to repeat a morning like this every 4-5 months so please watch our for details.
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