This has been put together in a collaboration between Christian Aid, JPIT, Church Action on Poverty, the Trussell Trust and others.
Download all the resources.
Culture Club
Now Free and Open to All
New benefits were introduced for Christians on Ageing members in 2023. One of these is Culture Club – a bi-monthly discussion (conducted via Zoom) of the world of older people as reflected in the arts. As we are keen to foster debate in this important area as widely as possible, we have decided to open up Culture Club to anybody who is interested, free of charge, rather than restricting it to members of Christians on Ageing.
Meetings take place at 1.30 pm on Friday afternoons and the programme for 2024 is outlined below . For each topic we will suggest books, films, TV or radio programmes, poems, paintings or photographs to which we plan to refer. Attenders may wish to read or view these before our discussion, but it’s not essential; indeed, there may be others which attendees may wish to bring to the attention of the group. When a film will be considered, the film editor at The Guardian, Catherine Shoard, will join us to offer expert opinion.
The Culture Club programme for 2024
8 March 2024
Intergenerational relationships
Silas Marner – raising young Eppie transforms miserly Silas’s life and worldview in George Elliot’s classic.
The Old Man and the Sea – Hemmingway’s best-known work is about an old man, a young boy and a big fish.
Up – Pixar’s classic film sees a cantankerous widower team up with an eager junior scout on an adventurous mission to South America.
10 May 2024
Life in a care home
The Great Escaper – Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson star in this 2023 film based on the true-life story of a veteran who steals out of his care home to attend the D-Day landing celebrations in France.
Away From Her – Julie Christie won an Oscar for this 2006 drama about a woman with Alzheimer’s who begins a relationship with a man in a care home, having forgotten about her husband.
Alive Inside – a documentary about people with dementia responding to music.
Quartet – Maggie Smith stars in Dustin Hoffman’s comedy about a retirement home for classical musicians.
Savages – two children (Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman) decide to put their father, who has Parkinson’s, in a nursing home.
12 July 2024
Past depictions of old age
Memento Mori – Muriel Spark’s darkly amusing whodunnit amongst sitting room-dwelling friends in 60s London bespeaks a world totally lost yet for many, still in living memory.
Ending Up – Kingsley Amis’s comic classic about bickering upper class acquaintances conjures that genteel Edwardian sense of retired gentlemen and spinsters which persisted well into the 1970s, yet has since become tainted with more seediness and depression.
The Ladykillers – Mrs Wilberforce, a redoubtable relic from the late Victorian age, unwittingly outsmarts Alec Guiness’s gang of dastardly criminals. The scene in which the mob must make nice while she has friends round for tea, cake and a sing-song is remarkable.
Fawlty Towers – That Miss Tibbs and Miss Gadsby happily lived out their final years in a Torquay guesthouse did not seem odd in the mid-1970s. Today, they would be the subject of keen interest and pity.
13 September 2024
Relationships between children and elderly parents
The Tempest – if you think getting older is tough, wait til you tell your children about inheritance, as Shakespeare reminds us.
The Book Club – in this film, four friends in their 70s and 80s embark on new romantic partnerships – often to the chagrin of their children.
Elizabeth is Missing – BBC drama in which Glenda Jackson’s daughter is disbelieving and even scornful when her mother, who suffers from dementia, begins to solve the disappearance of her sister 70 years before.
8 November 2024
Self-help
How to Live to 100 – Jon Snow’s popular Channel 4 documentary managed to attractive audiences from younger demographics by extending an upbeat travelogue treatment to questions of mortality and uncaring relatives.
The many guides to living well in later life.
All the amusing and not so amusing lighthearted “senior moment” compendiums.
Find out more and join a session or two, or three, or …..
If you would like to join a discussion, register your interest with our Honorary Secretary, Barbara Stephens, at secretary@christiansonageing.org.uk or 23 Nelson Street, Ryde PO33 2EZ. Barbara will send you the Zoom link. If you do not have access to a digital facility and would like to join instead by phone, please let Barbara know.
Programmes shown on BBC television and radio are available after broadcast on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, free of charge, as are programmes shown on Channel 4. Other films are available on streaming services – just type into your search engine ‘where to watch’ and the title of the movie.
If you have any questions about how to access material or any other comments or suggestions about Culture Club, contact Marion Shoard, at marion@marionshoard.co.uk or P O Box 195, Edenbridge, Kent, TN8 9EF. Marion is one of Christians on Ageing’s trustees and the author of books and articles about the world of older people.
Hosted by the Methodist Learning Network, this is an interactive book club for anyone interested in thinking about faith and mission.
Each session is a mixture of input and conversation as we explore the main theological themes in the book and begin to ask how this book might affect our own faith and Christian living.
Don’t worry if you do not feel confident talking about theology – all you need is an inquiring mind! If you need anymore details contact Simon Sutcliffe on sutcliffes@methodistchurch.org.uk
The next meeting takes place on Wednesday, 13 March 2024, online from 7 – 8.30pm.
In that session, we will explore “Revive Us Again: Rejuvenating a movement of transformation”, written by Leslie Newton, Chair of Yorkshire North and East District, who will be joining us for this session!.
Here is the blurb from Leslie’s book :
“Would you love to see spiritual and social transformation? Revive Us Again explores how the founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, achieved extraordinary impact across the United Kingdom and beyond. This is an invitation to be inspired by Wesley’s message and methods and see how, by reclaiming these treasures, Methodism and the wider church may once again transform society.
“A timely and timeless reminder that I hope is read widely throughout British Methodism, and beyond.”Revd Dr Martyn Atkins
“A hope-filled invitation to rediscover the richness and vibrancy of the early Methodist movement.”Deacon Eunice Attwood
“It’s impossible to resist the infectious enthusiasm for God and the Methodist movement in this engaging book.”
Rachel Lampard MBE”
You can purchase the book from here.
When an individual is successful in their asylum application, and granted ‘leave to remain’ status, they are required to leave the accommodation provided to people seeking asylum. Standard procedure should be for people to receive a letter giving 28 days notice of eviction, but in reality, people can get as little as 7 days’ notice. In this period, people are expected to find new accommodation and move out.[1]
It is worth noting that even the 28 days’ notice, which is very little time anyway, is incompatible with the Universal Credit system, through which most people’s housing costs are met, as this has a wait time of at least 5 weeks before the first payment of a new claim. To add further complication, currently the notice of decision for the asylum claim is often not recognised as sufficient evidence to enable people to apply for housing and other support. In order to apply for rented housing from a private landlord, individuals usually need to be able to provide proof of 6 months employment. Asylum seekers are unable to do paid work. Yet to find employment, individuals need a permanent address. This presents an impossible ‘Catch-22’ situation, in already difficult and stressful circumstances, and is a prime cause of homelessness.
Read more on the Joint Public Issues Team site.
Christian Aid has been awarded £250,000 for communities impacted by loss and damage in Dasenech, South Omo, in southern Ethiopia.
Christian Aid has worked in Ethiopia, through local partners, for 30 years. Recently this area of Ethiopia has been impacted by severe drought followed by flooding, in repeating cycles. It’s meant homes, livelihoods and livestock have been destroyed.
The Scottish Government ‘loss and damage’ funding, announced during COP28 will be used in several ways including to carry out repairs to damaged infrastructure like boreholes, re-training and job creation projects, a veterinary programme to boost the health of livestock and much needed psychosocial support for communities feeling traumatised.
You can find out more: Loss and Damage funding for South Omo, Ethiopia – Christian Aid
A new Lent Course, produced by Christian Aid, Baptist Union, Methodist Church, United Reformed Church, Church Action on Poverty, The Trussell Trust, and others. Together it enables churches and individuals UK-wide to gain a deeper understanding of experiences of poverty, local and global. We’ll be sharing stories of faith and activism that challenge the status quo. And we’ll be offering inspiration for actions big and small that we can all take to tackle poverty together.
Each pack contains:
You can also use each pack as a standalone session to explore the issues most relevant for you.
Download the resources.
Unbounded Love is the theme of the Lent campaign for the Methodist Church in 2024 – holding together our commitments to be a justice-seeking church, and people who experience and proclaim the good news of God’s uncontainable love.
Sign up for our daily reflection emails and find a range of resources that connect the Gospel readings from the Sunday lectionary throughout Lent to weekly themes, each one a line lifted from Charles Wesley’s hymn “Love divine, all loves excelling”.
Resources for churches include a poster, ideas for either Sunday services or small groups, and a social media campaign pointing people to local churches.
The next gathering will be by zoom at 7 pm on Wednesday 31st January.
Jenny E. will be pleased to know of any items for proposal to the East of Scotland Church Council in February, plus topics for our own discussion, conversation, or general socialising.