65 and over


Hello, thanks for looking at this blog. I want to talk about a couple of different things and make a connection between them. The first is a report that came out back in February, the “State of Rural Services 2018”. The second is what I’ve been doing for the last couple of days.


The report is produced  by “Rural England”  and is downloadable from their website. It looks at eight key service areas , transport, broadband and mobile phone coverage,  libraries, hospitals, public health, young people, shopping and personal advice services. It reminds us of a few key facts about rural areas and for me the statistic that jumped out at me was that 24.1% of the rural population - that's nearly a quarter-  is 65 or over. Perhaps that jumped out at me because I’m part of that statistic. That compares with only 18% of the population for the UK over all. That means there are a third more over 65s in rural areas than the national average.


That, of course, has an impact on the delivery of all those services which the report covers.  That has both positive and negative impacts on delivering those services. Older people bring both benefits in service delivery  and also make  more demands on those services.

That’s true of the Church. Rural churches have been well served by older people. But the flip side of that is that older people bring needs.


Which brings me on to the second thing, what I’ve been doing over the last couple of days.  I’ve had the privilege of going on a retirement retreat for clergy and their partners. Not a retirement course looking at the practicalities of pensions, health and the like. It was a retreat which, through the lens of Christian faith, helped participants – that’s me- to think through issues of loss of status, letting go of what has been, looking towards a future with the  uncertainties that  declining health and (eventually) death bring. The retreat was an enormously positive experience.


But it left me wondering. It was designed to look at the particular issues that affect clergy. But “ordinary” non-vicar people also have emotional and spiritual challenges around retirement.  If there are a third more over 65s in rural areas, might rural churches help “ordinary” people in rural areas as they too go through the challenges of managing a good retirement.      

Comments

  1. Unknown20 June 2019 at 14:33

    Yes I think that would be a very useful, there are indeed significant challenges to retirement, and the isolation of rural life can increase those challenges as we no longer meet and talk to people through the comaradary of working life.

    ReplyDelete

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