Saint Andrew's performed its first worship service at the Summerhill Retirement Home. We had a short worship service in which 20 of our parishioners and about 20 of the retirement home's residents participated. It was a simple and heavily liturgical service since many of the facility's residents suffer from various forms of memory loss. Some of the repetitive/liturgical elements that we engaged in tonight included the Gloria Patri, Doxology, Lord's Prayer and Apostle's Creed. It was interesting to watch some of the residents, who were withdrawn and uncommunicative, saying the Apostle's Creed without referring to the order of service.
Afterwards, most of parishioners visited for a bit and the residents loved all the little kids we brought with us. Many new friendships were made.
I was an intern at a retirement center for around 2 years while I was at Covenant. Two things stick out from that experience: liturgy connects and Communion really means something.
For example, the Lord's Prayer and Apostle's Creed were employed at least 90% of the worship services (Sundays and Thursdays) and since many of the people could not read any longer because of poor vision, they connected, were refreshed, and strengthened by these familiar aspects of worship. (I shudder to think of what a retirement center service will be like when I am their age...Shout To The Lord, anybody??)
Also, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper really struck me in a newer way. It was amazing to see how precious it was to those residents. Not only were they refreshed from hearing the Gospel and praising God, they were strengthened through Communion. As a Presbyterian, I claimed to believe "something was happening" during communion, but I think I really saw it there.
Posted by: Bobby | July 16, 2007 at 05:17 PM
Bobby,
Yes, absolutely. We hope to administer the sacrament next time.
Posted by: Garrett | July 16, 2007 at 06:01 PM