The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

Taking ageing and faith seriously       

PSALM is a small charity, founded in 2004 and based at St. Pancras Church.  It is rooted in the Edmonton Episcopal Area but works across London and with churches of all denominations, drawing on the insights of faith in facing the challenges of ageing for individuals and society.  So far as we are aware, it is the only agency in London to work specifically with churches in relation to spirituality and ageing.

PSALM aims to advance the education of the public in the subject of care of the elderly, including self-help, and to provide encouragement and advice to churches as they seek to develop their provision for older people.  This is achieved through conferences, consultancies to individual churches, presentations to deanery synods, writing articles and providing lectures and sermons.  PSALM has also pioneered informal education in relation to spirituality and later life, notably through workshops which encourage older people to reflect on issues and opportunities that are relevant to later life.

Pilot workshops are held at St. Pancras church hall and evaluated.  Once it has been established that themes have worked well, details are included in a regularly updated catalogue.  This catalogue is distributed to churches across London, so that they can use the same approach and host similar events either on their own or with presentation by one of PSALM’s associates.  These workshops cover a wide range of matters, both spiritual and practical, relevant to later life.  Those who attended “Holiday in Hampstead” this summer had a taster of one on Decluttering, presented by Ann Morisy in two sessions.

Work is in hand to prepare a Pastoral care course, which would run for four sessions.  Other projects for consideration are on bereavement, especially for widowers, and one linking churches and individuals with an interest in spirituality and ageing through the creation of a London-wide network.

However, these potential projects are dependent on sufficient new funding, which is proving difficult to find at present.  Many charitable trusts seem to have shifted their funding priorities away from older people in the light of current perceived needs.  Indeed 2015 saw a serious drop in PSALM’s income resulting in a loss for the year.  A grant has been obtained from the Thanet Street Trust which with other income enables PSALM to continue existing work in 2016, but new work must be sufficiently funded to pay its way.  The contributions from HPC are greatly valued and particular thanks were given in PSALM’s last Annual Report.