The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

One of our mission action priorities is to develop and support activities to engage groups of all ages across the congregation. To do this we have been looking at ways to brighten up Sunday afternoons and will be introducing the “Living Book Club” on the first Sunday of each month and a “Tea Service” on the third Sunday.

The Living Book Club is a chance to find out about a person’s life, experiences and inspirations, drawing on a wonderful resource, the members of our congregation. It will start with tea and be followed by a short talk from a member of the congregation or someone closely connected to a member, followed by a chance to ask questions. (Please see the details on the poster)

The Tea Service is designed for all those who would enjoy a short service which will include familiar hymns and prayers and a short address. (Please see the details on the poster.)

We would be grateful for help with the teas either in the form of providing a cake or biscuits from time to time, or helping set up the tea, serve it and clear away and generally provide hospitality. Of course the success of both projects will depend on spreading information about them to those who might be interested, so please spread the word!

As part of our work supporting the elderly members of our congregation a Dementia Friends awareness session was run at the church and was very well attended. 30 people can now call themselves “dementia friends”, thus helping the Alzheimer’s Society reach its goal of a network of a million dementia friends by 2015. Did you know that 1 in 3 of those over the age of 65 will be diagnosed with dementia? We learnt that dementia is not a natural part of aging and is caused by disease. People can live well with dementia in a sympathetic community with the right support and with understanding, patience and humanity we can all become “dementia friends”. We are also working towards setting up a visiting scheme for elderly and housebound members of the parish and are exploring suitable training for the visitors. The “Friend at Church” scheme is gathering strength and is also particularly useful for our older members.

Last but not least, the parties for newcomers are taking place at regular intervals and are proving to be a good place for newcomers of all ages to meet each other and other members of the congregation.