Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 30th August 2026

Dear Friends,

Lately I’ve been thinking more specifically than usual about age and all the implications, possibilities, and difficulties to be encountered.  It’s mostly depressing, I admit, but I have sought possibilities.  It’s a condition we all face, and strikes us differently.  As a Quaker congregation, we currently seem to be on the older side, with a few much younger members/attenders.  The children and young people’s groups are small.

Looking beyond the difficulties, aches and pains, and physical limitations, one can find up-lifting pleasure in small things.  Every morning I greet the Downs from the bedroom window while I am stroking the cat(her version of being tucked in), and seeing the sun on the tree tops and roofs.  The night before, we will have watched the two hedgehogs amble up the lawn to drink their water and eat their food Paul has put out for them.  Through the day I collect mental photos of things I have liked and people I have talked with.  Come bedtime, I review all these things and thank God that I can have the time and thought to appreciate them.  When I was younger, and working, and fully able-bodied, my mind was otherwise occupied.  I imagine that is how it should be.

I now consider the main goal is to appreciate each stage of life, do what we feel we should in it, and enjoy it.  There are blessings all along the way!

Berta Busby

Quakers value diversity. We share this Friend’s message in the hope it will speak to others.

Pastoral Care and Eldership Team: David Hitchin, Sharon Krummel, Tim Pitt-Payne, Emily Slater.