Aging population a challenge for churches

Canada’s aging population and low birth rates may soon present serious challenges for churches. But, says an article in ChristianWeek, Dec. 1 (“Churches slow to address Canada’s ‘birth dearth’ ”), religious leaders haven’t been paying much attention.

Correspondent Frank Stirk noted that, according to Statistics Canada, the median age of Canadians is currently at a record high of 38.3 years and is expected to continue to rise as more and more baby boomers reach 65.

Statistics Canada also projects that seniors 65 and over will outnumber children under age 15 for the first time by 2015.

Stirk cited the concerns of University of Prince Edward Island historian Ian Dowbiggin, who is writing a book on Canada’s “birth dearth,” that few people in North America have been addressing the issue. The global population crisis in which Canada shares is “bound to be catastrophic,” Dowbiggin said.

Although opinion differs how shifts in population will impact the church, Dowbiggin said churches need to “become more orthodox in their teaching.” They should “preach pro-life, pro-family messages on issues like abortion, euthanasia, genetic research, and so on.”

The well-being of seniors

One institution addressing the aging piece of the changing demographic in Canada in order to help the church is Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont. Conrad Grebel has launched, in conjunction with the University of Waterloo’s Research Institute on Aging (RIA), an initiative on spirituality and aging.

Marianne Mellinger, supervisor of the ministry option in the Master of Theological Studies program at Conrad Grebel, spent the last year talking with chaplains and residents in long-term care facilities and their families, teaching undergraduate and graduate students, and educating pastors and lay leaders who visit residents in long-term care facilities.

Her work and study convinced her that “a division in Spirituality and Aging” in the RIA would contribute significantly to seniors, their caregivers, and their churches.

Conrad Grebel and the RIA hope to establish the program with a two-fold purpose to promote research in the field of spirituality and aging, and to be a resource for students, clergy, chaplains, and caregivers through university classes, public lectures, and workshops.

“Faith communities are signaling that this is an area needing increased attention,” Mellinger said.

One of the events the RIA sponsored last fall was a public lecture with Dr. Ellen Bouchard Ryan of McMaster University on “Spiritual Care for Persons with Dementia.” Spiritual care is grounded in the concept of personhood, Bouchard Ryan said, which moves away from viewing dementia as a biomedical problem and towards focusing on the person who has dementia as a person of value and worth.

Mellinger noted that this generation is “living longer than any previous generation in human history.”

Today’s seniors are “truly pioneers in aging,” she said, “and it is essential that we hear their stories, that we understand their experience, and that we find suitable ways to sustain and nurture their spiritual life on this journey.”

—ChristianWeek, Conrad Grebel release