The treasurer was at my door early Monday morning. “The electrician is organised to come and look at the oven in the manse” he said. I had mentioned we were having problems with one of the switches the day before. The treasurer was always on the ball. The secretary of the church was not far behind. He had come to tinker with the microphones in the church. The sound had not been quite right for the services on Sunday. Both men were in their 70s, but they ran the church. They ensured things happened ... along with their wives who kept the diaries and provided the backup. When it came to a working bee to pull the weeds from the neat garden beds, both husbands and wives were there getting their hands dirty and enjoying each other’s company.

The Australian Community Survey, conducted in 1998 by Edith Cowan University and NCLS Research found some significant differences between the values of older and younger people, as illustrated in the graph below. Older people placed much more emphasis than younger people on those values which have been described as relating to social structure and such as politeness and national security. The importance of cleanliness relates to the emphasis on the structure and control of personal life. Older people also place more importance on helpfulness and being devout. Young people, on the other hand, are more individualistic and hedonistic in their values. They rate the enjoyment of life as far more important than do older people. They value excitement, creativity and success more highly. Rather than being devout, with the sense of maintaining the tradition, they value the search for the meaning of life.
The churches have benefited greatly from the older people in the community. They are dependable. They will turn up whatever the weather or the other attractions. They are motivated by a sense of duty. If they agree to take something on, they will do it. Even the forty year olds are much less reliable. Yes, they too will be involved if they think it is a good thing. But they have so many other commitments. They will not always make it to the meeting, or they will come in late, tired and preoccupied with other things. The older people are the ones who make sure the duty is done and the organisation is properly maintained.
People who are now part of the older generation have always had a sense of order. Ask a group of people in their 70s to organise an outing and they will form a committee. They will appoint a chairperson and someone to keep the minutes. They will meet at regular intervals. Other people will be appointed to take positions for the day, to take the money or to act as MC. It will all be done properly and in order.
Ask a group of young 20 year olds, and they will contact each other, by email or cellular phone. There will be no appointed leader, although one person may take a leading role. They will not take minutes. They will appoint no one to a position. More likely, on the spot, someone will be asked to do a job. It may happen. They have more ‘tools’ to do the job, because most of the elderly find email and cellular phones fiddly and confusing. When the young ‘organise’ things, there is much more spontaneity about the day - and about the organisation.
Will our churches cope without the present generation of older people? Will they cope without their reliability and their sense of order? Perhaps they will thrive on the flashy computers and instant email of the younger generations - but perhaps they won’t.
What is even more of a worry, is whether the churches will cope without the dependable and generous giving of the older generation. Again, it was part of their sense of order and duty. It is even more obvious when collecting door to door for some worthy cause. Go to the modern, wealthy looking house and likely as not, no one is in. Even if there is someone there, they have no time, no money, nothing to contribute. The large contributions come from the poor, old-looking houses, as the pensioner contributed a substantial proportion of that fortnight’s pension.
Many of our churches are surviving financially on contributions of the elderly in our congregations. Week after week, they tithe their pensions and make sure that the envelope for the week they do not attend is also put in the offering plate. Once again, it arises out of their sense of duty, and the importance they give to regular and ordered commitment.
But don’t younger people settle down as they take on the responsibilities of life? In thirty years’ time, won’t those who are forty or so today be like the elderly are now? There are some changes associated with life-stage. Our responsibilities - and our sense of responsibility - changes as we move from one life-stage to the next, from single adulthood to family life with young children, from teenage children to being a couple again, or perhaps grandparents.
But there are also important changes in history. Many of our values come out of the particular time in history in which we were born, the social context in which we grow up. The younger generation will never have the sense of duty that the older people in our community currently display. They will never have the same sense of order. And religious faith will be something quite different for them.
For most older people in our communities, religion is part of their heritage, their traditions, their identity. They may or may not attend church, but only a few describe themselves as having ‘no religion’. Religion was deeply embedded in their culture. If you were of English extraction, the chances were that you were Church of England because that was your heritage. If you were Scottish, you were Presbyterian, or if Irish, and not from some parts of northern Ireland, then Catholic. For the most part, it was not something those older people ever chose. It was rather like one’s language. Yes, it would be possible to learn another language and use it all the time. But it would be a very strange thing to do without good reason. So one’s religious identity was part of that heritage. It came with their birthplace. It was a recognition of the social context in which they grew up.
Younger people grow up with a different perspective. Religion is something about which we make personal choices. Even the more religious young parents will say that they want their children to make their own choice about religion. It will be up to them, they say. There is a choice whether to take an interest in religion, just as one might take an interest in politics, bush-walking or classical music. There is also a choice in regards to which religious resources one wants to use at any particular time.
The future will be different. One generation, one set of values, one batch of experiences will gradually fade away, and another generation will take its place, with its own set of values, its own stories. Duty will be replaced by negotiation. Order will be replaced by flexibility. The churches themselves, and their structures and ways of doing things, will also change.

Experience of Ageing Today

Approximately 2.2 million Australians are over the age of 65: about one Australian in every nine. Of these people, 57% are women, as the life expectancy for women is longer than that for men. Among Australians over the age of eighty, there are nearly twice as many women as men, and four times the number of men over the age of 95.
The number of years a new born baby can expect to live has increased dramatically through the 20th century. In 1900, average life expectancy for men at birth was only 46 years, and for women 51 years. Now, at birth the average Australian boy can expect to live to 75, and the average Australian girl 81. Among those who reach 65 years of age, life expectancy is longer. Most people can look forward to many years of activity, of world travel, of social life and productivity when they reach 65 years of age.
Today, many married couples who reach the age of 65 can look forward to many years of married life together. At the moment, there are comparatively few elderly people who have not been married, and many continue to share their lives with their spouses for many years. Two-thirds of all Australians between the age of 65 and 75 are married - a proportion higher than among Australians in their 30s.
Many men used to continue working past the age of 65. Since 1978, the proportion who do so has reduced from 12.5% to 9.6%. For women the change in involvement of work has been less. In 1978, 2.8% of women over the age of 65 were involved in the workforce. In 1995, it was about 2.6%.

Experience of Ageing Tomorrow

The experience of ageing is going to change significantly over the next few decades. One of the changes will be the increased numbers of elderly people. The rate of change will increase between 2006 and 2026, and then even off a little. However, by 2041, Australia will have more than double the numbers of people over the age of 65 that it currently has: some 5.5 million people. They will represent more than one in five of the total population.
At the moment, many women in their 50s spend much of their time caring for elderly parents and other relatives. As the numbers of elderly grow, and the comparative numbers of people in their 50s decline, so this will become more difficult. There will not be so many ‘carers’ available.
Currently, there are 100 people in the workforce for every 18 people over 65 years of age. Thus, financially, the workforce is able to support the elderly population. This ratio will change particularly from 2011. By 2041, there will be 35 aged people for every 100 in the workforce. It will be much more difficult for the workforce to financially support the aged in the way it is doing at present.
The solutions are not readily apparent. The government has been pushing compulsory superannuation so that individuals fund their own retirement. It is not clear, however, that will be the total solution. Part of the problem is that the workforce available to support the elderly will be small. I would expect lower levels of unemployment in the future. But as a result of changes in the balance between workers available and money to pay for it, superannuation savings may lead to substantial inflation in some sectors of the economy.
Over recent years, work patterns have become much more fluid. It is possible that the numbers of elderly who continue employment past the age of 65 will increase in the future despite recent decreasing.
Another part of the scene will be increased numbers living alone. Many more people will reach old age without partners - divorced, separated or never married. Already the trend is evident. In 1976, only 2.1% of women between the ages of 65 and 74 were divorced. In 1994, this had risen to 5.7 percent.
Not only will many enter retirement without partners, many will face the closing parts of their lives without family support. Families have become much smaller and many people are choosing not to have children at all. The global mobility of their children will mean many will not be close to them. Other children will be separated emotionally from their families through the traumas of the divorce of their parents and the experiences of blended families. Many will face old age alone.

Ministry and the Elderly

As churches scramble to cater for younger people, the needs of the elderly may easily be overlooked. There are many simple things churches can do to make it easier for older people to enjoy activities in the church and particularly the services of worship.
The first is to pay attention to the physical needs of the elderly. Here is a short check list:
1. Gentle ramps to avoid steps.
2. Adequate sound systems, preferably with loops to link to hearing aids.
3. Words of hymns and songs clearly visible. Overhead projection and small print in hymnbooks may both cause problems.
4. Comfortable and supportive seating.
6. Standing periods in the service not too lengthy.
7. Services which are not too lengthy.
8. Church buildings which are warm in winter, cool in summer.
Churches can make life very uncomfortable for older people. They are not being fussy. They physically do not have the same capacities as younger people.
I used to print out my sermons in full each week. It was appreciated by some people who came from non-English speaking backgrounds. It was also appreciated by some older people. They followed the sermon better with the aid of the printed copy when they could read the words they could not catch. Several enjoyed re-reading it afterwards too.
In the winter, the morning service was moved into a much warmer church lounge rather than holding it in the large church which was so difficult to heat. Many older people appreciated the warmth. However, there were some who were not sure they had ‘been to church’. It was that sense of order and propriety again.

Catering for All Ages

Most churches feel worship should be for all ages and that means that all age groups are welcome at every service. But is it possible to provide worship for all age groups at the one time and in the same context? Some churches maintain that they do.
Because of the rapid changes in society, in values and attitudes, in tastes and worldviews, the gap between historical cohorts has widened. Life-stage gaps are important, each life-stage having its own issues and interests. However, more important than the gaps between generations, between young and old, are those between people born pre-World War II or post-World War II, people born before the television age, or those who have grown up with their view of the world shaped by the television. Another generation is now arising who have been raised with computers in the home. The differences in the social context of growing up will lead to different values, attitudes and worldview once again.
Looking at church attendances overall, it would appear, in most cases, ‘all age worship’ has failed. In many instances the young have simply gone. They have not had the commitment or the patience for something that was not meaningful. They have labelled it as ‘boring’, which usually means that what is going on does not really connect with their ideas and situation.
In other churches oriented to the ‘Boomer generation’ or ‘Generation X’, older people have struggled between their sense of duty and forms of worship which are not meaningful to them.
The differences are not just a matter of taste or the level of physical activity. There is a different worldview and different perspective on religion among different historical cohorts. Thus, most older Australians see the world as a coherent and closed system which God created and sustains. Worship celebrates that system and the fact that God sustains it. It does so in the face of events which seem to break in and cause chaos. The order of worship reflects the order of the world.
For most younger people (under 45 years of age), there is little sense of there being a system at all. Rather, life is made up of a multitude of individual events. Among those for whom Christian faith is important, there is often the sense that God is one who breaks into the world, who may participate in individual events, who accompanies the individual in the events of daily life. Worship reflects that personal involvement of God with the individual events of life.
Unity is important, but so also is the fact that worship occurs in the language and concepts of the individual. Personally, I believe the solution lies in having different services of worship which meet the needs and relate to the worldview of the different groups in our society, but building additional structures and events, socially and in terms of mission and worship, through which the groups (rather than the individuals) are brought together.
Some joint opportunities for worship when each group contributes to the other are important. Similarly, interchange in small group and social activities can enrich life for the various groups.

Conclusions

Most Australian churches are currently dominated by older people. There are approximately 1,800,000 Australians (10% of the population) in church (Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox) on any particular Sunday. Of these, 43%, or 775,000 people, are over the age of 60.
While the balance may change a little as many congregations contract over the next twenty years, in terms of numbers most places will be dominated by the older people in the community.
It is important to bring the Good News to the young and to present it in their language and forms of cultural expression. But the Year of Older Persons reminds us that it is also important to provide for the older people in our community, providing worship which is physically accessible and conceptually meaningful. As we do so, we will appreciate all the more the strengths of their way of life, their values and their faith.
Philip Hughes