In January, the diocese released a new faith formation resource called The Grandparents Club. Available online and written by our Faith Formation Coordinator, the Reverend Monica Romig Green, the Grandparents Club has been designed to meet the spiritual and relational needs of members of any Anglican parish who are in their second half of life, particularly those who are grandparents, great grandparents, great aunts or uncles, or godparents, anyone who has a personal relationship with younger people that they care about. Many in this group have a long history of faithful service to the church and carry a deep longing for their children and grandchildren to share in the Christian faith. We talked with Monica about this new resource to find out more about it and its creation.
Monica, tell us about The Grandparents Club. What is it, and who might be interested in participating in it?
MRG: The Grandparents Club is a free small group resource intended to help Christians in the second half of life grow deeper in their spiritual relationship with God, particularly those who care about subsequent generations and want to grow in how to encourage younger people in their faith journeys. Additionally, by bringing together like-minded Christians to share and pray for one another and their families, the Grandparents Club can deepen relational connections between club members, too.
What can people expect to experience if they join the Grandparents Club?
MRG: There are eight group meetings for which we have provided all the preparation materials and meeting outlines. Each meeting covers a different faith formation topic appropriate to a grandparent’s life stage, such as the importance of prayer, reviewing our spiritual stories, spiritual growth in the second half of life, leaving a spiritual legacy, and giving a blessing. Meetings also cover information about children and youth spirituality, as well as practices in how to engage in spiritual conversations with young people. Our hope is that by exploring these topics together over the course of the meetings, participants will engage more deeply in their own spiritual journey while also seeking to support the spiritual journeys of the young people in their lives.
What led you to create the Grandparents Club? Are you a grandparent yourself?
MRG: I’m old enough to be a grandparent! A lot of my contemporaries are having grandkids or are just on the cusp of that experience. My husband and I were not blessed with kids, so we have no grandchildren of our own. However, in the course of our ministries, we have encountered a hunger in younger people to know and connect with older people who are not just faithful Christians but are actively engaging in their spiritual lives. I have found this to be true of young adults, teenagers, and younger children. I was blessed to fill in as the chaplain at St. Mildred’s- Lightbourn School for a year and found that the spirituality of the primary-school-aged kids was rich and alive, but also hungry for loving adults to help give it shape and a vocabulary. I studied and found that psychology backs up my experience: children are hardwired for spirituality, and they need adults to help encourage and cultivate it with them. Often, grandparents already have a loving connection with their grandchildren and just need encouragement and help to open that connection up to spiritual things.
Additionally, in my work as a spiritual director, I have studied how people grow in their faith over their lifetime. A lot of spiritual supports are designed for first-half-of-life concerns, like learning about your faith and how to practice it. The second half of life has different concerns, which usually include invitations for deepening one’s spiritual connection with God, others, and creation. Our society needs these kinds of spiritual elders, people whose relationship with God is both grounded and alive, who are humbled by life’s challenges and therefore can provide compassion and grace to others on the journey. I wanted to encourage folks in this life stage to journey even further into the heart of God and grow into this important role for themselves, their families, the churches, and their communities.
If folks are interested in The Grandparents Club, what should they do?
They can find the resource on the diocesan website, where there are instructions for how to get started. Once they read those over, they can talk with their clergy and see if the Grandparents Club can begin in their parish. And if anyone has any questions, I welcome them to contact me directly at monica. [email protected]. I pray this resource will be a blessing to all who engage with it!
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