wfn.org | Presbyterian Older Adult Ministry Network Hears Oldenburg

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

GA99049 
23-June-1999 
 
                Presbyterian Older Adult Ministry  
                          Network Hears Oldenburg  
 
 
FORT WORTH-Over 100 commissioners and members of the Presbyterian Older 
Adult Ministry Network gathered for their annual breakfast on Tuesday 
morning. Greetings were brought by the group's president Kathy Barlow 
Westmoreland. A report by Miriam Dunson, Associate for Older Adult 
Ministry, brought the group up to date.  General Assembly Moderator Freda 
Gardner spoke briefly to those assembled expressing her appreciation for 
and identification with the group. She explained her strong advocacy for 
older adult ministry saying that it was "Retirement is not retirement from 
discipleship."  
     Next Westmoreland introduced former Moderator Douglas Oldenburg who 
brought the keynote address. Treating the subject of time, Oldenburg began 
by affirming the need for the church to become more aware of aging people 
as a resource.  Oldenburg said, " The older I get the more I become aware 
of the needs of children. The greatest source for helping the children of 
our country is older adults."  
     Moving into his discussion of "time," Oldenburg observed that "time" 
in youth, because of  its abundance, is a friend. However, with age it 
becomes an enemy for several reasons. First, there is the complete lack of 
time in age. Second, it is an enemy because of the awareness of death and 
the latent fear of what lies beyond. Finally, there is the reality that our 
time is running out to do what we like to do.  
     This is magnified by a realization of the limits of our vocational 
activity, and the inevitable deterioration of the body, which leads to the 
end of the life we love. As the former moderator summed it up, "It is the 
sudden angry awareness of the frailty of our tenure among the things we 
love so much." 
     In closing he challenged the group with the acknowledgment that though 
we have no control over the quantity of life, we do have control of the 
quality. He said, "Quantity is finite.  Quality is infinite. Survival must 
mean 'time filled full' with the things that count." Quality of time makes 
it a friend in age rather than the enemy. 
 
Emett H. Barfield 

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