The annual parish weekend at Shrinemont highlights the intergenerational nature of our church community. Children of all ages run freely in small packs, loosely overseen by older peers and by friendly adults. At long tables in the dining hall, families with young children share the meal with seniors who step in to lend a helping hand with a fussy young one.   A child might join the North Mountain hike with another family while his parents get a much needed break. Children and adults find themselves side by side wielding glue stick and glitter to create a masterpiece. A less active member may enjoy sitting in a rocking chair on the porch watching the swirl of activity. Empty nesters find themselves in deep personal conversations with twenties and thirties exploring a challenging question of theology. In Sunday worship at the outdoors shrine, a child and a senior may share a song sheet, and the child may be more familiar with the hymn from having been to summer camp.

A microcosm of this happens every Sunday, as older teens or adults without children serve as teachers in our Sunday School. Young children teens, and adults serve together as acolytes. At coffee hour, the youngest children scramble around our feet chasing each other joyfully through the parish hall, and an adult may hold out a restraining hand. A crowd assembles for the premiere of this year’s Lego movie production by the Sunday School class. Adult and children’s choirs sing an anthem collaboratively, or prepare an Evensong (with Moonbounce). And the intergenerational connections continue beyond Sunday. A family may “adopt” an older member to share holiday meals and celebrations . Young and old join in periodic long bike rides. Young and old volunteers work side by side in the Food Pantry or HOST.

Participation in a church community invites us to membership in an intergenerational experience that is all too rare in a contemporary society that more often separates us into groups of people of similar age and situation, like the so-called bachelor herd of impala you might see on a Safari in Africa.  

Outside church, children are grouped in narrow age groups in school and sports. Single young adults navigate a daunting dating scene and seek connections on-line. Parents of young children rush between soccer practice and piano lessons, from work to pick up a child at day care in time to avoid late fees, stealing a few moments on the sidelines or stairs to commiserate with fellow parents. Busy career oriented professionals in mid-life struggle to balance the demands of work and family life. Empty nesters suddenly miss the automatic social connections that came with children. Singles of all ages may find themselves isolated in a world that can feel like Noah’s Ark. Seniors may live together in retirement facilities with a continuum of care from independent living, through assisted living, and nursing care, but often little contact with extended family and community.

Church is different.   “We will” we respond during the Baptismal service when asked “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support this person in his/her life in Christ?”

While there are different entry points into the church community, for many a lifetime in the church is truly a cradle to grave experience, even if it is not spent in one congregation in our mobile world. And as we pass from our Baptism as an infant to our Funeral in that community we are co-members with others at different stages of the journey.

One of the joys of being in the same community for a long time is that you observe others age and find role models for your own future self. If you enter as a single young adult or as a newlywed couple, for example, you observe young families as well as seniors whose children were grown and gone before you arrived. In another decade or two you might attend the funerals of some of those whom you first met and came to know because you were on a committee together or sang together in choir. The children who were toddlers when you arrived have passed from being the cutest little acolyte to presenting the sermon at Youth Sunday before departing for college. And if you have your own children, you are part of a community not only of other parents but of other caring adults who are part of the village that raises them, who promised at their Baptism to support them in their life in Christ, just as the community has supported you in yours.