BELFAST, Maine — What does it mean to grow older? What gives our lives meaning and purpose? How are we to understand the presence of evil and suffering in the world?
These are just some of the questions being discussed by Belfast-area seniors participating in a weekly forum of big-picture issues viewed through the compound lens of faith and advancing age. The group, “Seasoned Souls,” was formed last November with an expected enrollment of half a dozen church members age 65 and older, according to the Rev. Deane Perkins, minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Belfast.
“It was only going to run for six or eight weeks, but [the members] just kept wanting to go on,” he said.
Now, 24 weeks later, the Tuesday morning gathering regularly draws 12 to 15 members of the congregation — men and women, singles and couples — and Perkins is preparing to launch a second group, possibly a third.
Perkins said he was inspired to create the group after he learned last year of a similar group meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church in Augusta based on the book “The Seasoned Soul: Reflections on Growing Older” by Eliza Blanchard.
“UUs tend to be kind of cerebral, humanistic and intellectual,” Perkins said. “But this is a chance to feel as well as to think about what it all really means. At 65 and older, we are all facing our own mortality in one way or another.”
On a recent Tuesday morning, Perkins asked a group member to read the words of the song “Dreams Never Die” by the Canadian rock band The Cooper Brothers. The song speaks to the importance of dreams and desires in guiding our paths through life. Participants then broke into small discussion groups with two questions to consider: What are your dreams? What gives you a sense of meaning and purpose?
In one small group, the personal discussion ranged broadly, from the deep contentment of a second marriage to the satisfaction of having time to serve the community in retirement.
Other recent sessions have included a reading from Albert Camus’ “The Plague,” with a discussion about the death of children.
“We talk about some heavy-duty subjects,” said group member Margie Shannon, 79, of Belfast, who attends the sessions with her husband, Mike. “As a group, we have grown quite close in these weekly meetings.”
At the Maine Council of Churches, Executive Director the Rev. Jean Field said Maine seniors — “elders” in the parlance of many faith traditions — are hungry for the opportunity to think and talk seriously about issues of faith, mortality, unfinished business and social responsibility.
“Aging is not simply a physical process,” she said, “but also an important time for elders’ spiritual growth and exploration.”
As Maine’s population ages, Field said, churches of all denominations can play a key role by convening discussion groups such as “Seasoned Souls” to support older members’ spiritual needs.
