Barry Macalister / Senior living chaplaincy manager, Anglicare
Australia’s seniors population is growing. The generation about to hit retirement and enter retirement villages are the Baby Boomers, who have higher expectations, who are more tech savvy, and who approach every stage of life with a “change everything” attitude.
As a result, the aged care industry is changing. These changes mean that people are moving into senior living communities later in life, and therefore they are more likely to need assistance for things such as cooking, cleaning, gardening, home maintenance, and clinical and medical care.
In addition, among our ageing population, there is a heightened awareness of or interest in the transcendent. This creates both an opportunity and a need to provide good spiritual care from a Christian perspective.
Anglicare has been providing pastoral care to residents in villages and homes for over 162 years. We have many chaplains and pastoral care workers working in a wide variety of specialised roles—including health, justice, community, residential aged care and seniors living.
In the Sydney region, Anglicare operates communities of care across 21 sites. One of the sites where I serve at Castle Hill features five residential care homes and five retirement villages, and is both the oldest and the longest-established site in the Anglicare portfolio. Yet it is also part of a brand new initiative in the seniors living industry: the Lighthouse model, which seeks to provide greater in-home care for independent retirement living residents.
Another thing that makes the Castle Hill site unique is that it has a large chapel precinct known as St James, which holds weekly Sunday chapel services that are attended by around 150 residents. The chapel services are led and organised by the Rev Geoff Deutscher, Senior Minister at St Pauls Castle Hill. Geoff works alongside a team of Anglicare chaplains and pastoral carers, who regularly visit over 1000 residents within the village.
In addition, our neighbouring Glenhaven Green site has a partnership arrangement with Emmanuel Anglican Church, and Assistant Minister Nikki Cargill works as a chaplain in this village three days per week.
We very much value our connection to Moore Theological College. Many of the chaplaincy teams at Anglicare are staffed by Moore College alumni, including Andrew Ford, our Chief Executive Office for Community and Mission, who is also a former Moore College lecturer; Stephen Gibson, Manager of Health and Justice Chaplains; Roger Green, our Partnerships Manager; Garry Eastment, Manager of Justice and Community Chaplaincy; and myself. For College students and graduates, there are many opportunities to be involved in Anglicare—in chaplaincy, in student ministry positions and, of course, in Moore Mission.
We look forward to partnering with the Moore College team at our Castle Hill and Glenhaven sites in April 2025. It is our hope that participating students will gain both insight and experience in a wide range of chaplaincy settings. They will have the opportunity not only to spend time in our residential care villages, but also visit residents living in their own homes within the village. They will also have the opportunity to learn about chaplaincy in health and other specialised areas, as well as help run an evangelistic course called Taste and See, which was developed by Anglicare chaplain Wendy Potts.
There are many mature Christians living in our villages at both Castle Hill and Glenhaven Green, and many of them are actively involved in ministries within their own communities. They, along with all of us, are extremely excited about the prospect of partnering with students to reach out to their respective village communities with the love of Jesus.
Barry Macalister graduated from Moore College in 1998.
Prayer
- Thank God for the work of Anglicare in aged care and the many people who serve as chaplains, pastoral carers and personal carers throughout the Sydney region, and more specifically, our Castle Hill and Glenhaven Green sites.
- Ask God to provide opportunities for Christians in these communities to reach out to others with the love of Jesus.
- Pray for the Moore Mission team partnering with Anglicare in 2025: ask God to give them wisdom as they serve, and to broaden their experience of ministry through this mission.
