WHEN EVANGELICALS CARE:
the story of Pilgrim’s Friend Society
By Brian H. Edwards
Day One. 131 pages. £7
ISBN 978 1 846 255 663
When Evangelicals Care tells the story of what is now called the Pilgrims’ Friend Society.
The first chapter outlines the desperate state of the poor, living in slums in London in the early 19th century, highlighting the plight of the elderly. One of the founders described the condition of many who, ‘worn out with old age and bodily infirmity, are… shut up in garrets and cellars...deserted by the world… almost starving with hunger, and destitute of clothing’.
Embedded in Scripture
The next two chapters deal with the founding of the Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society (1807) and a few years later the Ladies’ Auxiliary. Subsequent chapters show how a society that started out giving pensions to needy Christians broadened to provide homes for them and adapted to changing times to become a society that now ‘develops and invests in Christian care through its homes and supporting numbers of churches that were needing help to care for their elderly in the community’.
The fact that the society was and still is ‘embedded in a commitment to the authority and commands of Scripture’ is emphasised. The first meeting was held by a small group of Christians who had been listening to a Bible message. The day conference which met in 2007 to celebrate the bi-centenary of the work included ministry from Psalm 92.14.
Well researched
The book is very well researched and thorough. It provides an encouragement to consider our attitudes towards older Christians. The words of the Dean of Peterborough at an annual meeting in 1904 are still very relevant today: ‘They are the servants of the most high God… a valuable section of the Church of Christ on earth… Their counsel, their patience, and their spirit of submission to God are important factors in the life of the Church of Christ. Do not think that you are conferring all the benefit… They are conferring also a benefit upon all around them…’
