Prayer Book services to help dementia sufferers The Church of England is to revive traditional terminology in some of its services to help Alzheimer's sufferers. John Bingham, religious affairs editor 8 October 2016 • 11:54PM They are the product of centuries of devotion; the rites which have marked the birth and passing of successive generations as well as great moments of national triumph and despair. Now the sights, sounds and smells of a traditional Anglican church service are to be called into action as a perhaps unlikely weapon in the fight against one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century: dementia. The Church of England is beginning an ambitious re-examination of its service style to prepare for an era when, cumulatively, millions of people face living with conditions such as Alzheimer’s. Senior clerics hope that familiar texts of prayers and passages of scripture, often learnt by heart in childhood, could help trigger memories and provide moments of clarity and calm for sufferers. Simple changes could mean making greater use of old version of the Lord’s Prayer, complete with words such as Thy and Thine instead of You and Yours. Click here for the rest of the article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/08/prayer-book-services-to-help-dementia-sufferers/
My gran suffered from alzeihmer's yet she never missed anything church related, from taking care of her MU garments to the prayers and saints days. I always wondered how that could be. Thankfully we were in a parish that did not change things willy nilly.
Excellent. Of course, they could save the effort in picking out certain elements and just say (or sing) the Prayer Book Communion Service from start to finish. That would help even those of us without dementia to remember what we are saying.