Leveraging the experience of older adults for a sustainable future

A new world may yet emerge from this challenging time in human history. What role will older adults play in the transformation?

That question drives Sympara's initiative Aging for the Common Good. As we reimagine underutilized religious properties for social impact, we engage congregations made up primarily of older people. They are the vanguard of a revolution to reinvent not just sacred space but spiritual community. So we're curious about the gifts that older people might share with neighbors as we travel together toward a new world.

At the heart of the initiative are online writing groups for older adults who share reflections essential to the well-being of individuals and society. Through a six-week facilitated process, each group explores experiences of loss, discovery and renewal and considers the role of elders in navigating change. Sympara partner SeniorCorrespondent.com publishes select essays and poetry.

The next writing group, which begins in March 2025, will explore the theme "Cultivating a New Spiritual Community." The group will consider whether it is possible to create spiritual community across lines of division. We will explore how community is sustained over time amid conflict, loss, and other changes. Finally, we will draw out our stories of spiritual community and, as the writer and pastor Mahan Siler puts it, throw out anchors by which to pull ourselves toward future possibilities.

The previous group, which met in the fall of 2024, took up the question "Identities in Place?" We explored the dynamism of our aging spirits and the evolution of our self-understanding amid changing circumstances and shifting environments. The group that met in the summer of 2024 focused on "generativity," a late stage in human development first named by the psychologist Erik Erickson in 1950 as a concern beyond the preoccupations of the self to contribute to the well-being of others, particularly younger people. We explored the interplay of legacy and creativity as well as the barriers and openings made by identity.

To be notified of upcoming writing groups, send an email to writing@sympara.org.

In addition to writing groups, future activities of Aging for the Common Good will include research into the unique leadership task of elders, mapping the assets of older adults through participant-driven research with congregations, senior living communities and civic groups, and cogenerational experiments for social impact.

If your community or organization wants to join Aging for the Common Good, contact Sympara cofounder and CEO Daniel Pryfogle at daniel@sympara.org.