Chaplain Vicki Penner hugs Lawrence Presbyterian Manor service attendants Betty Bowman and her husband, Laird, at the end of a May service. Penner conducts service at the manor at 3:30 p.m. Fridays. Lawrence's retirement communities work with a variety of pastors in the area to offer spiritual services for their residents.

The wooden cross is the focal point of the room. It is in the middle of the wall, hanging gracefully above a vase of carnations and is framed by two long candlesticks. To one side is a piano, to the other a pulpit.

In the back, members file in, right past a print of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” The visitors’ dress runs from elegant to clearly for comfort. They bow their heads and clutch a program, songbooks resting on their knees.

Together, they pray.

This service, though, was not in one of Lawrence’s many churches. Instead, it took place on a Friday afternoon next to the game room, across from the meeting area called “the Rendezvous” at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor, 1429 Kasold Drive.

The community has a weekly vespers service, which usually attracts about 40 residents, as well as a Sunday service up on the second floor of the main building, says manor chaplain Vicki Penner.

“It provides a kind of comfort that can’t be gotten in other ways,” Penner says of the services, which include traditional hymns, structure and other worship content. Several area pastors are in a rotation to preach at the services, regardless of denomination.

The manor is the only retirement community in town that has an actual chapel on site, but it isn’t the only one that goes out of its way to help its residents continue their spiritual lives after they move in. Brandon Woods, 1501 Inverness Drive, provides several weekly services on site as well buses Sunday to church. Pioneer Ridge, 4851 Harvard Road, also holds services, and volunteers come in to sing gospel music and to read the Bible to residents.

“These are people that a traditional worship service, singing hymns and having prayers, is very, very important in their lives. It brings great comfort to them,” says the Rev. Peter Luckey of Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt. “This is just a generation that church and church-going is central to their spirituality. … For these people, it’s huge.”

Yearning for education

Luckey, senior pastor at Plymouth, 925 Vt., performs services at the manor and Brandon Woods. He also visits parishioners at Pioneer Ridge.

“I can’t say enough good things about these places,” Luckey says. “And I think they really focus on the social and creating opportunities and supporting the spiritual life of their residents.”

Kent Winters-Hazelton, senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church, 2415 Clinton Parkway, says he loves the opportunity to see his parishioners and also hear from those who do not belong to his church when he does his rotation at the manor.

“It is an opportunity to connect, particularly with some of the people who are not able to get out to services on a regular basis, so I can see some of my parishioners then,” Winters-Hazelton says. “Even the ones that are not part of my church, they seem to enjoy our being there, and they are quite receptive to our message and to the time that we spend doing communion.”

Earl Huyser definitely appreciates the access to broader views on faith.

“I know so many more of the pastors in this town now since I’ve been here than I did just by going to the First Presbyterian Church every Sunday,” says Huyser, 79, who has been a member at First Presbyterian for 49 years. “I enjoy getting to know these people. I get educated in what they’re interested in and generally it’s the same ecumenical Christian message that we generally get. I think it’s a fine situation.”

Current issues

Huyser, who came to the manor four years ago, is a vespers regular. He also has taught a weekly Bible study at the manor since the early 1990s.

Luckey says that the longevity of Huyser’s classes zeros in on the fact that people in retirement communities are eager to use Scripture to add definition to their lives.

“I think we can find that many folks, though maybe they are physically a lot more feeble than they used to be, are still very clear of mind. They love a service that relates Scripture to contemporary issues in their lives,” Luckey says. “They’re very current – they want to talk about current issues. They want to talk about theological controversies. They are in many ways very open-minded, and they want to be challenged intellectually as well as they want their spirits lifted.”