| Abstract | Episcopal congregations in the United States currently face a significant challenge. Churchgoers are aging, and young adults and young families in the U.S. are participating in worship and other church activities less frequently, if at all. For churchgoers to continue the ancient Christian tradition of passing on the faith from one generation to the next, current churchgoers must develop and nurture intergenerational relationships. In focus groups in four Episcopal congregations, this pastoral theological project invited a group of younger adult churchgoers and a group of older adult churchgoers in each congregation to share stories of their lived experiences about the role, meaning and potential of intergenerational relationships in their congregation. Drawing on narrative theory and pastoral theological method, the narrative data gleaned through guided conversations in focus groups was engaged, interpreted using the correlational spiral created by Christie Cozad Neuger. This interdisciplinary process of analysis and interpretation drew on resources from Episcopal ecclesiologists Paul V. Marshall, Letty Russell, and Kwok Pui-lan, and gerontologists Andrew Achenbaum and Nancy Henkin. The synergistic interplay between the qualitative data and the resources from contemporary Episcopal ecclesiology and gerontology yielded constructive theological proposals for ministry practices regarding intergenerational relationships in congregations. These practices include cultivating a congregational culture of caring curiosity, embracing difference and challenging biases, and engaging in repentance and healing where oppression and injustice have occurred. |
