Overview

How can we best approach the season between retiring and becoming dependent? Autumn is a time of gains and losses: fruit being harvested and leaves falling. This book charts the experience of living through both realities, drawn from the author’s own life and from the views of interviewees. Informed by historical and contemporary reading, it offers snapshots of later life, taken against a backdrop of ageism in society and church. George Lings reflects on the identity of the ‘active elderly’, and he considers through a biblical lens the challenges and opportunities that this season brings.

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9781800392816

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'I've been privileged to have had many opportunities to sit and learn from George and Helen over the past 20 years. Reading Living the Autumn of Life feels like those warm, hospitable, brain-stretching chats. I'm glad to have read it while it's still summer for me, so there's time for the rich choice of ideas and wisdom to take root for my own autumn.' Lucy Moore, founder of Messy Church and head of the Growing Faith Foundation 'George Lings has written the book I should have read ten years ago when I was entering the third age of autumn. Living the Autumn of Life is packed with wisdom and humanity. It reveals an author with a well-stocked mind, a memory full of rich experience and a spirit full of desire to live autumn well and to commend its fruit to others. I loved it.' John Pritchard, former Bishop of Oxford 'Out of his experience and rooted in scripture, George has given us a guide to these later seasons, which can be long and fruitful. Reading it I found myself better equipped to use the God-given time, and I believe this will be true for you too. Highly recommended!' Paul Bayes, former Bishop of Liverpool 'It is tempting to underline so many passages of this book. Drawing on an impressively wide range of authors, Lings has blended his own personal observations of living the autumn of life with those of carefully questioned interviewees. I valued his insights.' Debbie Thrower, founder of Anna Chaplaincy 'I can't remember the last time I read a book that brought tears to my eyes or a smile to my lips more often than this one. I have read other books about ""the autumn of life""; this is by far the best I have read, not least for the sane, wise, warm, balanced approach George Lings takes. I have a long (and growing) list of friends around my age to whom I am going to recommend - and if necessary give - this book!' John Bowen, emeritus professor of evangelism, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto 'One of the many good things about the book which George Lings has produced is the way in which it - or rather he - invites the reader into a conversation with him. In spite of its deeply theological core, it is nevertheless less of a treatise, more a meditation; not a series of essays but a reflection, a ruminative process which draws the reader in and invites response.' The Revd Canon Sue Hope, priest, author, tertiary of the Order of the Holy Paraclete 'George Lings helps us to be realistic about retirement with its challenges and opportunities. It is an easy read and well worth the time. It will help the reader approach retirement or continue living in retirement with a sense of realism, opportunity, and hopefully happiness and fulfilment.' Philip Johanson OBE, chief secretary of Church Army, 1990-2006 'This remarkable book is among the most informative and inspirational books I've ever read. Wide-ranging in its scope, covering the different phases of living the autumn years, it is packed full of wisdom and spiritual insight, each of which is full of honesty, humility and humour. A book to read and re-read.' Trevor Miller, former abbot of the Northumbria Community 'This book is written with disarming honesty and compassion, releasing us to reflect on our own autumn journey.' Jenny Hellyer, spiritual director 'George Lings reflects on the autumn of life with characteristic insight, candour and spiritual wisdom. As I begin to see the leaves in my own life turn yellow, red and brown, and as I become a grandparent myself, I'm grateful to George and his cast of companions for these moving missives from the season of mists.' Mike Starkey, writer and Anglican priest

Author Information

Canon Dr George Lings has been a banker, student, vicar, writer, mentor and researcher. From 1997 to 2017 he led Church Army’s Research Unit specialising in fresh expressions of church and gaining a PhD. In 2017 he was awarded the Canterbury Cross for outstanding service to the Church of England. He now serves as a companion of Northumbria Community, vice-president of BRF Ministries and consultant to a number of individuals and dioceses.

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