Body and soul |

Faith-based communities serve up comfort and food for thought

When

Jeanne Parker decided to move to a retirement community, she wanted a place with a religious affiliation. “I’ve been attending churches since I was 3-yearsold,” she says. “Church is part of my life. I would be lost without it.”

Parker picked Westminster Place in Evanston, a community operated by Presbyterian Homes. The organization has four local communities and on-site chaplains too.

Though Parker belongs to the United

Methodist Church, the prayer and worship services at Westminster Place are similar to her traditions. Besides, she likes the fact that people of all faiths and cultures are welcome at the community, something like the diversity she had enjoyed living for 55 years in Skokie.

As chair of the community’s spiritual life committee, Parker helps to arrange religious programming, including Catholic and Jewish services. “Our spiritual life here is well fortified,” she says.

The Chicago area has a rich tradition of retirement communities with a religious affiliation. In fact, the earliest retirement communities were started by church groups to care for their elders.

Today’s retirement communities do not restrict admission to those of a certain religion. Anyone can move there.

A wide variety of choices are available for those who would prefer a community oriented toward or sponsored by a certain religious group. Many communities offer programming for different religions. Campuses have chapels or synagogues.

Non-sectarian communities also often offer access to some religious programming and services, depending on the makeup of the resident population.

CJE SeniorLife, a Jewish organization that helps older adults, manages a newly opened independent living apartment building in Deerfield called Tamarisk NorthShore. It is on the campus of CJE’s Weinberg Community for Senior Living, which offers assisted living and memory care. “The values and traditions of CJE SeniorLife are important,” says Paisley Valentincic, director of sales and marketing at Tamarisk NorthShore.

The community has a Friday night Shabbat service for residents. More activities are planned for the entire Weinberg campus as the pandemic eases.

A well-balanced life

Spirituality is one of the five basic dimensions of wellness, experts say, along with physical, emotional, social and intellectual elements. The spiritual component provides meaning and direction in life, and the resilience to meet new challenges.

“Residents appreciate the spiritual and emotional support they get from us,” says Gerry Erffmeyer, chaplain at Park Place, in Elmhurst. The community is operated by Providence Life Services, a Christian organization with seven communities in the Chicago area.

Park Place is an example of how communities incorporate spirituality into day-to-day life. The community has 300 residents, and four levels of