Welcoming Pilgrims’ Friend Society to Affinity

“I would like to thank the staff at Evington Home for the loving care and support they have provided to my mother. The staff treated my mother with dignity and respect during the challenging times when her health had deteriorated and supported her during her final days before she went to heaven.”

So wrote the daughter of one of our ‘family members’ (as we call those who live with us) at Pilgrims’ Friend Society’s care home in Leicester, Evington Home. Across England and Scotland, Pilgrims’ Friend Society care homes and housing schemes are working hard every day to make sure that the lives of our older saints are comfortable, fun, safe, and part of a loving Christian community.

Our service to older people, particularly those who follow the Lord Jesus, has been going since 1807 when a group of socially minded evangelical Christians saw the plight of the older Christian poor and formed the Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society. Initially focusing on raising funds to pay a pension to and arrange regular visits for the aged pilgrims (often people who had given their lives to Christian ministry in the UK or overseas), our work has developed into a network of 12 care homes and nine independent living housing schemes.

Now it is our privilege to serve people like Roy, a gentleman living at Strathclyde House in Skelmorlie, who is now 92 years old. Many of those who live with us have been following and serving Jesus for many decades, and Roy shared with us how he was prompted to give his life to the Lord 70 years ago. 

“It was at Christmastime that I finally gave my life to the Lord Jesus. I was a member of the YMCA because I wanted to help people, but I hadn’t really let Christ into my life. Finally, in my own bedroom at two o’clock in the morning on 29th December 1955, I surrendered my heart and life to the Lord Jesus. What an absolute joy and privilege it has been to serve Him for 70 years.”

In 2025, we took the decision to align our work with the many other members of Affinity who are serving God in different ways across the UK. Joining together in the unity of His people that Jesus prayed for is a powerful way to make sure that our older saints are remembered and honoured in Christian life and work today.

We also want to make sure that many older people and their families know about the expressly Christian care and community that we offer. Our unique approach to care, The Way We Care, is rooted in the Bible and reflects the value that each of us has been given by God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We know that life’s spiritual journey doesn’t stop when physical frailty occurs or when cognitive decline sets in but that each of us is a spiritual being to whom God is always speaking and reaching.

We hope that many of those we are now connected to through the Affinity network are encouraged on their own faith journeys by the stories of our older Christian brothers and sisters, and perhaps, in due course, will consider a Pilgrims’ Friend Society community as the right next home for themselves or a loved one.

Find out more about us on our website.