Pause for thought The Rev Dr ANNE-LOUISE CRITCHLOW, a volunteer chaplain who supports older people, reveals the value of slowing down, listening and prioritising what really matters Interview by Emily Bright
The Rev Dr Anne-Louise Critchlow
‘S
low down!’ warned a neon road sign which illuminated the night sky. All the drivers in the street, including the Rev Dr Anne-Louise Critchlow, paid it no attention. But when Anne-Louise woke up from her dream, she felt it was a prompt from God to take life at a slower pace: to spend more time with her family, to listen more to people in her community, and to take better care of her mental and physical wellbeing. Anne-Louise recalls the dream in her new book, Slowing Down: Finding Beauty in the Slow Lanes of Life, which is the culmination of thoughts that she began jotting down 20 years ago. It charts the life lessons that she has learnt over that time. ‘When I had problems with my faith or I was feeling angry with God,’ she remembers, ‘I wrote in exercise books, just for myself, about what had annoyed me or what I’d found difficult. ‘Since then, I’ve encountered all sorts
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of people who’ve had questions and difficulties in life. The honest journal I was keeping and my experience of meeting lots of people with questions came together.’ In writing Slowing Down, AnneLouise drew on her experiences of Christian ministry, her personal struggles and stories from the Bible to explore the power of everyday kindness as well as the importance of traits such as faithfulness, gratitude, contentment and courage. ‘I wanted to write about courage because we don’t know what’s going to happen in life,’ says Anne-Louise. ‘For instance, we can find that our status has changed from single to being married, or married to being single again because we’re widowed or we’ve had a divorce. At every point in life, we need courage, especially in something we haven’t experienced before. ‘Sometimes people find that they have to slow down through illness. Or if
someone has suddenly got to retire, they start thinking: “Have I got a purpose in life?” It requires courage to think that purpose isn’t just about doing the job that you’re good at.’ Anne-Louise’s own sense of purpose as a Christian is framed around her ‘knowing that God’s got something good for us now’. In 2017, she took her own courageous step, retiring as a vicar to become a part-time chaplain for a housing and care home charity in Bristol. ‘It wasn’t something I expected to do,’ she says. ‘I’d been living in Manchester for many years, and, for family reasons, had vaguely thought about retiring in Bristol, where I live now. I’d assumed that I would carry on being a vicar. ‘Suddenly I saw this job in the South West as a chaplain. I began visiting people in care homes, asking whether they wanted me to pray for them, creating relaxed experiences of faith