Kenneth and Linda Carder find grace amid memory loss
Some residents of the Bethany memory care unit can’t remember their loved ones’ names, much less the unit chaplain’s. But when Kenneth Carder preaches, they lean in.
“He really captivates them in those worship services,” said Rene Driggers, director of memory support for the Heritage at Lowman, the senior community near Columbia, South Carolina, that includes Bethany. “They listen. They sing. They do a lot of things they haven’t done in a long time.”
Carder, 75, was bishop of the Mississippi and Tennessee conferences of the United Methodist Church and served on the faculty of Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. Now he’s interim chaplain at Bethany, his flock consisting of 40 people.
