A new name with a long history in the Christian sector emerged this month as the 203-year-old Pilgrim Homes, formerly The Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society, restructured and became part of the newly-formed Pilgrims’ Friend Society.

The restructure was necessary because of the growth of the organisation over the years. It was founded as The Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society (APFS) in London on 12 August 1807 by a group of people dismayed at the dire conditions in which many elderly Christians were living and the way their needs, including their spiritual needs, were being neglected even by their churches.

The poverty of the 1800s was grinding, physically and practically, and for many only the workhouse stood between them and starvation. The APFS’s founding father James Bissett went on record as saying that "worn out with old age and bodily infirmity they are ... in distress and wretchedness, deserted by the world among whom they lived as strangers in their better days, and neglected by those of the same household of faith of which they are members and who are bound by the positive command of Christ and the nature of their calling to support them".

Although it struggled to raise funds at first, the APFS gradually won respect and support from leading Christians of the day, including the great social reformer, Lord Shaftesbury, and renowned preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Convinced of the value of each individual to God, William Wilberforce became vice president and remained in post until his death in 1833.

For decades the APFS helped needy elderly Christians with regular, reliable pensions, which were always delivered in person together with spiritual support and encouragement. The early records show people such as Martha Summerhill, "a widow with no friends to help her" and "earning about four shillings a week by stitching gloves, out of which she paid two shillings for her rent".

There was "Mary Garbutt, formerly in a position of affluence, who had lost the whole of her property and but for the APFS would have been an inmate of the Poor House". And "Sarah Davies, 74, a widow of a lieutenant in the navy who died leaving his widow totally unprovided for. With no income at all she was depending for subsistence on the help of friends."

With the coming of the welfare state and the introduction of state pensions APFS pensions were phased out, and now the society (which became Pilgrim Homes in the 1970s) offers residential and nursing care (including dementia), sheltered housing and extra care housing in twelve schemes in different parts of the country.

Its most recent new-build was Royd Court in Mirfield, Yorkshire, an extra care housing scheme with 58 flats for purchase or rent which opened in 2007. It also shares its experience and expertise at conferences and seminars, and with publications.

In recent years the Society has been approached for help by smaller charities with similar objectives who find themselves struggling with falling income and support. Three have already been taken on board and are now part of the charity group.

The Pilgrims’ Friend Society now includes the Ernest Luff Homes, the Redbourn Missionary Trust and Pilgrim Care, which provides domiciliary care. In the next couple of months, they will be joined by Pilgrim Homes, with its ten care and housing schemes, and Pilgrim Homes Trading Ltd which handles sales of the Society’s books and its conferences.

Chief Executive, Andrew Jessop, said the change was not only inevitable but eminently sensible for a charity of this size.

He said the Charity Commission had been recommending it for some time.

"The new structure allows us to continue to expand our work for older Christians and allows us to keep pace with their changing needs as life expectancy increases and people stay in their own homes in the community for much longer which can lead to a loss of fellowship and isolation from fellow Christians.

"The larger and more flexible structure is more cost effective and maximises the amount of our income that is devoted to care. Good stewardship is an important aspect of Christian service as is continuing to follow biblical teaching in all aspects of our work."

Mr Jessop said the organisation's members had voted overwhelmingly in favour of them at an Extraordinary General Meeting arranged earlier in the year.

He added: "We hold discussions with our supporters at ‘Forward Together’ meetings arranged in the regions, and in the coming year we plan to invite local churches to these meetings, too. We’re interested to know how they see the future needs of their older members, and how they think these can best be met."

On the web: www.pilgrimsfriend.org.uk