Today my church has it's first night for the 2015-16 Cambridge Churches Homelessness Project. This is a project that runs through the winter, with a different church volunteering it's space and volunteers each night of the week to offer a hot meal, some friendly faces and a sheltered space to sleep for some of Cambridge's homeless people, referred to the project by Jimmy's Night Shelter and other organisations within the city. My church - Castle Street Methodist Church - has Wednesday as its night and last year I really enjoyed being part of this; meeting new people and hearing about the experiences they'd had over dinner, singing songs and playing on the piano with one of the guys who had a guitar he often used for busking, and, of course, staying up half the night (generally finishing off some work or something!) followed by "4 hours" sleep laid out on some of the chairs! I really love this project because it sees the person behind the need. It gives me the opportunity to interact with and relate to these people whom I probably just otherwise wouldn't. I don't like talking to people I don't really know who are in the same class as me; nevermind those I occasionally walk past in the street. And I find it really difficult to know how I can actually help homeless people. We've all be told not to give money out on the street - I recall our first year talk when the policeman came in when I first started at Magdalene... But there's a fine line between being sensible and just being the Priest or the Levite who walks on by disregarding the robbed and half-dead man lying on the street beside them. And as Christians, are we not called to be compassionate to exactly these people? Those who are most in need and most vulnerable? But short of very occasionally buying food for someone, I don't feel I help, or care, or see them at all. This project enables me to care; to talk to these people, share food and time with them, and learn from them. This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday in Advent and in our church I think we'll be looking a bit at the prophets. The prophets, throughout the Bible, challenged the ways people lived and the assumptions societies made. Perhaps this advent, I need to challenge the way I live, and the assumptions I condone. There are so many false ideas about homelessness in the UK, and without breaking those down we can't begin to actually see homeless people as fellow human beings who need help, care, dignity, community and respect.
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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