A.M.D.G.
This morning in Brighton was very foggy and misty, now [post Vespers] its bright and sunny and much more like last weekend – the first in Spring… well, liturgically anyway [Rubricarius]!
Road works and fog made the journey to the Sanctuary quite tiresome today, traffic was all over the place and the bus routes are still diverted – meaning that established buses and their routes are no longer predictable and not for the first time in recent weeks I had to unexpectedly walk an extra mile having missed a nearer bus stop! Together with the unpredictablility of the internet access at the Sanctuary of late, requiring two restarts of the computer, Mass was delayed until 08:30 instead of 8am!
Well, it is Lent!
Not funny. Particularly on an Ember Wednesday with the extra lesson at Mass, the Homeless Dropin and SCOPE coming into the Sanctuary at 09:30 – meaning an hour to say Mass and pack down! Still, it being an Ember day of fasting and of partial abstinence I was determined not to cancel it and so offered it as prayerfully but as expediently as possible, replete with a “homilette” to mark the day. I literally stacked the last chair at 09:30 on the dot!
After Mass and the pack down I went up to the Congress Hall to check on the state of preparation before the Homeless Dropin. Mercifully, an unusually abundant number of volunteers had meant that all was “good to go” and so I collected the newspapers. I returned to spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon with about forty of the city’s Street folk. Numbers are down at the moment, partly because we closed for three weeks and the word hasn’t gone round that we’re open again. But actually this has provided the opportunity, especially with some extra volunteers, for a few of us to sit with and just listen or chat with our guests.
We had visitors today from a similar Dropin in Croydon and it was good to pray with and then discuss their experience and observations of our project afterwards. They certainly gave us some very positive feedback and a few ideas as well, which I hope with Major Booths’s agreement we can implement together with some of our own which I have been exploring. I’d really like the project to become a “safe place” as my conversations with some of the folk have revealed that many of them face violence and temptation (ref former habits/addictions) through the rest of the week. The Major and I have been gradually and subtly making it known that alcohol is not allowed on the premises nor the discussion of drugs or dealing etc amongst our guests, though regrettably we had to make it more forcefully today to one of them (whom I’d happened to notice drinking a “tinny” earlier on my way to Mass). I think we could afford to declare these policies more boldly together with a “safe place” slogan. The last thing some of these folk need is to hear about the very things they are trying to get away from!
In our discussion I also mentioned my hope to try and recruit some volunteers from the Peace of Mind project I’m also working on ecumenically. Currently we’re running a “listening skills” course with a view to the future of opening a dropin for mental health sufferers. The people on the course will need experience as well as skills ref listening and part of the course is to maintain a “journal” of experiences. I hope to persuade some of them to come along on a Wednesday and just sit with our guests and be available to listen or chat. I think some boardgames might assist to “break the ice” too both for the engagers as well as our guests amongst themselves.
Socks!
I am pleased to say that our recent appeal for socks for the Street folk has been well and truly blessed! A recent outbreak of Trenchfoot [a medical condition caused by prolonged exposure of the feet to damp, unsanitary, and cold conditions] alerted our attention to the need for more socks and shoes for our guests on Wednesdays! Our brothers and sisters at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church deserve particular thanks as they really have been quick to respond and most generously!
Well, I enjoyed a small portion of the vegetarian lasagne for lunch today and am looking forward to Quorn sausages with mash, onion gravy and “British garden peas” this evening. I have to say that Quorn is turning out to be a quite acceptable alternative to meat this Lent! Tomorrow is St David’s Day, the great Patron of the Welsh and I shall celebrate with (hopefully) some Lamb, though probably not Welsh as that’s rarer here than the alternative New Zealand variety from several thousand miles away?! [The distance between Wellington, New Zealand and London, England is 11682 miles/18800km/10152 nautical miles. Wales is “next door”.]