Logo

 

Banner Image:   Baptist-Times-banner-2000x370-
Template Mode:   Baptist Times
Icon
    Post     Tweet


'Every volunteer and every guest is a child of God'
 

Baptist church member Clive Morton on the ever expanding Winter Night Shelter Programme in Peterborough - and the language we need   

 

Peterborough bedI have heard that expression ‘Availability and Vulnerability’, originally coined by the Northumbria Community, often used to describe the recommended approach of chaplains in the places that they find themselves, to the people that they meet.

Sometimes, chaplains describe their work as 'loitering with intent' and clearly chaplains will have an open attitude wanting to be receptive of 'where people are', to understand their situation and 'speak the same language'.

All of this makes great common sense, but it begs the question - why should this appear unusual or ‘out of the ordinary’?

It strikes me that it is not the chaplains and their approaches that are ‘out of the ordinary’. Much of our faith and religious observance revolves around age old familiar language and often outdated interpretations, with not so much as a genuflection towards the world we live in!

In Peterborough this month we start on the ever extending Winter Night Shelter Programme, which now has 13 churches contributing as hosts together with more than 300 volunteers over a continuous period of five months. I believe we volunteers are ‘chaplains’ to our ‘guests’, and we need a rapid revision to our approach, vocabulary and choice of language despite the surroundings being ecclesiastical!

We have to remember that many of our ‘guests’ will probably not have been inside church buildings before, and may have no knowledge of what ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ mean in our practice.

Homelessness and rough sleeping has become a major problem in our cities and Peterborough is no exception. It was seen two years ago that there was no ‘daytime provision’ for such folk and, then, little prospect of anything coming available.

However, today there is good news. The Garden House, situated within the Cathedral precincts, is just that daytime provision that was needed. It has just completed its first year of operation run by the Light Project with a host of volunteers and donors who make the daytime ‘guests’ feel at home with a whole range of assistance. It is a partnership supported by the council where housing officers can meet the homeless ‘in the kitchen’ over a cup of tea, rather than in a formal bureaucratic office. The results of ‘getting alongside’ vulnerable people in this way have been astounding - showing that the environment and the openness releases potential that could not have been believed before.

What unites both the Night Shelter and the Garden House, is that every volunteer and every guest is a child of God and equally loved by God, and all are spiritual beings.


Clive Morton is a member of Park Road Baptist Church in Peterborough, and a trustee, Cambridgeshire Workplace Chaplaincy



 



Do you have a view? Share your thoughts via our letters' page

 


 

Baptist Times, 28/11/2019
    Post     Tweet
EBA Home Mission Stories
Examples of how Home Mission funds are being used in the Eastern Baptist Association
SubArticleD2019
Art exhibition celebrates connection between faith and creativity
Leigh Road Baptist Church (LRBC) recently held a captivating event, Faith in Art: An Evening with the Artists, that drew a diverse crowd of art enthusiasts, community members, and families
Churches Together in King’s Lynn Peace and Justice Forum 2024: a positive step forward 
More than 45 people gathered at Cornerstone King’s Lynn Baptist Church for a day conference on peace and justice, the first of its kind for some years in West Norfolk
David Mayne appointed EBA Regional Minister Team Leader 
The General Meeting of the Eastern Baptist Association (EBA) voted to call David, Lead Pastor at Shoeburyness and Thorpe Bay Baptist Church in Essex, to serve as the new Regional Minister Team Leader for the Association
Churches come together as chaplains at Lowestoft festival
Ten chaplains volunteered their time to host a space where people could encounter the presence of God at the First Light Festival
'They changed an isolated, withdrawn old lady into one who feels ready to face the world'
Leigh Road Baptist Church is celebrating the first anniversary of the weekly drop-in space called 'Renew Wellbeing' in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex
Ipswich walker who forgot to change her shoes leans on church support  
A Baptist church member who has walked a total of 100km to raise money for Christian international development organisation Tearfund has paid tribute to her ‘amazing supportive church, family and friends.’
     Regional News 
    Posted: 20/12/2021
    Posted: 05/11/2021
    Posted: 03/06/2019
    Posted: 18/10/2018
    Posted: 03/10/2018
    Posted: 19/01/2018
    Posted: 20/10/2017
    Posted: 05/09/2017