Update from Balboa Park Outreach Walks

We've told you recently about the new Balboa Park Outreach Walks, in which a group from SPC walks the vicinity to meet and connect our neighbors who are homeless. Here's an update about their latest walk.  Won't you consider joining them?

Join me some Saturday afternoon soon on a walk along Sixth Avenue in Balboa Park to meet those who live there! We meet at the Cathedral at 3:30 pm in the parking lot. Here's how last Saturday went:

The Winter Emergency Shelters are now open so there were fewer "Denizens" standing out in the Park.

We focused on Brook & Robert, who had only recently (one week!) been living outside. Both of these individuals have 10 years experience in the restaurant business with Brook occupying management positions. They lost their jobs but are actively looking and interviewing locally.They are currently on the waiting list for the Interfaith Shelter Program. They have five (5) children who have been sent to their grandparents, temporarily.

Brook & Robert are a middle-class family with no history of mental illness or drug abuse. They are an example of just how fragile the modern American family really is.

We invited both of them over to St Paul's this Sunday morning for the service and coffee and cakes. If we see them, I would love to introduce them to our Cathedral family!

Blessings to you,

Christopher Wells

Meet our homeless neighbors: an invitation

Sisters and Brothers,

Our first three Saturday afternoon Balboa Park Outreach Walks with Chris Wells and Mary Doak have already generated some moving experiences for all involved.  Won't you consider joining them for these hour-long walks (3:30-4:30) some Saturday soon?  Email me if you're interested.

We could use the help of a lawyer with some of the issues that individuals in the park are facing -- please let me know if you'd like to help in this way.

Here are some additional upcoming opportunities to get to know our homeless neighbors:

Walk A Mile In Their Shoes: 
THIS Monday, Nov 11
Join me downtown as we walk the streets with Tim Driscoll, founder of Walk A Mile In Their Shoes, this Monday (11/11) from 6:15-8:30 pm.  Walk a Mile is a volunteer organization that provides a simple meal and conversation for those whom volunteers meet on the streets.  We'll meet in the Ace parking lot at 6th and Ash at 6:15 to begin the night's adventure.  Let me know if you're coming, and call my cell if you're having trouble finding us: 619-977-8173.

Downtown Fellowship Meeting: 
Thurs, Nov 14
Susan Munsey, the executive director of GenerateHope, will be speaking at the monthly Downtown Fellowship meeting at East Village Community Church (1374 Island Ave) from 11:30-1 (lunch provided, $5 donation welcome).  GenerateHope serves victims of sex trafficking, and Downtown Fellowship is a network of churches serving the homeless downtown.

Tour of Connections Housing: 
Fri, Dec 6
Join me for a tour of Connections Housing with Bruce Menser, director of Downtown Fellowship, on Friday, December 6 from 9:30-11 am.  Connections is a new, innovative service and residential complex for the homeless downtown.

What learning and challenge awaits in Christ's name?

Blessings,

Colin
The Rev. Colin Mathewson

St. Paul's Cathedral for the Neighborhood

Sisters and Brothers,

I invite you to join a conversation this coming Sunday, October 13 at our 9 am forum exploring the myths and realities of homelessness, what we do to help, and what we might do together in Christ's name in the time ahead.

Our Cathedral is located across the street from Balboa Park, a place of enrichment and recreation for tourists and residents, and a place of refuge and struggle for many without homes.  We recognize that homelessness is a complex problem not easily solved, but we are compelled by a Christian commitment to the poor to do what we can to ease human suffering.

I wonder what a Christian response to such suffering would look like for St. Paul's in this time and place?  What can we Christians do or say to address the troubling decline of empathy in today's world?

Again in this Sunday's Gospel, God uses the forgotten to remind the rest of us that we all are in need of saving love, a warm embrace, and basic human care.

Blessings, Colin
The Rev. Colin Mathewson

Nurturing the Homeless: Oktoberfest Oct 19th

Melinda and Bob Oslie get in the spirit with Dale Hoppenrath

Did you know that Uptown Faith Community Services Center, which aids the homeless, is a Cathedral Ministry? Members of the Cathedral have been an integral part of Uptown since its inception under the Alpha Project, although Alpha is no longer directly involved with Uptown. Uptown is supported completely by donations. It is operated by several San Diego church communities. Several Cathedral members are volunteers at the center and are on the Board.

The services Uptown is able to offer the homeless are many. The clients may use Uptown’s address to receive their mail. There are computers available to make contact with family and friends or conduct a job search. Two days per week at least 50 bags of food are distributed. Clothing is available through direct donations and in community with Auntie Helen’s Thrift Shop. Hygiene items are distributed as needed and clients have access to the telephone.

Uptown has two major fund raisers per year. In the spring a walk-a-thon and breakfast are held. This year an Oktoberfest is planned for the Fall event. It will be on Saturday, October 19th from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. at the Top of The Park. There will be German Food, Music, dancing, and a great Silent Auction. Tickets are $50.00 each and will be sold after services at the Cathedral or at www.uptownfaith.org.

Please attend the forum on October 13th to learn more about the homeless of San Diego and how you can help.

Dale Hoppenrath
Uptown Volunteer and Board Member

A Lenten reflection on homelessness

Homelessness is a growing phenomenon in America.

It takes many forms:

There are bankruptsies, foreclosures and short-sales.

Banks collect homes when the unemployed default on their mortgage payments.

Some people are homeless because of natural disasters like Haiti and Japan.

Some are homeless and without kin, who are called orphans.

Others are homeless due to revolutions and wars...the Palestinians and Libyans come to mind.

I don't know too many people by name who are homeless,

   (although one was on our couch recently for two weeks. )

What is growing, is my list of the near homeless.

friends who once lived securely, but now are unsure of their future.

A pastor friend of mine, David Leaper Moss, of Methodist morals,

took on homelessness in his hometown of Sacramento.

You can read about homelessness in this month's Harper's Magazine,

where David is mentioned.  

Notice the response of Christians in this article to the dispossed, disconnected and homeless.

What would Jesus do?  What might his followers do?

Doreen Potter wrote a new hymn verse in 1975...

Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us;

Teach us as sister, brother, each person to embrace.

Be present Lord, among us, and bring us to believe

We are ourselves accepted and meant to love and live.

Teach us O Lord, your lessons, as in our daily life

We struggle to be human and search for hope and faith.

Teach us to care for people, for all, not just for some,

To love them as we find them or as they may become.

Let your acceptance change us, so that we may be moved

In living situations to do the truth in love.

To practice your acceptance until we know by heart,

The table of forgiveness and laughter's healing art.

Lord, for today's encounters with all who are in need,

Who hunger for acceptance, for righteousness and bread,

We need new eyes for seeing, new hands for holding on:

Renew us with Your spirit;  Lord, free us, make us one!

A Prayer for the Homeless

O God, who would not that any should live without comfort and hope,

have compassion on the multitudes in our day who have no homes,

or who are overcrowded in wretched dwellings.  Shelter those whose

homes and livelihood have been ruined by Nature's wrath.

Bless and inspire those who are laboring for their good.

Stir the conscience of the whole world and especially the Church.

O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who in perfect love for mankind chose to live as one

who had nowhere to lay his head:

We pray for all who are homeless,

all refugees, all who must live in exile or in a strange land;

grant them human friendship in their need and loneliness,

the chance of a new beginning, and courage to take it,

and, above all, an abiding faith in your love and care;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Amen!

Prayer requests for....Japan, Palestine, Libya, Tunisia, Congo, Sudan, San Diego, India, and Haiti.

There are also five siblings, age 4 through 15 years of age, three girls and two boys, whose parents have died and would like to be adopted into the same family.  Would you pray for these children that their prayer might be answered?  You might pray for the 18 orphanages in Tijuana that hundreds of children call home.  And then there are the ministries of the Inter-faith Shelter, Father Joe's Village,

the Union Rescue Mission, and the Old Folks Home.  Selah!

Ronn Garton

Lights out

Helena Chan was a volunteer at the interfaith shelter last week. She composed this reflection on the experience after taking a long hike on Saturday.






AGAVE ELOPES LETTER NICKS OPINE HOGS
BOIL EMIT TRIPLE WORD SCORE
SCRABBLE WORDS

Something to hang on to
Random letters and the board upside
down sideways
right side up

Not everybody has the same view.
Not everybody has the same hand, the same luck, the same skill.
Not everybody deserves to win.
I win. I am good.

10 PM Lights out. Taste of Compline in my throat.
Feels good. Pitch Black.Warm bodies behind plastic tarp and PVC.
A sliver of light from the parking lot lights.

Should the kitchen door be closed?
Block out all light. Lights out.

A snoring tenor rises in a dramatic crescendo.
Full of drama, gasping for breath. Life and death.
I am wide awake, tense.

Creaking cots. Muffled coughs.
I am wide awake, scared.
A tense silence in the wake of the rumbling snoring chorus.

This is not white noise.
Will there be a fight?
Surely this must end!

There is shuffling. Frustration. Restlessness.

Someone goes to the kitchen and closes the door.
Is he going to sleep on the floor?

I look at the glowing face of my watch.
This is going to be a long night.
God, thank you that somebody is getting sleep.

People get up, shuffle around and go out-
all through and around the maze of snores that float and hang above the cots.
Nothing happens.

Outside, people walk by giggling. It’s Friday night, late.
The chorus, I swear is breathing the same length of breath.
I am inspired.
I try to synchronize my waking breath with the chorus.
A feeble prayer. A breath prayer for sleep.


The creaking cot a few away is like a beacon.
I am here and I can’t sleep either, she says with the creak.
I told you at dinner that you would appreciate your bed when you leave this place.
I am from Orange County.

Jesus, where are You?
I am here.
You know how I feel now.

My consciousness is fighting to stay terrified, but it loses to exhaustion.
I get a few minutes of sleep.
A shuffle or the door opening and closing wakes me.

Now it is getting into the morning.

Occasionally the crack of light from the kitchen widens to a beam as someone exits and enters. Fumbling in the dark someone digs around in a duffel bag.
Periodic shadows and glimmers of light play on the ceiling.

I am wide awake.
Someone has a flashlight.
What happened to lights out?
or is this how it’s always been?

I’m not a host.
This place is alien to me. This is the night, not the day.
I can’t believe I’m sleeping in the Guild Room where the forums are held.
This place is not for sleeping.

I try not to think the thought that tomorrow night I won’t be here.
That’s not fair to think that. That’s a cop-out.
I’m supposed to be present here to these people and me.

My car keys and flashlight in my pocket press against my left thigh as I turn to my side. No good. Try the right.
My wallet slips to a spot that doesn’t dig. This’ll be okay.
Do the sheets smell funky or is it the cot?

I am beyond consolation.
Almost burst out in hysterical laughter.
My cohort across the way is snoring a fortissimo aria all on his own out of sync with the rest.

I feel jealous, angry, and betrayed.
How dare he join the heavenly host without me?
The world isn’t fair.
Not everybody deserves to sleep.
This time, I lose. I feel bad.

Another wave of exhaustion hits.
Merciful sleep.
I awaken to the kitchen door ajar.
Is the tenant moving out?
I am afraid to look. I hear a sigh and the sound of a can opening.
Is it soda or beer?

The way in and out of the PVC-tarp compound has me as a border.
I feel vulnerable.

Only a few more hours left until day light.
But it’s late. My back and butt are freezing cold.
They forgot to tell us to bring sleeping bags.
I shrugged it off earlier when the lights were on.
Now I feel cold.

Flashlight man is digging in his duffel again.
A lady shuffles past my head and bangs into something in the dark.
There are so many people awake.
Yet it is dark.
Are we all praying for the snoring to end?

Thanks for praying over us she had said before lights out. We’re not supposed to proselytize.
Every 10 min or so someone is entering or exiting, door open, door close, some things don’t change.
How is this helping if people can’t sleep?

It’s warmer in here.

It’s less dangerous and random in here.
I know. Snoring is the shadow of chanting.
I’m getting Jungian now.

My feet are freezing.
I reach down to get my socks out of my shoes and put them on under my covers.
So thankful somebody got me a blanket.

Finally a knock on the door and I leap out of the cot to answer it.
Daylight has arrived.

The one who knocked couldn’t believe how many people quickly were awake.
The silent man said It was the snoring.
She unlocks the showers.

It is a new day.
Everybody deserves hope.
I hope.

Sleeping at the Cathedral: Hosting the Homeless

I’ve always wanted to spend the night in the Cathedral and I finally got my chance. Last week I spent the night as a host to our guests from the Interfaith Shelter. I had my reservations about sleeping all night in a room full of strangers who hail from a traditionally unsavory population. Friends warned me to be careful, to leave my purse in my car, to call if I got into any sticky situations. They needn’t have worried. Every person I encountered in the homeless shelter, also known as the Guild Room at St. Paul’s Cathedral, was kind, helpful and polite. In fact, I encountered far more troubling characters at our recent diocesan convention than I did in the shelter.

I arrived at 6:00 p.m. for a community dinner, cooked by a parishioner who also sings in the choir. Everyone seemed happy and relatively at ease; they all expressed gratitude for the meal. The shelter guests cleared the plates, put food away, washed the dishes and put them away. I felt more like a guest than a host!

A social worker sat with each person after dinner and listened to their progress toward employment and finding a home. I overheard one conversation about a guest potentially finding work with Ace Parking and another being denied medical care because she didn’t have $35 to pay a processing fee.

“It’s supposed to be free,” said the social worker.

“That’s what I said,” reported our female guest. “I said, ‘I’m homeless. I don’t have $35.’ But she wouldn’t process my paperwork.”

Sharing an Evening
After dinner I played Scrabble with two of our male guests, one of whom is the fastest word fashioner I’ve ever met. Caleb, a slight man with blonde hair and blue eyes, walks timidly as though he’s learned to tread lightly in this world. His prowess came out at the Scrabble table, which delighted me.

“Both my parents were English professors,” he said shyly when I complimented him.\

The other gentleman, Brian, is the opposite of Caleb. African-American, muscular and confident, Brian expressed his gratitude for the Interfaith Shelter.

“It’s a lot better than where we were sleeping,” he said. “Everyone’s been real nice here.”

The Rev. Canon Dorothy Curry, my partner host, brought her guitar and strummed softly, taking turns with our guests. She played, “Lord of the Dance,” and “The Fox.” Some of us sang along. Others read quietly on their cots or snacked and enjoyed a quiet moment.


Around 8:00 o’clock, we got a knock on the door. A new woman arrived and joined the group. She had the proper paperwork; every individual in the Interfaith Shelter is screened by social workers before being admitted to the program. Some of the criteria are: no drugs or alcohol abuse; no history of violence; active work with a case manager, etc.

How it Works
From their web site, www.interfaithshelter.org,

The Interfaith Network involves 120 congregations of all denominations county-wide in a Rotational Shelter program. About 60 of the congregations host the program in their facilities for two or four weeks a year and the remainder serve in a valuable support role, providing volunteers for meals and overnight hosting, transportation and donations.

Through neighborhood congregations linking with others, people are sheltered where there are no shelters and receive the understanding and support of congregations when previously all they knew was fear and uncertainty. Congregations benefit by getting to know homeless individuals personally and the mutual sharing of stories is beneficial to both.

Guests are only sent to congregations in the Network after being screened by an area social service agency to assure there will be no active drug, alcohol or mental health problems. Guests sent to the Network's congregations must be willing to work closely with the referring social service agency to resolve the problems leading to their homelessness.

This is a practical, manageable way to serve for both host and support congregations. Congregations host the program for two weeks at a time, usually once, but no more than twice a year. The volunteer and meal support they receive from neighboring congregations is invaluable. Only 12 guests at a time generally stay in the congregation facilities. At the end of two weeks, the whole operation -- cots and guests -- rotates to another area congregation. Guests can stay up to eight weeks in the Network.

As our new guest started to adjust to the group, one of the men asked how she was feeling, but she didn't respond immediately. He volunteered, "stressed?" She nodded and seemed grateful that he understood.

Lights Out
At ten o’clock, I locked the portable showers. You may have seen them; they’re in the trailer parked in the gated lot on the Sixth Avenue. An ingenious contraption, the trailer boasts six showers, two toilets, two sinks and a hot water heater. Designed for traveling bands or large construction sites, it is portable.

Ten o’clock also meant lights out. No one made a peep as darkness settled over this unusual community: eight homeless people, one priest volunteer, and one lay volunteer (me), all sleeping together in the Guild Room of our church.

An unlikely community, but one where I felt at peace. After a few quiet moments of reflection, I slipped into a deep sleep, undisturbed on my cot. Nestled there in my sleeping bag, I felt completely safe and loved, and I hoped everyone there did too, these guests of St. Paul's Cathedral.

At six in the morning, we awoke a knock on the door from another cathedral volunteer, Mary Doak. She turned on the lights and started the coffee. She had brought homemade muffins to supplement the regular fare of cold cereal and fruit. I unlocked the showers and enjoyed a hot one myself. Cathedral members had provided soap, shampoo, conditioner and clean towels. I felt the care given in these small actions that provide so much for people who have been forgotten by our society.

During breakfast, we sat around and talked over cups of hot coffee and tea as we prepared for the day. It felt like being in a large family, with everyone getting ready, passing the food, praising the coffee. Conversation topics ranged from Ghirdelli chocolate and the streets of San Francisco to political unrest in Libya and the current drug laws. I sat quietly, enjoying snippets of conversation. I heard one man say to another, “That’s the new lady,” referring to the woman who had arrived the previous evening.

“Oh yeah?” said the second man. “She’s homeless?”

“Yeah,” said the first. “She’s one of us.”

The conversation stopped me. I was surprised by how tender and open my heart felt to all homeless people, or as one of our guests likes to say, “residentially challenged” people. I was also surprised by the fact that one cannot easily tell by looking at someone if he or she is homeless or not. Even if you yourself are homeless! I was moved by the sense of community you could almost reach out and touch in those words, “one of us.” There’s camaraderie among these guests of ours. They understand each other in ways I cannot, having never lived through the dehumanization of being a marginalized and bullied by our society.

Caleb captured it when he said that he was most grateful for the showers, even more than for the place to sleep. “If you can’t get clean,” he said, “that’s when it gets really bad.”

I cannot enter fully into this holy camaraderie among our guests, but I am grateful that for one night, an opportunity to walk alongside these brothers and sisters of ours as they find their way through a difficult time.

Everyone had left the cathedral by eight o’clock in the morning; they were off on their journeys to find work and a place to live. I walked out of the room feeling proud to be a part of a church that takes seriously Jesus’ admonition to “love one another as I have loved you.” And humbled by the excellent nature of each person I encountered during my overnight at the Cathedral. May God bless each and every one of them as much as I was blessed.

-Hannah Wilder