Lama's log

Over the month of December I volunteered with the organisation 'Street Angels' which I posted briefly on before. Basically a group of volunteers get together between the hours of 9pm and 3am and patrol the streets of Wakefield helping vulnerable people out. The violence and trouble on the streets is the domain of the police and the night marshalls. Street Angels pick up the drunk, the incoherent and the dodgy.

I loved it. What is interesting for me is that most of those, if not all of those, who have taken part seem to have felt the same. Why should dealing with regurgitated Kebab at 2am or being slavered on by a Polish guy who is struggling to focus, induce feelings of well being and grace? Well, for me, its because I think the experience feels more like church than church. It is not self indulgent, it is useful, it manages to reflect something of the Gospel and there is a sense of community. Church often seems to distance me from Gospel realities, the gathered community which is church is often educated and middle class and seems by nature to exclude a huge raft of the population. Going out on the streets on Friday and Saturday night reconnects you with people not normally encountered. It feels good. Instead of saying what you need to be in order to come to church it demands that I make myself accessible to those outside. So, instead of expecting that those outside the church get themselves up and dressed for 10:30 Sunday morning, I expect that I get myself up and dressed for the community that meets between 9pm and 3pm on a Friday and Saturday night. That seems to me to be the right way round.

The project will now have a break for a month to review how things have gone and to set things up on a more permanent and ongoing footing. Well done to Urban Space and in particular Ben Brown for getting this going.

Finally something that feels Christian, holy and for those under 50 and yet not stifling, condemnatory, cheap or inappropriate.