1 Jesus Christ is waiting, waiting in the streets;
no one is his neighbour, all alone he eats.
*Listen, Lord Jesus, I am lonely too.
Make me, friend or stranger, fit to wait on you.
5 Jesus Christ is calling, calling in the streets,
'Who will join my journey? I will guide their feet.'
*Listen, Lord Jesus, let my fears be few.
Walk one step before me; I will follow you.
Voices United 117
We have experienced glorious Autumn weather in southern Ontario with sunny, moderate days. Last night was a few degrees above freezing but we bundled up to cycle downtown in Belleville (pop 56,000) to make some purchases at the Farmer's Market and an excellent French bakery. Of course, we'd slept in our own home and put the heat on for a few minutes to take off the chill and we would return to the warmth. On our way along the waterfront we passed people who'd "slept rough", those we might term homeless or unhoused. We've noticed that some of them seek out the lamp posts along the trail to plug in their cellphones and even compact generators. Resourceful!
As we set out I hadn't realized that this is World Homeless Day and later on a new documentary will be aired on TVO called Home. https://www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/home
Here is some background from a CityNews piece on the doc:
When tents started popping up on the lawn in front of a sprawling provincial property in Cobourg, Ont., television producer Linda Schuyler wondered who the people living in the encampment were.“I started to go in and get to know them,” said Schuyler, a filmmaker and producer who is best known as the co-creator of the “Degrassi” television series.
“As Torontonians, we have been very aware of the homeless crisis for a long period of time. And I always felt kind of helpless about it. It seemed like such a big problem. I didn’t know what I could do to help,” said Schuyler, who splits her time between Toronto and a community near the southern Ontario lakeside town.
She teamed up with filmmaker Will Bowes to explore the inner workings of the encampment and the complex individual circumstances of its residents. The result is a new documentary, titled “Home,” set to premiere on TVO on Saturday, coinciding with World Homeless Day.
The film introduces audiences to several unhoused people who settled at Brookside, a vacant property owned by the province that had previously been home to Cobourg’s elite and later became a youth detention centre. It details the myriad reasons how someone can end up without a home, from executives and business owners losing their livelihoods, to those who faced abusive partners, the death of loved ones and the challenges of addiction and mental health.
The filmmakers said they first entered without filming equipment and simply listened to people’s stories. Once they formed relationships, the filmmakers asked if people were comfortable speaking on camera. If they did, they’d receive a Tim Hortons gift card to acknowledge their time.
Earlier this week I listened to an interview with Wilfred Laurier University professor Erin Dej who is a collaborator in a project to provide resources to schools for discussions in classrooms about homelessness called Creating Dialogue https://creating-dialogue-curriculum.netlify.app/
I'm also thinking about the award-winning book Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community by Rev. Maggie Helwig, one of the most radically Gospel books I've read.
All of these resources invite us to consider homelessness as more than a growing societal problem, to imagine the lives of those who have been pushed to the margins and deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion. Helwig reminds us that they are beloved by the Christ who often lived rough with his disciples.
May the Christ who walks on wounded feet
walk with you on the road.
May the Christ who serves with wounded hands
stretch out your hands to serve.
May the Christ who loves with a wounded heart
open your hearts to love.
May you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet,
and may everyone you meet
see the face of Christ in you.
Voices United 349
No comments:
Post a Comment