Lazarus Centre Newsletter St Peters Day 2023

Welcoming Jason in his new role with the Breakfast Program

Recently we welcomed Jason Keenan (pictured with chaplain Fr Philip Gill) as part-time social worker at the Breakfast Program. He has vast experience in the homelessness sector and has been working with the Breakfast Program as an Anglicare staff member. His is an inaugural role and he is feeling his way into how to best offer support to our participants. Initially he aims to focus on deepening rapport with our most needy people using his knowledge of the sector to link people with the most relevant supports.

I know what it is like to begin a project like this from scratch. When I began as the Breakfast Program chaplain over a decade there was no blueprint for the role. I had my experience as a prison chaplain to guide me but there were important differences. People in prisons are used to seeing chaplains about even if they choose not to engage with them. What on earth does a chaplain to a homelessness program do? What could I possibly offer?

I have the greatest respect for our support workers. They work so hard to provide food, refreshment and a place for them to begin to deal with the challenges they face with confidence. This all-encompassing hospitality is the focus of the Breakfast Program. As one participant said to me recently ‘Praise Jesus for providing this food and for those people who feed us. They are really living the Gospel’.

There is always much more going on at the Breakfast Program than the provision of hospitality. The analogy of the ducks on the pond is relevant to the workers of the breakfast program – while they float almost without effort on the surface there is much activity that is unseen. A great amount of effort goes into building trust with participants on one hand and encouraging them to seek out relevant services on the other .

I remember one instance. There was a man who had been living on the streets for years and was now in his seventies. He would appear at the Breakfast Program with his shopping trolley filled with his belongings. He was conditioned to living on the streets and would not accept any assistance to find housing. One of the young support workers over many months slowly built enough trust to begin working with him. The worker helped him find a place and he settled in. I ran into him once after he was

housed - it was the first time I had seen him without his trolley. I doubt this could have had the same outcome without a great deal of patience, care and compassion.

I began my role as chaplain by trying to be open, persistent and unshakable as I made myself available to listen to lives of those who are part of our Breakfast Program. I try to be with them in their dark times to show solidarity and remind them that no matter how dark and cold things get God is there for them and with them. I am constantly amazed and thankful for the insights I have received into the resilience of the human spirit.

It is often in the seemingly simple things that we are reminded of the importance of our Breakfast Program. Once I was walking towards St Peter’s and met one of our fellows coming out of church gate. I asked how he was going. He replied, ‘Good thanks – I can face the day now I’ve had a good breakfast!’

I welcome Jason to his new role and I look forward to continuing in this important work with him our fellow workers, supporters and participants.

Fr Philip Gill

Housing First!

I was reminded in a recent conversation with a Breakfast Program participant of the realities of sleeping rough. ‘The hardest thing,’ he said, ‘Is to find a good place. Usually, you get settled somewhere and then someone comes to move you along. Ok so you move, then it happens again, and you move again. But then the worst thing is when in the early hours of the morning you are asked to move for the third time – that’s when the anger really comes out’.

It is no wonder then that those sleeping rough and those in insecure housing arrangements find it hard to escape the shackles with which homelessness binds them. How can you begin to manage the complexities of modern life without the firm foundation of secure accommodation? The person I was speaking with eventually found accommodation through the Melbourne Streets to Home project. This program seeks to find housing as a priority for their clients’ recovery while surrounding them with the services and skills necessary for them to cope.

In Helsinki Finland they have taken the housing first philosophy very seriously and have managed to achieve surprising success. In Jon Henley’s 2019 Guardian article he says that Finland, like many countries, used to work on a ‘staircase’ model where people would move through various types of temporary accommodation until their life was back on track and they could cope with independent living. It was clearly understood that this method did little to address the housing problem so in a cooperative project led by the Y-Foundation and supported by government and community groups they decided to reverse the system and provide permanent housing while offering relevant support. Jon Henley continues:

Housing First’s early goal was to create 2,500 new homes. It has created 3,500. Since its launch in 2008 the number of long-term homeless people in Finland has fallen by more than 35%. Rough sleeping has all but been eradicated in Helsinki, where only one 50 bed night shelter remains and where winter temperatures can plunge to -20°C.

There are many good initiatives dealing with the issues relating to homelessness in Melbourne and Housing First is a model that is in operation in our city. However, the whole-heartedness of the way Finland has approached their challenges stands as a witness to what great things are possible.

Fr Philip Gill

Fundamental trust amid terrifying times

From a homily on Matthew 5.43-48
If we were able to see things from the perspective of Jesus we would more readily understand why it is that he commands his followers to love their enemies. Foundational for Jesus is the overwhelming generosity, compassion and forbearance of God. It is through God’s goodness, he tells us, everyone enjoys the warmth of the sun and benefits of the rain. If we can only begin to view life from this perspective of fundamental trust in the loving providence of God then perhaps the category of ‘enemy’ loses its sting, and we can begin to forgive and to love even

those we find abhorrent.

The business of life makes it difficult to grasp this attitude of fundamental trust. Media images of the world seem to highlight destruction, deprivation and death. Listening to the news may well numb us to any sense of fundamental trust.

The interplay between our environment and our attitudes is illustrated by story of the family whose two sons were preparing to leave home. The older son asks his father what he can expect when he goes out into the wide world. The father, who has had a good day at work, an uneventful drive home and warm welcome from the dog says to the young man. ‘Well son, you’ll find the world a wonderful place filled with opportunity and good people willing to give you a chance.’ Encouraged by the father’s words he went out into the world filled with hope and open to great possibilities. Indeed, he found a world of opportunity and many people who were willing to assist him in his way in the world.

Then it was the younger son’s turn to leave home. ‘Tell me dad, what can I expect out there in the world?’ The father who had a terrible day at work and had been stuck in traffic for two hours and who had been greeted by the dog as though he were an unwelcome intruder told the son in no uncertain terms. ‘The world is a terrible place. Be on your guard out there son. People will be looking to take advantage of you at every turn.’ So the young man went out into the world fearful and suspicious - he found the world just as his father had said infested with people only interested in seeking their own advantage.

How do we prepare to face the day with this sense of fundamental trust rather than paralyzing fear? Thomas Ken was an Anglican Bishop and educator wrote a hymn to rouse sleepy students at morning prayers. Having something like this at hand may act as a tonic for our existential angst. The first verse gives a taste of what the good bishop offers:

Awake my soul and with the sun Thy daily stage of duty run; Shake off dull sloth and joyful rise To pay thy morning sacrifice.

This is my favorite verse, sadly omitted from some versions:

Direct, control, suggest this day
all I desire or do or say;
that all my powers with all their might for your sole glory may unite.

The final well-known verse reminds us of Jesus’ words that God’s provision of rain and sun fall on all people:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise him all creatures here below Praise him above ye heavenly host Praise father son and Holy Ghost

Perhaps in these words we glimpse the perfection to which Jesus calls us – to love creation as God does.

Fr Philip Gill