Get your Big Issue.'' ``Join the shortest queue in Cambridge -- don't be shy.'' We hear the sellers of The Big Issue offering the magazine to us in the City centre week by week.
John Bird, who grew up in slum conditions in Paddington and progressed from an approved school to Chelsea College of Art, started The Big Issue six years ago to give homeless people the chance to make an income. It started in London and 280,000 copies are now sold nationally each week. There are editions for Wales, Scotland and the North, and this month it will be launched in Los Angeles. The Big Issue sellers buy the magazine for 35p and sell it for 80p, so they retain 45p of the cover price.
One of the Cambridge vendors is Neil, 23, who has been living rough or in hostels for about seven years with no family contact: ``My family broke up and I was going from one house to another. I was approaching the age when I should be living on my own anyway, but it came quicker than I would have liked it to have done. I was out into the big wide world. It was a great big adventure for the first few weeks -- living on mates' floors and living in tents on the riverside. Suddenly it kicked in that I couldn't actually go on living like this. Then it was night shelters, squats and wherever the peer group went -- we've been all over Cambridge.''
About violence Neil said: ``I don't know whether it's the same in normal society but violence seems to be exaggerated in the lifestyle I am living. I suppose people who are violent find themselves in that situation because they are violent. You behave in a way that doesn't encourage it, keep your fingers crossed and hope it doesn't come your way. It is usually drink or drug induced. Drugs are a real problem in Cambridge. You only have to go to the day centre to see them running in and out desperate for money --- yes, it's bad. It's getting worse and worse. When I first went out that was the scene, but I wasn't ever chemically dependent. Drink and drugs is someone desperate crying out for attention. If you're trying to numb out feelings, which is what it's all about, drink is probably the easiest way of doing it. When you see someone drunk on the green it can be quite amusing, but when you're on drugs it's the evil underworld.'' Neil added: ``You have to stay healthy and it's hard --- you can't afford multi-vitamins every day! I'm not as healthy as I should be (I'm too skinny), but I consider myself in a fitter bracket compared with others just by the nature of what I do --- cycling round and carrying things here, there and everywhere; but it makes you hungry as well!''
Neil went to a prep school in Cambridge, then to an independent school in Ely and to Netherhall for his last year. What does he miss in his present lifestyle? ``Recreation --- at boarding school there's always sport! Personal relationships --- females are not attracted to Mr Big Issue Seller! Having a wardrobe for my clothes or being able to walk into shops as other people do or going into a pub and buying a pint of beer like the rest of society instead of being segregated.''
Neil is well-spoken, articulate and very polite. He says he is usually cheerful, but he adds: ``If I didn't get depressed they'd be something wrong with me. I look at myself and I look at where I could possibly have been and it's a very depressing state of affairs, but I can't stand there with The Big Issue being depressed because I'm not going to sell any, am I?''
``One minute I'm at a boarding school talking to academics and the next minute I'm in a squat talking to junkies and alcoholics, so I've seen different levels of society. I'm not as confident as I was. When I compare myself to other people in the same age group I always seem to be on the losing side. It comes across as very arrogant from my point of view that I could possibly be good at something that the rest of society's already doing.''
At present Neil is in supported housing in a hostel with five beds. The outreach team from Wintercomfort approached him to offer him a hostel bed: ``I've got a kitchen I can use --- it's brilliant. It's a lifesaver really. If you haven't got facilities you are living on pre-cooked food, burgers, chips and whatever from outlets, and it's expensive.''
Twice a week Neil goes by train to King's Cross with his old bike, from where he cycles to Clerkenwell to buy copies of The Big Issue, then back to Cambridge by train to sell them. Vendors have to be homeless (or in vulnerable accommodation) and are given training and identity badges containing their photographs. Only a certain number of vendors are allowed in each town, to prevent saturation. Neil reckons to sell about 250 copies a week: ``I've got customers from 6 to 66 and beyond. The majority are students who are more socially aware. Your nine to five working, middle-aged person usually isn't too bothered. It still appeals to a lot of people and they feel they're supporting something useful by buying it.'' Neil adds: ``It''s something to get up for in the morning. It's an absolute saviour -- I couldn't cope if I hadn't got it.''
Neil has had some jobs; he has worked in hostels and has done labouring jobs, but he says it is hard to find a job where you don't have to put an address on the form. He is not very hopeful about the future but says: ``What I'd like to do is have my own front door key and a job and all that goes with it. Nice.''
The Big Issue have an on-line edition in preparation at the time of writing.
Christmas starts early. By mid-November the decorations are up in the streets and Christmas crackers are appearing on the supermarket shelves. But at Great St Mary's this year, we received our main Christmas parcel long before anyone else had even thought about Christmas. This gift arrived back in July. It was a large, carefully packed box which had been dispatched some time before from Nigeria and contained a magnificent set of crib figures. They are carved from wood by a local craftsman called Akin Alamu, who we were put in touch with by Joye Rosenstiel, of our Wider Concerns Committee. They stand around twelve inches high and each has a dignified yet sensitive expression. We will place them in church for the first time on Christmas Eve at our Children's Carol Service at 4pm and then bless the crib at the Midnight Eucharist. I hope that you will be able to worship with us this Christmas and see them for yourselves. Each of us has our own idea of what Christ was like. For many of us, living in Britain, the child Jesus is a perfect baby, with white skin and a contented smiling face, the kind of child every English prospective mother hopes her baby will be. So it can come as a surprise to see Jesus as an African child, with strong features, a solemn expression and black skin. Of course neither portrayal is historically accurate (since Jesus was born to a Middle Eastern family), but both are true. Jesus came for all people and so each race and nationality is right to claim him as their own, and to see him as one of them. He came on earth at Christmas to share our lives and show God's love, and so to give us salvation. To worship a Christ figure made with care and love by an African woodcarver can remind us that Jesus belongs to all people. We need to remember that, while Christ belongs to us, we cannot jealously keep him for ourselves. We need to be ready to welcome all to share in our worship and celebrations. But we also need to remember that others may encounter and pray to Christ in other ways from our own. The coming of Jesus on earth brings a challenge to all of us to think in new ways. We have to realise that all people are of value to God. We have all turned aside from God and acted selfishly. We are all drawn to the Christmas Crib and welcomed home by the ever-loving and ever-generous God who comes to us at Christmas time.
We rejoice at being together in God's love.
GSM has supported several recent housing initiatives in the Cambridge area. Here we focus on two of them. David Hollier visited Wintercomfort and The Bus Project. Selwyn Image recalls the beginnings of the Emmaus Community, which he launched in GSM in 1991, and brings the record up to date.
The Bus Project started in 1985 as a Council initiative to help those who were sitting around in Lion Yard shopping centre drinking, begging and generally getting in the way. The Council provided funding and Cambridge Cyrenians ran the old blue double-decker bus as a base and, later, used some car park spaces in Lion Yard. John Brock, Manager of The Bus Project, says: ``It was set up for 20 --- 25 people. I don't think anyone realised at the time that this was the tip of the iceberg. There were more people who needed something --- not necessarily street homeless or street drinkers, but people with all sorts of problems who socialise on the streets.''
John went on: ``Cyrenians managed the daytime service and the old bus, and Wintercomfort did another form of service which started as a soup run. They started a seasonal night shelter in the coldest months of the year. Then the two organisations came together: there was only one pot of money and two organisations doing exactly the same kind of work at different times of the day. Both got together and it became known as Wintercomfort.''
The Bus is now indoor accommodation at Overstream House in Victoria Avenue and provides a daytime centre, including cheap meals. A voluntary monitoring session each quarter shows that in 1995 an average of 40 a day used the facility and this year it was 110. John explained: ``We're not just here for the homeless. We are here for those at risk of homelessness and that's where the other categories come in: night shelter, squat, staying with other members of the family and hostels (which we don't consider permanent accommodation). There is quite a high proportion of The Bus Project users who have private rented or Council rented accommodation but, because of the problems they have (drugs, drink, mental health), they are at risk of becoming homeless. They need a very high level of support once they've got that accommodation in order not to go back to their original position, or perhaps back to the streets.''
The Bus Project is funded by Cambridge City Council, the Health Authority and Cambridgeshire Social Services, plus some fundraising events and private donations. There are seven paid staff (not all full-time) and the project has an advisory group of funders, local councillors, members of local residents' associations and local police. The project depends on voluntary help, and donations of time and clothes (especially long, thick woollen sweaters, socks and shoes that don't leak) are always welcome. Food donated is not used in the centre but is parcelled up and given to those in accommodation and using Wintercomfort for support.
For further information, see Wintercomfort's home page.
In 1990, the founder of Wintercomfort asked me to organise fundraising for a night shelter in Cambridge. Vital as night shelters are, many of the homeless people I found myself speaking to were looking for something more. Matters came to a head for me when I talked to an articulate and intelligent man in The Bus Project.
His story was a familiar one. Broken marriage, move into digs, redundancy and drink to anaesthetise the pain and humiliations of life on the street, and the bitter reality of no home no job, no job no home. Every attempt I made to be hopeful and positive was shot down with ruthless logic until, in a shameful moment of irritation, I said: ``What is it you want then?'' He told me patiently but with an intensity I can still hear: ``I want to work and belong. I want my self-respect back. I don't want to queue for hand-outs or have to beg for food. And I don't want people to cross the street to avoid me.''
At that moment I remembered the Emmaus Community in Paris where I had worked as a student 30 years before, and knew we had to try starting one here. I found out more about the International Emmaus Movement. Going strong: 380 communities in 44 countries --- 110 in France, 12,000 Companions --- but nothing in the UK.
I tried the idea of an Emmaus Community here on friends and potential sympathisers. A small group was formed. Lord Runcie agreed to be President, and we set about raising money and awareness in Cambridge. Abbé Pierre, the founder of the Emmaus Movement and perhaps the most famous man in France, came to Cambridge, and in Great St Mary's we launched an appeal to buy an open field with two derelict cowsheds near Landbeach. We had no planning permission, no experience, but an absolute certainty that the idea would work here as well.
Six years later there are seven Emmaus Communities -- in Cambridge, Coventry, Greenwich, Dover, Brighton, Belfast and Manchester. A further eight are in planning. Cambridge became self-supporting within a year of its opening. It was a beacon for the UK, showing new groups what the Movement is about and how it works. Already some 300 homeless and unemployed people have been helped on the road back. Today it is bursting at the seams, with an average of six homeless people turned away each week for lack of room.
Most of the people who come to us face huge problems. We welcome all, ask no questions, push no creed beyond our purpose of their helping others once their own basic needs have been met. Some will want to stay within the community. Others will wish to move on. All will contribute. All can stay as long as they wish. Our rules are few and simple: Sign off the Ôdole'; no drugs; no drink in the community (alcoholism is our biggest problem); no violence; a five-and-a-half day week, working to the best of one's ability to support the community and its ideals.
Our greatest problem is the need for capital to establish communities and to expand them. A year ago we took the decision to double the size of the Cambridge Community to 30 places. Under Terry Waite's leadership, almost £600,000 of the £700,000 required has been raised, but the last lap is the hardest, and we can't start the residential phase until we can pay for it. No home, no jobs.
Our founder, still motoring at 85 like a supercharged 2CV, is often called ``the Conscience of France''. Recently he reminded us of the new challenges facing Emmaus: young people unable even to start work, people made redundant at the height of their powers and joining the long-term unemployed whose skills are insufficient to satisfy the workplace of the future, enforced leisure, and the duty of all those who are more fortunate to find solutions and to do something active about it. Our vision for the UK is at least 100 communities. That's one for every major conurbation where we know there is a need to get often unskilled, but always marginalised, men and women back into work and off the dole ---back into belonging, back to giving again.
Christmas is an appropriate time to reconsider what practical help we can provide those who have to endure the humiliation of not belonging, of having no home and no job. We have barely scratched the surface of what Emmaus can do in the UK. To do more we need the support in cash to start new communities, and in kind to run them. Above all we need the good will of everyone concerned about ``Christ's Poor''. Lord Runcie insists on calling every donation an investment, for, he says, ``there is no doubt that Emmaus is the most exciting and successful development I have known in my long experience of projects for the homeless. It really does work.'' We need to make it work more, and better.
A very Happy Christmas to you all, from all in Emmaus.
For further information and offers of support, please contact Emmaus UK, Tel. 01223 576103, Fax. 01223 576203. For the Cambridge Appeal, contact 4 Salisbury Villas, Station Road, Cambridge, CBl 2JF. See also Emmaus UK's homepage and Emmaus Cambridge's homepage.
Cambridge City Council owns and manages 8,700 houses and finds homes for 600 families each year, a quarter of whom were previously homeless. Simon McIntosh is Head of Private Sector Housing Needs at the City Council. Here he explains precisely what help the Council can give the homeless, and introduces a new scheme for those who are single and sleep rough.
The City Council is the largest housing organisation, and the largest landlord, in Cambridge. So what does it do for homeless people in the City? The first type of Council help to the homeless is provided by housing advisors in the Council's housing centre, working with people in danger of losing their home. Where this is due to mortgage arrears, staff negotiate with lenders to try to keep the clients in their home. A range of other help is provided; for example, we are generally successful in preventing illegal evictions of tenants, where these are threatened. In cases of a relationship breakdown, we advise on who has rights to the home --- though this may not help to prevent one party ending up homeless. In appropriate cases staff advise people of available housing in other sectors.
The second role of the Council concerns its legal duty to find housing for people who are homeless and who meet a definition of being in ``priority need''. Until this year, this duty was for both immediate temporary housing, where needed, and for a permanent home. The law changed in early 1997 to limit this duty to securing temporary accommodation for up to two years; however, the current government is committed to changing the law to reinstate the ``safety net'' of permanent housing. The definition of ``priority need'' includes pregnant women, parent(s) with children, and people who are vulnerable. So elderly or disabled people, and those with severe medical conditions or significant social problems, tend to get housed. However, this excludes the majority of single homeless people, who are no less vulnerable than anyone who doesn't have a home. It is this group who form a large part of the visible `street homeless', and who are most in need of help from charitable and voluntary organisations.
Once a homeless household which appears to be in ``priority need'' has made an application, we carry out appropriate investigations to check the details of their situation. Temporary housing is made available while the investigation is made; we use homes leased on a short-term basis, as well as our own hostels and some shared houses. Bed and breakfast are only used in emergencies, for a few days, or occasionally for single vulnerable people for a few weeks where this is the most appropriate accommodation. Meanwhile, staff check that the household do not have access to a home, that they have a connection with Cambridge (if not they may be referred to be rehoused by another Local Authority in Britain), and that they did not lose their home due to something they knowingly did, like choosing not to pay the rent, or breaching tenancy conditions. Where these tests are satisfied, we give the household priority on our Housing Register for a permanent home, which is generally offered within a few months.
The third area of the Council's work is in partnerships with voluntary agencies. We provide some funding for Women's Aid, Wintercomfort and Cambridge Cyrenians, amongst other bodies working with the homeless. Council staff work in liaison with those in voluntary bodies, in order to help their clients get into and retain accommodation. Referrals are made in both directions, and the Council sets aside over 40 allocations of homes each year for people who are ready to `move on' from such organisations' temporary homes. This number is due to rise to about 60, with extra places being made available for the Rough Sleepers Initiative or `RSI'.
The RSI is a central government programme. The City Council drew up a strategy, in consultation with voluntary agencies, for helping those sleeping rough in the City. This strategy -- combined with a street count by Wintercomfort and the Council which found 26 people sleeping out one night in July 1996 -- led to funding for the City. Successful bids were made by several housing charities: these have now provided outreach workers, to make contact with rough sleepers; a five bed unit in which to house them and assess their needs, as well as a winter shelter; and resettlement workers to support those moving on to permanent homes. The Council will now play a coordinating role with these and other bodies. A large `Forum' meeting is planned next March to publicise the work. The aim will be to ensure that as wide a range of organisations as possible can contribute to helping rough sleepers move through suitable accommodation into homes where they can rebuild their lives.
The Council has a good record in housing those homeless people in ``priority need''. But the needs of single homeless people have not been met in many cases, and voluntary agencies like Emmaus, which the Council supported when it was set up, play a vital role. The extra funding brought by the Rough Sleepers Initiative is an opportunity for the needs of single homeless people to be better met.
The views expressed in this article are the author's.
Christmas week will begin with the Christmas Candlelight Carol Service on Sunday 21st December at 6.30pm. Please arrive in good time for this service. On Christmas Eve a service of Carols for Children will take place at 4pm. The Midnight Communion will begin at 11.30pm. On Christmas Day there will be a service of Holy Communion (Prayer Book) at 8am, Parish Communion at 9.30am, Mattins at 11.15am and Evening Prayer (said in St Andrew's Chapel) at 4pm.
Friends of Great St Mary's Christmas cards (see left) are now available from the bookstall (price £1 for 3) or by post (please call 01223 350914), as are Advent Calendars and Candles, books, jams, honey, biscuits and other Christmas gifts.
During December, Save the Children, Perse School for Girls and Sawston Village College will be holding Carol Services in GSM.
Thank you to everyone who so generously gave to the Harvest Thank-offering. Over £1,000 has been raised to date for Action Health 2000 and the Institute for Rural Health Studies in Hydrabad. It was a pleasure to be joined by Kate Graham of Action Health for the Harvest Festival and to hear a little of the work they undertake in sending out health-care professionals to work as volunteers in training people to care for others in local communities. By coincidence Action Health had previously sent volunteers out to the project in Hyderabad and were delighted to be the joint beneficiaries of our Harvest Thankoffering with this group.
Christmas is an important time to think of others, and we are currently choosing the charity for the Christmas thankoffering. We are looking particularly at charities working in South America. We would also welcome suggestions of other charities, which may be recipients of the collections taken at other Christmas services. Finally this year we are considering collecting books for the detention centre for refugees at Gatwick Airport, instead of collecting for a food-mountain.
Joye Rosenstiel (Chair, Wider Concerns Committee)
On Sunday 14th September we had a fund-raising day in aid of the Windmill Project, a hostel for refugee women and children, in our garden. My friend Rosemary from the choir, my sister Scarlett, and I made hair bands, shell necklaces, teddy-bears and bookmarks for a craft stall. We also had a `guess the weight of our pet duck', a plant stall, a lucky dip, a bric-a-brac table and mask-making. Peter Hilken came to tell some stories to amuse the younger people. With all of this we managed to raise £92. Everyone kept saying what a lovely atmosphere there was in the garden.
A couple of weeks later we had the pleasure of meeting Sister Angela, who runs the Windmill Project in London. I am very glad the money is going somewhere it is needed, and I thank all who contributed.
By the way, in case you were wondering, our duck weighs 4 kg.
Jessica Pares-Landells
The Vice-Chancellor and the Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Revd David Stancliffe, process out of GSM after the University Sermon on 19th October at which Bishop Stancliffe preached.
GSM has three theological students on placement this year: Ben King (l) and David McGeoch (centre) from Westcott House, and Andrew Braddock (r) from Ridley Hall. Whilst at GSM, they will be involved in leading services and preaching.
The city centre churches' One World Week, based at St Michael's and GSM, ended with a spectacular concert by Pandemonium, Homerton College's steel band. After the performance, the band led a workshop and invited members of the audience to have a go themselves.
he Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols has been sung in King's College Chapel for about 78 years and was devised by the Very Revd E.M. Milner-White, then Dean of King's. It has been broadcast annually since 1928 (except in 1929), and so annually December is a busy time for the King's College Choir and its Director of Music, Stephen Cleobury.
Stephen chooses the music for the service in mid-October, and each year he likes to include a new item. This year there will be a new carol by Thomas Ades, who was until recently a Choral Scholar at King's and is now building a reputation as a composer. Stephen points out that the daily choir practice provides ongoing preparation for the carol services but the specific music for the service will be practised on 8 --- 10th December and some of it will be included in pre-Christmas concerts. The Festival starts with the first verse of `Once in royal David's city' by a solo voice. Traditionally there are two or three boys ready to sing this verse, but when is the chorister selected? ``A few seconds --- fifteen or twenty seconds --- before,'' said Stephen.
Two services are broadcast: Carols from King's on television and the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on radio. There are different readings for the two services but some of the music is sung in both. The televised service is pre-recorded on two days in mid-December, with a camera rehearsal on the first day. Both services are broadcast on Christmas Eve.
The choir (14 boys, 16 men, the Organ Scholar and Director of Music) will be taking part in carol concerts in London on 17th December at St John's, Smith Square, and on 22nd December at the Royal Albert Hall, both at 7.30 p.m. On 18th December they will be singing in the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, at 7.45 p.m.
The next audition for choristers for King's College will be on 31st January for boys between 6-and-a-half and 8 years. Musical experience is not required, but the Director of Music looks for musical potential. For further information contact Stephen Cleobury on (01223) 331224.
Photo by kind permission of the Provost and Fellows of King's College Cambridge, and Eaden Lilley photography.
Book review by Sheila Forbes.
This is a thought-provoking and at times controversial book. Richard Holloway wants to challenge Christians to move into the twenty-first century.
Dancing on the Edge is divided into three sections. In the first Richard Holloway raises doubts and questions about faith and then goes on to share what underpins his belief in God. He argues that in the light of modern scientific developments and an increasing understanding of the universe we need to revise our understanding and interpretation of the Bible, especially the New Testament, which, as he points out, was written in a very different culture. He emphasises humanity's immense need for God and is passionate about the need to bring the whole Christian culture into sympathy with modern thinking.
The second part of Richard Holloway's book is focused on the Church's attitude to sexuality in all its manifestations, both heterosexual and homosexual, and he calls for a more compassionate and liberal understanding.
In the third part of the book Richard Holloway raises many questions about the structure of the Church and ministry, and again he suggests that there needs to be much revision and rethinking so that all, including those `on the edge', feel able to be involved in the Christian life and the search for truth. Throughout the book there is a message of compassion; there is repeated reference to God's forgiving and loving nature, but also the warning that following Christ is a challenge and demands courage.
This book is challenging and exciting in its radical thinking, which is supported by well-argued premises. It is difficult to do it justice in a short review, but I shall end with Richard Holloway's own words: ``The argument of this book is that this lust for absolute systems and the ideologies that underpin them is itself a kind of faithlessness, an inability to live with the provisionality that characterises human existence, and a refusal to adapt to it with grace and courage.''
Dancing on the Edge is available from the bookstall, price £8.99
All events take place in Great St Mary's unless otherwise advertised.
| Tuesday 2nd December | Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union Carol Service | ||
| Thursday 4th Dec | 1pm | Eucharist to celebrate the 140th Anniversary of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, Celebrant: the Archbishop of York, Preacher: the Revd James Tengatenga, Lecturer in Theology and Church History, University of Malawi | |
| 5pm | University Lecture given by the Archbishop of York | Senate House | |
| Sunday 7th December Second Sunday of Advent | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.30pm | Save the Children Fund Carol Service | ||
| 6.30pm | Healing Service | ||
| Sunday 14h December Third Sunday of Advent | |||
| Tuesday 16th December | 2.30pm | Perse School for Girls Carol Service | |
| Wednesday 17th December | Sawston Village College Carol Service | ||
| Sunday 21st December Fourth Sunday in Advent | |||
| 4pm | Evening Prayer (said) | St. Michael's | |
| 6.30pm | Great St Mary's Christmas Carol Service | ||
| Christmas Eve | 4pm | Carols for Children | |
| 11.30pm | Midnight Communion | ||
| Christmas day | 8am | Holy Communion (Prayer Book) | |
| 9.30am | Parish Communion | ||
| 11.15am | Mattins | ||
| Sunday 28th December First Sunday of Christmas | |||
| 8am | Holy Communion (Prayer Book) | ||
| 9.30am | Parish Communion | ||
| 11.15am | Matins | ||
| 6.30pm | Choral Evensong | ||
Since this is the same from issue to issue, we have included a single copy of it on the site, as our Who's who at GSM page.
Majestas is edited by Robert Avery, Sheila Cameron, David Hollier, Philip Oswald (proofs) and John Sturdy (HTML) and published by: Great St Mary's The University Church, Cambridge CB2 3PQ, Tel (01223) 350914, Fax (01223) 426555.
Please contact the editors at the above address.
HTML conversion by John Sturdy.
The deadline for the Janueary edition of Majestas is 7th December. Please submit copy to the Church Office.
For further details of the parish, including the regular service times, please see the GSM home page.