Service for 146 people who died on streets of London this year

[rug]

Posted: Friday, November 11, 2011 5:31 pm

Names of the homeless and formerly homeless people who have died over the last year in London were read out at the Annual Service of Commemoration at St Martin in the Fields yesterday. This year 146 names were read out.

The service is organised each year during remembrance week by St Martin-in-the-Fields, The Connection at St Martin's and Housing Justice, with Artistic Advisor Rosemarie Cockayne. Those who take part include staff and volunteers from the many agencies and churches giving aid to homeless and vulnerable people, and homeless and formerly homeless people themselves. The service brings together all who want to remember and give thanks for those who have died during the year, whether still on the streets, in hostels or in their own accommodation.

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Dr Paul O'Reilly SJ of Dr Hickey's surgery, which provides GP services for homeless people, gave a short reflection. He said: "Each person whose name was read out today belongs to us. In remembering them we remember ourselves and the community which we belong to." He also quoted the well known lines from the remembrance day poem: At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them".

Alastair Murray of Housing Justice said: "The service gives us an opportunity to reflect on homelessness and its consequences, as we remember those who have died. It's also good to meet with friends and colleagues to give thanks for those people we have known who often lived life on their own terms."

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=19291

[MarkCharles]

1. All those palaces within the city of London, with all those heated rooms and

lavish leftovers.

All those churches of England, and palatial residences for the higher-ups in the Church of England, and all they do is

mourn the loss of the homeless with a "service"?

I wonder what the final cost for the wedding of Prince William and Kate was, and how many millions of pounds could have given housing to how many homeless instead, that night, and every other night for those homeless.

[rug]

2. This was a Catholic service.

They, and many others, work for the homeless all year.

http://www.rcdow.org.uk/features/default.asp?content_ref=2577

To say the problem is primarily religion, and not capitalism, would be a gross simplification. And a wrong one.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Ecumenical - St. Martin's is Anglican

http://www.smitf.org/page/church/belief/belief.html

[rug]

6. Thanks for the correction.

[MarkCharles]

5. rug: I agree with you. This is not a religious issue.

So why did you post it here? What were you looking for in response?

Praise for people who are Catholic holding memorial services?

[rug]

7. You miss the point.

Religion is not the cause of homelesss, the grand churches you complain about notwithstanding. The cause is capitalism. These people, who are religious, are not ignoring it.

You have peculiar notions of why people post.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. No, "The Connection at St. Martin's" is that church's charity for the homeless

See http://www.connection-at-stmartins.org.uk/about-us/history.htm - going since 1948.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Yes, St. Martin's has a history of charitable work that goes back literally

centuries (i.e. back when the church was actually in some fields, as opposed to across from Trafalgar Square).