We usually spend some time thinking ahead in August and September to the work we will do as a parish with homeless people in the winter through our collaboration with the homeless charity C4WS.
C4WS is a group of churches in north London which open their doors to the homeless to give them a bed for the night. We help run the night shelter that operates out of Pond Square URC Church on Sunday evenings in the winter.
We cook a meal for our homeless guests, spend the evening with them, and then provide a warm bed for the night in the church. The next morning everyone gets a hearty breakfast to set them up for the day.
Helping at the night shelter is great fun! We need volunteers who can prepare beds, help cook, spend time with our guests, and also sleep in the church over night. We also gladly take non-perishable food stuffs, and toiletries (male and female), along with financial donations towards to work of C4WS.
People don’t need to feel volunteering for C4WS will involve them taking on extensive and arduous hours of extra work. The duties through the nights when we run the shelter are all split up into manageable jobs. One person volunteers to cook, another to put out tables, another to sleep over night, others to come and make breakfast. No matter how much or how little time you have, there will be something you can usefully contribute to our work with C4WS!
As we make our way through the summer months, we need to get a full list of those who want to volunteer in the autumn. Please speak to Fr Peter or Craig Allen if you are interested.
Steve Lemmon, a volunteer from St Benet’s, making up beds up for our homeless guests.