I am a student at the University of Leeds studying History and Philosophy. I am also a volunteer at the Crypt and a member of the congregation of St. George’s church Leeds. I did a project about why Christians are motivated to get involved in Christian social action, with my University’s Theology department and chose to centre my work on the Crypt, situated below the church I attend. I interviewed both Christians and non- Christians, 11 in total about their experiences. I also reflected what it was like to volunteer at the Crypt as a Christian. This is the first of three articles, all of which are featured in Network Leeds. 
“The tasks that confront us are enormous, but the strength of those who trust in God is unlimited. I pledge myself that as far as in me lies, where the battle is hottest and the work is hardest, there you will always find me. To you all I look for eager, adventurous co-operation, deep fellowship and willing sacrifice. Should I look for less, when the cause is so great and it is God who calls?”
These are some words from the Reverend Don Robins’ sermon preached at St George’s in Leeds on the 15th of June 1930. By the 14th of October that same year the Crypt was formally opened as a day shelter for the homeless. By the 31st of December it became a night shelter as well.
I first heard those words of Don Robins’ sermon exactly 80 years later from the day he spoke them, when I myself was about to take part in inner city mission here in Leeds. As a member of St George’s Church, I was volunteering in their community week which seeks to meet the needs of the parish. These words were read in morning worship by the Priest and she paralleled the work we were about to do to the cause Don Robins had spoken of; the act of bringing people to God and our Church, realising the demands of what it is to meet the needs of its parish. Earlier that week we had had Morning Prayer with the staff of the Crypt, as is the custom each week at St George’s. So we were praying and worshipping with those who carried out social action, day in day out. It was also a meeting of people from a variety of Christian backgrounds; the Crypt has many people from all areas of the Christian spectrum working there. In fact it has been reflected in one of my interviews that it has a very ‘ecumenical’ feel.
This attribute supports my own experiences. For instance, there is a charity in Leeds called ‘Unity and Poverty Action’ that seeks to bring together Christians working with the most impoverished people in Leeds. One thing it does is hold monthly prayer lunches at the Crypt that bring together Christians who work and volunteer in different projects across this city. These representatives give recent news to the group and say what prayer needs there are for that project. Following this we break up into smaller groups to pray together. I went to many of these meetings, and it struck me how important it is having fellowship across the Christian spectrum; they also opened my mind to the extent and variety of Christian social action for the impoverished of Leeds.
It is not only Christian charities doing this work, but also non Christian ones, and both have staff and volunteers of a faith or none. The needs of this city are still great, but many are doing so much to meet them. This is what I found more and more to be the case as my project progressed, whether I was volunteering in the Crypt, being a teacher at St George’s English classes for Asylum seekers, at a unity prayer lunch, helping Mosaic Church with their ‘on the streets prayer ministry’ for the homeless of Leeds, or at an appeal to raise money to save RETAS (an organization that seeks to provide Asylum seekers with increased skills, education and training).
Many of those who I interviewed volunteered in more than one Christian social action project across Leeds, as I myself did; for example, I interviewed someone who also volunteered at the Joanna project, a Christian project that seeks to build relationships with prostitutes who work the Holbeck area of Leeds. The charity meets them out on the streets and provides them with friendship and food, while trying to help them out of their situation. The interviewee relates that meeting the prostitutes where they were at:
“…shows that even if we don’t agree with what they are doing we still love them and are interested in them as people…It is important to be non judgemental because we need to love anybody no matter what they do, because God loves us.”
For her, it is the place of the Christian to continue to trust that “God can change these people”.
~ Thomas Britt
