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 second of three articles, all of which are featured in Network Leeds.
I spent one early evening with the Mosaic homeless outreach. They walk the high streets of Leeds giving food and drink to the homeless, befriending them, as well as praying for their needs. At first I remember being a bit reticent, because I really did not feel comfortable with praying in the middle of Briggate Road, and then it struck that in God’s service he calls us to act out of our comfort zones. What this experience made me realise is that the homeless did have many prayer needs, from housing, to healing, to relationship trouble, and that many of them wanted such needs met with prayer.
From my experiences at the Crypt, prayer was used differently. I imagine that many of the Christian volunteers pray for clients, but I never saw them laying their hands on them as these Christians from Mosaic Church were, after having directly asked for their prayer needs. It would be the Chaplain alone who would do this. Prayer is also used in prayer diaries, in which Christians across the Christian community pray for the clients, the volunteers, and the organisation and its needs.
A clear similarity between the work of Mosaic and St. George’s Crypt is the relational side. I saw conversation as the basis of everything I did at the Crypt. But this was not to say it was easy. At times, it struck me how little life experience I shared with the clients, not to mention the fact the some of them were criminals and had serious mental and behavioural problems. One volunteer remarked that clients do try to scare you with what they have done at times, and the detail they use in such instances can be hard to bear. This volunteer said that the client leads the conversations; I also saw this to be true. I remember so often a conversation started very simply with a client, about their day or about such and such, and them proceeding to lead the conversation in the directions they wanted to. Conversations were so varied. One client in conversation with me started with their feelings about the new Crypt, later went on to how much they thought newly trained doctors were incompetent, and ending on their passion for being artistic!
For one volunteer, befriending the client is:
“Sharing God’s love in a practical way, in being there, drawing alongside people, listening to them, befriending them, accepting them as they are…’
In meeting the needs of clients, Jesus and his ministry was the main source of inspiration as one volunteer states:
“… He got to know them, he got to know their needs and he held out that hand of hope. To each and every person he met…as far as I’m concerned everyone is welcome (pauses) here. If they have got faith, no faith, different faith, doesn’t matter….We hold out the hand of Christ to them in friendship, welcome, care and compassion.”
The Crypt’s take on Christianity is very inclusive. I remember once taking part in an Ash Wednesday service; the congregation was made up of an old lady, a transsexual, a number of Muslims, Christians, volunteers and a couple of street drinkers. I had celebrated that service many times before, but I remember that there and then its message really bore home to me; that sin is death and the cross is life. Our common mortality was enforced and the offer of new life was powerfully and inclusively made.
A comparison can be made here with Matthew 9 verses 10-14, when Jesus is sat having a meal with many tax collectors and sinners, as well as his disciples. The Pharisees question why he is having a meal with sinners and he says “For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners”. The fact that Jesus says this suggests mainly two things; that Jesus calls all of us because we are all sinners, but also that he especially calls the ones whom society views more negatively as greater sinners, as Jesus states in Matthew 12: “Those who are well have no need for the physician, but those who are sick.” Jesus’ rhetoric is left hanging there and the audience – be this the Pharisee, the disciple, the tax collector or today’s Christian, must interpret the meaning. Jesus was among many things a physician. He healed people; this ‘heart for healing’ is another aspect of his ministry that one of those I interviewed placed much importance upon as he reflected: “Jesus cared for the outsider, the prostitute, the leper”.
~ Thomas Britt
