Category Archives: downtown Madison

A prayer for Bob–A prayer for all of us

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The prayer I read at tonight’s vigil:

Gracious God, whose son Jesus Christ was born in a stable because there was no room in an inn, whose family fled violence as refugees in a foreign land, who said, “foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” we pray this evening for our friend, neighbor, our brother Bob, who was attacked while sleeping and now lies in a hospital bed near death. We ask that you surround him with your loving presence and give him healing and strength. We pray too for all of those who are providing for his care: doctors, nurses and others who tend his body, that they may have the necessary skill and wisdom but above all compassion as they care for him. We pray too for the man who attacked him, that he may seek forgiveness for whatever led him to this heinous act, and that he too might know and experience your love and grace. We lift up to you all of those who are sleeping on the streets, in their cars or in shelters this evening that their hope is kindled, their faith renewed, and that they might experience the warm embrace of a just community. We pray for all of us here, and all of those who are with us in spirit, that we may be renewed by your grace and power to speak more boldly and act more resolutely on behalf of those in our community who have no place to lay their head. We pray for this neighborhood, the city and the county, that we may create here a community in which everyone has safe shelter, food to sustain them, and we all can flourish together.

All this we ask in the name of the one who stretched his arms of love on the hard wood of the cross, even Jesus Christ, Amen.

Update on the beating victim

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In my lectionary reflections yesterday, I mentioned the severe beating Monday night of a homeless man on Capitol Square. We’re hearing today that the alleged assailant has been taken into custody. There were also stories circulating that he had died from his injuries but apparently that’s not the case.

I’ve been asked by a number of people, including the news media, if I have any more information, but I don’t. All I can say at this point is that this incident points out the absolute vulnerability of homeless people on the streets. We think about that in the winter when there are snowstorms and sub-zero temperatures. It’s true year-round, though. Sleeping on a bench, or in the grass, or hiding in the woods, you’re on your own, with the only security your personal vigilance, your fists, and if you’re lucky, a buddy or two who might also be looking out for you.

There will be a candlelight vigil this evening at 7:00 pm at the Capitol. More info on that here. He needs our prayers, and our community needs our prayers as well.

A man died on Thursday night in a homeless shelter in Madison.

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So, I saw a request on Thursday on Feeding the State Street Family’s facebook page. A blind, homeless guy needed help, specifically transportation to get him to an appointment that might eventually lead to housing. He got that help, made it to the appointment but was told to come back the next day. He spent the night in the homeless shelter. In the morning, we heard that someone died overnight in one of the shelters. A call to the coroner revealed that it was him. He had recently been in the hospital for hernia surgery and was released with his medications.

Once again, the “system” has failed someone. No, it’s not the system–it’s us. Of course all sorts of institutions bear responsibility for this: a medical system that releases patients on to the street who can’t take care of themselves; governments that cut funding, social service providers and their employees who are overburdened, under-funded, and demoralized. But the bottom line is, we are responsible for this. A society that refuses to care for those in greatest need, a society that refuses to treat everyone with dignity and provide basic services for the sick, the homeless, the hungry, is a society that is rotten at its core.

As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve begun conversations in Madison about a medical shelter. How many more people will die before that dream becomes a reality?

A man died on Thursday night in a homeless shelter in Madison. He died alone. Who mourns for him? Who mourns for us?

Visiting the day center for the first time

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Today, I made the long journey around Capitol Square to the new day center that’s been open for two weeks. I probably wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t had been given a task.

I attended the Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Council of Churches today in Waunakee. The keynote speaker was Palker Palmer and I will write about what he said in the next couple of days. This post is about something else.

We had lunch–sandwich fixings, soup, and dessert. There was a lot of bread and coldcuts left over and as we were finishing lunch one of the WCC staff members came over to me and asked if we could use the leftovers.

There’s a backstory here. People are bringing food, donations of clothing, and the like to us all of the time. These donations are intended for the men’s shelter that is housed at Grace and operated by Porchlight. Often the donations come when there is no Porchlight staff on the premises and our staff have to deliberate about what to do with the items. We have limited storage space and a lot of groups that use our kitchen and other facilities, so we can’t really accommodate large quantities of donations. But we also don’t want to turn people away when they bring things to us, or tell them to go somewhere else. So when I was asked about the food, I immediately began thinking about all of the issues related to receiving a donation of this sort. After a lengthy pause, I agreed to take the food.

By the time I moved my car to make it easier to move the donated food, I had lit on a solution. The Day Center on E. Washington needs food for the people who use its facility during the day. I knew there would be staff on hand who would tell me immediately if they could use what I brought. And it also gave me a reason to drop in and see how things were going.

So I made my way over to E. Washington Ave. this afternoon with several pounds of turkey, roast beef, and cheese, as well as lots of bread. It’s amazing. There are people in the courtyard, smoking and chatting and when you go in the door, you’re overwhelmed by the number of people in the space, talking, visiting, hanging out. The check-in desk is manned by two volunteers, who this afternoon were probably homeless people. I found Sarah Gillmore in a backroom talking with someone. I asked her about the food, and she immediately accepted it, saying “that’ll be lunch, tomorrow.” She asked if I needed help. I saw someone I knew, called him by name, and asked him to come out to the car to help me. We brought the food into the kitchen, where another volunteer, another guest, was clearly running the kitchen.

Sarah and I chatted briefly. I asked how things were going. It’s obvious that the shelter is filling an important need. I hope that politicians, media, and others will drop by and check it out. I’m sure there will be problems–any time you get that many people in a confined space for a long period of time, there will be conflict. But what struck me was the conviviality, the community that was developing. People greeted me as I came in, engaged me in conversation. They were talking together as well. Sarah seems to have things under control. One of the great things she’s doing is involving guests in the operation of the facility.

Oh, and about those donations? We’ll be directing them to the Day Center and to Feeding the State Street Family. And I hope you will send items that way, too.

It’s November 14th? Do you know where homeless people can stay warm on cold winter days in Madison?

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I don’t either; at least, not yet. This has been quite the political football or hot potato. I won’t go into the history of efforts to provide a day shelter for Madison’s homeless population this winter but here we are with temperatures in the 30s and there’s still no concrete plan in place.

But hope springs eternal. Joe Tarr is reporting that there is money in Dane County’s 2013 budget for a permanent day shelter, which they hope to open next summer. In the meantime, we’ve got another Wisconsin winter to get through. The County has been working very hard to find space and money for a temporary shelter of some sort, and right now attention is focused on property on E. Washington Ave. The county has already allocated money for its operation through March; there’s a plan in place for staffing and security.

Opposition to the proposed location comes from the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association which had to deal with the poorly planned and organized day shelter last year and have legitimate complaints. In addition, the proposed property is adjacent to an agency that works with families and children dealing with abuse. Obviously putting a day shelter in close proximity to abuse victims is not an ideal situation and it will be crucial to have adequate planning and procedures to address the neighbors’ concerns.

I am much heartened by the County’s willingness to step forward to provide both a short-term solution, and more exciting still is the prospect of a permanent facility that will connect homeless people with necessary services like laundry, showers, and storage, as well as a central location to connect with agencies and programs that can help them find more stable living situations.

Of course, there’s always the City of Madison. Mayor Soglin has opposed the county’s earlier efforts to site the day shelter. According to reports last week, the Common Council put $25,000 toward a day shelter but I don’t know if that line remains in the city’s budget.

 

2012 Rector’s Report

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Our Annual Meeting, my fourth as Rector of Grace Church, took place yesterday.

Here are excerpts of my report to the parish:

“Where Anglican tradition engages the contemporary world, Grace Church opens its doors on Madison’s Capitol Square, inviting all to join us in sharing the love of Jesus Christ in worship and in outreach to our neighbors and the world.”

Our new mission statement, appearing above and on the Annual Meeting agenda received final approval from the vestry at its October meeting. The statement was almost three years in process of development with input from vestry members, staff, and parishioners. Even Bishop Miller weighed in. The lengthy process of formulation reflects the seriousness with which those who participated in its crafting took the task, but a mission statement is not an end goal, an accomplishment. It is the articulation of who we believe we are called to be as Grace Church on Capitol Square. Now comes the greater task, living into and embodying that mission as we seek to live out and proclaim the gospel.

If there is a dominant theme in my ministry at Grace, it has to do with adapting to the rapidly changing context in which we live, both the larger culture, and more importantly, within Christianity and most particularly, within the Episcopal Church. The old certainties have given way and we are charting new territory. It’s tempting to look at the stone walls of Grace Church that have stood for more than 150 years on this corner of Capitol Square, the oldest building still standing on the square, and imagine that Grace will be here in 150 years as well. But members of our Buildings and Grounds Committee can tell you that the foundation on which those walls stand is not permanent.

The Master Plan process is one way of helping us move into the future. It is a courageous, even daring, move into the future. Our physical plant was designed with the ministry and mission needs of the nineteenth and twentieth century in mind. It no longer suits our purposes or needs. More importantly, it limits how we might engage the future and our neighborhood. It has shaped how we live in our community. The remark we so often hear from passers-by, “I walk past this building every day, but I’ve never been inside,” is more than sad; it reflects the priorities we have had—that this building exists for us and not for the city. Think about all of those marathoners or tri-athletes or visitors to Taste of Madison or Art Fair on the Square, who run or walk by the closed doors of Grace while we complain that there’s no parking. How can we connect our congregation’s life to the lives of all those who live, work, and play downtown? How can we share the good news of Jesus Christ on the sidewalks of Capitol Square, not just inside our red doors? The Master Plan and whatever renovations result from it will be a failure if we do not ask those questions as well as questions about accessibility, functionality, and attractiveness of our space.

While we work to strengthen and enhance the physical spaces of Grace Church, we also need to work on strengthening the ties of community that bind us together. Those of us involved in the Master Planning process were overwhelmed by the response and involvement of so many people in the early stages of providing input. That’s a sign of the vibrant life of our community. But we need to do more. We need to find ways of building opportunities for fellowship within the parish that go beyond coffee hour. We also need to work at deepening our relationships with Jesus Christ.

I was surprised to discover from the survey we handed out during worship services in September that more than 40% of those who responded have been attending Grace for less than five years. What are we doing to incorporate them into our parish? How are we providing opportunities to become disciples of Jesus Christ? These are urgent questions that come up again and again as I meet with newcomers who are looking for ways to get involved at Grace. I hope this will become one focus of the vestry’s activity in the coming year.

The full report (pdf) is available here: Rector’sReport_2012

Meet me in a land of hope and dreams: Springsteen and Obama in Madison

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Bruce Springsteen sang “Land of Hope and Dreams” at this morning’s rally. Here are some of the lyrics:

Oh meet me in a land of hope and dreams

This train…
Carries saints and sinners
This train…
Carries losers and winners
This train…
Carries whores and gamblers
This train…
Carries lost souls

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have some issues with President Obama’s policies and by nature and temperament, I’m not much for political rallies. In fact, I don’t know when I last attended one. I went today in part because it was two blocks away from Grace Church. But a greater factor was the promise to see Bruce Springsteen (full disclosure: his performance today is the closest I’ve been to a rock concert in a very long time, too). The Boss came out with a guitar and harmonica. He opened with “No Retreat, No Surrender” and also sang “The Promised Land” and “Land of Hope and Dreams.”

What I find compelling about Springsteen is the way in which he gave (gives) voice to a generation. Although he’s 63, the America about which he sings is not the America of the unbroken promises and possibility of a babyboomer generation that went to college, got good jobs, and are now looking forward to a leisurely retirement. His America is the rust belt, a nation populated by (mostly) men who chased a different dream, a dream of a good job on an assembly line, working for a company that would provide a good pension in retirement. That dream was shattered for the rust belt by the late 70s, and Springsteen became the poet of that lost dream.

It was almost eerie to hear “No Surrender” at today’s rally. From the 1984 album Born in the USA, in many ways it’s a typical Springsteen song, evocative of a carefree childhood and the gritty reality and broken dreams of adult life. That it was written 28 years ago was even more poignant; for over that time, the gap between the nostalgic past, the hopeful dreams of a future, and the difficult reality of life today, has only widened. I wonder if he was also alluding to the excitement and hope of 2008 and Obama’s election, and what has transpired over the past four years.

President Obama also alluded to that emotional gap between 2008 and today. Because of Springsteen, because of him naming the chasm between hope and reality, there was a very different feel at today’s rally than I expected. President Obama made his case and urged those in attendance to help turn out the vote.

In her remarks, Tammy Baldwin made the case that the two presidential candidates offer to very different visions for America–between Romney’s “you’re on your own” and Obama’s “we’re all in this together.” I think that’s right and I think that if Obama has made a mistake in this campaign, it is that he has failed to articulate what that vision is, what it means, and what the consequences of the alternative vision are. Springsteen did that, both in his music and in his remarks.

One thing that interests me is the fact that over his career, Springsteen has chronicled the lives and ethos of white working class males, a group that seems to be voting for Romney in large numbers.

But that train carries us all, saints and sinners, winners and losers, lost souls. That’s the vision of America that inspires me. And later this evening, I will be serving meals on that train, to more than a hundred homeless people, none of whom probably were at that rally.

 

What is the mayor thinking? A free ride out of town for the homeless

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Mayor Soglin has made the eye-popping suggestion to include $25,000 in the city budget to buy tickets to put homeless people on buses to their hometown. Former Mayor Dave Cieszlewicz calls him out on it here.

Soglin is convinced that Madison is a magnet for homeless people from across the country or at least across the state (or maybe Dane County).

Thinking dispassionately about the proposal and about what little Soglin has said about what he intends, raises at least several issues. First off, who would administer it and how? What would the administrative costs be? He proposes contacting relatives in the “hometown” before issuing tickets, and right there the complications would arise. There would have to be some sort of vetting process, some sort of communication between here and the proposed location, including social services, to make sure it was more than sending someone to the bus station in Chicago or Milwaukee.

If the mayor were serious about such a proposal, I would think it might require paying a professional social worker for at least a half-time job, given the numbers of homeless and the amount of necessary follow-up. And how much would a half-time salary cost? Way more than $25,000. Without that administrative structure, his program is nothing more than a free ride out of town.

Reflections on the Capitol Pride Parade

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Doug Erickson has a piece on Madison.com about the religious presence in last Sunday’s Pride Parade. He pointed out:

I counted at least 13 Madison-area churches or religious denominations with contingents of worshippers in the parade, out of 43 total parade entries. Given that some entries were a single person, such as Miss Gay Madison, it’s entirely probable a majority of parade participants were church-affiliated people.

I find that interesting and wonder what it means. Is the presence of so many religious communities in the parade a sign of our full inclusion of LGBT persons or more about competition among congregations for members and our desire to distinguish ourselves from more conservative groups?