MOUNT VERNON — Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Columbus was the central Ohio setting for a memorial service on Thursday evening. Across the nation, churches, shelters and organizations held the annual interfaith memorial service for homeless persons who died in 2008.
“We welcome you to a memorial service for the homeless who have died,” said the Rev. Richard A. Burnett, Trinity’s rector, as he welcomed a small crowd, “who died in our streets, in our neighborhoods, in our fields and under bridges in the past year ... they were born like the holy child into poverty and they died like him in loneliness and poverty.”
As Trinity’s bell tolled for each one, the names of 36 men, women and children were read and a candle lit in the sanctuary.
“And one for all those whose names we do not know,” intoned the reader as the bell tolled a final time.
With volunteers here hoping to prevent such a service ever being needed in Knox County, the new Sanctuary men’s homeless shelter, based at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church parish house on East High Street, begins its third week on Monday. It accepts overnight guests between 10 and 11 p.m., serves breakfast and coffee, and sends the men out by 7 a.m. with warm clothing and dry socks.
Randy Canterbury, the St. Paul’s member who first proposed the shelter, said the planning and implementation have been gratifying. Although the shelter has served just three people, he said it quickly became a resource for those in need and has also brought volunteers together.
“What’s so amazing about this,” Canterbury said on Thursday at the shelter, “is that we don’t care if we house another homeless person, or if anyone comes in tonight. This experience has been wonderful that we could ever pull so many churches together for one common cause.
“Some people get disappointed, but you know what? We’re not filling up this place, but we have helped people.”
Canterbury told of a distraught man who came to the shelter.
“All he wanted to do was talk. He just wanted someone to listen. He didn’t want to stay overnight because he felt he’d hit rock-bottom, that by staying he would somehow be admitting defeat. But he finally did decide to stay.”
Although the shelter can serve only men right now, due to being housed in a single room, volunteers were also able to help a homeless woman by directing her to Interchurch Social Services and giving her a voucher for a motel room.
The best way to get news of the shelter out is word-of-mouth, said Canterbury.
“Homeless people don’t usually get to read the newspaper and watch TV,” he said.
And also, he said, it is important for the homeless to trust the volunteers and be convinced the shelter is safe.
“We turn down the lights,” Canterbury said, “and we have as few volunteers as possible. For them to walk into a place with a bunch of people and bright lights on is overwhelming and scary. Everybody means well, but it’s totally uncomfortable for them. But we trust that the volunteers know what to do and say to make them feel comfortable.”
The 50 volunteers are from all walks of life, some from churches and some who don’t consider themselves people of faith. More Kenyon College and Mount Vernon Nazarene University students are expected to volunteer after they return from Christmas break. Canterbury said six volunteers are already signed up to staff the shelter on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
Donors have given blankets, pillows, washcloths, coffee and hot chocolate, oatmeal and juice, hats, gloves, socks and cots, walkie-talkies and a computer for record-keeping.
“People bring food we can put in the refrigerator,” he said. “We make sure the guests get a list of the churches that serve hot meals each night. And the guys at Marion Correctional Institution are just as excited about this as we are. They’re putting together a software program just for the shelter. They realize that when people get out of prison, if they don’t have family, where are they going to go?”
Canterbury is a training officer at Marion Correctional Institution.
The Kenyon community recently knitted scarves for the shelter, and the Mount Vernon Players raised more than $200 during a performance last week. Canterbury said he and the volunteers find the outpouring of concern from the public very gratifying.
As Canterbury spoke to the News, a woman asked if she could make a donation. She explained that her brother had once been homeless and she wanted to donate in his honor.
“If we help one person,” Canterbury said, “it was well worth it. As long as the volunteers are willing to sit here and wait for someone to come in, the shelter will stay open.”
