Richard Seebohm
Our group met at the Methodist Church on 9 May.
The Convenor, Jon Keyworth, is seeking to arrange a social event. As in previous years, this will be held in our Meeting House garden in the afternoon of 9 July.
The Night Shelter has been less pressured than in the past, with 10 beds on offer, because there were successive occasions of two sub-zero nights, which allowed the City Council to activate its statutory ‘Severe Weather Emergency Protocol’. This aims to provide beds for all street sleepers.
The Night Shelter and the ‘Living Room’ scheme (now opening 5 days a week and not 4) have been run for a number of years by Mary Gurr (Anglican) as Chaplain to the Homeless. She would like to retire and is seeking a successor. The `Gatehouse’ project offering showers and food every day of the week is still in action. These services are part financed by CTCO, including insurance and payment of expenses. (Their serious need for volunteers to provide the services in person has come up at earlier CTCO meetings.)
CTCO is seeking a new treasurer. Colin Saunders (Unitarian) has similarly served for a long time and urgently seeks a successor. Each member church contributes £10 each year. Friends are not among the late payers, so I assume that regular arrangements exist.
A CTCO leaflet listing churches and service times is to be renewed from scratch later in the year with wider coverage; our timings will need to be checked. CTCO has signed up to a GDPR (personal data) document. Perhaps it should be filed at Forty-Three.
This year’s interfaith Friendship Walk will be at 5.45 for 6pm on Thursday 15 June. The Oxford Festival of Light is the name given to a religious moment when the city’s Christmas lights are switched on in early November. This time it may well be inter-faith.
The next meeting of CTCO will be Thursday 14 September at 43 St Giles.Our main agenda item was a presentation of the work of Oxford Street Pastors. Two speakers with their uniforms and kit were with us. They are one of the 230 separate charities run by the Ascension Trust. This has other Christian functions and is partly funded by the UK Government.
The idea is for teams of 3 or 4 pastors to operate from 10pm to 4am on Saturdays and some Fridays, in partnership with taxis, police, club managers, bus drivers etc., to provide night safety, particularly for women. Members, with good physical ability, should be in good standing with their church but not as preachers. One shift per month is the norm. Oxford badly needs more volunteers and at present can only patrol about three nights a month.
They have back packs to handle all manner of problems, ranging from flipflops for women prevented by alcohol from managing their high heels, to phone chargers, water and glasses, protein bars, and much more. They do not accept payments.
We are all asked whether our communities can offer volunteers. There is about a month of training, some residential, plus shifts as observers. I have documentation.
This Month’s Forty-Three Newsletter Contents
- July 2023
- Travelling in the Ministry
- Monthly Appeal July 2023
- Would You Like to be Interviewed by our Sunflowers?
- Churches Together in Central Oxford
- “What will we Build, You and I Together?”
- Artweeks 2023
- The Anchor Programme
- Living on the Edge – an OxFAP Update
- Oxford Open Doors Outreach Event 9 and 10 September 2023
- Some Background Papers from Local Meeting for Worship for Business on Sunday 3 June 2023
- Quaker Question and Answer – Val Ferguson
- Quakers and the Still, Small Voice
- From Quaker Faith & Practice 22.06
- Meetings for Worship July 2023
Back to July 2023 Newsletter Main Page
Forty-Three Newsletter • Number 531 • July 2023
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW
Copyright 2023, Oxford Quakers