Last Night at Vestry

The second item on the agenda under New Business, was “Interfaith Hospitality Network,” a group of churches work together to provide shelter for homeless families. People in the churches volunteer to cook, spend the night, help children with homework. Each church hosts three families for a week every three months.

Vestrys are all about discussing issues at length. Immediately the questions:

What about showers? There are none at St. Dunstan’s.
What time do the children have to get up for school? Where will they bathe?

We’ll have to work out those details, Patricia agreed.

What if we got them on Christmas week or Holy Week, when things are crazy around here?

Where will they sleep? Should we bring our children to meet the families, and if so, what is appropriate to say or not to say?

We’ll work it out, Patricia said. Those are details.

We found out the families leave early in the morning—the children have to go to school, the parents are either working jobs or working with social workers to get back on their feet.

We smiled at each other as we asked these rather mundane questions. The larger issue—opening our home (St. Dunstan’s) to strangers in dire need of shelter and us. Did we want to do that?

It was unanimous—we did. But there was still one last question: Can they use the washer and dryer?

Patricia didn’t bat an eye: Yes, she said.