wfn.org | FEATURE: 'Toothpaste for Lake, Razor for Ken'

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

FEATURE: 'Toothpaste for Lake, Razor for Ken' - Vancouver
Lutherans' Way of Doing Mission
Where Meals are Shared not Dispensed, All Welcome to Celebrate the
Eucharist

VANCOUVER, Canada, 3 April 2003 (LWI) - The people gathered around
the altar to celebrate Holy Communion on this day are a diverse
group. An elderly woman, a lifelong church member from a
prosperous area of the city, passes the bread to a middle-aged,
rough-shaven, homeless man who struggles with alcohol addiction. A
nervous teen-aged girl who has come here with her youth group
passes the cup to a stooped, gray-haired woman who collects empty
cans to earn her living. Young and old, poor and rich, hopeful and
desperate - all are gathered together at a typical Saturday
morning meal with the Vancouver Lutheran Urban Mission Society
(LUMS).

LUMS aims "to serve God by being a prophetic, Eucharistic
community that connects the church at large with the urban poor."
Supported by local congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran in
Canada (ELCIC), the organization ministers in Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside, Canada's poorest neighborhood. Homelessness, violence,
drug and alcohol addiction, and prostitution are all commonplace
here.

In keeping with its mission statement, LUMS provides "physical and
spiritual works of mercy, including comprehensive pastoral care to
the disenfranchised and marginalized of our society; human and
material resources; and opportunities for education and training
in ministry."

A Steady Stream of Visitors Seeking Basic Necessities

LUMS is served by a 'street priest,' Rev. Brian Heinrich, an ELCIC
pastor. He writes: "Almost daily the door of our tiny office is
besieged by a steady stream of visitors for the basic necessities
of everyday life: toothpaste for Lake. Ken could use a razor. Oh,
and by the way, do we have any shoes? Garth is looking for clean
underwear and a bus ticket. Dave, a pair of clean socks and a
towel. Band aids. Blankets for the teenage girls on the church
stoop who were puncturing their limbs with needles as I walked
into the church earlier this morning: 'Good morning, father!'
After Eucharist on Tuesday evening I take Holy Communion to Jeff
in St. Paul's hospital with infection spread throughout his body
due to his long-term HIV/AIDS, then anoint him with oil... Hugging
Glenda and her sister-in-law on the street at Victory Square even
though they both reek of alcohol. Praying with Howie in our tiny
office as he struggles to be [drug free], his second week.
Listening attentively to Kevin as he confesses his Fifth Step
toward sobriety.

"It is always today's new crisis. The urgency of basic
necessities. Why should we bother supplementing the needs of folks
who are already receiving public benefits, and granted, not even
managing these well? Because the Master seeks to surprise us in
these, His 'least' siblings. They are our opportunity to
practically incarnate His Gospel in this least place."

People from area parishes, who ordinarily have little or no
contact with Downtown Eastside residents, have an opportunity to
connect with the 'least' of their brothers and sisters at the
bi-monthly LUMS Saturday morning meal - for mutual healing. During
the event, church, school, and youth groups prepare a full-course
meal complete with home-baked cookies for dessert, and serve it to
an average of 300 guests from the neighborhood. Volunteers do not
merely dispense food, but sit down to eat and visit with the
guests.

A Eucharistic Celebration to Which All are Invited, Not Compelled

The meal is always preceded by a Eucharistic celebration to which
all are invited but not compelled. All of LUMS' activities are
seen as extensions of Christ's hospitality, described in so many
Gospel stories, and embodied in the event of Holy Communion.  LUMS
extends the open and inclusive welcome of Christ, and sets a table
at which all are welcome to dine, creating a healing community in
the process.

Heinrich says, "One of the best things about LUMS, I think, and
[many people keep telling me] this, is that we are not a big
institution. We are a human-sized community, a family. Volunteers
who participate in our mission get to know folks from the
neighborhood on a first-name basis and develop personal
relationships with them. This is one of the strengths and gifts of
our community. It is how we have chosen to do mission."

(Contributed by Kristian Wold, a student at the Lutheran
Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is LWF's information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where
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