Saturday breakfast at St. Stephen's

Catholic New Times, Nov 21, 2004 by Joanna Manning

It was 6:30 a.m. on a bitterly cold winter morning when volunteers for the Saturday breakfast at St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Anglican Church arrived to find an ambulance at the back door.

The lifeless body of a homeless man was being prepared for transport to the city morgue. Donald, a regular at St. Stephen's, had come to sleep on the back steps of the church that Friday night of December 4, 1999 and had frozen to death outside the door. After breakfast, we held an impromptu memorial service at the place where Donald had spent his last hours. Some student volunteers ran across the street to buy flowers, which they scattered on the steps. Krista Lewicki from Michael Power-St. Joseph's Catholic High School, was moved to write a letter that was later punished in the Toronto Star.

"Tears filled my eyes," she wrote, "but although Donald's passing upset me, it was not the reason for my tears. Why were so few people honouring a man who had died? Why did he have to die outside at the church steps? And why, in the season of goodwill towards others, did Donald's death go unknown?"

Donald and others like him come to St. Stephen in the Fields every Saturday and Sunday, when breakfast is served to about 100 people, 52 weeks of the year. A group of teachers and lawyers run the Saturday breakfast. On Sunday, members of the congregation organize the meal. The clientele is as diverse as the city of Toronto itself. And each guest has a story to tell. Judy, for instance, was born in the 1930s on a farm in Poland. Her family had to run--first from the Nazis and then from the Communists. She eventually found refuge in Canada. Judy lived out her memories on the streets of Toronto, dragging her meagre possessions behind her in a buggy; a bag lady, forever on the move. She liked meeting students at the breakfast and she took the leftover crusts of bread to feed her beloved birds.

Judy died of a heart attack on the steps of the Scott Mission in March, 2004.

The streets of this Kensington Market neighbourhood are the milieu where many of our clients live and some of them die. St. Stephen's, no longer "in the fields," is at a crossroads in the city, often the boundary between life and death, earth and heaven. It is also a place of meeting for people along the journey of faith, and sometimes of conversion into mature Christian witness and mission. Many of our clients ask to talk to a priest, seeking more than bread. Some of them have been recently released from jail and are seeking reconciliation with God and the support of the

"Church as they embark on a fresh start. If space in the hall becomes too tight, we send the overflow into the nave of the church itself. Sometimes patrons place their plates right on the altar and sit down to eat.

Youth volunteers come from Toronto high schools or from the nearby U of T campus. The Centre for Student Missions also sends groups from small towns in Ontario as part of their inner-city immersion retreats. St. Stephen's provides a unique opportunity for young people to meet and talk with homeless men and women, refugees and other marginalized people. It dispels negative stereotypes they may have about homeless people. It awakens them to the implications of adult Christian identity.

The poor have a particularly graced presence, because it is through them that Jesus has promised us that we shall encounter Him. Serving at the breakfast fosters an interaction between inner city and suburbs, where the eyes of the spiritually blind are opened and those who have been deaf to God's call to justice can unclog their ears and unseal their hearts.

Taking the step from charity to justice is crucial. After breakfast, volunteers assemble for debriefing and prayer. We ask them to consider how government policies affect the homeless and then to think about casting their votes in solidarity with Jesus, who walks the streets of the city today in the guise of the poor. We encourage them to talk with family and classmates about their experience, and to speak up when they hear people criticize refugees or people on welfare.

"As a member of the next generation," said Krista in her letter, " I learned today at St. Stephen's that I should always follow my heart and treat every human being with dignity, respect and love, keeping in mind that the world is an insecure place and I, too, could one day be in a position of need."

On Sundays, the door of this church is open to the street all day, with three services offered in the morning, afternoon and evening for the English, Francophone African and Latin American congregations. Street people often wander in during these Sunday services, reminding the congregation that the Eucharist is an inclusive banquet where Christ welcomes all as honoured guests at His table.

Once a homeless man came in, drank the wine that had been set out for the offertory, then left. The altar server smiled, shrugged and replaced the contents of the cruet.

Thus is the Sabbath observed at St. Stephen's

Joanna Manning is a Toronto-based writer. St. Stephen's needs more adult volunteers. If you can help at the outreach breakfast, please call 416-599-1244.