[Canada] Anti-poverty forum fizzles

from The Hamilton Spectator

But group feels churches will still work together
By Sharon Boase

Only three of 38 downtown churches invited to an anti-poverty forum Tuesday night attended the session.

Some were too busy tackling hunger and poverty with their own congregations to attend the meeting called to fight hunger and homelessness in the city core. Others weren't aware of the session.

But organizers aren't disheartened. They say the issue is too important to let their efforts flag.

"I'll use up some shoe leather going out and personally meeting some of these people," said Rev. Colin Cameron, who is optimistic that Hamilton churches will work together.

"They're already dealing with poverty and the needs that creates every day," said the pastor at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church. "They don't want to come out to a meeting to 'do poverty' again."

St. John's hosted the meeting in the basement of the Hughson Street North church. The city's other five Evangelical Lutheran churches attended, as did representatives of First Unitarian Church, Christ's Church Cathedral and MacNab Street Presbyterian Church.

"I was talking to folks after the meeting and I know they're really committed to making this work," said Paul Johnson, project director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, who addressed the crowd of about 40.

Convened in 2004 by the Hamilton Foundation and the City of Hamilton, the roundtable has brought together community leaders and activists to reduce poverty in Steeltown.

Local Evangelical Lutheran churches decided to get on board the anti-poverty bandwagon after reading about the scope of poverty in The Spectator.

"This congregation knows what it means to be in a foreign land," Cameron said of his members, who emigrated from 17 German-speaking nations after the Second World War.

"They know what it's like to be hungry, to be cold, to be tired," he said. "God has helped us and now we have to help the people in the community. We're God's hands and feet."

Churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and gurdwaras in the community raise and distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions, in aid to the poor each year.

"Here's an opportunity for people to put aside their differences and focus on our core, which is this desire to care for our brothers and sisters," Johnson said.

"How can you not see this as a really tantalizing connection that can be made for the roundtable?"

Clergy who couldn't make it to the meeting told The Spectator they didn't recall receiving the invitation.

"Then again, it may still be in my pile," said Rev. Wayne Irwin at Centenary United Church. "There's no bottleneck like a minister's desk."

Centenary, which runs an Out of the Cold meal program Tuesdays, tried to organize something similar a decade ago, Irwin said. It ended up creating the Ecumenical Downtown Ministries to fill the gaps between government and church supports. It has since disbanded.

"But it's so difficult with people who have different concepts even of what the church is about," Irwin said. "For them to agree on even a structure of how to function was difficult."

Bonnie Felker, executive director of Christ Church Unity, said the church is in "survival mode" as it awaits a new pastor. "But keep us in the loop."

Rev. Alison Nicholson at Olivet United Church said she and her congregation certainly didn't need to be sold on the idea of faith groups joining the poverty roundtable. It's just a question of finding the time.

Despite the limited turnout, those at Tuesday's gathering were game to talk strategy and kicked ideas around:

* Sharing volunteers between faith communities rather than reinventing a program at a neighbouring church;

* Publishing a list of charitable activities in faith institutions throughout the city as a means to promoting collaboration and avoiding duplication;

* Faith institutions giving up some of their lawns and grounds to be turned into community gardens.