Lent 2012
These resources are intended to provide information for Churches supporting Emmaus UK during Lent 2012.
Notes for preaching
Lent
Lent is a journey of deepening reflection, prayer and discipline which leads Christians to the great festival of new life at Easter. For many Christians, the tradition of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are part of the discipline of Lent. Fasting during Lent is an action of solidarity with those who have no choice.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him (Ps 34.6)
During Lent many Christians follow a traditional discipline of fasting from food or drink. For example, “giving up” chocolate or alcohol is a kind of fasting while others may give up a meal on one or more days during the week. Saying “no” to what we are allowed strengthens us to say “no” to what we are not allowed, building up our strength to make right choices. Fasting during Lent also helps us to value the gifts that we are given, the food so readily available, the water on tap; so different from millions of people around the world for whom food is a daily struggle and water a journey away.
Fasting during Lent is an action of solidarity with those who have no choice.
Forgiving Father
Abbé Pierre, the founder of Emmaus, treasured a small reproduction of the famous painting by Rembrandt pictured above. He kept this image close by him until his death on 2007.
The forgiving father treats his son with dignity and great love not punishment - such is God’s love for each of us.
This image recalls the welcome Abbé Pierre gave to Georges (see story below) and other Companions when setting up Emmaus in France in 1949.
Yes, I shall arise and return to my Father, I shall get up and go to my Father (Luke 15)
Background on Emmaus
Emmaus was founded by a French priest who insisted that it should be a non-religious movement so that it would be open to all from whatever background or race or tradition.
Emmaus is an international movement present in nearly 400 projects in almost 36 countries working to provide homeless people with a new opportunity
Abbé Pierre - Founder of Emmaus (5 August 1912-22 January 2007)
Born in 1912, Henri Groue was brought up in a well to do family in Lyons, France. His father, a wealthy silk trader, volunteered each week visiting a homeless shelter - he was the barber for those who wanted a haircut. Henri sometimes went with his father.
After school Henri joined a Franciscan Community of priests and brothers. He was ordained a priest in 1938 but in 1939, with health problems, he left the Franciscans to be a hospital chaplain and diocesan priest.
When the Second World War came he worked closely with the Resistance - helping Jews and others to escape across the border into Switzerland or into Spain.
After the war, recognised as a popular hero, he was elected a Deputé in the French Parliament voicing concerns for the post-war unemployed drifting from the countryside to Paris who could find no affordable homes.He used his own salary to build homes for the homeless.
One night, in 1949, Abbe Pierre was called from his home in Paris to a man who was attempting suicide on the banks of the Seine. Georges wrote afterwards that Abbé Pierre saved his life. He didn’t try to give him reasons not to commit suicide but Abbé Pierre asked for his help.
Abbé Pierre told Georges there were poor people needing home and he could help them
Abbé Pierre gave him a reason to live. He told him he was needed.
“Whatever else he might have given me - money, home, somewhere to work - I’d have still tried to kill myself. What I was missing, and what he offered, was something to live for.”
In Paris in 1949, Georges said “Yes” to Abbé Pierre’s request. Georges worked with Abbé Pierre building homes on any bit of spare land they could beg, borrow or occupy!
Georges found a meaning and a purpose in life by helping others. That insight of Abbé Pierre is the core of every Emmaus Community. Where people who have been homeless work together to help those in greater need.
Each is called
I am reminded of the church that was bombed during the WWII, you , may have heard the story, the church was almost completely destroyed.
In the rubble the Cross was found but the arms of the figure of Jesus on the Cross were broken off.
When the church was rebuilt after the war the Cross was restored to its place in the church; the same cross with the arms broken off.
And under the cross was written, “I have no other arms...but yours”.
We are his body the church (1 Corinthians 12:6, 27; Ephesians 4:12-13; Ephesians 5:30; Colossians 1:18).
In the words from Matthew’s Gospel we are judged by our actions towards the poor and needy. It is not just about judgement at the end of our lives! We might read it like this:
Today the Son of Man is seated on the throne of Glory. And the King says to me, I need YOU to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to welcome the stranger and I must answer “Yes” or “No”
An Emmaus Community in the UK today
In the UK today it is estimated that there are some
• 6,000 people who sleep rough
• 50,000 hostel users each year
• and an unknown number of “sofa surfers” staying in a friends home
and all are homeless.
Homelessness not just being without a bed. It is usually the result of:
• Breakdown of relationships
• Death of a parent
• Abuse as a child
• Learning difficulties
• Multiple needs
• Institutionalisation many have been in the armed services
• Many with long term needs
or a combination of two or three of these factors.
Isn’t it an indictment of any society that the outcasts have nowhere else but to live on the streets?
Work done with rough sleepers in London in recent years shows that no one chooses to live on the street they are there because they have nowhere to fit in.
Hostels provide emergency accommodation but they can be soulless, empty places, with nothing to do during the day. Emmaus offers a long-term solution of accommodation and work.
Every homeless person who comes to an Emmaus Community starts work on the first day. Working together is at the heart of an Emmaus project. it provides purpose and dignity as well as funding the project.
The work is the collection and sale of household goods which also has the effect of recycling and saving tonnes from landfill.
And more, every Emmaus Community saves around £600k in public spending each year.
Although founded on Christian principles by Abbé Pierre, he insisted that Emmaus should be a non-religious organisation in constitution, governance and staffing.
It is open to all.
• In each Emmaus project there are about 25 Companions (as residents are called)
• Work from 9am to 5pm - 5 days work
• Community leader & staff(off-site)
• Time off - have allowance - go to pub
• No alcohol - no drugs in Community
• No personal benefits
Life in an Emmaus Community is a long-term solution to homelessness and an opportunity for homeless people to change their lives.
In the first Community in Paris Abbé Pierre went out with the Companions to collect rags and household goods around the city. His motto for the Community was:
“We are not beggars”
and the founding principle was, and is, to serve first those who are in greatest need
That means that the Companions decide how to use any “balances” in the business to help those in need.
In Preston it is helping local poorer families, in Plumstead they give away furniture to needy families, in Cambridge it is giving to needy projects for homeless people in Poland.
For someone who has been a rough sleeper to be able to decide how to give away £60,000 is an enormous change of mindset. From begging for small change on the street to being a donor... to change the lives of others.
Work, dignity, self-respect - all these are what an Emmaus Community gives to homeless people as well as accommodation.
How Communities begin:
• Volunteer groups
• Supported by Emmaus Federation
• Register as Charity
• Develop links with local authority and other agencies
• Search for a property
• Fundraise
• Make plans
• Build/ Refurbish
• Set up business
• Open Community
Compiled by Kieran Kettleton, Head of Fundraising, Emmaus UK.
