Divinity School and Local Churches Give Services for Homeless

On a crisp Sunday afternoon, near the foot of a statue in Cambridge Common, a minister stands at a makeshift podium before a group mostly made up of homeless Cantabrigians. Together, they share the Word of God and chat over a homemade meal.

This tradition has happened every Sunday for the past seven years as the bedrock service of the Outdoor Church, an initiative started by Harvard Divinity School graduate Jedediah E. Mannis in the summer of 2003.

Mannis, a practicing attorney whose pro bono work for the homeless made him reconsider his calling, has joined forces with other Divinity School affiliates and neighborhood churches to provide outdoor prayer services and meals to the local homeless population.

Each Sunday, the Outdoor Church offers one service at 9 a.m. in Porter Square and another at 1 p.m. in Cambridge Common—to which all are welcome, according to Emma R. Crossen, a Divinity School graduate who directs the Church. For three to four hours every Sunday afternoon and evening, the ministers distribute meals as part of their walking ministry through Harvard and Central Squares.

Crossen says the meal program is relatively inexpensive to run because some of the necessary materials like sandwiches and socks are donated by local churches and Divinity School students and faculty.

Because there were no weekend meal programs for the homeless in Cambridge, the Outdoor Church decided in the spring to add a Saturday meal service to its more elaborate Sunday equivalent.

Beginning last month, Divinity School students have contributed to developing the new program, bolstering the unique combination of public service and spiritual outreach.

WALKING THE WALK

According to Kerry A. Maloney, the director of Religious and Spiritual Life at the Divinity School, her office collaborates with student organizations to provide the meals.

A given student leader serves as the “point person” each month and coordinates with eight to ten other students to create about 100 bag lunches containing a juice box, snacks, and either a roast beef, egg salad, peanut butter and jelly, or ham and cheese sandwich, she says.

Other members of the Divinity School community are contributing by foregoing one meal each week and donating the proceeds to the meal service.

As for those who handle the meal service, after a little orientation about what to expect from Mannis, the student volunteers set off into either Harvard or Central Square and walk a set path to distribute food and fresh pairs of socks.

“The logic behind the trail is to follow the benches,” Mannis says. In the winter, ATM lobbies and fast food restaurants are included in the equation, he adds.

Danyel I.R. Currie, a Divinity School student who led the last meal service, admits that she experienced some sadness on her first shift as she listened to the stories of many of the homeless people she used to pass by in Harvard Square each day.

But her participation in the meal service has changed the dynamic of her interactions with these individuals to whom she used to throw her habitual cursory smile or offer a drive-by dollar in the cup. “You feel good that you can do something, but at the same time, you recognize the limits of what you can do,” she says.

A UNIQUE PURPOSE

The uncertainty of homeless life contributes to the large variance in church attendance.

Mannis, who published a book in 2009 about his experience called “Joseph Tuckerman and the Outdoor Church,” says that though the church serves the same number of people each Sunday, the attendees are not always the same people. Of the 100 to 120 people served each week, between 20 and 30 consistently attend church service, Mannis estimates.

The number of participants has been consistent in the past four to six years. According to Mannis, people move in and out of the system, some move away, some get off the streets, new people move in, and some die. He says that about a third of the people who participate in the Outdoor Church program have been attending since 2005.

Despite the substantial ebb and flow of their work, Crossen says that the Outdoor Church is a close-knit community. Church goers often visit their members in jails or hospitals. “Word gets around fast when things happen,” Crossen says.

Wade B. Weigle, a congregant since June, says he attends services every Sunday: “It is nice to hear the word, visit, and get help with toiletries,” he says after a recent Sunday service as he enjoys an egg salad sandwich, a personal favorite of his.

The Outdoor Church also offers members red wristbands with a phone number so that church leadership can be contacted in case of emergencies.

Crossen says that though food and services are central to the Outdoor Church, it is not a typical social service program, as it also brings prayer to an often neglected population. “It does something different,” Crossen says.

—Staff writer Ekene I. Agu can be reached at ekeneagu@college.harvard.edu.