ECCLESIAL SCRUTINY – CHURCH-BASED ENGAGEMENT WITH HOMELESSNESS IN THE INNER CITY OF TSHWANE

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FROM VISION TO ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES: INNER CITY CHURCH AND HOMELESS PEOPLE JOURNEYING TOGETHER SHOULDER TO SHOULDER

INTRODUCTION

This penultimate chapter focuses on the final research sub-question of the study, which reads:
What is an alternative theological vision and linked strategies that flow from the above understandings, which can achieve a compelling journey for both the inner city church and homeless people – facing each other to negotiate change? (1.3.1).
Arising from this research question, there are two areas that need to be developed:

An urban theological vision for the inner city church and homeless people in the inner city of Tshwane.
Alternative strategies for both the inner city church and homeless people, building on the above urban theological vision.
Inherent in the question there is also the assumption that the inner city church and homeless people need to journey together, shoulder to shoulder, in the struggle to overcome homelessness, following the values of social holiness and Christian hospitality generated in Chapter Four (section 4.2). This conversation is an open process, which draws on Chapter Three (section 3.2), which acknowledged the work of Christian FBO initiatives as expression of the inner city church’s holistic response to the issues affecting homeless people in the inner city of Tshwane (Chapter Two). It is helpful to say, at this point in the overall flow of the thesis (and in light of the underlying logic of the Pastoral Circle, that this chapter continues the theological reflection started in Chapter Four and takes it one step forward into reflection on ministry strategies. The “planning” stage in the Pastoral Circle (Chapter One, section 1.5.4) is applied here to discern strategies and concrete actions in response to inner city homelessness. Strategies under debate are predominantly developed from (1) the researcher’s conversations with homeless people, the key role players and inner city practitioners (as in Chapter Two); (2) inner city ecclesial scrutiny raised in Chapter Three, and (3) a theological conversation with the Wesleyan tradition in Chapter Four. At a later stage of planning, strategies are structurally interlinked and developed under alternative urban theological vision for both the church and homeless people facing each other to address homelessness the inner city of Tshwane.

AN URBAN THEOLOGICAL VISION: HOMELESS PEOPLE

This section presents an urban theological vision for the church to journey with homeless people in their own struggle to achieve a better life in the inner city of Tshwane. An urban theology which comes into play here is informed by the Wesleyan call of the church to participate in “restoring a forsaken beauty” or “perfect love” as captured through the theological scrutiny in Chapter Four. Two key aspects involved in constructing urban theological vision to address homelessness are identified and developed at this point.

Social holiness and Christian hospitality: welcoming homeless people

The first aspect of urban theological vision is to uphold values of social holiness and Christian hospitality to create communion and mutuality between homeless people and the church in the inner city of Tshwane. In unpacking this position, the researcher is on the same track as Hankela (2014:10), one of the latest researchers dedicated to the inner city church’s response to homelessness. She has constructed her urban theological vision using the case of the Central Methodist Mission (CMM) in Pritchard Street, central Johannesburg. It is reported that the church offered refuge to homeless refugees and local homeless migrants who initially had nowhere else to turn. Krista Kuljian (2013) narrates how the church’s welcoming of homeless people triggered divisions within and outside its boundaries:
When the xenophobic violence erupted in Johannesburg in May 2008, there were more than a thousand migrants living in the church, most of them having fled the political violence and poverty in Zimbabwe. This crush of people living in unsanitary conditions eventually attracted criticism from inside the church, as well as from its neighboring businesses.
Hankela uses the church’s inhospitality to develop her own urban theological vision. Her research focus is about a quest for a “more human face” (Ubuntu) to address “exclusionary boundaries… between a local inner city church and homeless people.”
This same research draws on the work of Kuljian, which the researcher also noticed was reviewed and published in the Methodist Recorder by Brown (2013). The main intention behind his efforts is to denounce the Methodist Church’s decision to confront its local bishop for using his call to welcome homeless people, despite internal oppositions. After assessing the whole scenario, Brown undertakes to make a declaration in favour of these homeless people and calls on the church to be considerate and more human. He defends his theological position, reminding the church that:
Sanctuary restores one’s faith. Not in the hierarchy of the Church, whose action of suspending Verryn from CMM duties was shameful. The faith-renewing aspect is bound up with the prophetic figures who allowed the Spirit of God to use bricks and mortar to offer sanctuary, justice, compassion and hope…
It is inspiring that the above theological assessment combines the ideals of justice, compassion and hope, which add value to this debate of searching for an urban theological vision for the inner city church’s ministry in the midst of homelessness. The researcher’s urban theological vision takes this same route, which agrees with social holiness and Christian hospitality, practised to offer hope in a situation of despair. This view is further developed and shaped by the church’s struggle to find its theological identity to journey with inner city homeless people and poor people in general. Davey (2001:39) predicts more challenges lying ahead as a result of the church’s indifference in the midst of a crisis of human vulnerability:
A church that fails to realize its potential in this new context will find itself more and more reduced to individualistic pietism and dogmatic introspection. The church needs to understand and realize its potential as it connects and affirms the communities and individuals in the margins of the global city, communities which comprise significant numbers of women, minorities and migrants – those who really do live on the faultlines and in the back alleys of the new global order.
After making the above judgment, he adds that the urban church’s contribution should include its “presence and witness in the ‘back alley’.” The researcher argues that the element of “presence” is part of an urban theological vision to create alternative ways for the church to be truly in communion with people at the margins of the city without adequate support for them to overcome their vulnerability. With this shift, “exclusionary boundaries” between the inner city church and homeless people are addressed and a new relationship is fostered. This new step becomes a good indicator of urban mission practice and church growth that J.J. Kritzinger (1988:70) presents in terms of launching community projects emulating the model of Jesus:
But, like Jesus who came not to be served, but to serve and was involved with the total man [woman] in need, the church’s mission should also have Christian service…it should involve itself with the immediate needs of people on a micro scale, but it will do less than its duty if it does not involve itself also with those factors (people as well as structures) which cause the situation of need.
In taking further steps to present an urban theological vision which builds good relationship with homeless people, the researcher asserts that J.J. Kritzinger’s thought on Christian service should be conceptualised, following a style of practising a “hospitable table” in the face of “complicated misery”, as echoed in the previous chapter (sections 4.1). From that conversation with the Wesleyan tradition, it was recorded that the invitation for the church to partake in eradicating slavery and human vulnerability in general was propelled by the theological values of social holiness and the expression of Christian hospitality. Wesley qualified this process in terms of “perfect love” supported by the art of the “primary religion.” His main concern arose from the fact that these values needed to be recovered and taken seriously in the life of the church as a point of entry to address human vulnerability, hence the “restoration of forsaken beauty.”
From the above insights, the researcher then realises that the values of social holiness and Christian hospitality strengthen mutual relationship which build communion between the inner city church and homeless people. This vision becomes a theological tool to work towards breaking down walls of wrong perceptions and myths that are held against homeless people, as already outlaid in Chapter Three (section 3.2.2.3). In this process, Bouma-Prediger and Walsh (2008:198) make an invaluable contribution through their interpretation of the closing scenes of the award-winning movie Places in the Heart, which brings to light different faces of homeless people:
Everyone, even the dead, is present in the little church, giving and receiving from each other the holy sacrament and offering the peace of God. [Peace of God be with you] Young widows, and fatherless children, blind war vets and money grubbing bankers, adulterers and killers, homeless women and Klansmen, black folks, and white folks.., ‘This is, after all, what human life is for, this culmination of fellowship, reconciliation, and delight in the fullness of God’s blessing.
PohI (2006:9) supports the above opinion by challenging the church to go to a different level in its service to reach out to even “those most likely to be overlooked, anticipating that it might be Jesus it were welcoming…” Crucial in the above theological contention is the church expressing hospitality and communion to all people in the community. To state this point differently, for the church to adopt “welcoming Jesus” means that it will be in a position of integrating the poor and vulnerable people, irrespective of their backgrounds and what has caused their vulnerability. Voiles (2007:197-198) makes a contribution to this process by challenging the church to strive for unity and make sacrifices to restore the heart of the community:
In participating in the Hospitality of the Trinity, through Christ, in the Spirit we will make space in our lives, in our conversation, in our homes, at our tables for the other, the mirror, the windows through which we see God’s beauty, the mirrors which reflect Trinitarian Glory and often this will be the least of these, those who are different from us, those we do not like… those who are the poor, the oppressed, the dead and the damned. May we as Christ’s Body immerse ourselves in this eikonic practice. May our lives as the Body and individual bodies be the mirrors of the Infinite Hospitality of the Trinity. May we as these mirrors which create an expansive depth be the eikonic windows into the Kingdom where … the poor are blessed, the hated are loved, the naked are clothed, the sinners are forgiven … and the dead are raised… Amen.
The above extract is a prayer of commission and agenda for the church in general. This interpretation aligns with insights from Gathogo (2003:78) that the divine unity will guide the church to enter into the community with an open heart to address social divides and to truly become the host of the people who are branded ‘strangers.’ They demonstrate what should be the normal practice in the church when it comes to encountering vulnerable people: “This stranger is welcomed with nice words of comfort, and then supplied with warm water and soap to bath, then served with food and drinks and finally given shelter in case it is late in the night.”
The researcher’s personal response in relation to the main study theme is that the expression of hospitality and communion with homeless people cannot be benchmarked against simple provision of a meal and overnight shelter. From an economic point of analysis, Wesleyan interpreters like Pohl (2006:7-8) engage the church to be open to “grand hospitality” to pursue social arrangements which promote bonds between rich and poor people, hence “perfect love.” The spirit of “grand hospitality” and its perspectives is further fostered turning to the work of Vanier (2003:321) who argues that:
We have to be truly present, in communion, with each other because we are in communion with Jesus. And that is feast and celebration. This communion, this celebration is time for nourishment. We become bread for each other because God became bread for us; it is a meal at the heart of the community. Sacrifice is always at the centre of the community life, because it has to do with the sacrifice of our own interests for those of others, as Jesus sacrificed his life so that we could receive the Spirit.

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CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION – RESEARCH BACKGROUND
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION TO CONDUCT THE RESEARCH
1.3 RESEARCH PROBLEM AND OBJECTIVES
1.4 META-THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS
1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
1.6 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS ARISING FROM ABOVE BROADER METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
1.7 ETHICAL STANDARDS AND CONSIDERATIONS
1.8 OUTLINE OF THE CHAPTERS
1.9 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER TWO: CONTEXT ANALYSIS: HOMELESS PEOPLE IN THE INNER CITY OF TSHWANE
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 EXTENT OF HOMELESSNESS IN THE INNER CITY OF TSHWANE
2.3 INTERVIEW FINDINGS
2.4 FIVE MAIN CAUSES OF HOMELESSNESS IDENTIFIED
2.5 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER THREE: ECCLESIAL SCRUTINY – CHURCH-BASED ENGAGEMENT WITH HOMELESSNESS IN THE INNER CITY OF TSHWANE
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 THE ECCLESIAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE STUDY
3.3 THE “INNER CITY CHURCH” JOURNEYING WITH HOMELESS PEOPLE
3.4 TWO KEY ASPECTS OF CHURCH AND HOMELESS PEOPLE
3.5 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER FOUR THEOLOGICAL SCRUTINY: A CONVERSATION WITH THE WESLEYAN TRADITION
4.1. INTRODUCTION .
4.2 TWO BASIC VALUES EMBEDDED IN THE WESLEYAN TRADITION
4.3 THREE KEY GROUNDS FOR PASTORAL PRACTICE: POOR AND VULNERABLE PEOPLE
4.4 FIVE ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES: JOURNEYING WITH POOR AND VULNERABLE PEOPLE
4.5 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER FIVE: FROM VISION TO ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES: INNER CITY CHURCH AND HOMELESS PEOPLE JOURNEYING TOGETHER SHOULDER TO SHOULDER.
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 AN URBAN THEOLOGICAL VISION: HOMELESS PEOPLE
5.3 FROM VISION TO ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES
5.4 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER SIX: GENERAL CONCLUSION
6.1 INTRODUCTION
6.2 SYNTHESIS AND THE WAY FORWARD
6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE WAY FORWARD
LIST OF REFERENCES