The Spirit of St. Lawrence
A Reflection by Deacon Robert Kinghorn
What are you doing in this bad part of the city?
I looked around and saw a young man bent over and out of breath, his roller-blade wheels still spinning in the dark of the evening.
He had seen my clerical collar. The “bad part of the city” he referred to is a Toronto neighbourhood known as “the track,” where prostitution is open and drugs are barely concealed.
I told him I come downtown every week to walk around and chat with people on the street. He wished me a good evening and took off.
The question is haunting. Not in its simplicity, but in its challenge. What am I doing in the bad part of the city? Why are people surprised to see the Church in the “bad part of the city”?
Where else should we be?
My ministry as a Deacon is to be a presence on the streets of downtown Toronto.
Thursday nights I can be found on streets that some consider bad parts of the downtown core. Even there, miracles abound and are just awaiting discovery.
It started in 2004 when I was driving in the downtown area at 1 a.m. to take someone home. The streets were wet and, under a dim light, shadowy figures were negotiating a prostitution deal.
As I surveyed the street, people were scurrying to and fro, some disposing of garbage while others were rummaging through it looking for food and clothes. Still others were clearly on drugs as they purposefully walked and waved their arms as if swatting at imaginary flies.
“The people of the night,” I thought to myself, “this is their existence.”
So where is the Church? I knew the Church was in the drop-in centres such as Good Shepherd Refuge, St. Francis Table and Yonge Street Mission, caring for those who needed food and shelter – but where is the Church on the Street?
