Saturday 28 August 2010

Rough sleepers

Over the years we've had a lot of rough sleepers. There are two churches in this parish. One of them, down on the creek at St Just is always locked at night because it's so remote. The other one in the town is always left open. We have had men who come for their holidays every summer and sleep at the back of the church. My husband then the church warden never minded this if they were careful not to leave litter behind. Many of them used to stay for Sunday services and joined in with gusto. One with a guitar used to play when it was an all age service and the guitar was left at the back of the church quite safely through the week.
Our current rough sleeper though is causing ripples of dismay. He's been there for a week and has found the house of the new churchwarden who is a rather frail older lady. She has given him a mattress and a blanket so far but last night he came back to complain that the blanket was musty and he needed a pillow.
She has no previous experience of how to deal with this and is now quite frightened. I got to church early this morning and he had gone leaving his
bag and bedding neatly stacked behind the font.
She wants to ring the police. I am reluctant to give the impression that we want him thrown out of the church. In the end it's her decision. I am going to do the 9.30 there in the morning. I'll try to talk to him then. P


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