Cathedral Archer Project

Canon Reverend Dr Paul Shackerley

It was November 5^th 2002 and the sky was filled with firework colours as I travelled up the M1 motorway from Essex. Since 1999, I made the journey many times to the University of Sheffield for supervision for my PhD. Earlier that day the removal men filled the van with my worldly possessions. I set out, northward bound for Sheffield, with the vacuum cleaner, groceries, and an overnight case in my car. It is a dramatic memory, mixed with excitement and uncertainty. Four days later I was installed as a Residentiary Canon and started work on November 9^th.

I am excited about the people and experiences that have shaped my life that led me to Sheffield. I was born and grew up in Tredegar, South Wales, until I was 18 years of age, when I joined the British Army Medical Corps. In 1983 I was employed by the Church as a layman to work in a variety of fields, including homeless hostels, youth and children’s work. Eleven years later I was ordained as a priest in the Church of England. And so, in 2002, I started my work in Sheffield Cathedral, which had an exciting vision and a heart of justice among the most marginalized people of a city.

I have witnessed many changes in my seven years of office. In 2002 the project was much smaller. It had a very large management committee and committed lay people, who worked hard to keep the project open. It employed four people and had a financial budget of only £130,000 a year. Today, the project has a budget of over £300,000 and employs ten core staff and over forty volunteers. We have a Board of eight gifted experts in their own field of expertise, each bringing their particular gifts from their experience in the legal service, business, and the Church, finance and health arenas.

The Cathedral Archer Project has a positive impact on the lives of many people who access the services. I love cities like Sheffield that are regenerating spaces of urgency, possibility and encounter. Yet, there remains a nervousness in the present economic climate about the increasing levels of poverty that potentially detract us from what matters. I believe what matters is taking time to listen to others whose lives are impoverished. As a priest and director, I believe that the project and the Cathedral present spaces and opportunities to encounter a hybrid of needs and people in our city.

A project like ours can present to the Church, politicians, councillors, established businesses, and the new residents in the city, that in spite of the disparities of lifestyles, we work and live alongside each other in a regenerated city that contains the hidden poor. The encounters of poverty through the work we do here, present us all with an urgency to respond by getting close enough to touch the edge of the lives of those who are not fortunate to have homes, leisure facilities, health and education opportunities. The Cathedral and the Archer Project act as a host that allows us, as staff and board members, to touch the lives of strangers in a unique way that brings us together in a common humanity that believes in the dignity of all life. This is the urgency and pleasure of my work as a priest in this context of the Church and society.

I enjoy every engagement of the core value of hospitality. Migrants of the city centre often experience homeless people as a threat. Yet, the project is a hospitable space where the stranger becomes a human companion instead of a threat. The project offers a safe space where change can take place that helps homeless people to perceive how others interpret their behaviour.

The devastating poverty in which millions live is visible. Poverty and homelessness is visible. Drug addiction is visible. The gap between the rich and the poor is glaringly visible. Our response to these visibilities also must be urgent and visible. The Cathedral Archer Project is such a visible response to poverty that must coexist with other agencies to deliver services to the most poor. Love and compassion cannot function in a world of invisibility. That’s why the Archer Project needs visibility, publicity, and support.

You may be wondering how this relates to my calling as a priest in the Church? Well, there may be a perceived nervousness among some priests about their role in society. I don’t feel this. I believe that priests are shaped by openness and vulnerability and can enjoy the encounters with the marginalised. There are few places to bring people together as citizens rather than as consumers, than the Church. As a priest in the Cathedral and chairing the Archer Project, I believe that I am puncture the anaesthetised contentment of consumer lives, injustice and poverty, that disaffect our lives. I am privileged to loiter in spaces that encounter a variety of people. This is the great joy to me as a priest in the Cathedral and in the project. They are not in conflict with each other.

Hospitality is a key theme for me. It means primarily, that we create a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. I believe in this core value of hospitality, where the project’s intention is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines. The relationship between being a priest and being the Chair of the Board of Directors is integral. I am able to integrate the complex realities of those I work with and make a difference to. I hope that I am deeply committed to both the priestly life and understanding the complexities of homelessness. I try to visit the project every day to listen to stories, engage with staff, and try to grasp the tensions and issues they are faced with on a daily basis. I hope these inform strategy, finance and the Board of Directors.

As a Christian priest, in this unique context, I believe that there is no life or hope without love in action. The role I find myself in fulfils all my greatest aspirations and expectations. The hospitality offered by the project is not only manifested in the moments of the Cathedral’s worship but also in the routine, dirty, angry mess and chaos of homeless lives that meet together in an hospitable and safe place we know and love as the Archer Project. This is not a watered-down piety or niceness. It is one of the richest ideals of the Christian Tradition into which I was ordained as a priest. I believe that a good project of the future is built from the dreams and forward thinking of today. The Archer Project of the future will be built from the dreams of today.

There is also a new challenge for me, and the project, to explore possibilities to share resources with other partners. Like so many charities in the present climate, I believe in taking risks through authentic engagement that is sometimes exhausted by an anxiety because of the depletion of resources. When the Church and the Archer Project takes risks then something can happen that will be creatively hospitable. It is this hope that I wish for the project over the next three years.

Finally, let me illustrate my passion and love for the Cathedral and the Project through two encounters that are stamped in my memory. They illustrate how hospitality had prime position among the most vulnerable people and spaces who share our daily lives together.

My first Christmas in post, it was Christmas eve and I was processing down the aisle at the end of the midnight service when I was beckoned by a homeless man I saw a few days earlier. He had been sitting in the Cathedral trying to keep dry. I managed to acquire some socks, jumper, and coat for him from the project that someone had left as a gift from one of the local businesses. After most of the Christmas night visitors left the Cathedral, I went to the man who beckoned me during the procession. He pulled out two mince pies, wrapped in a polythene bag from his trousers. He said, ‘someone stopped while I sat on the bench today and gave me £10. It was Christmas eve and the person said, ‘buy yourself some food.’ He did just that, but he kept back two mince pies, carefully wrapped and graciously given to me. He said, ‘this is my gift to you for being so kind to me earlier this week. Enjoy them when you have your Christmas lunch.’ It was one of the most precious and memorable Christmas gifts I have ever received. And, it was my first Christmas in Sheffield. Now you can see why I love what I do and love being part of this great Cathedral and project. The homeless are givers to us too.

Secondly, it was a busy day and I was preparing for a meeting in my office when a member of staff said there was a young man in the Cathedral who wanted to talk with me. Feeling rather irritated at being disturbed, and always being committed to the call to respond to such requests, I went to the nave of the Cathedral. There was a young man who used the project. He was known to me. I often saw him selling his Big Issue. He looked so well. He was off drugs, had a flat and a new girlfriend. I was thrilled to see him and be introduced to his partner. He said, ‘I brought my girlfriend to meet you and see the Cathedral. I wanted her to meet someone who made a difference to my life, and the project that gave me so much encouragement to change. And, we came in to light a candle and say “thank you to God and you, and the staff”.’ He came back to say ‘thank you. You made a difference.’ Now you can see why I love what I do and love being part of this great Cathedral and project.

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