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REACHING OUT

St. AUGUSTINE'S CHURCH NEWSLETTER Summer 2004 No 54

COMMUNITY

We hear a lot of talk about Community, or the lack of it and North Town is no exception to that. Community means different things to different people, and in a privatised society where community is an alien concept; it is quite difficult to talk about any kind of community at all.
As your parish priest I have been involved in a number of committees, and yes, Partnerships over the years, trying to address community issues. The issues haven't changed very much, lots of talk but little action; like a merry go round the talk goes on in ever increasing circles until we find that we have arrived back at the point where we started. Occasionally there's a new face, after all beat officers come and go but councilors and parish priests are forever!
Attempts are made to draw up plans of action but unfortunately most of them seem to require money and unfortunately the public pot, whether it be the local council, social services or Pavilion housing, is shrinking in value and you can only access it if you know how to play the system, a system that will probably grind you down before spitting you out and telling you that unfortunately you have been unsuccessful in your application or that you have been writing to the wrong person anyway because the person you want has just gone on six months sick leave or has gone to a different job elsewhere. We have a community base, but what's the point if the community makes little use of it or find it hard to access or when something good gets going, like the North Town Youth Club, it goes under for the sake of a couple of grand!
Of course its not all down to the authorities, statutory or otherwise; we live in a community where there are lots of people only too ready to tell us what's wrong with North Town but appear to do very little about it themselves, except to moan of course And yet just look at what a few people, working together, can achieve, witness the recent Abattoir campaign. As a result of the Boots development pretty water feature but will it work as a place to live?£300,000 has been allocated for a community facility. What kind of facility should we have? After all £300,000 doesn't buy much these days, and so I nope a jot or serious thought will be given to this venture; not just somewhere for a party or disco but somewhere that is of benefit to the whole community. As I write about community, I am reminded of that first Christian community described in the Acts of the Apostles, a community of people who lived together and shared everything according to what each one needed, sharing their food gladly and generously. In such a community all are treated as equals, with no distinction, in the words of Saint Paul, between 'Jew and Greek, slave and free, male or female.' May ours be a community that loves and cares and in which each person is allowed to attain the fullness of human dignity which God calls all of us to share.

Your friend and priest.

Father Keith