Minimal faith

IT’S enough to give even my minimal faith in human nature a severe knock: the Olive Branch Day Centre, catering largely for homeless people, has been given its marching orders from the premises it has been granted for the last seven years. What makes it even more unpalatable is that the premises is a church...a church. I had thought, possibly mistakenly, that the first function of a church is to care for people, especially those in dire need. Such surely is the bedrock of Christianity. The minister of the Bethel Community Centre has baldly stated that “the heart of the church is not in the project any more.” Well, perhaps this particular church has lost its heart, if it ever had any to speak of. Charity, it is said, begins at home. So where does that leave the homeless; out on the street?