Not churches’ duty to shelter homeless E M Railton Knysna

IT IS unfortunate that Lesley Satchel, in her letter, “Closed church doors” (Cape Times, April 13), chooses to criticise churches for not opening their doors and grounds to the homeless when her understanding of the situation on the ground appears to be flawed.

While her compassion for these people is to be commended, the reality of the matter is that, first, it is not the churches’ responsibility to house and feed them within the sanctity of a place of worship.

Second, the experience of churches in the Knysna area (whence Mrs Satchel writes) of opening their doors and grounds to all and sundry has not been a happy one. Items of religious importance disappeared, only to surface at scrap-metal establishments and second-hand outlets.

Furthermore, church wardens were faced with the unpleasant task of removing human waste and rubbish from the premises on a daily basis, as was the local post office until recently when the property was secured.

And this is no doubt the same reason the beautiful and historic St George’s church situated on Main Road, Knysna – to which Mrs Satchel obliquely refers – is doing exactly that.

While churches are already involved in soup kitchens and care centres, they cannot be expected to welcome the indigent with open doors and arms when their own resources are often stretched to the limit and a great deal of antisocial behaviour is evident.

Perhaps Mrs Satchel could initiate a programme with one or all of the service organisations in town (Lions, Rotary, Round Table) to establish and fund a haven for the homeless and hungry.