Hello again, sorry about the dreadful grammar in the previous blog but hey, I don’t care.
One of the things I keep getting interviewed about from newspapers is “do I think the Olympic is a waste of money?”, well I suppose in retrospect we could have done without the Olympic finance bill during a recession, it did look very wobbly for a long while back in 2008 when the recession ‘bit’.
I held counselling sessions in one site unit for about 3 weeks leading up to Christmas 2008 when 30% of the workforce in one area had been informed they were being made redundant and their contracts would be terminated the week before Christmas. Now that was a seriously difficult time, and I have no idea how the men and women I spoke to were really going to cope. I have experienced a lot in my short life (Ok so it’s a long life to some, but not half done yet as far as I’m concerned) but I have never been made redundant.
Whilst everyone knew I couldn’t actually help them keep their jobs they did seem to understand that I actually cared, and I spent a lot of time listening to them and allowing them the opportunity to get things off their chest and articulate perhaps how they were going to deal with this change in their circumstances. I am pleased to say that now here in April 2010 I have seen some of the people I spoke to employed back in the Olympic Park and other units locally so at least they now have work.
Sadly last year a man died in the construction site locally and I was asked to deal with some counselling of the workforce. As ever, bad news always travels fast, and several days after when I was walking in a unit area in the Park I was spoken to by some workers who just wanted to speak about ‘life’ and how they had heard about the death. Sometimes the chaplain just needs to be a visible presence and people will come and speak about what’s bothering them most.
The picture at the top is from the Construction Skills College unit which had been set up in Temple Mills Lane next to the construction park. The deal made by the government and councils was that the skills college should train long term unemployed people who lived in the five boroughs surrou8nding the Olympic park in construction skills, ie driving tipper trucks, earth movers, diggers and cranes. In about 2 years 400 people were trained and 300 were found jobs in the Olympic park doing the things they had been trained for and gaining valuable experience in a trade which would give them employment for life
A couple of young men I spoke to were over-joyed at getting this job skill, and they were now making it their goal to earn enough money to move out of their local area and get away from the gang culture which pervades the youth in east London and as one young man said ‘ I can move my mum and dad as well, and we can be safe!’
So is the millions being spent on the Olympics a waste? Not for these young people it isn’t.
It’s not easy to tell what the chaplaincy work entails, speaking to people is obviously the primary role, but its what we get told that sometimes can make you sit back and wonder how some people live.
A young lady, born in England to naturalised UK citizen parents, was , how shall we say, ……. She was in dispute with her parents over their desire to arrange a marriage for her. In the country where her parents were born it was culturally acceptable for the parents to arrange a ‘good marriage’. As this young lady had pointed out, she was an English citizen, educated at a UK university and whilst she respected her parents and their culture, she wanted to choose her own husband and marry for love.
Understanding that I was a priest but not a religious leader from her own cultural background I did ask if she wanted me to arrange for her to meet a temple elder from her own faith. Her reply was very English and broadly ‘east end’ when she replied “ no f###ing way, he’ll just tell me to do what me parents tell me to”.
So after several weeks of her speaking with me, and listening to her increasing difficulties with her parents, she sadly come to the conclusion there was no ‘half way meeting point with them’, and she moved out of her home. She found a place to live but hadn’t told her parents as she didn’t want them turning up and taking her home. She was very obviously upset but had made a decision based upon her own rights and her own feelings of what she wanted to do with her life. she was very brave and I have seen her a couple of times and now she seems to be happy in a relationship with a young man from a different ethnic background and I just hope in time she will be able to reconcile with her parents who will come to understand the importance of their daughters desire to make her own life decisions.
We also meet people who claim faith or religions which are definitely not Christian or main stream. I have met several (men mostly) who claim to be Jedi Knights (no jokes about light sabres please…)
On one occasion a man got very aggressive with me, he stated he was a pagan and there was no way that I, being a priest, would ever make him a Christian. I told him I had more chance of making him a virgin than a Christian, which drew howls of laughter from his colleagues and made him laugh as well.
Interestingly enough the next time I saw him he offered me a coffee and we sat and spent time talking about his problems. So just a small peek at what chaplaincy does from time to time.
One of the things I keep getting interviewed about from newspapers is “do I think the Olympic is a waste of money?”, well I suppose in retrospect we could have done without the Olympic finance bill during a recession, it did look very wobbly for a long while back in 2008 when the recession ‘bit’.
I held counselling sessions in one site unit for about 3 weeks leading up to Christmas 2008 when 30% of the workforce in one area had been informed they were being made redundant and their contracts would be terminated the week before Christmas. Now that was a seriously difficult time, and I have no idea how the men and women I spoke to were really going to cope. I have experienced a lot in my short life (Ok so it’s a long life to some, but not half done yet as far as I’m concerned) but I have never been made redundant.
Whilst everyone knew I couldn’t actually help them keep their jobs they did seem to understand that I actually cared, and I spent a lot of time listening to them and allowing them the opportunity to get things off their chest and articulate perhaps how they were going to deal with this change in their circumstances. I am pleased to say that now here in April 2010 I have seen some of the people I spoke to employed back in the Olympic Park and other units locally so at least they now have work.
Sadly last year a man died in the construction site locally and I was asked to deal with some counselling of the workforce. As ever, bad news always travels fast, and several days after when I was walking in a unit area in the Park I was spoken to by some workers who just wanted to speak about ‘life’ and how they had heard about the death. Sometimes the chaplain just needs to be a visible presence and people will come and speak about what’s bothering them most.
The picture at the top is from the Construction Skills College unit which had been set up in Temple Mills Lane next to the construction park. The deal made by the government and councils was that the skills college should train long term unemployed people who lived in the five boroughs surrou8nding the Olympic park in construction skills, ie driving tipper trucks, earth movers, diggers and cranes. In about 2 years 400 people were trained and 300 were found jobs in the Olympic park doing the things they had been trained for and gaining valuable experience in a trade which would give them employment for life
A couple of young men I spoke to were over-joyed at getting this job skill, and they were now making it their goal to earn enough money to move out of their local area and get away from the gang culture which pervades the youth in east London and as one young man said ‘ I can move my mum and dad as well, and we can be safe!’
So is the millions being spent on the Olympics a waste? Not for these young people it isn’t.
It’s not easy to tell what the chaplaincy work entails, speaking to people is obviously the primary role, but its what we get told that sometimes can make you sit back and wonder how some people live.
A young lady, born in England to naturalised UK citizen parents, was , how shall we say, ……. She was in dispute with her parents over their desire to arrange a marriage for her. In the country where her parents were born it was culturally acceptable for the parents to arrange a ‘good marriage’. As this young lady had pointed out, she was an English citizen, educated at a UK university and whilst she respected her parents and their culture, she wanted to choose her own husband and marry for love.
Understanding that I was a priest but not a religious leader from her own cultural background I did ask if she wanted me to arrange for her to meet a temple elder from her own faith. Her reply was very English and broadly ‘east end’ when she replied “ no f###ing way, he’ll just tell me to do what me parents tell me to”.
So after several weeks of her speaking with me, and listening to her increasing difficulties with her parents, she sadly come to the conclusion there was no ‘half way meeting point with them’, and she moved out of her home. She found a place to live but hadn’t told her parents as she didn’t want them turning up and taking her home. She was very obviously upset but had made a decision based upon her own rights and her own feelings of what she wanted to do with her life. she was very brave and I have seen her a couple of times and now she seems to be happy in a relationship with a young man from a different ethnic background and I just hope in time she will be able to reconcile with her parents who will come to understand the importance of their daughters desire to make her own life decisions.
We also meet people who claim faith or religions which are definitely not Christian or main stream. I have met several (men mostly) who claim to be Jedi Knights (no jokes about light sabres please…)
On one occasion a man got very aggressive with me, he stated he was a pagan and there was no way that I, being a priest, would ever make him a Christian. I told him I had more chance of making him a virgin than a Christian, which drew howls of laughter from his colleagues and made him laugh as well.
Interestingly enough the next time I saw him he offered me a coffee and we sat and spent time talking about his problems. So just a small peek at what chaplaincy does from time to time.
Hi Kelvin - I've only just found your blog. It's brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI find it really interesting learning about what the work actually involves.
Well done, you. Keep writing!