Province ministry to the Passage

In more recent years RNDM’s in UK and Ireland have re-directed and re-sourced our energies after our lifetime of involvement in education, social and nursing care. A ministry that has been part of our Province for many years is the service to the homeless and to those falling on hard times due to the recession, immigration and those who simply have made the decision to move away from family and friends to roam the streets of London looking for a better way of life. Our Province ministry to the Passage, in the heart of London, where listening to life stories and where food is served daily to the homeless is one way we as RNDMs are servicing the poor and marginalised in our ever-growing urban society. We serve people of the street without making any judgements or setting any conditions. Likewise, we are now involved more directly with working with the two major detentions centres at Heathrow, where an RNDM works weekly with a team of Pastoral workers, run by JRS ( Jesuit Refugee Services). We work in close proximity with many young women and men who are held in detention for various reasons: seeking refugee status, seeking asylum, victims of trafficking or just overstaying visas or holding incorrect papers. Again, we serve them primarily as human beings who are lost and alone, estranged for various reasons from family, friends, language and customs and in need of a friendly hand and ear, without making judgments or setting conditions.  The strength of these ministries is that they are in collaboration with other charity groups and religious who together try to make something “new” for our society. By our weekly commitment we show that despite our own physical frailty we are indeed strong in our commitment to the poor and the most needy in the London area. Here the world gathers on our streets and we RNDMs have a heart for the world in our city.

Elizabeth Hartigan, RNDM