It was messy and challenging... and it was the right thing to do
"God’s kindness continually challenges us to reconsider our commitments. Jesus and the stranger stand outside, asking our communities to enlarge their borders and to share their resources." (Christine Pohl: The Life Jesus Wants for His People)
On the last night of January, when temperature dropped to -35°C, St. Paul's Cathedral opened its doors for fifty unhoused residents of London.
By Very Rev. Kevin George
RECENTLY, London experienced some of the coldest temperatures we’ve had in many years.
For many of us, the cold is an inconvenience. We dress a little warmer, break out our favourite sweaters, and spend our days asking everyone “is it cold enough for you yet?” For some of our neighbours in downtown London, the cold is not an inconvenience, it’s a life-threatening problem.
Driving home on a Thursday evening and hearing on the radio that the temperatures were about to drop to -35°C, I found myself unable to think about anything else, but how in the world people are going to survive this. The previous Sunday, I was counselling with one of our more vulnerable congregants, to allow the doctors to deal with his frostbitten hands. His fingers need to be removed. He is scared and refused to let the doctors do their work.
I arrived home, I took off my warm boots, my scarf, my insulated mitts, my favourite Montréal Canadiens toque, and my new warm winter coat, and sat down to a warm supper. I sang a prayer (before it can become pretty rote): “And bless those who have no food to eat…” Surely I could do more than pray?
When St Paul’s Cathedral completed the renovations in 2025, much attention was given to the fact that the space we created would be able to welcome multiple uses. Most of that attention was focused on banquets, conventions, concerts, and the arts. Lost on a lot of the media types at the time, was the insistent step for us.
The space renewal also meant allowing us to worship in ways that are far more honest to who we are as a church today, and that we would open our space not just to our neighbours living in high-rises, but to our neighbours who are living in doorways and tents.
I finished my dinner and realized that now was the time for the 8000 ft.² worship space at St Paul’s to be used as a place to warm those who could otherwise freeze to death.
That evening we decided we had to act. Twenty-four hours after hearing that weather report, St Paul’s opened at stores to fifty unhoused residents of London Ontario.
It was messy, and challenging. It was heartbreaking, and it was the right thing to do.
It came with criticism. I’m getting used to that. We were imperfect. But I am proud of the people of St Paul’s for not allowing perfect to be the enemy of the good.
I spent the night there. When the people of St Paul’s Cathedral open their hearts, expand their borders, and share their resources, they are opening themselves to the presence of Jesus in the stranger.
Those neighbours that we have, that make us uneasy, that sometimes caused us to look away, those neighbours are made in an image of God. Those neighbours bear the mark of Jesus Christ. When our door is closed to them, our door is closed to Jesus.
It’s often unsettling to expand borders, and share resources. Let’s not let fear dissuade us from welcoming the stranger, from welcoming Jesus.
Very Rev. Dr. Kevin George is Rector of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and Dean of Huron.