Interview: Night Ministry in San Francisco With Reverend Lyle Beckman by Peter Menkin
Interview: Night Ministry in San Francisco with Reverend Lyle Beckman by Peter Menkin
In a visit to an excellent show on Night Ministry in San Francisco this writer was introduced to the photo work of a young man named Malcolm Garland. Though Malcolm, once a student at The Cathedral School for Boys–(Grace Cathedral, San Francisco)–and now a college student, is a good photographer, it was more than the pictures themselves that were intriguing and genuine. It was Night Ministry in San Francisco itself that became a central focus of interest for this article-interview about the ministry itself and young photographer Malcolm Garland.
The spokesman for Diocese of California, USA said this of the gallery:
I’m not sure what information I can give you about Gallery 1055. Gallery 1055 was founded by the Diocesan Bishop, The Rt. Reverend Marc Handley Andrus–shortly after he arrived as Diocesan Bishop in 2006; it is ministry of the Diocese that attempts to share through fine art the diversity of the Diocese in ministry. That is a diversity that represents the diverse ethnicity, diverse spiritual expression, the diverse ministry and services provided by people of the Diocese
It has had two Curators, Mel Albern, and The Reverend Bertie Pearson who has now moved onto Parochial Ministry. We are currently without a Curator, but hope to have one soon.
During the photo show, held in the Gallery 1055 in San Francisco, and a Gallery created by The Rt. Reverend Marc Andrus for display of religious and spiritual work relevant to the Diocese and its ministry, I talked with The Night Minister himself. Later this writer interviewed The Reverend Lyle Beckman in November, 2010 by phone in the evening on two separate evenings. Total time taken in interviewing was about 2.5 hours. This intriguing interview that tells so much of his work, and the work of others in Night Ministry follows:
INTERVIEW: THE REVEREND LYLE BECKMAN, NIGHT MINISTER
1. As the current Night Minister, you keep hours that are wee hours of the night. How many Night Ministers are there, what are their names, and like you, what hours do they keep? Are all of them ordained?
There are two of us who work fulltime, and we have a number of other ministers who work varying numbers of nights a month. The other fulltime minister is Thom Longino. We have Monique Ortiz, and she is just finishing up a two year long fellowship with us and will continue on working specifically with our outdoor worship service (Open Cathedral) by UN Plaza [San Francisco]. And also a few nights a week—We start at 9:45 p.m. and go until 4 a.m.
For the Night Ministers…[they start by]… working [with the business that involves] meeting with our volunteers who work with the crisis line, spending a little time in prayer, getting ready for the night. Our telephone lines are switched on at ten o’clock. Then the Night Ministers are literally on the street. We have an Episcopal Deacon, Diana Wheeler. We have on staff, Brother Jude Hill who is a Franciscan Friar, and he coordinates our crisis line counselors and works occasionally on the streets. All of our Night Ministers are ordained clergy.
We also have eight assistant Night Ministers, and they can work from one night a month to one night a week. On an average night, we can have from one to four Night Ministers scheduled on that night.
2. Are there certain routes assigned to the Ministers, and different purposes of action and activity on those routes? What would you say are the four prime objectives of the ministry? Is there an incident or time on the street in ministry that you recall that is an anecdote that will explain to readers something in the line of Night Ministry work?
Yes, we try to be in every one of the neighborhoods of San Francisco that have some night life, where people will be out. It varies from week to week. For example, we are probably in the Tenderloin area, and South of Market in San Francisco, I would say, five nights a week. The Tenderloin and South of Market would be one of the poorer neighborhoods with rooming hotels…and there are a lot of clubs and bars where people gather. And a lot of times there are places where people just gather…you know…on the street corners.
Some of the other neighborhoods are Mission neighborhoods, North Beach, Castro neighborhood…but really, the idea is we walk the streets where people will be found. So we won’t walk residential neighborhoods. We want to be available to people who are out, and be visible. We all wear clerical collars.
A sense of the variety of conversations we have [is this]: Sometimes we meet people who are involved in behaviors they are not necessarily proud of. There are drug dealers, [people who are] drinking too much, so sometimes