Interview: Night Ministry in San Francisco With Reverend Lyle Beckman by Peter Menkin
incredible. If we wanted to make up a typical night, on the one hand we’re talking with people who are living on the streets who are suffering from dual diagnosis, mental health issues: [They are] seeing visions of aliens, or living in a world that only they understand. So we have interactions with people like that. We also meet people who have very eccentric personalities, who believe they are aliens.
We meet drag queens in a neighbor of the bars we visit. There are certainly some characters there. We meet people who are in rock bands. There are many people who are characters of the night.
There are just plain interesting folks, too. I’ve met professors, doctors, lawyers, a bounty hunter or two. Clowns. As people talk about their lives, they can be characters. Sometimes I think we can be characters of the night, for here we are walking around in our clerical collars. I think people sometimes think of us as characters as well. In some cases we are a part of their community.
4. This is a special ministry, it appears. What does the San Francisco Episcopal Bishop, The Rt. Reverend Marc Andrus think of it, and does he support the ministry? Also, during the Cathedral of the Streets, do you have a collection?
We’ve been around for 46 years. And really in all that time, there have only been four Night Ministers in that 46 year period. The purpose really hasn’t changed in all that time. We have our crisis line, and ministers walking the street. What’s changed in all those years is the society and culture and the events that happen that make us different. So night ministry hasn’t changed, but we’ve lived through the turbulence of the 60s; the drug use [era], the anti Vietnam War era. We’ve lived through HIV and AIDs, the changes in the mental health system that have put so many people back on the streets. We’ve lived through the various assassinations and tearing down of various institutions around us and building up.
Night ministry will always be there, doing what we do best: Offering a listening ear, a word of prayer or blessing, and will help people find hope in anything they might be facing in the moment.
Bishop Andrus has walked out with, and has been on the streets with us at night. He is on the advisory board, and he is always appreciative of what we do and vocal in support of what we do.
No, we don’t receive an offering from the people there. But occasionally someone is moved to make a donation. We have seen the people grow–live out a life of faith. We now see them volunteering in other programs. Some may begin to volunteer with Night Ministry as crisis line counselors and other ways.
5. More likely, many people seen by Night Ministers are ill. Have you given the Sacraments of healing, or even Last Rites to someone met on the streets? What is the general condition of the people you see, and how do you characterize their life (mostly homeless people?). Why would someone care about these people who may be invisible to most of us? Do you consider Night Ministry a particularly Christian work with a Christian message, and a Christian motivation for its existence?
We do see people who are ill on the streets, and that can be illness of body, mind or soul. I often carry an oil stock with me for anointing, [to]give a blessing and give a prayer of healing.
Occasionally, we are called to come to a hospital and meet with family members or a person who is in need. [I say only occasionally, for]…Hospitals have chaplains.
The general condition of the people we see, [and of those whom most people] imagine [as] what we do at night is spend a lot of time with people living on the streets. And we do spend a lot of time with people living on the street. And we do know plenty. But then there are people who are out who just want to get away from their apartment or house at night.
It is so easy to walk the streets at night to think things through. We meet people in bars and diners. We meet people who are at work. We have a broad range of people that we serve. [If] we wanted to narrow it, it is people of the night, or people who are awake in the middle of the night.
I hope that we all care about our brothers and sisters who are in trouble. That’s one of the primary messages that Jesus [is] telling us. That we are to love our neighbors as we are loved by God.
Or to think about this question: Am I my brother or sister’s keeper. One way to think about that, not only are we our brother or sisters keeper, we are brothers and sisters together. It is also receiving from them what they have to offer.
My answer might be odd. …I identify as a Christian. My motivation…Night Ministry is for me a Christian message.