As part of my Clinical Pastoral Education program this summer, I’m learning about non-profit fundraising and effective storytelling. Want to support us in this work and help me reach my fundraising goal? Click here. Click here to read the first installment of this series on my experiences this summer.

Twice a week, San Francisco Night Ministry holds Open Cathedral services, which are open-air services in the city. The clergy hosting these services have such passion and love for their work, and their parishioners respond in kind. My first Open Cathedral, I just watched these women create sacred space near the Civic Center BART station, not ignoring everything that was happening in the background (pedestrians and bikers coming by, people selling things a hundred feet away, police patrolling) but folding them into the sacred, if that makes sense. (Anyone who has ever shushed a small child during a service should come witness how noise and bustle and the mundane aren’t actually an impediment to holiness, or at least don’t have to be.)

During the service, I chatted with one of the regulars, who introduced me to his emotional support animals. It was a delightful conversation. I realized later that what I was noticing in both these little encounters was generosity: how these ministers created such a generous and expansive space, and how parishioners respond with their own generosity. Opening the carrier and showing me his animal companions felt like such a generous act on this person’s part, a way to invite me into his life and make a connection with this new CPE student who was clearly still a little out of their element. And it struck me that we need that kind of generosity in this almost-post-pandemic world; we need people who are willing to stand on literal and metaphorical street corners and just welcome anyone and everyone who comes by, but we also need people who respond, people who are willing to display that same kind of vulnerability and pass a bit of that generous love on to the person next to them.

San Francisco Night Ministry walks the street every night of the year, operates a care line, hosts community programs, and holds outdoor worship services. If you want to support the important work of being present with the most vulnerable among us, click on the link above to donate. Want to know more about the work SFNM does or maybe volunteer yourself? Go to sfnightministry.org for more information.