London: Service for those who died homeless in past year + list of names

Service at St Martin in the Fields

The names of more than 165 homeless people who died in London in the past year, were read at the Annual Service of Commemoration at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square last Thursday. (see full list below). The church was packed with friends, family members, homeless charity workers and volunteers.

The service began with 'The Way Home' performed by Alastair Murray, John Deacon and Chris Bluemel, before the introduction by Rev Richard Carter.

Fr Padraig Regan from the The Passage, Ruth Bottoms, from West London Mission, Sinead Tompkins, from Connection at St Martin's and Mat Amp who works at The Pavement each read a list of names and then reflected on one of the people they had known.

Sinead recalled Pawel "a pure soul, who would give his last penny to anyone.." On the day of his funeral it snowed. "He always used to say snow reminded him of Poland" she said. Mat Amp remembered Kevin Headley who died of a heart attack at the age of 52. "He had a positive effect on everyone who met him" he said. "He was the spiritual heartbeat of Hackney Wick. One of the most inspirational people I have ever met. He smiled at the world."

After a reading from Isaiah, 49 'even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands..' Kathy Mohan from Housing Justice recalled a rough sleeper that she was used to seeing in the same place, who died one night. When the ambulance came and collected his body, there was no identification and no one knew his name..

The music group played Gavin Bryars' beautiful song 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet' as the congregation was invited to come up one by one and take a prayer card with the name of one person who died.

After a time of silence, Choir With No Name launched into a rousing version of Love is in the Air and there was a reflection by Bandi Mbubi, Director of the Manna Centre. Streetwise Opera gave a superb performance of 'A Passionate Outcry: Reflections on Dies Irae from Britten's War Requiem and Go Down Moses from Tippet's Child of Our Times.

The service ended with the Lord's Prayer and a Blessing from Rev Richard Carter. The final Hymn was 'I vow to you my friends of earth' - before the congregation were invited to the Connection for a light lunch.

"This is one of the most important evens of the year" one woman told me as we left the church. "Some people here will be grieving for friends or relatives. This will be the only memorial service for some of the people named here."

NAMES

Salah Abdelhalim
Paul Andrews
Jaroslaw Andrzej
Dennis Austin
Stuart (Scott)Bainbridge
Donato Barbieri
Richard Barlow
Mark Barwise
Lee Bassey
David Hayley
Leslie Beard
Alwin Benain
Aleksandra Binkowska
John Bishop
Tanya Bishop
Jason Black
James Black
James Bowles
Konrad Bratek
Preston [aka -'Christian'] Brown
Betty Brown
Luke Brown
Belinda Cameron
Heather Chapman
Alan Chiu
William Church-Barton
Raymond Clark
Michael Clark
Spencer Clements
Christopher Cochrane
Catherine Colebourne
Lee Commins
David Cooper
Paul Cooper [aka - 'Holford']
Michael Corboy
Douglas Couldon
James Crawford
Kevin David
Paul John Devine
Susan Dool
Steve Drummond
Carl Elliott
Mahdi El-Zubier
Dermot Fagan
Joao Manuel/Juan Ferreira Marcelino
Gerard Gallagher
John Gillespie
Julian Glover
Vincent Gorman
Marcos Gourgel
Frank Gregson
Jaqueline Hamilton
Peter Harrison
David Hart
Jim Hennigan
Steve (Istvan) Hetenyi
David Holland
Patrick Howell
Anthony ('Tony the Hat') Hoy
Jennifer Innocenti
Benedict Jackson
Darren James
Gary James
Stella Jimmie
Oliver John
Ronald Jones
Alan Jordan [aka -' Higgins']
Saulius Kantakevicius
Vidmantas Kasperavicius
Arthur Kendrick
William Kennedy
Kevin Kerr
Salim Khan
Malik Khan
Stephen Kinghorn [aka - 'Lee']
Tibor Koncz
Piotr Kowka
Sanjeev Kumar
Jaroslav (Jay) Kungurtsev
Matthew Laurie
Stephen Lee
Darren Ledger
Mark Leighton
Thomas Linnane
Paulo Lopez
John Lowton
Darren Marshall
Donna Marshall
Roger Martinssen
David Massey
James Matcham
Fiona McCarthy
Mary Mccarthy
Gary McCoy
Steve McGregor
Eugene McMeel
Pascal Melly
Stephen Menzies
Kevin Moore
Chris Moynes
Ryszard Najdek
Mariusz Napiorkowski
Frank/Francis Neilson
Dene Nuttall
Raymond O'Donoghue
Melvyn Park
Charles Parsons
Tracy Patsalides
Wieslaw Pawelek
Cosmin Petrescu
Andrew Petty
Paul Philips
Colin Philips
Jason Pottle
Keith Quigley
Carlos Quintal
Richard Racketts
Michael Reid
Richard Robinson
Dimitar Sabev
Detlef Schadowski
Natalie-Ann Shutt
Archie Sibanda
Parmajit Singh
Buta Singh
Balhaar Singh
Raghbir Singh
Jasandeep ('happy') Singh
Rinku Singh
Kawal Singh
Sodhi Singh
Yadwinder Soni Singh
Pawel Szymczyk
Rafal Slowek
Levi Smith
Robert Smith
Barbara Smith
Peter Alan Smith
Dawn [aka -'Patricia']
Smith [aka - 'Gill']
Anthony Sprenger
Aligmantes Striukas
William Stryker
Jan Szabla
Catrina Taylor
Andrew Te Hira
Arunesh Thangarajah
Matthew Thomas
Jayson [aka -'Daniel'] Thompson
Lech Zygmunt Toda
Mariusz Usik
Ray Vallery
Kumarasamy Vasanthakumar
Christer Vincent
Darren Walton
Mark Wickens
Peter Yeboah
Gary Young
Kevin Headley

The following workers and volunteers also died in London in the past year

Chris Aflatt - Volunteer at the Passage
Liz Blackender - St Mungo's
Sister Eileen O'Mahoney - Found of the Passage
Sylvestre Price - volunteer for 20 years
Nicola Spencer - The Shelter Project Hounslow
Pure Guoyi - Volunteer at Open Door Meal, St James' the Less Church, Vauxhall Bridge Rd

According to a study released last month, more than 440 people experiencing homelessness are known to have died outdoors, or in temporary accommodation in the UK in the past year. The figures, compiled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) as part of their long-term project, Dying Homeless, show there were at least 449 deaths in a year - more than one each day.

The national charity for homeless people in the UK, Crisis, said the true number of those sleeping rough in England was far greater than the governments official figures, placing the number of people sleeping rough in England as over 8,000.

LINKS

Gavin Bryars: Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp44hQr8GVc

The Connection at St Martin in the Fields - www.connection-at-stmartins.org.uk

The Passage - http://passage.org.uk

Housing Justice - www.housingjustice.org.uk

Streetwise Opera - http://m.streetwiseopera.org

Choir With No Name - www.choirwithnoname.org