Hastings Street Pastors have been a real blessing on the Town Centre streets each Friday night since February, but have now trebled in size following a wonderful Commissioning Celebration event on 17th December at Wellington Square Baptist Church. Despite very cold weather, 28 Street Pastors and 6 Prayer Pastors were inducted. Hastings Deputy Mayor, Alan Roberts, visiting speaker, Rev Chris Sears MBE and Castle Ward Councillor, Lee Clark, gave rousing speeches. Each new Street Pastor was presented with their official blue Street Pastor cap, and a highlight, was the generosity of the Gideon’s organisation who presented pocket size New Testaments to the Prayer Pastors. The freezing temperatures were forgotten as the ceremony flowed, aided by Chair of Church together for Hastings, John Lyttle and the worship band that rounded off the evening appropriately with a rousing chorus of “Hark the Herald Angels sing”.
The town can rest assured, that on Friday and Saturday nights from 10pm to 3am, 48 Street Pastors drawn from 25 churches across East Sussex are on rota to patrol as peacekeeping teams the Town Centre and Old Town hotspots. In teams of 4 to 6, they are always backed up by a Prayer Team at their resident base at the Bethel 24/7 Prayer Centre in the basement of Wellington Square Church.
Following hot refreshments, the 28 New Pastors were joined by 12 current Pastors who were commissioned in February, and 7 teams ventured out into the “bleak midwinter” outside. Many revellers engaged with the Pastors who were very distinctively uniformed in their smart blue winter reflective jackets. Much time was spent answering prayer requests from night time party goers and flip flops were freely given to young ladies struggling with high heels in the treacherous conditions underfoot. Encouragement was offered to homeless folk: the Street Pastors byword being not to preach or evangelise, but rather to ‘Listen, Care and Help’. This was an exciting adventure for many ordinary Christians out on duty for the first time, who were keen to sacrifice cosy duvets to come alongside the Hastings night economy folk, many of whom are vulnerable and needy. The teams partnered with the Safer Hastings Partnership Christmas “Safe Space” project, whereby in a central location, Hastings Red Cross and YMCA had a mobile unit .The mobile unit amongst other things, saved on AandE admissions and offered relevant advice and literature on alcohol intake.
After 3 years of planning, 2010 has been a remarkable series of success stories. Invitations came in to attend the 2 day Alexandra Park Beer and Musical Festival, Hastings Bonfire Procession, Old Town Carnival and the big screen World Cup campaign, short-lived as the latter was though! After Christmas, for the first time, Hastings Street Pastors sent out 2 teams in one duty on the invitation of Hastings Police, when on New Year’s Eve the town centre was expected to be crammed with revellers seeing in 2011. There was even an invitation to assist setting up Dover Street Pastors when Dover Police asked their local churches to set up a similar scheme in response to positive and dramatic reductions in crime levels nationally where Street Pastors operate. As a matter of interest, the London based organisation, Ascension Trust, started the scheme with its inaugural launch in 2003 in Brixton in response to horrendous gun and knife crime problems. Today there are over 7000 Street Pastors in over 150 locations across the UK.
The Pastors seek to build on their success with requests for both funding and more Prayer Pastors to step forward. Volunteers pay for the privilege of becoming a Street Pastor and the annual budget of £20k has so far been met by the generosity of individual and church donations. Information is available by email. Coordinator Martin West can be contacted also on 07864 167870 and is always available to give talks and presentations to any interested groups.
Hastings Street Pastors wish all residents a peaceful 2011.
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