Glasgow Street Pastors had a great commissioning on Saturday 17th January.  Several senior police officers were present.  We also had representatives of the City council and Business leaders - Bailee Catherine MacMaster (councillor representing the Provost and speaking very encouraging words), Lord Dean of Guild and Deacon Convenor of the Trades Hall (second and third citizens of Glasgow).  In terms of church support we had leaders of Church of Scotland, Roman Catholics, Baptist and Salvation Army among others.  In our deeply divided city Street Pastors has broken down some of the divisions - although the colour of our coats has implications!  
We commissioned about 50 Street Pastors on that night and are just starting to recruit for our next intake in September 2009.  We have significant press interest including appearing on Radio Clyde at 30min intervals throughout the day and in the local Glasgow evening paper - The Evening Times (our version of the Evening Standard in London).  On the night we had journalists from the Roman Catholic Press in attendance which we hope will help us to engage at more grass roots levels with this church.  Other media are currently booking up to come out with us on different dates.  
We really appreciated James Duce of Aberdeen Street Pastors being with us to represent and to speak on behalf of the Ascension Trust.  He is a valued friend of Glasgow Street Pastors and has been very helpful in our journey this far.  The message given by Peter Dunn (our coordinator) was based on the story of the Good Samaritan and highlighted the need for bold love and active grace as we go out onto the streets.
We have now been out over a few weekends and are finding a very positive response from people on the streets.  We meet just after 9 and are out til about 5am - a long night!  The team are delighted to get out after their training and following of God's call upon their lives.  John Mason MP for Glasgow East accompanied us onto the streets one Saturday to see what Street Pastors is about and was encouraging in his comments.