Concluding reflections

From the point of view of the ARCS team, the work with Housing Justice was not only rich in theological learning, but also significant for the development of our methodology. Journeying with them for two years and carrying our two cycles of research, together with the agency’s own commitment to theological reflection and learning, enabled refinement of feedback processes and the identification of shared - and not shared - learning between the teams.

This was also a project in which recurrent themes gained a particular focus: hospitality; sacramentality in ad extra work; the integration of ‘sacred and secular’ - all these resonated with learning from our other projects. For Housing Justice, too, the language of hospitality which emerged has had an on-going significance for the organisation, enabling it to define the Christian distinctiveness of the service provision it supports.

Notes

• 1 www.housingjustice.org.uk.
• 2 Clare Watkins and Helen Cameron, “Epiphanic Sacramentality. An Example of Practical Ecclesiology Revisioning Theological Understanding.” Chris Scharen ed. Explorations in Ecclesiology and Ethnography (Eerdmans, 2012): 71-89.
• 3 Catherine Duce, “Church-based Work With the Homeless.” MA Dissertation Heythrop College (University of London, 2011). Winner of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology Dissertation Prize 2012. Later aspects of this work was published as: Catherine Duce, “Church-based Work with the Homeless: A Theological Exploration of the Practices of Hospitality.” Practical Theology 6, no.l (2013): 87-103.