Encampment: Community, and the Calling of the Church
Approximately 50 people gathered by Zoom on February 11 for An Evening with Maggie Helwig, sponsored by the Diocese of Algoma Social Justice Committee and moderated by Archbishop Anne Germond.
The evening centred on Helwig’s recent book Encampment and her ministry at St. Stephen-in-the-Fields in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighbourhood, where for more than two years the churchyard became home to an encampment of unhoused residents.
Archbishop Anne opened the conversation by describing the book as “absolutely prophetic,” calling it “a book about truth-telling about your experience and the experience of so many people who are living unhoused in Toronto.” She noted that while the setting of the book is downtown Toronto, “all of us, I think whatever community we represent here this evening, also have many unhoused individuals who are struggling.”
Helwig began with characteristic candour when asked about the 2025 Toronto Book Award Encampment received. “I don’t deflect talk of the award because I’m that humble, rally, it’s because the city [of Toronto] managed to utterly, utterly undermine their own award by clearing the encampment within less than 24 hours afterwards.” Indeed, the annual literary award ceremony was followed almost immediately by the dismantling of the encampment, underscoring the tensions at the heart of Helwig’s work.
Much of the conversation focused on the nature of encampments themselves. Helwig challenged common perceptions, saying that while encampments may appear chaotic or unsafe to outside observers, “they actually are genuine communities, and they are really the safest way to live if you are unhoused. They are far safer than living alone and atomized on the street.” She emphasized that people living in encampments are not choosing homelessness over housing, but in some cases are choosing encampment life over municipal shelters. “They are homes. People feel them to be their homes very deeply. They are safety. They are community.”
Importantly, she resisted framing the church as the creator of that community. “It’s not so much that we at the church were creating a community out of the encampment as we were privileged to be welcomed into the community that was in our yard.” The encampment residents, she stressed, formed community themselves; the parish’s role was accompaniment.
She also spoke about the broader political landscape, observing that “municipal and provincial authorities seem absolutely determined to prevent people from living in any kind of community, absolutely determined to atomize all unhoused people and scatter them across the landscape.” The clearing of encampments, in her view, disrupts not only shelter but the fragile networks of mutual care that residents build.
Participants asked repeatedly how she sustains herself in such demanding work. Helwig responded without sentimentality. “That is the number one question that I get asked. I don’t have an answer. I don’t know, do I even have hope, or do I just keep going because the alternative is worse?” She continued, “I do what I do because it’s right and it’s good, and I would rather live in that reality than a reality in which we throw people away.” Reflecting on the language of hope, she added, “I have a problem with the word hope. It seems to suggest that I think things are going to get better, and I don’t think things are going to get better… But in that we are called to be the people who try still to be kind.” In a time of deep polarization and systemic strain, she suggested that kind is “becoming an increasingly radical and marginalized and even dangerous thing to be.”
Again and again, the conversation returned to relationship. When asked what kind of help is most useful for those who want to respond faithfully, Helwig replied that “the only way you know what people need is to ask them.” Rather than beginning with projects or programs, she urged participants to begin with people. “I would challenge everybody really, to start not by thinking what is a helpful thing I can do, but how can I get to know someone? How can I build a relationship with one unhoused person or 5 or 10?” Such engagement, she insisted, “has to be rooted in relationship,” and sometimes “just having human relationship, human connection is actually the thing that is most needed.”
She described this as a relationship marked by honesty and mutuality. “Their pain genuinely touches me. It’s not a performance. It’s not a thing that I think I should feel. They’re my friends. And if they’re in pain, it hurts me too.” Ministry, in this framing, is not service delivered from a distance but friendship sustained over time.
The evening also included a first-person reflection from Silas Foxcroft, who spoke about the impact of Helwig’s ministry on their own spiritual journey. Foxcroft described growing up in a context where Christianity was seen as antithetical to social justice and encountering St. Stephen’s through activist networks in Toronto. “I really don’t know if I ever would have set foot in a church if it wasn’t for Maggie’s ministry,” they said. Through theological discussion groups and shared activism, Foxcroft came to see Christian community as aligned with the moral vision they were seeking.
At the same time, Foxcroft cautioned against treating St. Stephen’s as an outlier. “I’m worried that what Maggie is doing should not be seen as exceptional or be seen as superhuman,” they said. “The calling to minister to the poor is not unique to Maggie, and I think that is all of our calling.”
Helwig echoed that sentiment when participants asked how they might support St. Stephen’s. While acknowledging that financial support and prayer are welcome, she redirected the focus outward. “I would rather people not focus on supporting Saint Stephen’s… find your own context. It’s going to be different than mine, but there is going to be suffering out there. There’s going to be suffering, and there is going to be power grinding people down.” Her invitation was clear: “Find your context and do whatever is right there.”
In one of the evening’s most pointed exchanges, Helwig was asked how she sees a homeless person. “I would see a homeless person as a person,” she replied. “Any person that we encounter is in that moment the presence of Christ for us.” She also challenged common assumptions about fear, noting that when approaching someone from a position of privilege, “you are the one who is frightening. You are the one who has the ability to hurt.”
As the evening drew to a close, Archbishop Anne reflected on the depth of what had been shared and on the call that extends beyond one parish or one city. She returned to the theological grounding of the conversation by reminding participants that in serving those who are poor, unhoused, and vulnerable, “that’s God’s heart that we serve them.” The invitation, implicit throughout the conversation, was not to admire from afar but to look around, discern the need within one’s own community, and respond.
The full recording of An Evening with Maggie Helwig is available on the Diocese of Algoma YouTube channel. Those who were unable to attend, or who wish to revisit the conversation, may view it here: https://youtu.be/xbde0apo3ts