Vigil/Fast at City Hall

Homeless Action Week Vigil
Standing for Homes : Fasting for Justice

October 14-18, 2008
Vancouver City Hall

Homelessness is on the rise everywhere in the region.
Affordable, adequate housing is extremely difficult to obtain in Vancouver.
Poverty is taking hold of increasing numbers of individuals and families in BC.

Standing for Homes

With federal and municipal elections on the immediate horizon, and the provincial election not far away, these issues need to be given high priority on the political agenda. During Homeless Action Week this fall, we will undertake a vigil at Vancouver City Hall, as a way of bearing witness to the reality of poverty and homelessness in our midst, and challenging our political leaders to take immediate and constructive action to address these issues. The vigil will begin on the morning of Tuesday, Oct 14th and end on Saturday, Oct 18th, culminating in a citywide STAND for HOUSING at City Hall from 1:00 – 2:00 pm.

STANDs for HOUSING have been taking place across the city and the province for many months, and have been an effective way of raising public awareness of the urgent need to end homelessness and provide housing for all. The vigil is aligned with this movement, and will conclude by joining in a collective STAND at City Hall.

It is important that there be a continuous presence during this time, so we are asking people to join us at any time during the vigil for any length of time they choose - an hour, an evening, a day, or all five days, if that is possible.

Fasting for Justice

The vigil will also take the form of a fast in which those who participate in it will be invited to refrain from normal consumption of food during the vigil, and to “sleep rough” on the grounds of City Hall. Historically, fasting is a practice with rich symbolic meaning. While it is customarily understood as an act with physical and spiritual import, it carries significant social and political meaning as well.

Fasting acts as a means of detoxification, a way of cleansing our bodies from the many toxic substances we ingest on a daily basis. It also constitutes a practice of breaking free from destructive patterns of over-consumption that leave others malnourished and the environment depleted. Fasting ruptures our usual patterns of accumulation; it pares life back to essentials, allowing us to concentrate again on matters of most importance - justice, compassion, and personal and communal well-being.

Fasting is an act of solidarity with those who suffer deprivation, an intentional, symbolic “coming alongside” those who lack basic necessities. Fasting helps us grow in compassion as we experience the pain of poverty and the pain of being homeless. By fasting, we enter into a place of connection with the hungry and the homeless, and align our lives with theirs in the struggle for justice and dignity. We suspend the satisfaction of our own desires and renew our resolve to eliminate inequality at the systemic level and suffering at the personal level.

Fasting constitutes an act of political dissent, of non-compliance with the status quo. It is an expression of non-violent protest against a politics of power that aligns itself with the strong and against the weak. A fast makes hunger and homelessness visible, and it challenges the denial and blindness in our society concerning poverty, inequality and homelessness.

Fasting within various Christian traditions has provided a particularly potent space for focusing on one’s innermost being, for giving sustained attention to the deepest longings of our lives. It is a time to realign our hearts with the divine will, to acknowledge our constant drift toward self-interest, and to seek anew the inner strength to love God and love our neighbor. As a spiritual discipline, fasting aids us in orienting our spirit to the Creator, our neighbor and all creation in a posture of wonder, gratitude and passionate care.


A vigil is a time of watching and bearing witness. Our presence at this site of political power will be a sign that homelessness and poverty are a matter of concern for us, that we desire a just city not a civil city, and that we all, political leaders and citizens alike, bear moral responsibility to ensure the well-being of everyone in our city. This is no time for the pursuit of narrow self-interest; it is time for justice to be actualized in the form of affordable housing, adequate income and meaningful support for all who are in desperate need of them.

So please join us - for an hour, an evening, a day, or all 5-days - and bear witness with us to the crisis of homelessness and the need for justice in our city.

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? (Isa 58:6-7)

Streams of Justice

http://www.streamsofjustice.org/