ABSTRACT
This account describes work done with the Christian homelessness charity, Housing Justice, over tow cycles of theological action research. The relatively long period of work together enabled strong research relationships to be developed and also allowed the testing of some first research learning back in the practice context. In particular, this chapter sets out how the differences between varied volunteers’ and the homeless guests’ accounts of the practices were picked up and presented back to the volunteers. The learning that resulted was significant theologically and contextually. The late modern urban and secular context seemed to leave volunteers unwilling to articulate faith in contrast to the guests (1). The transformative power of the practices was clearly attested to (2), whilst at the same time the reluctance to articulate them theologically persisted. The ARCS team’s connecting of the hospitable practices of Housing Justice with the volunteers’ experience of Eucharist, for example, was not adopted by the practitioners themselves (3). An explicitly ecumenical group (5), Housing Justice enabled some particular reflection for the ARCS teams on the ways in which normativities are not only documented and articulated but also embodied (4).
