Giuseppe Conlon House - London

 

    Prayer at the London Catholic Worker’s Giuseppe Conlon House is pretty unique since they have their very own church building! And that’s how each morning begins at 8. First with a reading of the day’s scripture and 20 minutes of silence and then in organized prayer with songs from the Taize book. They do evening prayer most days too!

    I spent a fair bit of time cleaning that church while I was there. I guess it's been an ongoing project to transform the church from a massive closet to a bit nicer space. Going through old books and Catholic Worker protest banners was a good time. The dust was killer though!

    It's not just the church building that the London CWs occupy but the house next door to it too. Since that building is mostly just bedrooms, the sacristy of the church building served as the main common space where the kitchen and dining area are as well as the TV and their large collection of CW books. You do have to walk outside to go between the two buildings which is a bit of a bummer when it rains, but in the evening the walkway is decorated with fun, festive Christmas lights so maybe that balances things out.

    It's mostly men who live at Conlon House and most of them come from places that aren’t the UK. Since I was there during the women’s World Cup there was plenty of excitement about soccer throughout my visit. Whether folks were rooting for England, Jamaica, or any of the countries representing the continent of Africa, football was on pretty much every morning. Cricket was popular too, at least with the British and Caribbean folks. We never did figure out which of our beloved sports cricket or baseball is more boring.

    Like many CWs dinner is the common meal for the community but in a slight twist cooking almost always happens in pairs at the London CW. Having a meal prep buddy isn’t something I see often at CWs but it definitely has its advantages, like for a new person who doesn’t know their way around the CW kitchen or who maybe isn’t an experienced cook themselves. Potatoes seemed to play a big role in the menu compared to other Europe CWs and I was happy that I got to sample some real British tomatoey beans when I was there.

common room viewed from above

    The London CW was a prime example of Dorothy’s maxim “there was always bread” and each week a community member or two go out with hand carts to collect their bounty from a fancy local baker. There were always day-old donuts and the like around and they even got so much they were able to share with other food distribution projects nearby. 

        During my stay the longest tenured CW Martin was weekly working on a court ordered community service sentence for a recent climate change protest he’d been in where he had to work at a thrift store (or “charity shop” as they called it there). Each Wednesday he’d regale us with stories of the day’s adventures which tended to be lamentations of just how much stuff there is in this world.

    

more photos of the London CW