Our Roots
Action began with a tragedy
Our roots can be traced to 2006, when a homeless man named Bill Walsh died in the woods one week after New London's winter shelter closed. Another man, Danny Worobel, died soon afterward.
Emmett Jarrett, a peace activist and founder of St. Francis House, an intentional Christian community in New London, convened a task force that would find ways to support those seeking a way out of homelessness.
His vision of radical hospitality is at the heart of our mission to this day.
The article at left is from The Day newspaper of New London.
'Let us see the invisible poor.'
All of us are neighbors. All of us are brothers and sisters to Bill Walsh and to one another. Let us resolve today, in his memory, to make our city a ‘‘city on a hill,’’ to which everyone can look for inspiration, to make our country ‘‘a light to the nations,’’ that cares for its neediest citizens.
Let us get up tomorrow morning and start to work together to create a homeless hospitality center in New London that will be a model for the rest of our region and our nation. Let us see the invisible poor, and live together with all our sisters and brothers in the beloved community the God of justice invites us to become."
Excerpted from Emmett Jarrett's sermon
at the funeral of Bill Walsh in 2006
