The 'bun and tract' brigade and the soup run

Sorry to extend this correspondence but in the interest of accuracy I must enter the list as your correspondent C. E. Mears-Gardner (March 29) has unfortunately missed the point completely!
First, there is no "dispute" between St. Mungo's and ourselves — the facts are indisputable and our PRO was merely correcting a false impression given by a journalist writing about a community venture started in 1969.
Secondly. Mr James was very careful to exclude from his remarks those mobile soup and/or tea kitchens run by religious bodies (of which the Silver Lady is a well-known and much respected example) which have existed in one form or another from the earliest days of Christianity and which, since General Booth, have been notably evangelical — such as the London Embankment Mission, the Golhorne Centre Van and many others up and down the country.
Thirdly, I am afraid we must plead guilty to being the originators of the "soup run" — a descriptive title coined by us and now in common usage among voluntary bodies in England, Scotland. Wales, Ulster and Eire. The difference between a "soup run" and the earlier soup/tea mobile kitchens is simple — the latter were and are basically members of the "bun and tract" brigade. They dispense material aid primarily to "save unfortunates! "Soup Runners" were groups of people (caring and cared-with) who wished to extend the activities of their houses of hospitality out and down to the lowest levels of homelessness in order to be with those for whom, unfortunately, there just wasn't any room in the houses.
The Soup Run was (and should be) a mobile "club" for those on the "outside" and the soup was only a means of integrating the two groups into an "us" group. We sat on the kerb and took soup with those we visited. We took cigarettes (or "snout") clothes arid food — but above all we brought ourselves with no overtones of preaching, saving. tractdistributing or hymn-singing. In Fact a "Burns Night Supper" on the old Soup Run was an event to warm the most nationalist Scottish heart! And, having said that, let me remind you. we in Simon take our inspiration directly from Christ also. It is just that we see Him very simply and unfussily mixing with the drop-outs of His society in a way which got through, and without all the trappings! We were happy to hand over the original Soup Ran when it got too big and too Organised. God bless, Anton Wallich-Clifford Founder Simon Community Trust 13 North Street, St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex.