compassion in the city

potts point and surrounds are truly gorgeous parts of sydney that are home to some of the city’s, and indeed the country’s, richest people. but nestled behind potts point’s trendy cafes is the wayside chapel – a homeless shelter that helps 200 people a day.

the wayside has just published an amazing book called stories from the wayside where four top fashion photographers took shots of wayside visitors to show the humanity that unites us all. as part of the book’s promotion, timeout sydney published a fascinating interview with the wayside’s reverend graham long. if you’re interested, it’s well worth the read (i couldn’t find the interview on their site unfortunately, only in hard copy) but i’ve reproduced the last paragraph for you which put a smile on my face.

reverend graham long: ‘look, i think sydney is mostly a place of enormous compassion. our governor (marie bashir) is an extraordinary person. she phoned me one day to say “graham, i’ve got clothes for your op shop, would you like them?” i said. “that’d be great.” next thing you know the governor’s car is down the road and a man hands me a bundle of clothes. i put it into the op shop, and within an hour i saw a bag lady walking up the street wearing the governor’s clothes. new tell me, when has that happened in the history of nsw?’