The four church leaders drew on the biblical story of the Good Samaritan and the Christian principle of loving thy neighbour in the letter,emailed on Friday and obtained byThe Age,after years of delay to the government’s wavering 2020 commitment to.
Rev Dr Margaret Mayman,Pastor James Winderlich,Rev Dr Simon Carey Holt and Rev Rachel Kronberger have written to Premier Jacinta Allan calling for a safe injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD.Paul Jeffers
“Salvation is about saving lives here and now,” one signatory,Reverend Dr Margaret Mayman from St Michael’s Uniting Church,toldThe Age.
She signed the letter with Reverend Dr Simon Carey Holt from Collins Street Baptist Church,Reverend Rachel Kronberger at the Wesley Church and Pastor James Winderlich at St John’s Lutheran Church.
“Motivated by the call of our faith to love God and neighbour and our enduring Christian commitment to justice and the sanctity of life,we remain committed to ensuring Melbourne is a place that nurtures the wellbeing of all its citizens,including those most vulnerable,” the letter said.
“We are open to meeting with you to discuss how we can support your government to move forward with this life-saving initiative.”
The government has resisted pressure to immediately release an independent report from former police commissioner Ken Lay into a second possible,but,injecting room with wraparound services.
in the City of Melbourne have escalated in the years since and reached 24 in 2022 – the highest in a decade – overtaking all other local government areas.
Holt toldThe Age he had seen a worsening crisis on the doorstep of his Collins Place church and in the back alleyway Baptist Place. He said the reverends and pastor were each driven by the biblical story of the Good Samaritan.
“We don’t step around those in need,we don’t cart them to the edges of the city,” Holt said.
Two people are dying in Melbourne's CBD every month but the premier will no longer say if she supports a second injecting room.
“Every person is made in the image of God and needs to be treated with respect and dignity.”
Mayman said two people had overdosed and died at St Michael’s Uniting Church in the years before she joined as minister in 2020. She said loving your neighbour was not just about caring for people who were easy to relate to or easy to love.
“Loving is often understood as a feeling. But from a faith perspective,it’s about action. It’s the act of love that makes a real difference in the lives of others. So we feel quite compelled to speak out on this,” she said.
“What does our faith mean,here and now in this place,in the Paris end of Collins Street,where not everyone is living a Paris lifestyle?”
cohealth Central City on Victoria Street,near the Queen Victoria Market,was named as the preferred location for a facility in 2020 before the government turned its attention to the former Yoorralla building on Flinders Street,and then lastly to the Salvation Army headquarters on Bourke Street.
Each possible site has been beset with community campaigns against them,and Salvation Army commanding officer Brendan Nottle this month said he had recently had “total radio silence” from the government.
A broader drug reform debate has also taken hold in the state after a series of overdoses at Victorian music festivals,with crossbench MPs from the Greens,Legalise Cannabis and Animal Justice Party agitating for change.
Two coroners on Thursday recommended the government trial pill testing after investigating unrelated overdose deaths.
Coroner Ingrid Giles said one man,38,appeared to believe he was injecting heroin when he consumed a highly potent when he died in 2022.
Coroner Simon McGregor also found another man,18,died last year having overdosed on MDMA and methylone,a synthetic cathinone,at a Melbourne music festival.
Five coronial inquiries since 2021 have called on the state to introduce a drug-checking service,but health authorities did not support the recommendations.
A Victorian Government spokesperson said:“Ken Lay’s report highlights the complexity of this matter – and we’re taking the time required to get it right.
“We will release the report alongside our government response in due course.”
The letter to Premier Jacinta Allan from the reverends
Dear Premier Allan,
As leaders of churches in Melbourne’s CBD,we call upon you,the Premier of Victoria,and your colleague,the Victorian Minister for Mental Health,Ingrid Stitt,to honour your government’s commitment to establish a medically supervised injecting service here in the heart of the city. The need is urgent.
Our churches have been here for almost as long as the city itself. Motivated by the call of our faith to love God and neighbour and our enduring Christian commitment to justice and the sanctity of life,we remain committed to ensuring Melbourne is a place that nurtures the wellbeing of all its citizens,including those most vulnerable.
In just 12 months,we have lost 24 people to drug overdoses in our churches’ immediate neighbourhoods. The City of Melbourne has the highest number of heroin deaths of any Victorian local government area. The call-outs to ambulance services in response to overdoses here has increased nearly 30% in the last year. As those who seek to care,we are confronted with the realities of this every day. The anxiety on our streets is palpable,especially among those who are struggling to survive.
Supervised injecting rooms,or overdose prevention services,recognise the complex societal factors that contribute to addition,including poverty,trauma and mental illness. These services recognise that some individuals may continue to use drugs despite efforts to discourage them. Drug use is often a response to trauma and abuse,sometimes at the hands of people who are meant to care for them. Some people may recover and then relapse many times over. They need our compassion,not our judgement.
We commend your government for establishing Victoria’s first medically supervised injecting service in North Richmond five years ago. Already,through this service,more than 1,000 people have been connected to drug treatment therapy providing a pathway out of addiction. In many cases this service has been life saving for those who find it difficult to access our health care system. Through this facility and its staff,disadvantaged people — some connected to our churches — have been connected to those who care about their welfare and are able to support them in a process of change,providing wrap-around support that addresses more than their drug use alone.
While the debate surrounding the establishment of such services has become highly politically,there is no controversy when it comes to scientific evidence. Studies of more than 120 injecting services around the world demonstrate that they are one of the most effective tools in addressing serious harm caused by drug dependence in our community. According to Co-Health Fitzroy’s Dr Paul MacCartney,one of Melbourne’s leading specialists in addiction medicine,“these services work.”
In our view,we cannot pretend any longer that that the need to provide appropriate care to those in the grip of addictions and related mental health challenges does not exist,nor that this need can be hidden or pushed elsewhere. We cannot imagine our city as one that welcomes only those who are healthy and well-resourced and leaves others on its edges. We are all diminished by such an approach. For this reason we support the implementation of our state government’s decision,made in 2020,to provide a medically supervised injecting service here in the city as a matter of urgency.
It cannot wait.
We are open to meeting with you to discuss how we can support your government to move forward with this life saving initiative.
Sincerely,