In a city reputed for power and ambition, David Downes serves the people most often overlooked and left behind. As executive director of Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington, Downes and a team of caseworkers and volunteers ensure help for “anyone who wants to make changes in his or her life,” he said. Most often, that means people who are homeless, or those at imminent risk of becoming homeless. The organization — in operation for nearly 25 years and working with about 1,300 people annually — also serves the social and spiritual needs of people living with HIV/AIDS, and their families. Downes, 64, spoke with the Washington Examiner about the faith and the people who guide his life’s devotion to giving back.
Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
I am a Christian who practices my faith as an Episcopalian. I appreciate Christianity most for its focus on loving one’s neighbors, on serving others, and on being part of a community that supports its members as they live out their faith. I appreciate the Episcopal Church most for its openness to looking at old things in new ways, but also for its traditions and liturgies.
Did anyone or any event especially influence your faith or your path in life? How so?
My father was an Episcopal priest on Long Island, and so I grew up in the church and had parents who taught me Christian values and attitudes, not only with their words but by their example. My father also served as a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. He would go to the big fires, and occasionally bring me with him, and his role was to be there for firefighters who were injured, or for the families of those injured or killed. He didn’t need to do it — he had a parish to run — but he was just there for other people. When people were not sure whether to address my father as Mister, Father, or something else, and asked what to call him, he’d say, “Call me whatever you like, just call me when you need me.” That was his basic approach. I know that this influenced career choices I have made, most of which have involved service to others.
What maintains the hope you must have each day to work with a population that struggles so hard with basic living, and often repeats the struggles?
The successes of our participants, despite the formidable challenges they face, are a daily source of inspiration for me. And one of the things I’ve come to appreciate is that success comes in a lot of different ways — it is often a cumulative thing, as can be failure.
Too often, we don’t recognize the humanity of people who are struggling, and we don’t understand and take the time to appreciate the challenges that others are facing because we come from lives of relative well-being. We’ve all got difficulties, we’ve all got friends or family members with substance abuse problems, we all know people who’ve been out of work, we all know people who come from dysfunctional families. But when all of those things happen at the same time, it’s much more difficult.
An old question, but one that many still struggle with: How should we react or respond to the homeless people we pass each day?
I think the most important thing is to acknowledge each person you meet in a way that recognizes him or her as a person worthy of dignity and respect. If someone on the street asks me for help, I try to take the time to stop, look him or her in the eye and give as compassionate a response as I can. I carry with me small brochures about our Next Step program (titled “Make Changes in Your Life”) and usually offer one of them to anyone asking for help. I may give them some change and suggest they call Samaritan Ministry if they’d like help getting off the street. Sometimes my response is that I don’t have any money for them today. Sometimes, when I have the time, I offer to pay for and share a meal with them and I have met some very interesting people that way!
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
I believe that the spirit of God is love and that when we act with love toward one another, the world is a better place in which to live and we are better people. I believe that loving ourselves and loving others at the same time, especially those who are different from us, is often difficult, but almost always worth it.
— Leah Fabel
