Tuesday 24 September 2002
Front Page
A CLERGYMAN serving at Inverness Cathedral has been recruited into a new flock.
Rev Gareth Saunders, a curate at the Cathedral, is now a man with a double mission, spreading the word not only about the Church, but about “Join Me” — an informal group which started almost as a joke but is now bringing people together from across the world.
Join Me was created when advertisements appeared in London newspapers asking people to “join me” by writing back with a passport-sized photograph.
The person whom respondents found they were joining is Danny, who prefers not to give his surname although he does reveal he used to work for catalogue sales firm Argos.
“The reason I did this was part boredom. I just wanted to see what would happen,” he explained. “I didn’t expect anyone to write back, to be honest. Then a few days later people started writing in. It spread and now I have got hundreds of followers, as it were, throughout Europe. This week I’m going to Amsterdam to make a speech and I’m also going to Belgium to appear on a chat show.”
Danny describes Join Me as a collective, not a cult, and told the Courier: “One of the dilemmas I had was to use my powers for good or evil and you will be glad to know I decided on good.”
He is encouraging his joinees to carry out “random acts of kindness”, but insists Join Me is not a religious organisation. “I’m not religious in any way, but funnily enough, I’ve had two vicars join me,” he said.
One of Join Me’s two vicar followers, Gareth was in communication with
Danny via computer before the initiative began.
“Danny said he was going to start Join Me and asked me to join him,”
Gareth (30) recalled.
“It seemed like a good idea and could lead somewhere positive, so I said ‘Yes’, although obviously I didn’t know much about it then.
“Even Danny wasn’t too sure where it was going. Being a priest in the Church, there’s a certain aspect of me that’s into putting faith into things I’m not initially sure about.”
Heavy-metal fan Gareth, who has been at the cathedral for three years, has been undertaking missionary work on Danny’s behalf, not only wearing his Join Me t-shirt, but distributing leaflets about the group.
“Flyers have been going like hot cakes,” Gareth commented. “The cathedral is quite a good place because we get so many people.
“It seems a good idea. Something to get people together to do some good
work is what the church is supposed to be about.”
Although the two men have not met face to face, Danny describes Gareth as one
of his favourite joinees and hopes to visit him very soon.
“I want to visit my joinees and I thought I might as well start at the top,” he said.
Copyright © 2002 The Inverness Courier