KEY POINTS:
The boy in the hooded top sizes me up. "Perv!" he shouts. "Paedo!" laughs another. I look deep into their adolescent eyes, and deliver my pre-scripted reply: "Are you sure you don't just need a good hug?" Apparently, they don't. The boys disappear into the Oxford St crowds, and I carry on walking up the pavement, holding a large sign that offers sympathetic hugs to any shoppers who might "really need it".
To most passers-by in this part of central London, I must look like another lonely oddball going about his daily business. Instead I'm a slightly embarrassed reporter taking part in a serious social experiment.
This week Western Christians celebrated the start of Lent. In keeping with tradition, millions will forego one of life's treats (chocolate, alcohol, sweets, etc) for 40 days and 40 nights.
This year, things are different. Reasoning, that most resolutions add nothing to the sum of human happiness, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has launched a campaign to rebrand Lent. Its name is, "Love Life, Live Lent".
The principle behind his brainchild is simple. Instead of giving something up, Anglicans are encouraged to spend time each day being "generous to yourself, your neighbours, and the world". .
To help them, the Church of England has published a book of "simple actions" that followers can perform during Lent, and invited churchgoers to sign up for text message alerts, in which they will be contacted with one act of kindness to perform each day between now and Easter.
It will provide a religious take on an intriguing international trend. In recent years, in different corners of the globe, several movements have sprung up inviting followers to combat the selfishness of modern life by doing nice things to random strangers.
Today, I want in on the act. With luck, it will make a small difference to the daily life of a handful of complete strangers, and provide me with a warm glow.
Yet it might answer some big questions. Are random acts of kindness an enduring human trait? Can we find time to perform them in the hurly-burly of modern life? Will those on the receiving end really care?
One of the 40 "actions" is to "hug someone who needs it". A few minutes later, I find my man. Mutu works near Oxford Circus Tube station, holding up a sign pointing towards a golf sale. He's cold, bored, and earns minimum wage. If anyone needs a hug, it is Mutu.
I hold tight, share some love then I offer him some fruit. He accepts, which is helpful, because it allows me to "give someone an apple", number 14 on the list. That's two acts of kindness down.
If you put your mind to it, carrying out acts of kindness can start as soon as you wake up. You can be kind to people in different parts of the country, or on the other side of the world, or even be kind to the planet itself, without leaving your home.
So I "turn off the tap when I clean my teeth", drink an ethical coffee (I've been instructed to "buy a Fairtrade product") having only "filled the kettle with the water I need". I forego a bacon sandwich in favour of muesli, since this is an opportunity to "have a meat-free day".
In keeping with the Archbishop of Canterbury's sandal-wearing public image, many of his "simple actions" are aimed at combating climate-change, or otherwise helping the environment. This Lent, he advises Anglicans to "put on a jumper and turn down the heat in your house", and to "buy a low-energy lightbulb".
The "Love Life, Live Lent" campaign was born in a pub. Five years ago, the comedian Danny Wallace founded an organisation known as the Karma Army, which now boasts several thousand members.
Its purpose is to carry out one random act of kindness each Friday. Wallace chronicled the birth of his movement in the book Join Me!, and has given the church permission to use some of his suggested charitable acts - known as "Good Fridays" - in its literature for the current project.
In a coffee shop, I meet the magnificently named Reverend Tina Turner, the vicar of St Christopher's in Croydon, south London. I quiz her on some of my misgivings about the random acts of kindness the church has suggested.
Is it not dangerous for the church to suggest that "having a TV-free day" (as I am) or giving up meat for 24 hours is always a good thing? Doesn't this suggest that watching telly is immoral? Or that hamburgers are the food of the devil?
"I don't think it's about moral versus immoral," she responds. "It's about doing something different from what you'd normally do, and asking yourself why don't I do this more often?"
As we say our goodbyes, a case in point. Outside a local coffee shop, I spot a man in his fifties enjoying a drink. I ask whether I can sit next to him, explaining that it would be nice to "have a conversation with someone from a different generation". He agrees. His name is John.
John is already a devotee of random acts of kindness. He tries to do one every day, and says it makes him feel great. "I've been doing it for years, but I don't think of it as a random act of kindness. I think of it as being human."
And in a way, he has a point.
ON THE WEB www.livelent.net
- Independent
