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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My dear brothers and sisters,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Some of you may recall a paper I posted a while
back about the way a group of us here in East manchester are using the
restoration of a Franciscan monastery as a catalyst for changing the lives of
people in a post-industrial inner city area long blighted by some of the worse
poverty in Western Europe. A documentary about our work is due to go out on BBC
tv next month in the "Passion for Churches" series.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Last year, we were facing major hurdles and held a
month of prayer to ask God to show us the way ahead. Those prayers were richly
answered. We have taken over an old school and renamed it The Angels. >From here,
we run our outreach projects with groups and individuals that
include:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Young Families</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* School aged Children</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Teenagers</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Children excluded from mainstream
education</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Offenders and ex-offenders</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Victims of crime & anti-social
behaviour</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Serving prisoners</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Asylum seekers and refugees</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Elderly people</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* People with Learning Difficulties</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>People with mental
health issues</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Unemployed people</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Those who seek training or further
education</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* People with drug and alcohol issues
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* British Travellers and Gypsies</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* Care Leavers</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* The sick</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* The dying and bereaved</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Although we are not a religious group, our core
values are rooted in the Franciscan legacy left by the monks for the community
they served so wonderfully for well over a century. As the only Franciscan
member of the team, one of my roles is to guide our prayer life and ethics -
though this is, of course, a responsibility we all share. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>As always, we seek Heaven's will for the
future. We do not expect a problem free journey. Indeed, we rejoice in the
strength and insight we have gained by addressing the many problems we have so
far encountered on the way. However, it really is important to us that the right
ballance is struck for this wonderful and diverse community. As we develop our
buildings with new partners in our efforts to strengthen the minds, bodies and
souls of local people, we are privileged to experience a process
of individual and collective growth towards a healthier, happier safer
community. Each day brings new challenges. We are a small team and have to
run with the restoration of the monastery itself, a large number of community
projects and manage a large building with heavy overheads. The more
succesful we appear on the outside, the harder it becomes to raise the funding
needed to keep it all going to a point of funding itself. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Of late, we seem to be attracting an
increasing number of people with their own personal agendas who are
demanding time and energy for themselves that we really need to spend more
widely on the good of everyone. But overall, we are touched every day by
grace and are fully aware that everything is held in hands far more capable than
our own. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>One of the great pulls on myself at the moment is
that York Chapter coincides with an annual camp in Scotland with local
young people. The CLCGB Camp holds daily activities that help the young
ones gain confidence, think communally and reach towards their inate God given
potential. I am the chaplain for the week and am due to take one of the
nightly fellowship groups and help frame Sunday and mid-week worship.
During the day, we will be climbing mountains, canoeing, gorge walking,
abseiling and generally engaging with the young people in a range of challenges
and new experiences. This group has consistently produced the leadership our
community needs if it is to succesfully take the reigns of the promising new
future that now awaits it. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Someone (following a hard-drive crash I've lost
touch with who it was) asked if I would rewrite the paper I recenly submitted in
a shorter form for York Chapter. If that person is reading this, I guess this is
it. My brothers and sisters, in deep love and regard, I implore you three
things:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1: If it is your will, accept my apologies and
excuse me from joining you at York Chapter. If my order tells me I
must be there, then to York I will go. God's will be done in this. I would
ask that someone who can do so give me the decision as quickly as they are able
so that I have time to prepare myself and others should I not be
making that journey to Scotland this year.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2: Please pray for the Monastery of St Francis and
Gorton Trust and the work of the Angels, Healthy Gorton, Surestart, Active Life
For All, the CLCG Brigade, local churches and other faith groups. Pray too
for the policing, schooling, healing and nurtutring of our
neighbourhoods and for all the work we undertake together as a Matrioshka
community. Pray that God will ever guide us and, forgiving us our faults, be
pleased to guard the processes we are involved in from human
error. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>3: Pray especially for the people impacted by our
own and a much wider regeneration process. Pray that this time their dreams may
not be scattered; their lives not impoverished or their sense of belonging not
torn assunder; but that God may richly bless them, heal them and love them, that
they might learn for themsleves how to spread the blessings, the healing and the
love of God in the wide, wide world.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In Christ, St. Francis and St. Clare.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Your brother,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>David. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Rev. David Gray</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Community Coordinator</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The Monastery of St. Francis & Gorton
Trust</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The Angels</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Endcott Close</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> West Gorton</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Manchester - M18 8BR.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tel: 0161-223 3211 Email: <A
href="mailto:david@theangelsmanchester.com">david@theangelsmanchester.com</A>
Website: <A
href="http://www.gortonmonastery.co.uk">www.gortonmonastery.co.uk</A>
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