Chorlton Central Church

Update

The Revd Henry Mayor writes ...

This is to bring you up to date on the Bondo fund since the Annual Meeting in April 2009.First, apologies. Sorry if you've already had some of this information from me or via someone else. I am not skilled in managing group e-mails and I may have included you in more than one group. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you don't want to receive any more!Sorry also if this letter looks like pressure on you to give again when you have already given - for which I'm truly grateful, whatever the size of your gift. I appreciate that the credit crunch can put a lot of financial pressure on you, and I don't want to add to it. So the purpose of this letter, apart from keeping you informed, is primarily to ask you to pass the appeal on to others who haven't heard about it, and, if you are willing, to pray for the Fund.

Patron. Latest news: Lord Steel of Aikwood, that's David Steel who was the Leader of the Liberal Party, then MSP and speaker of the Scottish Parliament, has agreed to be the Patron of the Fund. He spent some of his boyhood in the 1950's in Nairobi, where his father was a Presbyterian minister, and also an outspoken critic of the colonial government's actions in the "Mau Mau" emergency. Having his name on our letterhead should give a boost to our credibility.

November Appeal. As of 9th July the fund has raised £2,478 specifically for Bishop Johannes's Retreat/workshop, and over £825 in gifts where the destination was not specified. The committee agreed that we could use most of that towards the Retreat/workshop also.

Extending our appeal. It was clear that our appeal needed to be much wider, and more "professional". That led us to search for a patron, to get some eye-catching literature, to apply for grants, and to approach a wider public.

Literature. After lots of work, we have a new leaflet which is the first one I've attached. The designer is our son Martin, and we've had it professionally printed. Now we're sending it out by email, first to all the clergy in this diocese. Everyone is asked to consider displaying it in church, and passing it on to interested friends.

A Wider Public. We have tried to find ways of contacting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people outside the circle of our own friends. We were invited to give out leaflets at the launch of LGBT History Month in Stockport in February, but it was cancelled because of snow! We're hoping to get on to the diocesan website, and use the internet in other ways, and looking for "celebrities" whom we might approach for donations.

The Appeal

This is taken from the original appeal in 2008 and is included as background information

This is an appeal on behalf of our family friend Johannes Angela, who is the Bishop of Bondo in western Kenya. He’s planning a retreat/workshop for all his 45 clergy and others; and I have undertaken to help him fund it. It’s a visionary, ground-breaking project in a desperately poor diocese. I’m writing to ask you to remember it in your prayers.

I see this project as part of the challenge to the dogmatism which gives religion such a bad reputation. The Anglican Church in Kenya, officially, takes a dogmatic line which can be roughly expressed like this: “The Bible condemns all homosexuals. So there’s no point in even discussing the subject”.

The plan
Johannes has agreed with his Diocesan Standing Committee to hold a diocesan “Retreat/workshop on the life of the Anglican Communion”, a combination of retreat, fellowship and training. I have been invited to be one of the facilitators there, encouraging dialogue on homosexuality and the Bible, which is very much in line with what I have been doing in Kenya and here since 2006.

The Diocese
Here in England a clergy conference would be seen as a normal part of diocesan expenditure, but there is no way Bondo Diocese of could meet the cost. Within the diocese there are no large towns or major industries, and most of its people are dependent upon agriculture and fishing, plagued with HIV/AIDS and still struggling to rehabilitate victims of the violence which broke out in Kenya in January 2008. The economic downfall which followed that violence made costs leap up far more than they have so far in for us in the developed countries.

The Cost
This works out at approximately £10,500, or £21.50 per head per day, if 45 clergy and their spouses attend. If that amount isn’t raised, clergy only could meet, for approx. £6,920, or £25.60 per head per day. If we raised a greater sum, lay Synod members could also come. Adding all 71 members would bring it up to approx. £16,950, or £18.60 per head per day. (Unit costs fall as numbers go up.)

The Bondo fund
I intend to channel money through The Bondo Fund, which – as you may already know - I set up after visiting Kenya in 2006 to raise money for various projects in the area, such as work with HIV/AIDS victims and an inter-diocesan development project. (It’s too small to be a registered charity, but we have a committee and our accounts are audited, and in the last 2+ years we have sent out over £2,200.)

Thank you again, and God bless you.

Henry Mayor

revised 11 July 2009