A Busy Year for the Monastery
From the Monastery Team
There's so much to report
Our priorities did not change during 1999, though much has happened since our last newsletter.
First and foremost in our mind is still the task of saving the Monastery and to find a long term sustainable use for the buildings and the surrounding area.
We wish to retain much from the past.
Physically this means the Church itself and those parts of the Friary which are salvageable - much of it is riddled with dry rot.
The Monastery provided a focus for the community in its heyday - witnessing the milestones in peoples' lives, giving spiritual guidance, offering a meeeting place and it was also a place of education.
Of course times change but the basic needs of a community stay the same. There is still a need for a focus, if with a different content.
This role is something which we feel is as important as the buildings themselves and we hope that the re-created complex will play a significant part in the life of Gorton.
And then there is the spiritual dimension. Although no longer a church and home of the Fransiscan Fathers and Brothers, we wanted to retain the guiding Fransiscan principles of love and tolerance to all mankind, protection of living things and safeguarding of the environment.
Tall order indeed!
As we said, much happened in 1999.
Perhaps the most difficult time was when our application for funding to the National Lottery Heritage Fund was turned down. As you know we applied for funds to renovate the buildings and develop 'Spirit of Life' on the site.
This would have provided an exciting tourist, educational and cultural attraction in the Friary buildings and an events/function venue in the former church.
We were optimistic that this scheme would give Gorton something to be proud of once again, would bring back investment, provide jobs and be a benefit to the whole community.
After much hard work in putting together the application, unfortunately for us, the goalpoasts moved.
The Lottery reconsidered its priorities since a large number of funded venues have failed spectacularly and, in our case, only wanted to support a fail-safe business venture.
They did not consider 'Spirit of Life' such a venture. It was hard to get 'back to the drawing board' but we did it and a new, much sharper business proposition was submitted early in November.
Our plans for the Monastery and the adjacent site now include a 60 bed hotel with meeting and conference facilities, a regional safety training and citizenship centre, a traditional skills training centre with sculpture workshops and art showroom, a community retail store, safe parking, sensitively landscaped gardens that will include picnic and play areas if space permits.
We are expecting a decision from the Heritage Lottery Fund in Spring 2000 ... so watch this space.