A committee of De La Salle brothers and ex-volunteers from their Kintbury
(Newbury) youth retreat centre are on course to found a residential
community near Bristol (several of the ex-volunteers nowadays teach in
Bristol schools.)
Active for a couple of years under the acronym “LAMB”, the “Lasallian
Association for Mission in Bristol”, they have already run various
successful youth days and residential weekends (including for the
University of the West of England “Cathsoc” group.) Rooted in prayer,
the new community will be the core group to support hard-pressed and
time-strapped school chaplaincies and other Catholic youth work in the
Bristol area from September 2004, largely through the “peer ministry”
of commited-young-to-young (widely regarded as the most effective means
of youth evangelisation.)
They have outline agreement for the project from:
• the De La Salle congregation (under whom they are being consituted);
• certain Bristol-area schools’ management;
• Bishop Declan; and
• the owners of a suitable rented community house outside Bristol which
is expected to permanently accommodate three Brothers and three
young-adult volunteers.
They also have outline agreement for funding, and the timetable for
recruitment (particularly from colleges and universities) and training
of the “gap-year” volunteers is now running.
Father Robert Rainbow
Further up-to-date details of “LAMB” are available from:
Mr Fran Bell, LAMB Chairman, 8 Church Road, Horfield, Bristol BS7 8SA
Email:
fran@hexamon.org
or
Father Robert Rainbow
Tel: 0117 925 1980
Email:
Robert.Rainbow@uwe.ac.uk
Useful URL :
http://www.lamb-dls.org.uk