The Ulster Project
This summer we are fortunate to have 4 young people from the Congregation participating in the Ulster Project – Matthew Bell and Ruth Agnew are heading to Milwaukee in Wisconsin, Matthew Mellon is going to St Louis in Missouri and Ross Kirker is going to Mahoning Valley in Ohio.
Following an extended pastoral exchange with a clergyman in Manchester, Connecticut, Father Kerry Waterstone, a Church of Ireland (Anglican) priest, received a request from two congregations in that city asking him to formulate a plan in an effort to help ease the tensions in Northern Ireland.
After the experience of his own family in America, Canon Waterstone felt that the attitudes of teens from Northern Ireland might be changed. If they could see and experience the way Americans have learned to live together in their “melting pot” society, they might influence the future in Northern Ireland.
The photo above is from Arlington, Texas when the group went round the neighbourhoods collecting different foods and other articles for Mission Arlington. This is an organisation which provides food and other supplies to people living below the poverty line. The group of teens from Northern Ireland and Texas went to the Mission with the items they had collected and helped to sort them and other donations into the relevant areas.
Newtownbreda have been sending young people to America as part of the Ulster Project since 1983.