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am pleased to welcome Catherine and Steven into our Reconcile Project. I
believe their youthfulness will be of great benefit to the young people
who come to us each day for advise and help. In this edition of Edges,
we invite the Muslim community to reflect with us. I am grateful for
their contributions. A few weeks ago I shared a platform with the Muslim
community at a faith response to addiction. Jack Straw opened the event
and we were joined by the Drug Czar Keith Hellawell. I spoke about the
need for faith communities to work together and build bridges of
solidarity. Although we come from different faith traditions, we share
spiritual values. That emphasis on a power beyond is very evident in the
treatment programmes of chemical dependency. Equally, our faith
traditions can play an important part in the life of our nation.
Nevertheless, we always have to be aware of a fundamentalism which
prevents us from building bridges. Being a builder of bridges means we
have to take risks as we step out of the confines of our own human
thinking and embrace another person's methods of thought. Edges magazine
continues to build bridges with people. We explore the diversity of
marginalisation and give a platform for the powerless to speak out. It
is amazing how many different kinds of people communicate with us each
day.
In this edition of Edges, we read about a young man who
has been involved with crime from an early age, but now wants to change
his ways. At the moment we are setting up a new project for young people
coming out of prison. We hope to provide a mentoring scheme which will
help people adjust back into the community. While in prison, a
transformation can take place. This can diminish when people are
released back into the community. This is because there is no adequate
support and society becomes the fertile soil for re-offending. We hope
to address this situation. We have seen with our own eyes, that with
support, young people can build new lives out of the mistakes of the
past.
Edges magazine also stands in solidarity with the
homeless of London who continue to speak to us about their plight. We
are pleased to give them a voice. In this edition we listen to the
difficulties people face on the streets.
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