The donation by the Woodfield Avenue Bohra mosque makes it a major investor in the Inspire project

Local Muslims have donated 52 000 British pounds to help develop a church building into a community centre in the rundown Levenshulme district of Manchester, one of Britain’s largest cities.

“The investment symbolizes the strength of inter-faith relationships in our community,” said the Rev. Ed Cox, a United Reformed Church minister who is chairperson of Levenshulme Inspire, the organization behind the project.

The project’s initiators say it will transform the Levenshulme URC church building into a multi-purpose community centre open to people of all faiths and none. Plans to rejuvenate the site began in 2008.

The donation by the Woodfield Avenue Bohra mosque makes it a major investor in the Inspire project, which has drawn support from a range of sources including Manchester City Council.

The Big Lottery Fund, which distributes funds from the National Lottery, has donated almost half a million pounds to the cost of the community centre, which, when completed in about eight weeks time, will have cost in the region of 3.5 million pounds.

“Levenshulme Inspire will see a prominent URC building saved from neglect because the congregation is too small for the building and it will be transformed in a bustling multi-use centre for the local community, as well as providing worshipping space for the church congregation,” URC spokesperson Stuart Dew told ENINews.

The centre is to include a community café, meeting rooms and a media enterprise centre, as well as church and social housing apartments.

Centre director Kate Chappell told ENINews the community project will change the face of a dilapidated part of Manchester where at least one third of the population is Muslim.

“It’s wonderful to see the community pulling together to make Levenshulme a better place for us all. The level of support has so far exceeded our expectations,” she said. “Levenshulme Inspire exists to celebrate the diversity of the area and bring people together. We look forward to working further with all members of the community.”

Ben Townsend, project development officer for the Great Places Group housing association, said: “It’s a really special development as it will be of benefit to so many people: worshippers at the church, community groups in their new facilities and residents of unique apartments for affordable rents.”

The URC has 1500 local churches in England, Wales and Scotland with 68 000 members and almost 700 ministers.