Holy Ghost Crowthorne and Immaculate Conception Sandhurst
- Parish Pastoral Council -
Draft Minutes of the meeting of the PARISH
PASTORAL COUNCIL
held on Tuesday 27 June 2006 at 7.30pm in the Holy Ghost Parish Rooms
Opening prayers and reflection led by Ann
Present: Fr. Kevin Jones, Ann FitzPatrick (Vice-Chairman), Lawrence Gaffney, Shirley Hayden, Gerry Picozzi, Martin Stubbs (and Sue Niblett)
1. Apologies for absence
Apologies received from Brenda, Margaret, Angela, John, Aoife, Paul and Mike.
In the absence of the Chairman, Ann chaired the meeting.
It was reported that two members of the PPC would be retiring from the committee:
Aoife will be at university in London from October and Brenda has decided
to step down due to increasing domestic commitments. Father will write a letter
of thanks to both of them. He will also give thought as to whom to ask to
join the PPC to replace Brenda and Aoife.
2. Minutes of previous meeting
The Minutes of the meeting of 16 May were approved and signed by the Vice
Chairman.
3. Matters arising from previous Minutes
3.6 Confirmation - had taken place on Friday 9 June. Mike's written
comments where read out in which he thanked Katherine Fitzpatrick for organising
and running the course - "she did a magnificent job, particularly the
Confirmation day itself and the going forth event". Father thanked the
members of the PPC who were able to attend the ceremony. Those members who
had not attended felt that it was a family event and their presence might
be intrusive.
7. Liturgy Group - Father had met with 3 members of the new Liturgy Group on Tuesday 30 May and read out the notes taken. Items discussed included refresher courses for readers and eucharistic ministers and Father will arrange these. The next meeting is set for Wednesday 13 September.
9.3 Crowthorne community minibus - Steve Whitbread will drive the minibus on Sunday 2 July for the first time.
4. Larger Pastoral Area
Since the last meeting the new LPAs have been formally announced. Our LPA
comprises Crowthorne, Wokingham and Bracknell. Mike's offer to facilitate
a social meeting for the PPCs of the three parishes was agreed to be a good
idea but for later on in the year. Father said that nothing is likely to change
whilst he is away and that only three or four designated LPAs are to work
together now. The Bishop still has to appoint a co-ordinator for each LPA.
5. Parish Mission and Move Forward - David Rhodes, Ursula Smith and Pauline Binnie to be added to Justice and Peace, with Lawrence as Liaison Officer. Lawrence and Ann to be added to Social and Communication. Mike would like the Catechesis Group to meet in the early Autumn to discuss next year's programme, ways of co-ordinating between the catechetical groups and also ways of working with the other parishes within the LPA. The Catechesis Group currently consists on Mike, Paul and Lawrence. Additional members welcome.
The Parish Baptism Preparation Course has not run recently and families have been sent to the course run by Father Jim at Wokingham. We need our own course. Lawrence expressed an interest in picking this up and will attend the next course at Wokingham on 8 July as an observer. Father will try to find support from others.
PPC were in agreement for Mike and Gilly to run café session 2 in the autumn, starting mid September for six weeks. Shirley kindly offered to help with refreshments.
Park Place are running two courses over the coming months "Developing Skills for Leadership" and "Everybody's Welcome". It was felt that both courses are especially appropriate for members of the PPC and the Parish would pay the costs. To be publicised in Newsletter and posted on noticeboards.
A major event coming up is "Youth - October '06" for young people aged between 18-30. Father will try and find a volunteer to organise the trip and perhaps develop that role into a youth leader, before publicising the event in the Newsletter.
6. Social Committee
The first meeting of the new committee was on 7 June. Members are Lawrence
Gaffney, John Kavanagh, Bridie and Martin Reid, Cyn Hopkins, Angela Greenwood,
Adele and Dave Fuller, Margaret Derlacki, Ann and Katharine Fitzpatrick. Lawrence
is the Chairman, Margaret the Secretary and Ann is Treasurer. Cheque signatories
are Ryzard Gorell, Ann and Father.
The main committee will be divided into sub-committees. Each sub-committee will organise a separate event, so that no single person is doing all the work. Ideas have already been decided for this year and sub-committees allocated. Plans for the Parish picnic on 2 July are well in hand. The next event is a Parish barbeque in October.
7. Burma (Myanma)
Father will give his presentation on Saturday 8 July, immediately after the
6.00pm Mass at Sandhurst, to last around one hour. Chris Doyle has just returned
from Burma (sponsored by Catenians, Salesians and CTC) and will bring photos
and other information and also give a brief talk. Father will show cds.
8. Christmas Mass Times
Christmas Eve will fall on a Sunday this year and Father wanted to clarify
the timings of Masses. After some discussion the following was agreed :
Saturday 23 December 6.00pm Vigil Mass IC
Sunday 24 December 9.00am Mass HG
5.30pm Children's Mass IC (Father Delaney)
8.00pm Mass IC (Father Delaney)
11.15pm Midnight Mass HG
Monday 25 December 9.00am Family Mass IC
11.00am Family Mass HG
Tuesday 26 December 10.00am Altar Servers' Mass HG
9. Pastoral support for schools
Father Kevin explained that a parishioner/parent had recently asked what more
the Parish could do to support and inspire the Catholic students at Wellington
College in their Faith. Father Andrew Richards (Senior Chaplain at the college)
had also become involved in the exchanges. Paul Boscher and Denise Cook currently
keep an eye on the situation. It was suggested that a Parents' Forum could
be arranged but without support from all quarters (parents, students, teachers)
nothing would improve significantly. All Hallows in Farnham have written asking
for financial support for parish children that attend. Father explained that
the Parish already pay a levy to the Diocese for this and we should not be
expected to pay more. He will write to the school and ask for the names and
addresses of the children involved before taking the matter further.
10. PPC Chairman for next year
To ensure continuity, it was agreed by all present that Mike should remain
as Chairman until Father Kevin returns to the Parish next Spring. Thanks to
Mike for agreeing to do so.
11. Any Other Business
10.1 Parish information on 'local' websites - Martin has checked the Parish website and all details are correct. However, there are still anomalies with Mass times appearing on other sites, mainly local authority. Sue said that she had already made amendments to these but she will check again.10.2 Diocesan Website - Martin advised that Katherine Turner (of Portsmouth People) has made a very good job of revamping the Diocesan website. He is to prepare an a-z index for it. He suggest that members of the PPC have a look at it and then we can write and thank her for her efforts if appropriate.
10.3 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - all agreed with Father's request to celebrate this on Sunday 13 August. To be publicised in Newsletter.10.4 Liturgical Calendar - after some discussion it was agreed that Martin would not prepare this Parish calendar for 2007 because of Father's forthcoming absence and the disruption to the Mass times this will cause.
10.5 Disability Discrimination Act - Jim Nairn has completed the audit of the premises and it has been sent back to the Diocese. However it was felt that we need an audit of parishioners and their physical needs. Gerry will be the 'named person' for the parish and will deal with Barry Hudd direct. Father has asked Wokingham District Council for a grant for the disabled toilet at the Holy Ghost and for a backdated grant for the ramp. In the meantime, Gerry will check out our legal rights on this.
10. Date and time of next meeting
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 12 September at 7.30pm in the Holy Ghost
parish rooms. Prayers will be led by Shirley.
Meeting closed at 9.25pm
Closing prayers led by Ann
Distribution:
Father Kevin Jones, Margaret Derlacki, Ann FitzPatrick, Lawrence Gaffney Angela
Greenwood, Shirley Hayden, John Kavanagh, Paul Page Tickell, Gerry Picozzi,
Martin Stubbs, Mike Withers