Holy Ghost Crowthorne and Immaculate Conception Sandhurst
- Parish Pastoral Council -

Draft Minutes of the meeting of the members of the PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL
held on Tuesday 5th February at 7.30pm in the Parish Centre, Sandhurst

Present: Father Kevin, Margaret Derlacki, George Fanning, Ann FitzPatrick (Vice Chairman), Jim Nairn, Rita Paxton (and Sue Niblett). Shelagh Stirling attended as an invited guest.

Prior to the start of the meeting, Shelagh was introduced as the parish's new SafeGuarding Representative.

Opening Prayers led by Father

1. Shelagh Stirling to explain CRB procedures
Shelagh now has all the forms that need to be completed by people who fulfil certain roles within the parish that require CRB Disclosures (she circulated a list of the categories of roles affected). This needs to be done as soon as possible to comply with national and Diocesan regulations. A notice will be put in the Newsletter to inform everybody (Action Sue). Shelagh will also distribute explanatory leaflets after weekend Masses and it would be expedient if a representative from each category group could help her do this. She will then be available to meet people in the parish office for 2 hours across several Saturdays through February and March in order to hand out the relevant forms for them to take home and fill in. She will then meet them again at a later date to go through the completed forms and to check their identities against specified documents and photographs. Forms will then be sent to the Criminal Records Bureau. When the checking procedure is completed satisfactorily, individuals will receive an Enhanced CRB Certificate that will be valid for three years. Shelagh stressed that although several parishioners had already completed CRB forms in the past, it is necessary for them to start afresh because the CRB process has been tightened up and the forms revised. Shelagh will also update the church noticeboards to ensure that the correct Policy and Procedures are on display (Action Shelagh).

There will be a presentation entitled "The New Independent Safeguarding Authority Scheme" at Portsmouth Cathedral on Wednesday evening 7 May, and Shelagh will be attending. Any member of the PPC would be welcome to join her.

It is noted that Angela McGrory is the new Diocesan Safeguarding Co-ordinator, working out of the Portsmouth Diocese SafeGuarding Office (formerly known as the Child Protection Department).

2. Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from Lawrence Gaffney who was ill, Steve Whitbread and Martin Stubbs. It was confirmed that Martin had retired from the PPC and that Steve had resigned. His letter of resignation was read out.

Father has asked David Fuller to join the PPC and he has agreed. David will attend the next meeting. Father has also asked Shelagh Stirling to join and he is awaiting her decision.

3. Agree Previous Minutes
The Minutes of the meeting of 27 November 2007 were approved and signed by the Vice-Chairman subject to the following corrections :

1. Apologies for Absence - Ann had attended the last meeting.

4.f. Catechesis - Confirmation - add "It was agreed that Katharine would be asked to explain to the candidates why the Bishop is the ordinary minister of Confirmation, before they are asked to decide who they would like to confer the sacrament".

12 - 11.2 Children's Liturgy - there was some misunderstanding regarding Shelagh's agreement to help with the liturgy at Holy Ghost in that she does not remember being asked!

4. Outstanding Actions

4.a. Liturgy - Children's Liturgy Group resources - ongoing at George's discretion.

4.c. Youth - Sue gave the details of the St. Michael's Youth Group, which meets every Tuesday evening in the Coffee Spot from 7 - 8.30pm. It is aimed at children aged from 11-15 and is led by youth worker Ben Askew. Details to be passed to Katharine for the Confirmation candidates and published in the Newsletter
(Action Sue).>br> 4.e. Outreach - done.

4.f. Catechesis -
Baptism Preparation - nothing minuted as Lawrence absent.

Confirmation - Father reported that as there are 23 candidates at Wellington College this year, he has asked the Bishop (with the agreement of the Pastoral Area), if he would be prepared to celebrate Confirmation in the College Chapel. This he has agreed to do, but only as a one-off occurrence. Confirmation will be on Friday evening 6 June and, in addition to the Wellington College candidates, there will be around 40 candidates from Bracknell and about 10 from Crowthorne and Sandhurst. Each group will run its own programme but the actual Confirmation ceremony will be organised by this parish.

Lenten spiritual projects - courses are being run by Churches Together in Crowthorne and are open to all parishioners. Mike and Gilly have been away and only just returned home, but could run courses any time requested.

5. Parish Pastoral Update by :

a. Liturgy - Lenten arrangements made as follows :
Stations of the Cross will be held every Wednesday at 7.30pm at Immaculate Conception and every Friday at 12.00noon at Holy Ghost, followed by a hunger lunch, to which all are welcome. Father will cover the first Wednesday and Friday then volunteers will be needed to lead at IC and make soup at HG. Sign-up sheets and request to be put in Newsletter (Action Sue).
Children's Stations of the Cross will be on Good Friday at 12.00noon at HG and Katharine FitzPatrick will be asked to lead this (Action Ann).
Exposition will continue to be held at IC on Wednesday mornings throughout Lent.
Parish Penitential Service will be on Wednesday 12 March at 8.00pm at IC.
There will be Chrism Mass at Portsmouth Cathedral on the Tuesday of Holy Week (18 March). To allow for this, the Tuesday Mass at HG will be postponed to 7.30pm.
This will clash with the evening Confirmation session at HG and Katharine will be asked to reschedule it (Action Sue).
All Triduum Masses will be held at IC this year. It is be explained and emphasised to parishioners that the Triduum is one service and that all Masses have to be held in the same church (Action Father).

b. Justice & Peace (and CRB) - done. See Agenda Item 1 above.

c. Youth - Mike and Gilly Withers and David and Angela Greenwood are representing the parish on the HOPE 08 Challenge. This is a Churches Together in Crowthorne initiative, which plans to organise regular community events for everyone, not just youth.

d. Social & Communication - the Organ Recital evening excellent. The St. Patrick's Night dinner dance on 14 March has been publicised in the Newsletter. 200 tickets to be sold at £8 each (adults only). Light buffet and licensed bar included.

e. Outreach - the Churches Together in Sandhurst Ecumenical Service which should have been led by our Catholic parish on 13 January, was cancelled. The next time we are due to lead this service will be on Sunday 11 May at 6.30pm in the Coffee Spot.

f. Catechesis - the First Holy Communion and Confirmation courses are up and running. An RCIA course needs to be started after Easter (Action Father).

g. Mission - the PPC was reminded that the Parish Mission Statement is .... "Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and centred on the gospel of Jesus Christ, we seek to build community by loving God and our neighbour." All agreed that this statement is adhered to and followed in all sorts of different ways.

h. LPA - meeting imminent with LPA. Father and Lawrence will be attending. Ann will stand in for Lawrence if necessary.

6. New Pastoral Initiatives
Father is still to ask Angela Greenwood for details of her Prayer Group. It was agreed that House Groups would meet after Easter when Margaret's personal and domestic situation is more settled. Lawrence and George had met and decided to go with Matthew's Gospel to lead up to the Passion, Year A. However, Father said that the readings up to Holy Week for Gospel are John's because it ties in with the RCIA. It was decided that Bible Study and Meditation will be held on three Wednesday evenings during Lent - 20 and 27 February and 5 March - from 8 -9.00 pm at IC, concluding with the Penitential Service on Wednesday 12 March. Details to be put in Newsletter (Action Sue).

7. Issues for this meeting:

a. Photos of PPC members - at the end of the meeting, Father took photos of all present.

b. Immaculate Conception Church roof - Father gave an update on the condition of the roof. Structural inspections are ongoing and a report of the remedial work needed is awaited.

8. Any other business

8.1. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill - Jim had received a letter from our local MP, the Rt. Hon. Andrew MacKay, confirming that he "is opposed to human cloning and the creation of human or animal embryos and will be voting accordingly." Father advised that there is a dvd in the office that could be circulated to anyone who would like to see it.

9. Date and time of next meeting.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 8 April at 7.30pm in Sandhurst.

Closing Prayers led by Ann

Meeting closed at 9.30pm

Distribution:
Father Kevin Margaret Derlacki George Fanning
Ann FitzPatrick Lawrence Gaffney Jim Nairn
Rita Paxton (David Fuller) (Shelagh Stirling)