REPORT OF THE PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL - 2009

Last year we introduced a new format for the Parish Day so that parishioners could come to a gathering after any one of the weekend Masses, meet each other in a social setting and hear about the various developments in the parish. This proved to be highly successful for engaging with a significant proportion of the parish. We are keen to carry on with this arrangement in the future but with the limited accommodation available during the church restoration we felt compelled to fall back on a simpler format for this year.

This has been a very busy year for Father McMillan our Parish Priest as he has had to come to grips with leading a very large, active group of parishioners as well as overseeing the Capital Appeal and the complex negotiations for the contracts for the replacement of the church floor and restoration of the organ. We can only be but impressed with the vigour and enthusiasm he has given to these tasks. We also place on record our thanks to the Parish Team and others who have so ably supported him.

At the time of writing we have just celebrated the last Mass in the church before the restoration; it was a moving occasion representing so much of the liturgy that is appreciated and loved by parishioners and culminating in a solemn procession from the church to the Upper Hall with the Blessed Sacrament, symbolic of our determination to continue our worship to our loving God.

It has been customary in these reports to outline one or two initiatives the Pastoral Council hoped to encourage in the coming year; however in view of the disruption due to the restoration works and the number of initiatives in train we felt we should concentrate on consolidating these for this year.

We indicated we would be encouraging the following initiatives during 2009:

• Involvement of the laity in pastoral visits
• Further development of neighbourhood groups
• Looking at the needs of the elderly in the parish
• The single person and the parish.
• Recruitment of volunteers for parish activities

Pastoral Visiting

Pastoral visiting is a key activity in engaging with the general Catholic Community.
The SVP Sacred Heart Conference members continue to visit mainly elderly and infirm people in their own homes and in residential homes. Last year they made a total of 750 visits.
We have a small team of 6 people who have now started visiting parishioners under the ‘Keeping in Touch’ scheme. Following some training in November the first visits were in February and March. It is early days and the team is trying to find out what the best time to visit is and how these visits can help to build up the parish community. We hope that when we have developed these skills we will be able to extend the team.

Neighbourhood Groups

A fifth neighbourhood group is in the process of being formed. We have not yet developed an effective way of encouraging more groups and yet they can be a very useful way of keeping our Catholic community in touch with each other at a local level and without becoming burdensome or intrusive.

The Elderly

Following last year’s annual meeting we had a very good response the questionnaire devised by Margaret Duffy. As a result it was evident that the facility asked for by the majority of respondents was an opportunity for a daytime social gathering focused on a variety of activities. The Friendship Group has now taken off with very encouraging support and had had four monthly meetings to date with an attendance of over 50 on each occasion. It is ‘self supporting’ and we see that as a very important ingredient to its future success – we wish it well.

The Single Person

Following generally enthusiastic responses, meetings were arranged with interested single people when those attending were asked what they would like to do and how they wished to organise themselves. The Parish Lounge was made available for this group to meet informally for a drink and conversation every second Friday in conjunction with the Social Club when the bar was opened an hour earlier to meet their requests. E-mail addresses were collected with the intention that anyone of the group could initiate an activity (e.g. trip to the theatre, dinner at a local restaurant). The idea was that the group would thrive on ideas and suggestions being put forward by the members. A ‘reminder e-mail’ was sent asking if anyone had suggestions they would like to initiate or to confirm if they would be going the lounge on the second Friday slot. Sadly, nothing came to fruition. However, the door is open should any parishioners feel they could successfully ‘resurrect’ this initiative or suggest other ways.

Website

Last year we launched the new parish website at the Parish Day. It has proved to be a highly successful initiative and thanks to the untiring commitment of Giles Kennedy it is proving an ever widening source of information and facilities. As time progresses we can foresee that the website will be the natural point for seeking up to date information.

Volunteering

Last November parish organisations were asked if they needed more volunteers to help run their activity. As a result we had responses from 29 organisations which were summarised and published in a booklet by Kathy Gogarty. Parishioners were encouraged to look at the requests and decide whether they had experience and skills they could offer. There was an encouraging response; altogether 139 parishioners made 244 offers of help.

Year for Priests

We set up a small group under Rachel Marshall to advise on how we could recognise and celebrate the Year for Priests. This has been recognised weekly in the bidding prayers, monthly in Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and in a wonderful celebratory Mass followed by lunch in January. The breadth of vocation in priesthood was explored through the Lenten Programme. This was modelled on the CaFE programme held over the last four years but with live speakers rather than video talks. The theme of ‘Path to God – Where are you on the journey?’ was very ably presented by priests from differing backgrounds over 5 weeks, culminating in an informative and entertaining interview of Fathers McMillan and Duffy by Polly Harrison. With attendances each week of between 95 and 100 parishioners we were heartened by the way this programme was received.

The Parish and the Wider Community

The parish is very active in supporting the wider community both through direct support such as Faith in Action for the Homeless and the Soup Run but also through its generosity to numerous causes. We regularly send clothing and food to Manna for the homeless and also contribute large sums to charities. These are summarised in the Financial Report.

Youth Ministry

There have been some interesting developments for youth and young adults which are set out in James Potter’s Youth Update below.

The Pastoral Council

The Council met on 11 occasions in 2009 and also held a day of prayer and reflection led by Father Peter Gallagher. Minutes are posted on the website and summarised in Edgeways.
The Council recognises the very important work carried out by the Finance Committee, particularly with the capital appeal and the responsibility of letting major contracts. We have been kept well informed of developments by Margaret Duffy, Chairman of the Finance Committee who is a valued member of the Council.
The last few months have been marred by the issue of paedophilia and the manner with which it has been dealt with by the Church. It has given much pain to parishioners and of course to our clergy as well. The Council wishes to arrange an opportunity for prayer and reflection to help parishioners to respond to the damage this has caused to the Church we love.
The coming year represents the end of a phase for the Council since it was first inaugurated in November 2004 as the last three original members, Louise Cooper, Antoinette Dalli and I stand down in November. I know I can speak for Louise and Antoinette in stating what a privilege it has been to serve on the Council and we wish our successors well as the Council looks forward to new developments and challenges. There will be three vacancies to be filled and it is not too soon to be thinking about who would be suitable to fill them. This has been a Council which has helped to shape the parish and I trust it will continue to do so.
I should also like to thank all the members of the Council for their support over the last year.
We have a very active and vibrant parish for which we all need to thank God.

Christopher Woodward
Chair
April 2010
 

Youth Update

In July we launched our parish Youth Council, a forum for young people to voice their opinions on what the parish needs to be doing for young people. A lively meeting sparked ideas for development. A monthly Youth Mass, for young people and their families was created. The young people have formed a music group, and have volunteered to be readers, Eucharistic ministers and welcomers, to make this possible. The first few Masses have gone well, and we hope to involve more young people and further develop ideas to make this a truly vibrant, welcoming, youth-filled and prayerful liturgy. The youth council is now turning its attention to developing more trips, sporting, social and fundraising opportunities.

Our two weekly groups, one for young people in yr 7&8, and our post-confirmation group for young people in yr 9, have been well supported, and engaged in a variety of activities, fun and social, as well as engaging in CAFOD campaigns, fundraising schemes for the parish and much more. Our engagement of older teens has been more sporadic with some successful cards/film/Wii/pizza evenings.

Our developing intergenerational projects and new additions to our confirmation programme continue to be greatly valued.

We are working to create new initiatives to engage older teens, as well as providing some away-day/retreat type opportunities. An opportunity for young people is the World Youth Day being held in Madrid in August 2011.

Young Adults

A monthly mass for young adults (18-30) has built up community over the last few years and has helped us develop and diversify this area of ministry. We now have an established CLC (Christian Life Community) prayer and sharing group, with a second group just getting off the ground.

There has been a growing sense of the need for a way to explore faith based issues, from bible basics to the hot contemporary issues. A need to engage Young Adults over 30 has also been strongly felt in the community. We therefore plan to setup a series of evenings for Young adults in their late 20s to late 30s, to learn about their faith in a dynamic interactive way.

We hope to provide more social opportunities to help the many new and uninvolved young adults to meet together with others in the parish.

James Potter
Youth Minister