PPC 2006 Mtg 05 Min
THE CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART, WIMBLEDON
UNCONFIRMED MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE PARISH PASTORAL
COUNCIL HELD ON
Thursday, 15 June, 2006 in the Sacred Heart Presbytery
PRESENT
Members: Fr Gerard Mitchell (President), Aidan Christie (Chair), Sr Dorothy, Antoinette Dali, Margaret Duffy , Christine Hennessy , Teresa Smith , Carline Vago-Hughes, Christopher Woodward .
Parish Team : Fr Michael Ashworth, Cristina Connolly, Fr John Fairhurst, Sr Francis, SSA, Fr Lawrence Nam, James Potter .
Visitor: Jenny Cairns
• Apologies for absence : Fr Kevin Donovan, Louise Cooper , Len Hay .
• Membership of the Council : We welcomed Christine Hennessy and Carline Vago-Hughes as new members of the Council. We deferred a decision on the commissioning ceremony.
• Cristina Connolly led the group with a reading and prayer.
• The minutes of the previous meeting on 5 May, 2006 were approved.
• Day of Prayer will be held on 9 September at St Anne's Convent. Members of the Parish Team were asked to suggest and approach suitable leaders for the day. Council members to feed in any suggestions on what they would like the day to focus on and achieve.
• Communication: We considered a second draft statement on our commitment to communications and adopted the paper for publication. (Copy attached to these minutes.)
• The Future of the Ministry at the Sacred Heart Church and the Diaconate: The Adult Faith Development Group was due to meet on 26 June to begin planning the Living Theology Weekend; in the meantime Father Mitchell had approached Father Provincial to contribute to the seminar. Father Provincial had indicated he was very keen to be involved but was unfortunately not available until the New Year. The Council felt that it was important that the momentum of this vital discussion on the future of the parish should not be lost and asked the development group to look at ways by which the period September to December could be used to promote initial thinking and discussion within the parish.
• Planned Giving Campaign : Margaret Duffy reported that there had been a very encouraging response to the planned giving campaign: around 330 bankers' orders and requests for 200 sets of envelopes had been received so far. Almost all those paying by bankers' orders had signed up to Gift Aid.
Stephen McGlennan who is relatively new to the parish is joining the Finance Committee and will take on the work of uploading the Planned Giving data on the newly acquired computer programme
• Capital Appeal : Jenny Cairns introduced a report from an informal group which had been drawing up a strategy for mounting a capital appeal to fund the urgent building works which were due to start in mid July. The group recommended that the Pastoral Council :
• i. note the actions taken so far in mounting a capital appeal;
• ii. approve the terms and composition of the Appeal Coordinating Committee and External Funding Sub –group;
• iii. agree to lead on the launch of the public appeal and put in hand the necessary arrangements;
• iv. agree to undertake a consultation exercise on ‘The Future of the Parish' in order to establish priorities for future capital works;
• v. decide on the arrangements for taking recommendations iii) and iv) forward.
We noted that the initial (private) stage of the appeal was already in hand as recommended by the consultants who had advised on approaches to fund raising. We recognised the importance of keeping the parish informed of progress before the building works were due to start and of mounting a full information session linked to a formal launch in mid to late September. We agreed:
• i. to endorse the recommendations of the strategy group
• ii. that a short update should be presented to congregations at the end of mass on 24/25 June by members of the PPC.
• iii. that a small group would be convened to plan the formal launch of the appeal in September. Members were asked to let Aidan Christie know if they could help or if they could recommend other parishioners with skills in this area.
• iv. fundraising activities within the parish would need to be carefully coordinated over the appeal period.
• Review and Update of Pastoral Plan : We had committed to reviewing the Pastoral Plan during the course of this year and in particular Neighbourhood Groups. We decided that with the work already in hand on the future shape of the ministry in the parish and the major consultation linking that to the need for capital works, that we should restrict our review to Neighbourhood Groups, Welcoming and Communication and Adult Faith Development. Chris Woodward agreed to lead a brainstorming session on Neighbourhood Groups at the next meeting to help formulate our collective view on their purpose and ways forward. Father Mitchell, Father Ashworth and Antoinette Dali agreed to lead the Welcoming and Communication discussions in the autumn. Much work was already in hand on Adult Faith Development.
• Prayer Leader for next meeting, Antoinette Dali agreed to lead.
• Father Mitchell informed the Council that, at Father Provincial's suggestion, he would be taking leave from 9 July to early September.
• The date of the next meeting would be on Thursday, 6 th July, 2006 .
Christopher Woodward
Secretary
This statement of intent was adopted by the Parish Pastoral Council at their meeting on 15 June 2006
CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART WIMBLEDON
PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL
COMMUNICATIONS
.
• We will establish our identity as a Pastoral Council to enable effective communication
• by keeping the Parish Vision at the forefront of all we do
• by making ourselves known to the parish after weekend masses and by attending parish functions
• by making it clear to the parish what we want to achieve through a planned programme of work
• by keeping the parish informed of our work and progress .
• We acknowledge that the parish is a large and complex community and that there are many groups and organisations with which we need to engage as partners.
• We will endeavour to collaborate with these groups to communicate our messages and invite dialogue on issues.
• We will communicate with the parish by means of
• regular publication of minutes
• increasing use of the Parish Website
• use of the Newsletter on a regular basis
• special inserts in the Newsletter
• occasional reports to the parish from the pulpit/at the end of Mass
• open consultation on developing issues
• use of Edgeways
• targeted communications to special interest groups
• use of E Mail
• establishing networks
• open forums
• an annual report
• an annual parish day and meeting
• We will strive to build effective communication into the heart of our activity.
June 2006