PPC 2006 Mtg 06 Min

THE CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART, WIMBLEDON

UNCONFIRMED MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE PARISH PASTORAL

COUNCIL HELD ON

Thursday, 6 July, 2006 in the Sacred Heart Presbytery

PRESENT

Members: Louise Cooper , (Vice-chair), Antoinette Dali, Margaret Duffy , Len Hay , Tim Morris , Teresa Smith , Christopher Woodward .

Parish Team : Fr Kevin Donovan, Cristina Connolly, Fr John Fairhurst, Sr. Francis, SSA, Fr Lawrence Nam .

•  Apologies for absence : Fr Michael Ashworth, Fr Gerard Mitchell , Aidan Christie , Sr. Dorothy OSU, Christine Hennessy , Carline Vago-Hughes, James Potter .

•  Chair for Meeting : In the absence of Aidan Christie , Louise Cooper took the chair.

•  Antoinette Dali led the group with a reading and prayer.

•  The minutes of the previous meeting on 15 June, 2006 were approved.

•  Day of Prayer would be held on 9 September at St Anne's Convent. Father Brendan Callaghan had agreed to lead the day and the Council agreed to leave him to decide the content. The day would be from 10.am to 4 pm . Members should bring a plate of food for lunch to share; lunch would be taken after 1.00 pm to fit in with the convent arrangements.

•  The Future of the Ministry at the Sacred Heart Church and the Diaconate: The Adult Faith Development Group had prepared a paper which had been circulated a day before the meeting. The paper set out a process for involving the various ministries in the parish in looking at the future in the context of fewer priest and religious sisters; this process would then lead into the Living Theology weekend which had been planned for the evening of Friday 26 January and Saturday 27 January 2007 . Most members had not had an opportunity to read the paper and after some discussion it was agreed to defer the matter to the next meeting.

•  Planned Giving Campaign : Margaret Duffy reported that progress was being made to incorporate the existing paper records onto the new computer package and until that had been completed it would not be possible to evaluate the full effect of the campaign. We had not yet received the full batch of envelopes from the diocese. We agreed that the collection boxes should be replaced with open baskets to enable the collection of the much greater number of envelopes. We also discussed the option of placing the baskets on pews at the beginning of Mass to speed up the collection process.

•  Capital Appeal :

• i. The assembly hall and reception area at Wimbledon College had been booked for Friday 13 October for the formal launch; the hall could seat about 250. We agreed it was not possible to know how many would attend. There was space in the reception area for standing if the numbers were greater.

• ii. We had received a number of offers following the short presentations after the Masses on 24/25 June to help with the launch and other aspects of the capital appeal. Aidan Christie would be convening the group to plan the launch which would need to start work very soon.

•  Neighbourhood Groups : We had planned to have an open discussion on our understanding of what Neighbourhood Groups should be in the Sacred Heart Parish, however bearing in mind the lateness of the hour and number of apologies we decided to defer the item to the next meeting. A paper with some broad questions to initiate and structure the discussion was circulated for members.

•  Matters raised by parishioners: none had been received but the item led to a further discussion about how parishioners identify members of the Parish Team and Pastoral Council .

•  Prayer Leader for next meeting, Sr. Francis agreed to lead.

•  The date of the next meeting: in view of the deferment of the discussion on Neighbourhood Groups and the short lead-in time after the recess to the launch of the capital appeal we agreed to hold an additional meeting on Tuesday 19 September.

•  Other dates:

• i. The Parish Day had been fixed for 4 February 2007 but as this was now the week following the Living Theology Weekend it was agreed that the Parish Day should now be held on 4 March. This would enable the Pastoral Council to draw up a report on the Future of the Ministry at the Sacred Heart Church arising from discussions and the Living Theology Weekend.

• ii. We also agreed future meetings for 4 January and 8 February 2007 .

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