Parish Council
Monday 29th January 2007
Minutes
Present: Fr John and about 17 parishioners
1 The meeting began with a prayer
2 It was agreed to place a 122x122 memorial to Fr Con Harkin and Nora Woods in the narthex. Fr John, Maria Vaughan and Eddie Marron to decide on positioning.
3 Church Heating. There was discussion on whether the heating was working better with the keeping closed of the door between the narthex and the nave. [Following the meeting, it was found that reducing the fan speed allowed the liturgy of the word to be heard whilst keeping the heating on. This seems to be a great improvement.]
4 Minibus. After discussion it was agreed: for any volunteers to work in pairs, for all drivers to take minibus training, not to have any special garaging. Only those who had received a license before 1st January 1997 would be able to drive without taking a special test. It was noted that many parishioners already used the Ring and Ride. It was agreed for Fr John to perform a survey of housebound receiving Holy Communion at home, so as to see how many would use the service. Terry Moles volunteered to draft up a form. Tom Ward and Terry Moles agreed to solicit volunteers over the three masses one weekend.
5 Pastoral Council. As the next step in the development, it was agreed to form a working party to look at ideas for a pastoral council. This would not be chaired by the parish priest and would allow for communication between the different groups and ministries in the parish. Veronica Carroll, Maria Vaughan, Terry Moles and Robert Giampaglia volunteered.
6 It was agreed to hold a special collection for Sr Anna-Maria and Sr Imelda. [This will take place on the weekend of the 17 / 18 February].
7 Next Meeting: 8.00pm Monday 26th March. If anyone would like a lift, please contact Fr John or a member of the council.
8 Parish Sisters. It was agreed to invite up to four religious orders to visit the parish as part of the discernment process. These would be a Western European order that may be available, an order from Myanmar, Sr Faustina sisters and the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters, a Nigerian order already in the diocese. The following “job description / person specification” was suggested.
a. Good English
b. Working with young families, refugees, asylum seekers as well as local
c. To be able to work as a Catechist for the children of these families: i.e. baptism classes, First Holy Communion, Reconciliation and Confirmation.
d. To be a central part of the community of SS Mary and Benedict
e. Visiting of the sick, housebound and elderly as well as the parish in general.
f. Holiness
It was agreed that Ikechukwu Diugwu, Mary Dunleavey, Tom Ward, Veronica Carroll and Robert Giampaglia and/or Maria Vaughan would work closely with Fr John on this matter. It was clearly noted that the sisters should not be abused by over demands from the parish and that they would not be there “to keep us happy”. Rather, we must look for the Kingdom of God and His Will. This will mean that parishioners will have to continue to take responsibility for their parish and its good running.
