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St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church - Ansdell | |
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Minutes of Parish Council Meeting held on Sunday 16th September 2007 at 11:00am
Present
Liz Kelly (chairperson)
Fr Harry Holden (president)
Edwina Gillett (secretary)
Tony Crean, Bill Cookson, Kate Golightly, Pat Ormond, Catherine Holliday, Bill
Drake, Mary Johnson, David Tansey, Anne Waters, Joe Waters, Peter Moore, Anne
Coughlin, Paul Kelly, Richard Cross, Anne Zammit
24 parishioners in attendance as well
Apologies
Michael Wren-Hilton, Joe Nickson
1. Liz Kelly opened the meeting with the 'Fit For Mission' prayer.
2. The minutes of the last meeting were approved, proposed by Anne Waters, seconded
by Mary Johnson.
3. There were no matters arising.
4. Tony Crean reported a healthy bank balance at 31 August of £80,369.38
with further donations still to be received. No major items of expenditure were
anticipated.
5. Liz Kelly presented the notes from the last Parish Administration Team and
advised the meeting of on-going maintenance work. Barton Grange had been awarded
the contract for maintaining the grounds and Sparkles the contract for cleaning
the Hall.
6. Anne Waters explained that the Social Committee was originally formed to
provide events /functions to pull people together within the Parish. Fund raising
was a secondary element of their work. Their numbers are few and all are getting
that bit older which makes it difficult to fulfil all social activities particularly
when some physical effort needed. It was also proving difficult to sell tickets.
The Committee question whether there is still a need for the Committee to fulfil
and if the answer is 'yes' then in order for the work to continue it will be
necessary to recruit new members to provide continuity.
7. Kate Golightly representing the PDT said that there was a great need for
a Social Committee particularly with the potential merger with St Peter's and
resurgence of evangelisation within the Parish.
8. Andy Severon said that he would be prepared to help organise a music concert,
Anne and Mike Zammit volunteered to join the Committee. Anne Zammit felt that
we had become to rely on the Committee and felt that maybe we were taking them
for granted.
9. Paul Kelly said that all groups have a natural life cycle and that the Committee
should not feel guilty about reducing their workload or worry about a diminishing
service. If we pray about it the Spirit will lead and guide and regeneration
will happen.
10. Liz Kelly paid tribute to the Social Committee for all their work and said
that their efforts last year greatly helped us to balance the books. She went
on to say that it should be left to the Committee to determine their own future
but adverts will be placed in the bulletin and St Peter's school bulletin to
try and attract new members.
11. Anne Waters said that the Social Committee would discuss matters further
when they next meet in October. The Committee will continue to organise the
Christmas Treasure Hunt and assist with specific Centenary celebrations as might
be agreed later.
12. Joe Waters said that Social Services were considering not renewing their
lease for the Hall after Christmas. Tony Crean explained that this lease currently
provided the Parish with annual revenue of £13k/£14k. A careful
watch was being kept on developments.
13. Liz Kelly introduced 'Fit For Mission' and said that we needed to agree
our response o the draft plans.
14. Kate Golightly said that the PDT had held an open meeting and every single
comment had been recorded. She said that it was the PDT view that change was
inevitable, we should accept this fact and in doing so everything else will
fall into place. We should start to plan for the future now.
15. Anne Wormleighton said that we should not try and presume the impact of
the draft plans on St Peter's Parish and that we should be sensitive to their
position. We should concentrate on how the plans affect and impact upon St Joseph's
and say how we feel about the issues.
16. David Tansey on behalf of the Children's Liturgy Team said that this team
was very positive about the proposals. They feel that the planned merge with
St Peters will offer greater enrichment as a community and better opportunities
to work with the children.
17. Fr Harry said he objected strongly to the use of the title "lighthouse
church". The word lighthouse conjures up wrecks/danger and is an Americanism
that we should drop immediately.
18. Paul Kelly asked whether merged Parishes would have a single financial structure.
Stephen Moore explained that where Parishes merge the concept would be that
they become one and therefore one financial unit.
19. There was a lot of discussion around whether Mass should be celebrated in
both centres each Sunday. Pat Crean cited Liverpool where a priest celebrates
Mass in 3 Parishes on a Sunday. Anne Waters felt that details of when and where
Masses are celebrated should be left to the merged Parishes to decide.
20. Stephen Moore said the purpose of Fit For Mission was to set out proposals
for the mission of the Church. Our primary concern should be evangelisation,
how do we fill our churches? Bringing people to one place helps this How do
we spread the Faith? This is very important. The issue of property is the consequence.
21. Bill Drake said that there would be a Deanery open meeting on 27 September,
Kate Golightly and Edwina Gillett will represent the Parish. There will be a
Deanery Pastoral Council Meeting on 3 October. Parish comments should be forwarded
to the Deanery Pastoral Council and the Review Team in Lancaster. The deadline
for response is 15th October.
22. Liz Kelly presented the outcome of 3 Spirituality meetings (see attached).
The proposed initiatives received overwhelming support and volunteers came forward
to support St Peter's school in their mission with the families of the new intake.
23. Pat Ormond reported that Radio Lancashire had promoted Home Mission Sunday
and that it was refreshing to hear of a priest in Walton-Le -Dale who was advocating
the need to live in the secular world. He was reported as saying that we can
no longer huddle together in buildings, we need to get out into the secular
world and embrace it, not be afraid of it. East European countries currently
thriving will, in time, be affected by secularisation and suffer in the same
way.
24. Mary Johnson said that the demographics of the area mean that our mission
should include the elderly and that he Spirituality group should try and address
these needs.
25. Anne Waters asked where the Liturgy Group fitted in now that we had a Spirituality
Group. Liz Kelly said that the Liturgy Team had a vital role particularly in
relation to meeting the needs of the evangelised.
26. Pat Crean, Anne Waters and Tony Crean all spoke about the lack of communication
in relation to the Spirituality Group.
27. It was explained that there had only been 3 meetings and it was only at
the last meeting that any ideas had been crystallised. A few parishioners had
come together to explore whether any ideas could be generated, there was nothing
underhand and a report had come to the Parish Council at the earliest opportunity.
The Group would now be looking for additional members to progress the ideas
and develop new initiatives.
28. Paul Kelly sad our ethos should be to encourage things to happen, people
should not have to look for permission every time they have an idea. Andy Severon
felt that all the proposals would yield benefits for the Parish. Stephen Moore
said the initiatives were brilliant, evangelisation should be our main focus
and felt that the meeting should give 100% backing. Adrian Crook welcomed the
initiatives and hoped that the work of the Group would be publicised further.
29. The proposals were accepted en bloc.
30. It was agreed to hold a separate meeting on 30 September to discuss the
Parish Centenary
31. Members were advised that the Parish AGM was scheduled for October and that
any resignations should be advised as soon as possible. If representing a group
a replacement from that group would be expected to join.
32. There was no further business and Liz Kelly closed the meeting at 12:40
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