St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church - Ansdell

Parish Assembly
May 2005

Contents:
Report of Proceedings
Implementation of Parish Council
Proposed Structure
Parish Admin Team
Parish Development Team

Prior to the commencement of the Assembly lunch was served at 1.00 pm.

At 2.00 pm the chairman of the Review Team, Mr Tony Crean, welcomed nearly 50 parishioners to the meeting and introduced Edwina Gillet who lead the proceedings with a PowerPoint presentation. The opening prayer was shown on the screen. This was followed by a scripture reading by Ann Cawthorne. Edwina then displayed the Parish Mission Statement on the screen and introduced the whole of the Review Team and its objectives. She went on to describe the work of the Review Team which included an extensive consultation exercise with the various groups within the parish, which had been followed up with meetings where requested. Further comments had been invited in the bulletin.

The recommended structure was then displayed on the screen which had been arrived at after taking into account all the representations and research into how other parishes and Dioceses had organised their Parish structures. The role of the Parish Council as the key governing body was explained together with the role of the administration team ( to whom the Parish Council would delegate day to day authority) and the continuing role of the Parish Development Team which would focus on the spiritual development of the community, which is closer to its original role.

The intention is that the Parish Council would be made up of the members of the Parish administration Team, up to 17 members selected by the groups they would represent and three elected members to represent the Parish as a whole. This would ensure that each Parish group would have the opportunity of being represented on the main governing body of the Parish providing an opportunity to alert the other members of any problems but also to learn exactly what other groups were doing and to contribute to the overall progress of the Parish.

Following the presentation, questions were invited. Two principal observations were firstly, the decline of younger people at Parish services although it was noted that we had an active Youth Club which was in urgent need of help as a result of its growing numbers ( an issue to be followed up by the Parish Council) secondly, the potentially unwieldy number of members on the Parish Council. Whilst the large number was intended to give all those groups that wanted to be on the Council the opportunity to do so it was suggested that a maximum of 12 would be more manageable with those not represented becoming part of a sub group to ensure they received regular and up to date feedback. The Review Team undertook to work towards a smaller number of representatives on the Council.

Father Harry then expressed his thanks for the hard work of the Review Team and his support for the recommendations made. The proposed structure was then proposed on behalf of the Review Team by Stephen Moore and seconded by Mary Johnson. The support from the Parish was overwhelming.

After a break for tea there followed an outline of the next steps and discussion on the Implementation of the Parish Council. Edwina outlined plans for the first Parish Council meeting in October, and in the meantime the intention would be to make appointments to the Parish administration Team, stressing the point that it was most important to identify someone with the required skills to take on the appointed role of property/buildings representative on the Admin Team and asked the parishioners to consider anyone with the required skills and put their names forward for appointment; to ask groups if they wished to be represented on the Parish Council and if so to nominate a representative. The PDT would also be discerning new members. The Review Team/PDT would then look to progress the election of three Parish representatives and investigate how best to reduce the overall numbers on the Parish Council. The Review Team would also progress the preparation of a Constitution.

The Chairman thanked the parishioners for attending, and all those who had contributed to the day including those involved in the preparation of an excellent lunch.

The meeting closed with a prayer.

Parish Council

Critical decision making body of the Parish

Delegates day to day responsibility to the
Parish Administration Team

Represents views of Parish Groups and Parish

Brings forward ideas and suggestions that require major investment and/or expenditure

Parish Administration Team

Parish Priest Chairman
Finance Appointed
Buildings Appointed
PDT Representative
Parish Council Representative

Reports to Parish Council with responsibility for:-
Day to day administration
Finance and accounting
Income & Expenditure
Publication of annual accounts
Budgetary controls
Maintenance and building works

Parish Development Team

Works with Parish Council and Parish Administration Team
Pastoral & Spiritual development of Parish
Out-reach into Deanery Pastoral Council
Discernment of new members to take place soon

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