Parish Pastoral Council for Blessed John Henry Newman
18th July 2013
Meeting was chaired by Sheila Kennedy
The meeting started with prayers prepared by Angela Des-Rosiers
Absents: Sean Quigley is on retreat & Fr. Solomon is on Holiday.
Minutes of previous meeting approved: one exception of the misspelling of Patrick Sice’s surname.

Youth Ministry

Fr. Philip presented a summary of the past & present position of the Youth Worker within the Parish.
Following the resignation of Hannah Zafar in June the Youth Ministry Committee met to consider the way forward. They reflected on the fruits which the young people and the parish have received due to having this role within the parish and whether we should consider employing another full or part-time youth worker.
One major factor is that Corpus Christi College have now decided to employ a full time Catholic Chaplin and this will involve the work that Hannah did at school. Therefore the funding the parish received to help with the salary costs of our youth worker will be withdrawn from September.
The YMC came up with 5 options:
1.Seek to appoint a full time successor to Hannah Zafar
2.Consider continuing Youth Ministry with Parish Volunteers only
3.Seek a part time appointment
4.Make no specific continued provision
5.Plan to continue, for the time being with a reduced ministry to give continuity to those currently attending, to give time for a fuller appraisal of the options after Fr. Paul has taken up his post.
Fr. Philip acknowledges there are a number of volunteers who have helped Hannah and that they are willing to continue the work started.
Fr. Philip said that following Hannah’s departure to Rome the group of children that year were hard to motivate which caused Richard problems and her return back into the job was harder than she expected.
The PPC discussed the options along with the reduced funds available and agreed that option 5 should be taken.
Parishioners are to be asked to continue with their support by way of the monthly standing order and cash donations until a discussion is made later in the year. Funding will be needed for the volunteers to continue the work.

Visiting

Eamonn McGee agreed to come along to the meeting to give the PPC a report on the recent visiting in Halton Moor & Osmondthorpe area of the parish.
The visiting started 22nd May over a period of 37 days. The visiting teams were split in to 3 periods of the day and over 340 hours were spent visiting all the homes in Halton Moor & Osmondthorpe.
The volunteers of who were over 21 people all felt it was a great privilege to undertake this project and all were spiritually rewarded. The residents of all faiths or no faith received them warmly.
Thanks were expressed to Fr. Philip for the encouragement following the Mission in 2012 to get this project off the ground.
Mistakes were made but leant from.
There are a lot of suggestions and ideas made and the team are currently analysing the feedback so that action can be taken.
There are a number of non-Catholics who have expressed an interest in getting to know more about the faith and many more resting Catholics who want to know more of their faith and a possible way back to church.
Early indications show that there is about 28% of the people in Halton Moor & Osmondthorpe are Catholic which is very high.
The next thing is for the team to look at the analysed details and consider the next step and also have a celebration of their work and achievement.

Parish open meeting / AGM

Following the last PPC Hannah collated all the feedback points into 4 categories
1.Welcome & Invitation
2.Music in the Mass
3.Communication
4.Justice & Peace.
Included in point 1 was home visiting. Fr. Philip advised the PPC that all those known to the Parish who are sick or housebound have received a visit from either one of our priests, Deacon Sean or Sister Nora our Parish Sister. Over the course of the year they should be visited at least 3 times. Those who are very sick are to be visited more frequently.
Point 2 was discussed at length as it was felt important that there should be music at our 3 main Sunday Masses. Currently St Theresa’s does not have an organist during the holiday period.
If there is a strong leader to start the singing this will help.
Parishioners who can play the organ or keyboard should be encouraged to come forward and offer their services.
The musicians across the parish get together for any major services thought out the year.

Corpus Christi Golden Jubilee

A very well organised weekend of celebrations.
Thanks were extended to the team who put so much time and effort into ensuring it all went well.
Special thanks to Liza Kilcoyne for all her hard work, and to Corpus Christi College both staff and pupils for their hospitality in hosting the Corpus Christi Procession.
A photo display should be put up from Patrick Sice’s photos and those taken by Sister.
John Kilcoyne to arrange for copies of the DVD of the church opening to be available to buy.

Characteristics of a Parish Pastoral Council

A very prayerful hour followed by a social. This should be repeated at least once a year.

PPC Farewell Points

Fr. Philip intents to either say Mass or at least visit all our weekend Masses over the weekends of the 17th /18th & 24th / 25th August to say farewell to the people.
Fr. Paul Fisher will join the parish on Tuesday 3rd September for 2 weeks before going on a family holiday on the 16th September. He is 49 years old and his family come from Bradford. He has visited the parish twice and Fr. Philip has shown him around out 3 churches.
Fr. Philip expressed his 8 years in the parish have been some of the happiest years of his ministry.
He leaves a strong parish full of resources.
Fr. Philip will leave Fr. Paul a hand over manual of who does what to ease his way into our parish life.
Thanks were extended to Fr. Philip for all his efforts & leadership during him time with us especially in bringing the 3 churches together.

A.O.B.

Noise in church

A request was put forward to the PPC that they consideration how we can reduce the noise in church before Mass and during Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
It was agreed that this is a problem across all 3 churches.
Fr. Philip is to address this from the pulpit and also put something on the bulletin.
Welcoming , giving bulletins & hymn books, collecting or depositing items should all be moved in the porch area.
Silence should be kept when entering the church.

Parish Administrator Role

It was requested that a resolution be passed by the PPC to protect the role of Administrator in the parish as since this appointment was made it have become a vital role and contact for the parish.
Fr. Philip said a resolution can’t be passed put a written paper could be signed and held on file to this effect.

Re-election of PPC Members

This item to be added to the next agenda.


Next meeting 10th October at 7.00pm
Meeting to be chaired by – Patrick Bradley
Prayers to be prepared by – Richard Strudwick