PARISH OF THE SACRED HEART – PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL
Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 20th June 2013
PRESENT: Father David, Terry McIlwee, Hilary Bolger, Michael Hawley, Teresa Butler, and John Bolger
1. APOLOGIES: Deacon Ron, Andrew Clark, Michael Haughton, Mary Edmonds, Jayne Randall & Agnieska Gabriel
Fr. David then began the meeting with a reading from St. Peter taken from today’s evening office, followed by intercessions.
2. It was agreed to finish the meeting by 8.30 p.m.
3. THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING ON 11th April 2013 were agreed with one amendment – Under PPC Councillors reports, ‘view’ to be changed to ‘few’
4. MATTERS ARISING
Year of Faith – Fr. David said that Dilys Wadman was making good progress with the Year of Faith booklet she was producing. There would be a closing event on the Feast of Christ the King but obviously with the appointment of our new Bishop further plans will be made once he has been installed. A further request for ‘Faith Stories’ had been put in the Bulletin. Teresa asked why the Parish Visit to the Cathedral was on a Wednesday rather than at the weekend, this unfortunately was the most convenient day for the Cathedral staff.
Parish Website – A useful meeting had been held with Sam Meyer and the various issues had been sorted. The requested Links had been added and the website was working well. Sam had still not submitted his invoice for the initial set up work on the website. Clare will write and ask for this and an agreement for his costs for the monthly maintenance of the website. The addresses of all 3 churches was now on the home page and John will add the Sunday and Holy Day Mass Times. The Sacred Heart Parish history was in place. John will contact Nick Walmsley for St. Helen’s history. Michael Hawley thought that he still had the St. John of the Cross history on his computer and would let John have this. The photo gallery now had more pictures with the required permissions obtained from parents. Further pictures of the First Holy Communion and Parish Fete will be added. A better picture of The Sacred Heart Church is still needed. Both Teresa and Michael thought they had further ‘archive’ pictures, which they would send to John for the Photo Gallery.
Parish Open Meeting – This had been well attended by 58 people and Dr. Dilys Wadman had been an interesting and informative speaker.
Wroxham & Hoveton Food bank – This is going to be set up in September at the new URC Church in Wroxham and will be run by Mat Stone on a Thursday between 10.30-12. There will be a training session for interested parties on the 22nd August.
Disabled Parking at Sacred Heart – The members had a site inspection at the end of the meeting and it was decided to make a ‘No Parking’ area by the ramp into the Church. Fr. David will explain to Parishioners that this should really be just a set-down area. There will then be 2 ‘Blue Badge Holders Only’ designated parking places beside the ramp. 2 designated parking places will also be labelled near the entrance to St. Helen’s Church too. General parking at Sacred Heart was discussed as it was felt that the wooded area could be very slippery when wet but to provide plastic cladding similar to that in St. Helen’s would be in the region of £20,000. All agreed that the grass area was not suitable for parking as often very wet and cars then did a lot of damage to the grass.
5. PARISH PASTORAL ASSISTANT REPORT
John explained that there had been a very productive review meeting with Fr. David, Deacon Ron, Terry and Mary and John had agreed to continue in the role for a further 12 months. He will no longer man the Presbytery on a Wednesday as there had been very few telephone calls when he was there. He will be organising the Reflection Day for Readers and Eucharistic Ministers on the 7th September. He is trying to become more involved with the Eucharistic Services and Bible Studies at HMP Bure but obtaining the necessary accreditation from the Home Office was proving very difficult
8. PARISH PASTORAL COUNCILLORS REPORTS
St. John of the Cross – Michael Hawley said the Quiet Hour had now ceased. The Parishioners were engaged in raising money for necessary roof repairs. He was hoping to organise a fund-raising concert on either the 12th or 19th October once the date for the Harvest Supper had been agreed with the Social Committee
Sacred Heart – Jenny Evans had resigned as a PPC Representative so there will need to be two new representatives appointed in October. Hilary will organise a Forum Meeting as discussed at the last meeting once the Fete has taken place this week
St. Helen’s – It is possible that there may not be a Harvest Festival at St. Helen’s this year as there needs to be a new co-ordinator.
9. A.O.B.
Parish Fund Raising was discussed and the possibility of date clashes. With the website calendar up and running this should no longer happen. Clare will ask for copies of the St. John’s Social Committee minutes to be sent to her so that fixtures can be put on the Calendar. Neither St. Helen’s nor Sacred Heart had many social/fund-raising events. The Parish Hall is used for many events and it seems there had been some confusion earlier in the year when some parishioners were unsure if an event had been a Parish or an individual fund raising event. It was decided that when the Hall is used for an individual fund raising event this should be made clear to people attending. Second collections were known well in advance apart from a couple of Mission Appeals, which were arranged after the Diocesan Handbook had been published. A suggestion was that rather than the monthly £150 Club collections in every Church there could be the option to make an annual payment if that is what people would prefer. Sacred Heart often have small sales of plants and cakes in the hall after Sunday Mass as do St. Helen’s in their Narthex and St. John of the Cross outside the front of the Church
9. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Tuesday 10th September 7.15 for 7.30 in the Parish Hall or Presbytery depending on the Hall use.
Fr. David then concluded the meeting with a Blessing
