PARISH OF THE SACRED HEART – PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL
Minutes of the meeting held on TUESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2018 at 7.30pm
PRESENT: Fr James Walsh, Robert Hardie, Peter Rylands, John Bolger, Antonia Martinez, Elaine Haughton, Carol Shippey, Richard McGreevy, Rebecca Walker, Ginny Keane, Keith Copperwheat, Catherine Watkins (Secretary)
- 1. APOLOGIES: Deacon Ron O’Toole
Fr James opened the meeting with a prayer.
- 2. It was agreed to try and finish the meeting by 8.45pm.
- 3. MINUTES OF THE MEETING: of 28 August 2018 were approved and signed by Rob Hardie as the outgoing Chairman.
- MATTERS ARISING:
Nomination of new Chairman. Richard McGreevy was nominated by Elaine Haughton and seconded by Carol Shippey. This was agreed unanimously whereupon Richard assumed Chairmanship. A vote of thanks was proposed by Richard to Rob Hardie, for his contribution as Chairman, and agreed.
Harvest Sunday. The Harvest Sunday family Mass and lunch were enjoyed by all with Michael McMahon from the North Norfolk SVP giving a most interesting talk. The proceeds from the lunchtime raffle would be donated to the SVP.
Action – Fr James
Adoremus Congress in Liverpool. This was attended from our parish by Fr James, Celia Cooper and Becky Walker, and was a successful event. Fr James had planned to present feedback following his return but was concerned that not enough people would attend to make it worthwhile. Further consideration would be given to this.
Action – Fr James
Live Simply Award Update. All three churches in the parish now have their award plaques installed.
Paving slabs at St John of the Cross. The paving has now been repaired.
Day of Development for Readers and Eucharistic Ministers. There has been positive feedback following the day on 13 October. There had been several readers who had not been able to attend and it was asked whether further copies of the handout could be made available for them.
Action – Fr James
St John of the Cross Forum. Fr James reported that he had been made most welcome.
Car Park at the Sacred Heart Church. A script to be placed on unauthorised vehicles had been prepared, but the whole issue would need to be “policed” – was there anyone prepared to do this, as there was always the danger of having to face verbal abuse. It was decided that the matter would be discussed further at the forthcoming Finance meeting. The comment was made that if unauthorised parkers were challenged, they would already know they were not welcome. Consideration was given to various ways of identifying those parking legitimately, but no ideal solution identified.
Catechetical Certificate Training. Ginny reported that she had started the on-line course “The True Evangelism of the Faith”.
- PPC REPRESENTATIVES FOR ST JOHN OF THE CROSS AND THE SACRED HEART: Keith Copperwheat (St John’s) and Grazyna Skawinska (Sacred Heart) had been nominated and seconded and were duly elected on the Parish Pastoral Committee.
- LIVE SIMPLY AWARD UPDATE: A written report had been submitted and was read out to the Committee. An item had been included in the Weekly Newsletter, encouraging parishioners to take part in the Reverse Advent Calendar, and lists had been made available for all three Eucharistic communities. Several people had requested that we continue with the weekly live simply suggestions in the newsletter and this would be considered at the next steering group meeting.
Action – Live Simply Steering Group
- ANNUAL PARISH MEETING: This will be held on 20 May 2019, following the usual format – a meal with business. North Walsham are due to provide the main course and Aylsham the desserts. Consideration was given to inviting a guest speaker, but it was agreed that Fr James would talk on the “State of the Nation”, plans and past experiences.
Action – Forums, Antonia, Fr James, Nick Sutherland
PARISH DIRECTORY: This is ready to be printed and it was agreed that 200 copies would be made initially, using the parish photocopier as the most economical method of production.
Action – Antonia, Cathy
- PARISH PASTORAL COUNCILLORS REPORTS:
St John’s. At their last Forum meeting Kay had outlined the format and purpose of the Children’s Liturgy. It was confirmed that St John’s will be running the Shoebox Appeal this year, and they would be collected on 10 November. Clare has the Global Healing DVD if anyone would like to borrow it. The Advent service will be on 2 December 2018 at 4pm and all would be welcome. The P’chum Ben Mass had been a beautiful occasion and it would be nice to see other twinning parishes in the diocese hosting them. As mentioned earlier, Fr James had been most welcome at the Forum meeting. It was agreed that in future, any business at these meetings which needed Fr James’s input would be dealt with first so that he did not need to rush back for Mass at North Walsham.
St Helen’s. Thanks were given to Mary and Sergio Rando for providing refreshments after Mass.
A suggestion had been been received that we join “Word on Fire Engage”, delivered in the main by Bishop Robert Barron. ( https://engage.wordinfire.org/about ) It appears that the Parish already has a number of DVDs by Bishop Barron and Fr James will locate them. It was suggested that they could be used for Lent preparation, presented on Saturday mornings, for example, or presented in people’s houses during the day in each of the communities. Fr James is happy for this to be arranged. It had been proposed that St Helen’s hold a Crib Festival over the weekend of the Epiphany (5/6 January 2019). Liz Smith had agreed to arrange this. On 3 May 2019, St Helen’s will be 60 years old. A working party has been set up to organise celebrations both liturgical and social.
Sacred Heart. Nothing to report.
- ANY OTHER BUSINESS:
All North Walsham churches will be signing a proposed Covenant on the first Sunday in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (20 January 2019), at a service to be held in the Sacred Heart church. Fr James passed round copies of the proposed Covenant and a couple of amendments to the wording were suggested by the Committee:
‘…We believe that God wills the unity of His church, which can move forward…’
‘…We therefore commit ourselves…To receive each other’s gifts by learning from each other…’
A choir which currently meets in the Methodist church has asked whether they could hold their rehearsals in the Sacred Heart church on Wednesdays at 7.30pm. The ethics of hiring out the church and the repertoire of the choir were discussed. Fr James will investigate and consider. It was also pointed out that this could impact on the Sacred Heart choir practices which are currently held on Wednesday evenings at 6.15pm.
The matter of the state of the sacristy ceiling at the Sacred Heart church was raised – although the whole of the interior of the church was redecorated in 2017, the sacristy ceiling is peeling badly and it was felt that the original decorator should be approached.
- DATE OF NEXT MEETING:
Tuesday 29 January 2019 at 19.15 for 19.30 at St Helen’s, Hoveton.
Fr James then concluded the meeting with a prayer.
