PARISH OF THE SACRED HEART – PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL
Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 6th February 2014
PRESENT: Father David, Deacon Ron O’Toole, Terry McIlwee, Hilary Bolger, Teresa Butler, Mary Edmonds, Michael Haughton, Michael Hawley, Carol Shippey, John Bolger
1. APOLOGIES: Adrian Rudman and Jayne Randall
Fr. David then began the meeting talking about talking about St. Paul Miki, a Japanese Jesuit who was martyred with his companions and was the first Asian saint to be canonised. He followed this Evening Prayer from Colossians and we remembered in particular the sick of the Parish.
2. It was agreed to finish the meeting by 8.30 p.m.
3. THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING on 26th November 2013 were agreed with the correction of Adrian’s surname.
4. MATTERS ARISING
Gift Aid Forms – Michael Haughton said these were still not available in each church and a parishioner from St. Helen’s had not received his supply of envelopes despite completing the gif air forms. John Bolger said he did not think it would be a problem to add the gift aid form to the Parish website for people to download and complete but Clare will check again with nick Sutherland as to the best way forward and to ask for a supply of forms in each Church
Parking at Sacred Heart – William Edmonds had visited the car park as requested and provided written information on the necessary planning applications if the job were to go ahead. He didn’t think any trees would need to be felled and he recommended laying similar plastic matting to that which had been used at St. Helens. This will obviously be very costly as it involved excavating, levelling and laying tons of hard-core followed by the plastic matting. It would be helpful to refer back to the costs and contractor’s details of the St. Helen’s job, which was done approximately 8 years ago. Fr. David thought some of the funding for that project may have come from a Diocesan fund. One of the neighbouring GP surgeries has asked if it would be possible for their nurses to park in the car park on a daily basis and Nick Sutherland is currently discussing this with the surgery and asking if parishioners could use their car park on a Sunday morning, this would certainly help with the parking problems in the immediate future. Michael Haughton said that costs of any project would only rise and if we were to do any work it would be better to proceed now rather than delaying and finding the job even more costly. Mary will provide Adrian with the information she has and Clare will speak to Nick Sutherland about the GP surgery parking and details of costs of the St. Helen’s job.
Year of Faith – Terry said that several Parishioners had submitted reflections on ‘What their Faith meant to them” and it was thought it would be good to print these out into an A5 leaflet and have a few copies available in each church and the possibly put them on the Parish website. The reflections will be published anonymously.
Diocese of East Anglia Synod Questionnaire – Terry had completed the questionnaire on behalf of the PPC and submitted it to the Bishop just a couple of days after the deadline. He thanked Hilary Bolger for her contributions. He was unaware whether the Diocese would be producing their own summary of the findings or whether this would be done nationally.
5. PARISH PASTORAL ASSISTANT REPORT
John is continuing to run the weekly Bible Study Group at the Prison Fr. David said this was essential at the moment, as we needed to keep a Catholic presence in the Prison until a new Chaplain was appointed. Adverts had gone out to Priests without any success and were not going out to Deacons and lay people. He had hoped the Chaplin from Lowestoft prison would take up the position but John said that was not now happening, as it was too far to travel. Neil Boyle had also mentioned to Fr. David that a few more prison visitors were needed at the Bure Prison.
John has been asked by Fr. David to organise the music for the Easter Week services and they will be meeting to discuss this next week. Michael Hawley has given Fr. David some music for possible use.
6. PARISH PASTORAL COUNCILLORS REPORTS
St. John of the Cross – Michael Hawley said that Roof Appeal had been launched and fund raising was proceeding in earnest, as we needed to raise about £12,000 towards the costs. The date was fixed as Friday 4th April for the fund-raising concert he was organising. Fr. David and Clare had been to the Churches Together in Aylsham meeting yesterday and showed the leaflet giving the contact details of all the local Aylsham churches with would be given to local estate agents and housing developments offices for new people moving into the town. Also the CTA were arranging for a series of Lenten Talks and Lunches/Suppers to be held in different churches in Aylsham during Lent.
Sacred Heart – Hilary Bolger said the Senior Citizens were asking when they would be able to have Wi-Fi in the Church Hall for their computer workshops, which were very popular. Fr. David explained that Adrian had been doing the research on this, particularly in relation to web security and costs. He will check on progress with Adrian. Hilary said referrals were coming in to the Support Group and they had a further meeting planned for the 22nd February. Adrian and Fr. David had attended the recent Churches Together in NW meeting and Adrian sent in a report that there would be ‘100 Year of North Walsham’ event in St Nicholas Church from the 7-9 June and this would be part of the commemorations of the centenary of the outbreak of WWI. We have been invited to join in and to place a display board showing the work/activities of our Parish. We need to reply to them by the 28th Feb. Teresa said she thought Royal British Legion was also organising a commemoration later in the year about September time. Fr. David said the Churches Together were very keen to show how the local churches ad been involved in the war effort hence this exhibition which would be in addition to the RBL commemoration. Also at the Churches Together meeting the Methodist Representative had talked about an organisation that sets up lunch clubs during the school holidays for children who normally receive free school meals during the term times but who might go without lunch during the holiday time. They are requesting for volunteers to be on a steering committee. We will advertise for volunteers in our bulletin. Another Methodist representative said there would be some research taking place in NW to look at the needs of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and in particular their spiritual needs. Similar research was also being undertaken in Wymondham
St. Helen’s – Due to have a Forum in the near future. Fr. David said he had been asked if the Women’s World Day of Prayer could be held in St. Helen’s on the 7th March as we had easy car parking.
7. A.O.B.
Welcoming Parishioners – Deacon Ron said he felt that Parishioners should be more aware and try to find seats for latecomers as they often stood at the back of the churches when there were seats available. Fr. David commented that it is well known that there are those who always prefer to stand and he would find it more distracting having people ushered up to the front once Mass has begun. As for welcoming new Parishioners our welcome pack does need updating and the Parish Directory has a few corrigendum to be done. A working party consisting of Terry McIlwee, Michael Hawley and Teresa Butler and Clare will meet on Thursday 27th February after morning Mass to discuss the updating, and to decide what should go into a welcome pack for new parishioners. It was agreed that two members of the PPC would make a ‘Welcome visit’ to the home of any new Parishioners.
Parish Annual Meeting – This will take place on Monday 19th May at 7 p.m. Terry will write to Bishop Alan to ask if he would like to attend and talk about Evangelization. St. John of the Cross’ parishioners will be responsible for the main course this year and either St. Helen’s of Sacred Heart parishioners for the puddings. Clare will ask Annabel to book the Parish Hall for the meeting.
Parish Visit to Cambodia – Fr. David will speak about the visit at all 3 Masses this weekend. He explained that it had been a most successful and worthwhile visit. He had been able to spend time with Bishop Kike and with Fr. Totet the Vicar General and with Fr. Rajat the PP of Svay Sisophon. Bishop Kike had said that the most important elements were the mutual friendship and support, which were so firmly established, and that the financial help although extremely valuable was secondary to this. Fr. David had been most impressed with Fr. Rajat’s pastoral care and he explained how the parishioners really appreciated our friendship, cards at Christmas and Easter and our prayers and that they always say prayers for us too. The visit had involved a lot of travelling and had been draining both physically and mentally but thoroughly worthwhile. Fr. David, Fr. Rajat and Fr. Mark Hackeson, who was visiting with his own Parish group, had all been to anoint a dying young man, which Fr. David said was particularly moving.
Lenten Programme – This year rather than having Station Masses in each Church, Bishop Alan has decided to have a Deanery Station Mass in each Deanery. Our Deanery Mass will take place at St. Joseph’s in Sheringham on Thursday 27th March at 7 p.m. Reconciliation will be available prior to Mass from 6.30 p.m. Our Parish reconciliation Service will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday 29th March at the Sacred Heart, North Walsham. The Holy Week and Easter leaflet will be available to all Parishioners shortly.
Collections – Michael Haughton asked if just the total sum of the weekly collection could be shown on the newsletter each week as the sums now shown only represent the plate collections and are not totally accurate figures as they do not include sums collected by standing orders.
8. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Thursday 1st May 2014 7.15 for 7.30 in the Presbytery
Deacon Ron then concluded the meeting with a reading from ‘Bread for the Journey’ by Henri Nouwen’
