St John the Baptist – PPC Minutes - 31stJanuary 2017

Agenda

  1. Opening Reflection
  2. Review of Actions from previous meeting
  3. Update on position with Primary school
  4. Review Cluster Meeting 3 output – next steps
  5. Update on cluster writing group
  6. Marys Meals fundraiser/ future fund raisers
  7. Parish Calendar for 2017
  8. Review of Archbishop visit
  9. Special Collections – gift aid and envelopes
  10. Hospital Chaplaincy/ Driving lessons
  11. AOB

Attendees : Father Martin, Brian Murray, Margot Donoghue, Dennis Boyle, Tracey Boyle, Emma Mullen, Mark Kernberg, Sofia Valente, Valentina Simeone,John Moore, Vimal D’Souza

Actions from previous minutes

  1. Website needs revamp, but this is a big project. A starting point would be to establish a database to get a contact list of Parishioners. At Mass on25h / 26th February we announce this intention and ask people to fill in a form with their details. Next stage would be to contact the resource who currently runs the website and decide what to do next. Action: Dennis and John to organise form.
  2. Children now more involved in the Offertory as requested by Father Piotr.
  3. Fundraising money paid into the Parish.

Minutes

  1. Father Martin visited Fox Covert (St Andrew)Primary School. Action:Father Martin to discuss with Father Tracey how to reconnect more strongly to the school going forward.
  2. For information, children will be prepared in P3 for Reconciliation, in P4 for their First Communion, and in P7 for Confirmation, after August 2017. This was a quick win from the Cluster meetings.
  3. Brian thanks everybody for Cluster meetings input. Brian summarised outputs and main actions from Cluster groups. We looked at the Newsletter from West Lothian Parishes cluster which seems to work and could be used as a model if we decided to go down the Cluster newsletter route for our Parishes also.
  4. Mark gave an update on the Cluster follow-up meeting. Priests need to get together to agree more convenient Mass times. People were complimentary about the 3rd meeting we hosted in St John’s. Draft report is being prepared and will be ready within days. Father Tracey wants the draft to be added to the Cluster session of our website, session which we do not have at present. We need to add a Cluster tab to the website to post all documents related to cluster meetings and draft report – to replicate what is in St Kents website Cluster session. Action:Dennis to get in touch with Elaine to arrange this. Final writing meeting will be on the 14th March. Mark will include any comments he will receive. Final report will be circulated at around Easter before it goes to the Archbishop. Future PPC dates to be shared with other parishes so that we can organise a Cluster PPC.
  5. Marys meals fundraising was a great success. Well done to John especially. We need to decide what we do next. Ideas: SCIAF is already supported by all schools around Scotland. Food Bank? Bethany Trust? How do we get people more engaged? St Vincent De Paul? Action:Mark to ask Marie from SVDP do contact John to discuss options / ideas.
  6. Mark prepared a Parish AnnualCalendar. Special collections and Marys Meals already included. Action:Mark to keep calendar updated and ask Elaine to upload it in to the Parish website. Margot raised that it is St Johns The Baptist’s turn to host the Ecumenical service at 7pm on Good Friday14th April.
  7. Special collections discussion: parishioners have asked if they can have more information on special collections, ideally a week in advance in the newsletter. Envelopes for the collections also to be available the week before. Action:Margot to speak to Derek about this. Special Collection in April for Ecclesiastical Student Fund will help David Topping, who is a seminarian student from our Parish. Action:John to get in touch with David to write a paragraph for the Parish and “personalise” the collection.
  8. Dates for 2017 PPC meetings:
  • Tuesday 28th March
  • Tuesday 30th May (Parish BBQ 25th June)
  • Tuesday 29th August
  • Tuesday 21st November

Open PPC (AGM) on Sunday 27th August after Mass.

  1. We agreed to support Father to take driving lessons.

AOB: Father proposed to have a reflection session from 3pm to 6pm ahead of Vigil Mass on 1st April . This is to be included in the newsletter and shared with the Cluster.

Carry forward to next PPC:

  • Archbishop visit and feedback

Next Meeting – In the Parish house at 7pm on Tuesday 28thMarch