MINUTES FROM THE EIGHTH MEETING OF THE ST.ANNE’S PASTORAL PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON THURSDAY, 13TH JANUARY 2005 AT 7.30 PM

In attendance: R. Aldous, A Duffy, A Etchells, Fr Higgins, J Howard, M Monaghan, A Payne, F Reynolds, Francy Reynolds, M Robinson, B Salt, B Thomson, M Watson.

  1. Welcome and Opening Prayer

Opening Prayer read by M Monaghan.

  1. Apologies

M Swift

  1. Minutes of the Pastoral Parish Council meeting held on 2 December 2004

The minutes were accepted as an accurate record.

4. Matters Arising on the Minutes

Action points from the previous minutes were addressed within the individual Group Reports.

5. Parish Group Reports

Group reports had been circulated to members prior to the meeting.

Adult Education Formation – Nothing to report. Action Plans not yet received from all the Parish Groups.

Church Property

Sound System – Work on the ‘Loop System’ to be carried out within the next few weeks.

Parish Centre – Building work now virtually complete. The children have now returned to the pre-school area. The next work to be carried out will be to stain the pre-school area floor, this will be planned during the half-term or Easter holidays.

The cost of the building work is not yet known, but is thought to be between £8-10,000.

Gardening – No further work planned until the end of February.

Communications

Parish Magazine – It was agreed to have another Colour Supplement in time for the next Assembly. Cost of producing the magazine is approximately £80.

Website – A number of contacts from outside the Parish have been made because of information given on the Website. Action – RA to prune some of the historical items from the Web.

Car Parking – A laminated notice has been produced requesting people not to park close to the entrance.

Discussions were also held regarding widening the entrance into the Car Park to give easy access, this was agreed.

Suggestion Box – A list of the suggestions received to date had been circulated and were discussed at the meeting. The responses given will be published on the Website and at the back of the Church.

Items from the Suggestion Box to be raised at each meeting. Action – AP.

Liturgy – Readers - There are 6 new members, 4 from St Thomas More School. A meeting with the Diocesan Liturgy Team is to be arranged.

A letter has been sent to Ken Cooke, accepting his offer to assist with training for the Readers, but no response has yet been received. Action – AD to follow up

Eucharistic Ministers – A meeting is to be held next week. There are four prospective new members.

Children’s Liturgy – A meeting was held last week to discuss the way forward. Sr Bernadette from Nottingham to be invited to assist in setting up the new form of children’s service. More volunteers are needed to guarantee continuity and development. Positive recruitment is required before Sr Bernadette comes to help. Job descriptions for the Catechists will be available.

Action Plan required for the Group. Action – AP.

B Salt agreed to assist. Action – BS.

Music Group – The Music Group had met and plan to perform a sung mass on the last Sunday of each month at 11.00 am. Special Masses, such as Pentecost, First Communion and Confirmation will also involve St Anne’s and St Thomas More Schools.

The Christmas Card Appeal raised over £600. Cheques have been sent to the two African Orphanages.

Outreach

Presentation Associates – Arrangements for the meeting for Charles Jolly to give a talk on Fair Trade on 26th January at 7.30 pm in the Centre are being made.

The Visiting Group – The four people at the Branksome have been allocated a Visitor. Two more parishioners have joined the group, but more volunteers are required.

Welcoming Group – Twelve members of the Welcoming Group met on 15th December to discuss the Action Plan. They defined what they saw as their role in welcoming parishioners and visitors, so far the arrangement seems to be working well with a great deal of positive feedback.

The next meeting will be held prior to Easter.

Youth/Children

St Anne’s School – The Action Plan is in hand. FR said that it is the intention of the new Headteacher to bring pupils to a church service each week.

St Thomas More School – FyR handed in the Action Plan from St Thomas More School. Action – Fy requested to return the Action Plan for more detail to be added. (i.e. Curriculum and Ethos; Confirmation; Mass Attendance by Jazz Band.)

Following the request at the last meeting a link has been made with the children from the Barnardo’s Orphanage and the school.

Information to be provided from Sarah Higgins in Sri Lanka and Catherine Reynolds in Tanzania for the next Colour Supplement.

Pupils from the school have agreed to become Readers and to assist with the Junior Liturgy.

CD’s are on sale from the School Jazz Band. It is hoped that the Band will be involved in some of the Church services.

The school is holding a special event on 20th January for Tsunami. Everyone is welcome.

Social Committee

Nothing to report in M Swifts absence. Francy suggested that the Jazz Band, which has now re-formed, could be used for future social events.

Fundraising/Finance – BT had obtained information from the Inland Revenue on Gift Aid for collections. It was questioned whether we could be raising more money from random and infrequent giving. Action – BT to provide a summary of the information for the next meeting.

6. Contingency Plan

M Watson and Fr Dennis to discuss for the next meeting.

  1. Diocese Action Plan

B Thomson and M Watson to work on the Action Plan.

8. Any Other Business

Constitution A basic PPC Constitution had been set up after the first Assembly Meeting of the PPC. It was agreed that this should be formalised prior to the Assembly meeting in March, 2005. Action – M Monaghan to draft.

9.Date of Next Meeting

Thursday, 10th February, 2005 at 7.30 pm.

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