PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL
ST. MICHAEL’S, SONNING COMMON
Minutes of the meeting held on 16th July, 2014
Present: Father Paul, Brian Theobald, Deacon Francis Andrews, Val May, Keith May, David Halle, Liz Halle, Kristina Stitt, Marlena O’Donnell
1. Opening prayer: Father Paul
2. Apologies for absence: Mary Lewis, Theresa Muston
3. Matters Arising:
THE PANGBORNE SILVER BAND
Barbara Pike has said she would be willing to liaise with the Pangbourne Silver Band about playing at the Parish Weekend and again during Advent at a Carol service. Brian will ask her to confirm bookings.
LIST OF CONTACTS
Marlena would like to remind all members of the council to email a passport sized head and shoulders photo of themselves to Marlena O’Donnell for the list of contacts to be displayed at the back of Church.
THE ECUMENICAL SERVICE:
This took place on the 29th June and it was agreed that it was a great success. It was felt that the right, informal tone had been set and that the Summer timing and setting were fitting.
Reverend Foulis-Brown set the tone very well and members of other parishes said that St Michael’s parishioners had made them feel very welcome.
Brian would like to thank all those who made cakes and helped out with the refreshments, they were greatly appreciated.
It was agreed that this service would be something that should be repeated and should be pencilled in to the diary for next year. It was mentioned that the service might benefit from being more widely advertised and promoted. It was suggested that St Michael’s parishioners might be more likely to come to the service if it was advertised that Father Paul is involved in the service.
Brian had invited the Free Church in Sonning Common to join in the Ecumenical service but had learnt that the Baptist /Evangelical Church in Caversham, was now responsible for the congregation of the Church in Sonning Common. They had shown an interest in being involved in future local ecumenical events and promised to be in touch.
THE PARISH WEEKEND
The Weekend is set by the Feast of St Michael
It was agreed that a plan should be sketched out for the format of the weekend.
After some discussion it was decided that the weekend would start with
· Mass and a talk by father Paul on Friday Night – Mass will take place at 7pm with a scene setting homily to be given on the theme of “ A year of reaching out”
·
Father Paul has agreed to lead the weekend with the evangelisation theme - reaching out/taking Christ to others.
Mass on Friday will be followed by a fish and chip supper to be ordered one week in advance from the Sonning Common Fish and chip shop.
It was agreed that numbers for the supper would have to be known one week in advance and would be collected using a list at the back of Church. Brian agreed to do the list.
Information about the supper and the weekend would be included in the newsletter in the weeks leading up to the event.
The menu will be Cod and chips or Sausage and chips.
The price would be set at £5.00 per person and Kristina agreed to go and collect the food on the evening and try to negotiate a good deal on the price. It was agreed that the supper should be served at 8.30pm
· Saturday’s session will start at 10am
There will be a session for the adults in the Church from 10am-11am and then a break for teas and coffees until 11.30.
There would then be a second session from 11.30-12.30pm and this would be followed by a picnic lunch (everyone to bring their own)
The children would have a separate session in the hall between 10am and 12.30pm and would join the adults for lunch.
It was suggested that we do something specifically for the children – Kristina said she would look into this, offering to lead a craft activity for the children. At the previous meeting Mary Lewis had said she would provide the paper work so that Kristina could be CRB checked for the parish in order to lead the activity with the children. This needs to be followed up before the next PCC meeting.
· Sunday would bring the weekend to a close with a celebratory mass on Sunday followed by a communal lunch (bring a dish to share – in the same vein as the AGM lunch.
Marlena asked if in order to commemorate Edmund Pike, that at the Parish weekend we might ask the Pangbourne Silver Band to play one of his favourite tunes and we could all say a prayer together for him.
Brian agreed to talk to Barbara to ask her thoughts.
FIXTURE LIST/DIARY OF PASTORAL EVENTS
Much time was given over to the discussion of ways to canvass parishioners’ opinions about the future pastoral direction of the parish. Brian and David have produced a questionnaire intended for the parishioners and much discussion was had to the format of the questionnaire –and the questions to be asked.
It was agreed that canvassing parishioners about what they would like to take place in the parish would be a worthwhile activity.
We would ask Parishioners to share with us their “wish list” for liturgical, social and pastoral events/services – those that they would like to see happen in the Parish: and then find a way to try to gauge their willingness to help and take part.
Brian and David agreed to reformat the questionnaire in the light of the evening’s discussion and then get the questionnaire printed out so that it could be given out at masses as soon as possible.
In addition, to the questionnaire, some time of the evening’s meeting was devoted to suggestions from committee members as to what they thought might be appropriate events/services to offer in the parish.
Brian proposed that we set up a parish intercessory prayer group.
Deacon Francis suggested that someone might like to compose a standard prayer that could be used for intercessory purposes and reproduced on a small card format and given out to parishioners (perhaps if time permitted at the parish weekend)
It was agreed that Deacon Francis would be the perfect candidate to compose the intercessory prayer.
Val May, suggested taking a photo of the Parish statue of St Michael and using this to adorn one side of the prayer card.
Father Paul proposed doing a set of talks during October discussing the lives and roles of Mary and St Francis of Assissi. These talks could then become a regular fixture in the parish diary with different topics relevant to the liturgical months. For example in November the topic could be “Why we pray for the dead.” In addition, it was proposed that there could be other activities to coincide with the talks such as a visit to the cemetery to coincide with remembrance Sunday. This was proposed for the afternoon of the 9th November.
It was further proposed that the year could be concluded with Advent talks during December, with the Christmas pudding making evening as a social event to complement the liturgical talks.
Liz asked if the talks always had to be on a Wednesday? Was this due to the availability of the hall? This would be further investigated.
4. ANY OTHER BUSINESS:
Deacon Francis Highlighted the article in the tablet “Stand up and be counted” he handed out copies of the article for reference and future discussion.
FIXTURE LIST/ADVERTISING
David Halle suggested that we find out the deadlines for the Sonning Common Newsletter in order to advertise future events within the parish – it was noted that Rosalind (who goes to 10.30am mass) was the lady to ask and it was suggested that Father Paul might like to send Rosalind an email to ask about the deadlines.
FUND RAISING
Marlena and Kristina met on Friday 21st June to put together a list and possible timetable of fund raising and social events. These ideas were briefly presented to the committee and it was decided to come up with a timetable of social events which could then be presented for discussion at the next PPC meeting and coordinated with the pastoral timetable which is being worked on.
It was agreed that 1-2 events should be set as “fund raising” events.
Finally, Thanks were given to Keith May for sorting the wall behind the Church and it was suggested that a thank you note was included in the newsletter to the generous parishioner who kindly donated the breeze blocks for the project.
The next two meeting were fixed for 3rd September, 2014, 8pm and October 15th at 8pm (tbc)
The meeting concluded with a reflection and prayer from Father Paul