PRESENT
Fr. Tom Egan, Gerard Barden, Jane Landi, Daniel Hewitt, Eileen Nagle, Fr Vincent Malone, Patrick Bolger, Mary Bolger, Ramon Landi, John Donnelly, Anuli Igboaka, John Wilson, Cecilia Webb, Patrick Madigan, Tom Molloy, Martin O’Brien, Clare O’Brien, Felicity Brown, Libby Biberian, Fr Kevin Moule, Melanie Gibbons, Eddie O’Byrne.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Sean Carroll, Marianne Ahearne, Joe Sutton, Gregory Howard, Edoardo Albert, Brian Hunt, Clyde Webb and Jackie Reddington.
Gerard Barden was introduced as the new chairman. He has lived in the parish the last eight years, and has been on the parish council for the last two. He will chair the meeting in the absence of Eddie.
MINUTES OF THE LAST AGM ON JULY 4th 2010
Minutes were agreed and signed as correct by the new chairman.
MATTERS ARISING
There were no matters arising.
THE ANNUAL REPORT
Key points: Fr Vincent was ordained last October.
Aileen Adams has stepped down from her position as catechetical co-ordinator. She was thanked for all her hard work over many years.
The new translation is very important and much work has been done introducing it to the people.
The parish came together at Easter to perform a Good Friday tableau under the guidance of Ten Ten.
Catechism courses have recruited new volunteers for baptism, children’s liturgy and confirmation.
Need to encourage volunteers, eg altar servers/Eucharistic ministers to turn up when they are on the rota.
Many parishioners attended Papal events during the Pope’s visit last September.
Events in this parish feature regularly in Churches Together Compass magazine.
There have been some improvements in the church – new sanctuary floor, new speakers, work on the red bit at the back is on-going. Under the Diocesan Ten Year Plan to keep an eye on our finances, with a view to always having enough to afford repairs and renewals, we are doing quite well.
In hand are repairs to the car park wall and new windows for the presbytery.
The website is an attractive site and easy to use. Eddie is always grateful for items to put on it.
The Parish Centre is always full with groups, especially for our young people. Our Scout Group celebrates its 40th Anniversary this year.
We give a great deal each year to the Diocesan and other charities, and the parish is grateful to everyone who donates in the face of their own possible hardships.
Our school continues to do well, especially in music and the arts. Many of those present had come from the school summer fete.
MATTERS ARISING
DIOCESAN COLLECTIONS. Some are gathered together and done as one collection, which is then divided equally. Others, such as the Priests Training Fund and Sick and Retired Priests are held singly as they are considered to be more important.
CHILD PROTECTION. (John Donnelly) Plans in place before the last election have been dropped. All our paperwork is up to date, thanks to Nicky Madigan, who co-ordinates with our groups to make sure all new volunteers are checked. The Diocese produce a Child Protection newsletter every month or so, which is sent to all relevant parties.
TEN TEN. (Martin O’Brien) TenTen are very grateful to Fr Tom and the Parish for their welcome and support. They are a charity that works with young people in schools and parishes using drama. The teams use the Big Hall for rehearsing. They travel all over the country working in primary and secondary schools, doing Confirmation courses in parishes, including this one, and also in young offender institutions.
They put on performances for us in the Hall during the year, and sometimes invite parishioners to their rehearsals. They also helped organize Good Friday Stations of the Cross performances for the last two years.
Recently they performed their play, “The Jeweller” at the Leicester Square theatre, which went very well, and a longer run has been suggested for next year. Anything that generates interest in their work, and helps bring in much needed funding is very welcome as they have recently been hit by funding cuts. They have set up a Friends Scheme, which they hope will help with their finances.
FR. TOM’S REPORT
Fr. Tom thanked all who work around the parish, and for all the support and affection that they give to the priests. He thanked Fr. Kevin and Fr. Vincent for the support they give him as parish priest. Fr Tom thanked Aileen Adams for her dedication to the team over many years running the baptism, RCIA and confirmation courses and helping with others.
He mentioned the new missal which officially comes into use in December. This is the first translation for 40 years. Many responses and prayers will change, which we will all have to learn.
State of the Parish:
· Continued high mass attendance
· Good sacramental programmes
· RCIA good
· New parishioners coming in
· Good community spirit/involvement is good
· People take their commitment seriously
We can’t measure our union with Christ, or our faith and love for him. Does he touch our lives? The Parish Council helps us grow and deepen our commitment. Each day, do we deepen our faith and love for Jesus Christ? It’s not easy to measure, but we should ask God to guide us in all that we do.
FINANCE
Financial statements were attached to the Annual Report available at the meeting.
We are very fortunate that our finances hold up well over the years. Our last Planned Giving campaign was in 2005, it is about time that we had another one, probably next year.
Many thanks to Katie Sear who records the Planned Giving each week, from which we are able to calculate the percentage of gift aid tax we can reclaim.
We have a high percentage of standing orders, which allows our income to keep up when people are not at church. 29% of our assessable income goes to the Diocese – last year we had £53,000 assessed.
The total income for the year was £278,854, which was excellent, although slightly down on the year before.
Expenditure
Spending £234,295 left us with a profit for the year of £44,559. The Sanctuary floor cost c.£18,500, which was the largest single expense of the year. Overall repairs and renewals cost £33k, down on £99k in 2009, which included the benches.
Current plans include new windows for the presbytery and repairs to the car park wall which has some unpleasant cracks in it.
We are very fortunate as we have money in the bank, but we shouldn’t be complacent, as there will always be some repair or renewal that needs paying for.
ELECTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS
The Chairman, Edoardo Albert, was standing down this year. Gerard Barden was voted to replace him. According to the PC Constitution the Parish Priest is the Chairman, with a Vice-Chair from the lay community. It was proposed that this should be changed, thus making Gerard the actual Chair of the Parish Council. Eddie has agreed to stay on the council.
Jane Landi resigned as secretary, but will stay on until a replacement can be found and was thanked by both Fr Tom and Gerard on behalf of the Council.
Brian Hunt will stay on as treasurer.
PARISH COUNCIL
Jackie Reddington and Anuli Igboaka resigned. Shaneez Hassan has moved away from the area. All others who were due to stand down agreed to stay on.
Two new members were elected at the meeting – Libby Biberian and Melanie Gibbons. Melanie helps Felicity with her Ecumenical duties and is one of our new Baptism catechists.
It was commented that the Council could do with more female members, even allowing for our new volunteers.
ECUMENISM
Three of our parishioners are going on the Churches Together trip to Lindisfarne.
The winter shelter wants to expand and they need more Halls. If anyone wants to help/know more they should contact Felicity or Paddy Lyons.
The CT Stations of the Cross went well and we have been asked if they can be held at another church next year, with our parishioners encouraged to attend them.
Compass, our CT monthly magazine is currently emailed to us and we print it in black and white. We are looking at ways of attaching it to the website so that people can see it in colour if they want to, and printing it off themselves. We have appeared quite a few times in the magazine recently.
It would be nice if more parishioners supported CT events.
Thanks to Felicity and Melanie who attend CT meetings and report back to us.
PRAYER AND EVANGELISATION
We are all evangelists in the way we live our Christian lives, in the way we show kindness, love and support to others. It is not easy to pray at Mass – we should give a little time to God, to say thank-you. People need our method of prayer.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
The Council offered it’s thanks to Eddie for his service as Chairman of the Parish Council, for all the work and hours he put in, and especially for all his work on the website.
Bad weather. A parishioner travelled some distance to get to church during the snow last year so that he could run the paper shop. He felt it would have been more sensible to close the shop – it was also pointed out that we don’t expect parishioners to make unnecessary journeys and a simple phone call to say he wasn’t coming would have been fine. It is difficult to cover holiday periods, but we would have dealt with the problem as and when it arose.
Fr Kevin thanked Fr Tom for the leadership he shows both him and Fr Vincent. He has tremendous wisdom and a lightness of touch which they find encouraging. He feels that the whole parish benefits from his kind firmness!
It would be great if we could get more young families involved in parish life. It’s a busy place and it would be good to see more people volunteering to spread the load a little bit.
The meeting finished with a prayer at 8.30 pm.