PRESENT
Fr. Damian Cassidy, Fr. Tom Egan, Eddie Albert, Ramon Landi, Cecilia Webb, Tina Bolger, Joe Sutton, David Clarke, Brian Hunt, Jackie Reddington, Marianne Ahearne, Pat Madigan and Jane Landi
APOLOGIES
Frank Nolan, Pat Bolger, Clyde Webb and Peter Coleman.
OPENING PRAYER
The meeting started with a prayer.
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING ON JANUARY 28th 2008
Minutes were agreed and signed as correct.
MATTERS ARISING
CHILD PROTECTION. Nicky is still chasing the last few people. People need a CRB check for each activity that they are involved in, whether professional or voluntary. If the missing people are readers it was advised that they shouldn’t be chased, as readers have very little to do with children, or other vulnerable people.
FAIR TRADE STALL. Has done well so far, making £466 in the two weeks. This is a slight loss on what has been spent setting the stall up. Mr McGowan has sent an email, which has been forwarded to PC members, and thanks Fr. Tom and Fr. Damian for their support.
There are still a few teething troubles to iron out. He would prefer to set up and run the stall on a Saturday evening, but would need to know when there is something going on in the Hall. There is also the issue of locking up the hall afterwards on a Saturday evening. He will set up the stall on the fourth Sunday of each month – this also means he will operate on Easter Sunday, morning only.
We can now call ourselves a Fair Trade Parish.
FINANCE
There hasn’t been much movement since the last meeting.
The Financial Return has been sent to the Diocese.
The matter of who controls our money was raised. Can the Diocese take money without our permission? It’s a complicated area as it’s covered by conflicting rules – as a single charity, the Diocese “owns” all our money, but under Canon Law we own it ourselves as a parish. The Diocese does have access to our bank account.
The new financial secretary seems to be running the Diocese as a business rather than a pastoral concern.
WEBSITE
The average number of daily visits at the moment is 59.
To install a gallery of pictures needs a scanner and Photoshop software, which costs in the region of £200. It is also very time consuming. It was suggested that we purchase the software for the Parish computer. Brian will check prices. It would be good to be able to put photos of Parish events on the web. “Elements” costs around £60 but is it worth getting this restricted version?
PRAYER AND EVANGELISATION
Eucharistic Adoration has been well attended during the Sundays of Lent. Could there be a case for holding it once a month? We do have it twice a week on Fridays in ordinary time, and there are times when fewer people are around, eg. Summer holidays, so it was decided to keep the Sunday afternoons for Lent and Advent.
ECUMENISM
An email was received from Anna McMullan which is now included in the minutes.
You will have noticed that the Compass format has been changed to A4 size with outer colour sheets and covering 4 pages. The cost of this has increased from 5p to 10p a copy, with the majority of the cost increase covered by advertising. Shall we continue receiving the same number of copies?
The Lenten talks haven’t been greatly attended, but the speakers have been interesting (see Compass for details of the talks from weeks 1 & 2.)
Women’s World Day of Prayer takes place this Friday (7th March) at the Manor Drive Methodist Church at 2pm.
For Pentecost (11th May) there is a celebration at St Peter’s Bourne with music and picnic. The service and talk will be given by Fr McDade, so should be a good event!
No other news to report from Churches Together for the moment.
Meeting Discussion
Churches Together are holding a “Way of the Cross”, with refreshments afterwards in our Hall.
The matter of Compass’ new look was raised – the colour of the pictures isn’t very good!
Our priests haven’t been to any Fraternals recently.
FUND RAISING
DINNER DANCE. Thanks to those who helped to organize it. It was a great success enjoyed by everyone. Could we make it an annual event? Probably not. We could hold other events for various reasons during the year.
LATIN DANCE CLASSES. Initial enquiries suggest that this will be popular, and a short course of four weeks has been booked for the Hall after Easter. The instructor intends to charge a nominal fee from each participant and it was asked, should we donate this money to the Ruth Winston House, where he also teaches dancing?
Consensus was that we should not. We charge regular Hall users a small amount to cover heat, light etc. and the income would probably not exceed this anyway. We have already decided that we will not fund raise for outside concerns this year. The hall desperately needs re-decorating and all income will be useful.
SEATING. We now have a sample bench at the back of the church from Irish Contract Seating. The final version will be simpler, without the fancy work on the ends. It is supposed to mirror the seating on the sanctuary. We could get the benches in oak or ash with oak being about £10,000 more expensive. We should get the colouring that matches the altar furniture.
The depth of the new bench is narrower than the present benches. Does this mean we will get more rows? No, but there will be the opportunity for more space at the front for communion. We will need to give five months notice to have the benches made up. ICS will give us £5,000 for the old benches. The total cost of the new benches could be as much as £64,000.
Discussion: Is it ethical to spend so much money on benches when it could be used to greater effect elsewhere in the world. What is wrong with our current seating?
This church has never had it’s own benches – the current benches are second hand, from three different sources and don’t match, or fit the rows. There are a lot of odd chairs that keep getting moved about. Some of them are in a poor state of repair, so some money needs to be spent on them anyway. Standardizing the benches would improve the appearance of the church and will last a long time.
The council voted to continue with the replacement of the benches, and decided that after Easter the plan would be put to the parish at large and reaction will be gauged. They can make up their own minds if they want to contribute or not. Pat Bolger will speak at all Masses.
DECORATION. We have received two quotes, one is £10,000, the other £15,000. We should get the work done over the summer. We need to get advice on a colour scheme – ask Chris Fanning to recommend someone.
LIGHTS. We should ask Kenny Glackin to look at the potential of the lights whilst scaffolding is in place. We can’t lower the nave lights, but we may be able to do something with those in the side aisle. We will also install a pulley system to enable covering of the large statue during Holy Week.
HYMN BOOKS. We seem to be running out of hymn books at an incredible rate. Presumably people take them home by mistake and forget to bring them back. Amnesties help a bit, but not much. Replacing them all with a different book (Laudate) would cost in the region of £3,000 (300 books at £10 each). Could we get parishioners to “buy their own”? Wood Green tried this and they still go missing. They would need to be collected at the end of Mass as they are given out at the beginning, and then locked away during the week.
Should we use screens instead? The ability to make multi-media presentations would be useful, eg for Stations of the Cross, even if it was kept in the Hall. A screen and projector would cost about the same as 300 books. Where would the screens go? Would everyone be able to see them? How would it make the church look?
PARISH HALL
Eddie has taken the amplifier away for repair.
The letter discussed at the last meeting concerning chewing gum and security has been sent out to group leaders and has elicited a favourable response.
PARISH TEAM
Currently planning for Holy Week. There is one baptism, two receptions and one confirmation this Easter. Permission has been received from Westminster.
14 servers were enrolled into the Guild of St. Stephen at the weekend. This used to be done on Boxing Day, but it was decided to do it at the Mass the server normally attends. We have a good crowd of servers now, 35 have been recruited in the last two years.
The First Holy Communion children are doing their First Reconciliation this month. On the whole attendance has been good this year.
Fr. Damian has been appointed as a part time youth chaplain for the Diocese and will be devoting some time each week to SPEC. He is also attending the World Youth Day in Sydney in July.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
BUS STOP BY CAR PARK ENTRANCE. Fr. Tom has asked Eddie to write to Transport for London to ask if the bus stop could be moved as it is dangerous for drivers and pedestrians turning into the car park around buses that might be pulling away. Should it have been placed so close to the entrance in the first place? Is there someone at the council we could ask for advice? Eddie will circulate the letter before sending.
FAMILY MASS. Eddie has heard that some people think, that if they have children, they can only attend the 11.15 am Mass. Can we dispel this through the newsletter? A comment has already been placed on the website. The 11.15 is a victim of it’s own popularity in that it can be too full (and too long) for some small children.
In defence of the 11.15, it is meant for children – the hymns are chosen with them in mind, and they can attend the Children’s Liturgy session, where the Gospel of the day is explained to them at their own level. On the other hand, plenty of children are at all the other masses each week.
HALL DECORATION. Do at the same time as church. If we want to install IT equipment should it be done then? Not necessary, can be installed any time.
Next Parish Council will be on May 19th.
AGM will be 29th June at 7.30 pm (Sunday).
Future dates (to be agreed) are September 8th
November 10th
January 12th
March 9th.