PRESENT
Fr. Damian Cassidy, Eddie Albert, Ramon Landi, Brian Hunt, Peter Coleman, Cecilia Webb, Clyde Webb, Gerard Barden, Pat Bolger, David Clarke, Joe Sutton, Pat Madigan, Gregory Howard, John Wilson, Jackie Reddington and Jane Landi.
APOLOGIES
Fr. Tom Egan and Marianne Ahearne.
OPENING PRAYER
The meeting started with a prayer. There was also a prayer for Frank Nolan, a parishioner and councillor, who had died since the last meeting.
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING ON MAY 19th 2008
Minutes were agreed and signed as correct.
MATTERS ARISING
BUS STOP. The actual bus stop has been moved, but as the shelter has not, this has not made a lot of difference to our concerns, as the buses continue to pull up to where people are waiting. Eddie has offered to write to London Transport again and suggest moving the shelter as well.
DECORATION. The Church and Hall have both now been painted. The work done is very good, but there were some niggles – the ceiling in the disabled toilet was not painted, they refused to use the paint recommended by Chris Fanning, not all the rooms in the Parish Centre were done. We are now waiting for Chris to sign the work off – when that is done we will pay the outstanding amount due.
WINDOW BEHIND CHOIR. This has still not been attended to. We need to get this and the broken glass at the front of the church repaired.
FINANCE
We have spent £96,000 this year against £85,000 last year over the same period. The painting and the new church roof will have contributed to this difference.
Net recurring income is steady, but slightly down on last year.
There are some third party collections that still need to be paid out.
The cash balance to June has increased by £34,000 since the beginning of the year.
WEBSITE
This is kept up to date, with the newsletter being uploaded every Friday. If anyone has any interesting items, please let Eddie know. He can also link to other web content if appropriate.
Nicky Madigan is hoping that we may be able to put a CRB form online, which volunteers can then download.
Eddie has been given Photoshop, which he hopes to use for uploading photos to the site.
PRAYER AND EVANGELISATION
Edmund Adamus is going to be giving a series of talks at Enfield Parish during September/ October. These are part of a series of talks within the Deanery, and future events will be at other locations.
Fr. Damian’s day of Recollection for Readers and Eucharistic Ministers is still in hand – dates/times will be announced in due course.
The Agency for Evangelisation would probably come here and give talks, but we would have to prove an interest.
ECUMENISM
No report. There is a new vicar at St. Paul’s.
FUND RAISING
Nigel may do another concert, but as yet no date.
25th October. Fr. Damian’s brother has been asked/offered to do a “Rat Pack” evening. Tickets will be £7.50 and cheese and wine will be on offer.
Benches have been ordered. St. Anthony’s in Epping have benches with the same design. The manufacturers will bring leather samples for the kneelers. They will cost £77,000, and the price is now fixed unless the exchange rate favours us. Previous figures given to the Council may have been in euros rather than pounds. The benches are being made by an Irish firm. We should make about £4,000 back on selling the old benches to them. We should then get lockable cabinets for the back of the church to keep the hymn books in.
There will be no reduction in the amount of seats available, but the benches have been fitted to our specifications and will make best use of the available space. At the front space will be left for people going to communion.
It was suggested that the floor be cleaned whilst the benches are out of the church. They will install them in one day.
Will they be secured to the floor?
Hopefully they will be installed by the time of the Bishop’s Pastoral Visit in December. We will start fundraising in October.
The Sanctuary flooring has been put on the back burner for now.
PARISH HALL
Now that it has been decorated we need to keep an eye on users. Nappies are still a problem but it is no good getting sanitary bins as they wont take nappies. Parents need to be reminded that they should be disposing of them in the paladins in the car park.
Private parties are still a problem. Fr. Damian had a great deal of trouble in June trying to get a party to leave and there is usually some grievance after every party. Do we need to rethink hiring the Hall to private use?
- we don’t need the money
- there is often problems with the car park
- there is no one to police it – apart from the priests, and they have other things to do
- It’s not always left clean
If we decide to stop hiring it, we need to explain to the Parish.
Various suggestions were put forward:
- no adult/evening parties
- no spirits
- children’s parties should be at a fixed time.
It was suggested that we don’t hire it to anyone for a short period – and review at the next AGM. This would not affect events held after funerals.
Regular parish/group events are not a problem, and neither, on the whole, are children’s parties.
PARISH TEAM
32 signed up for FHC this evening. There is still tomorrow’s session to go.
Fr. Damian’s job with SPEC is taking up more time than was originally suggested. He is currently working on follow up projects to the World Youth Day in Sydney, and is going to Snowdonia shortly for a three day retreat.
The RCIA and FHC programmes are now up and running.
This parish has had a lot of sadness this year. Not only Frank, but also the O’Shea family have had a tragic summer. It goes on – there were two funerals today and there is a sick parent in the school. Attending so many funerals show how families and friends interconnect in this parish.
We should mention weddings and baptisms in the newsletter, which is a nice idea, but there is not always the space.
50 people are going on the Lourdes Pilgrimage at the end of October.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
CHURCH CLEANERS. We need to advertise for new volunteers. Some of the young mums who’d joined up have now gone back to work. Put a note in the newsletter – ask at the mothers/toddlers, or at 10 am daily Mass.
DATE OF MEETINGS. Parish Council meetings are traditionally on the second Monday of the month, but this meeting seems to have caught some people by surprise – perhaps it seems too soon after the end of the holidays? The dates are listed on the minutes each month. The dates of the next two meetings were changed to the third Monday of the month.
REPLACING HYMN BOOKS. The intention would be to purchase a book called Laudate. These are about £11 each and we would need about 300. We wouldn’t buy them until the benches and secure cabinets are installed. When the new liturgy is decided we will need to replace all our books. If we used a newsletter which listed the readings, would we need to worry so much about books? It may solve our problem of “walking” books.
Next Parish Council will be on November 17th.
Future dates agreed: January 19th
To be agreed: March 16th ?
May
The Finance Meeting has been changed to November 10th at 8 pm.