PRESENT
Fr. Tom Egan, Fr Kevin Moule, Edoardo Albert, Jane Landi, Clyde Webb, Celia Webb, Marianne Ahearne, John Donnelly, Patrick Bolger, Gregory Howard, Ramon Landi, Joe Borella, Kathy Wurr, Doff Landi, Janet Butterworth, Jackie Reddington, Tom and Maureen Molloy, Eileen Nagle, Daniel Hewitt, Paola Albert, Deacon Vincent, Gerard Barden, Teresa McNamara, Felicity Brown, Michael McGowan and Joe Sutton.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
John Wilson, Brian Hunt, Sean Carroll and Peter Coleman.
MINUTES OF THE LAST AGM ON JUNE 28th 2009
Minutes were agreed and signed as correct.
MATTERS ARISING
There were no matters arising.
THE ANNUAL REPORT
The report was available to take away, and was also quickly précised by Eddie for those who had not had time to read it.
- the Mass for the Year of the Priest went well, and was attended by most of those priests who had served in this parish who could possibly make it.
- The Bernadette club are very pleased with the new smaller tables.
- Many thanks to Eddie for all the work he does on the website.
- The Parish Hall is fulfilling it’s function very well.
- We are holding second collections for various needs, local, national and international, almost once a fortnight, so we single out those most important to us, and group the rest together in one major collection.
MATTERS ARISING
FAIR TRADE.
Michael had a set of figures for the Parish Council. To January 10 income was £6,654 with a net profit of £980.90. Stock in hand amounted to £909.70, and a cheque for £71.20 will be sent to Cafod. Therefore we can see that the stall supports Fair Trade with small scale farmers in developing countries and also provides a small donation for CAFOD. Since February a further amount of £100 has been raised and will be sent to CAFOD. The first amount, and hopefully both, will be matched by Ernst and Young LLP via their employee, Michael’s daughter, who helps him with the stall.
Michael finished by thanking all those who help with the stall, and the priests for publicising the stall and making the facilities available.
HYMN BOOKS.
It’s difficult for groups using the church at time other than Mass to get hold of the books because they are locked away, (eg. Stations of the Cross during Lent). This is a perennial problem – even now the current mass books have started to disappear although they have only been out a few weeks. It’s hard to see why as they are mostly old and worn. We do hold amnesties but they do not seem to be able to stop the absent-minded walking out on a Sunday morning with a book under their arm.
SCOUT GROUP.
Report by Dan Hewitt.
Our Scouts and Brownies grow from strength to strength, and is one of the most successful groups in North London, but we can run the risk of burn out, especially in the Scout section, who are doing an activity almost every weekend as well as holding the weekly meetings. We have approximately 25 Beavers, 35 Cubs, and 90 Scouts, who meet over two nights a week. The parish also has 35 Brownies. The Group thanked the Parish for it’s support and offered it’s help when/where required – recently the Scouts helped to clean the car park and cleared some of the garden patches around the buildings.
The Scouts are talented, gifted, bright young parishioners and reflect the community as a whole – and enjoy being a part of it.
The sections are always looking for help in a variety of ways – it’s not just/only the weekly meetings that need support. Adults can help on the Executive committee – fund raising, collating IT information, financial admin, communicating with parents etc. The sections need to manage the help they do have – it could be very unfortunate if a section had to close because a leader didn’t have the energy to carry on.
FR. TOM’S REPORT
Fr Tom thanked the parish team, and the Parish Council, for all the support they give him. Discussion is always useful. Many parishioners do many things; referring to the report, we see that the catechetics run smoothly, there are talks, fund raising for third world charities, an variety of liturgical events etc. New parishioners often comment on how friendly we are!!
The Youth Club closed about a year ago, but there is an impressive amount of work done with our children/young people through the Scout Movement.
It is good to see that our Hall is used. Some parishes build halls that are never used – you couldn’t say that about this one!
The coming of the new Missal will prove a challenge. Some responses/words have changed, and many are going back to the old translations. It is intended that our Advent talks this year will be on the changes.
Fr. Tom finished his report by thanking the meeting at large for all that the parishioners do for the Parish.
FINANCE
A summary of financial statements from 2002 – 2009 was attached to the Annual Report.
Offertories for 2009 were much the same as 2008, which was very good in the current financial circumstances. All together income had dropped slightly on 2008.
Expenditure was up because of the cost of the new benches, but our bank balance was only down by a percentage of the cost. Overall there was a drop of £7,000 in our end of year bank balance, which considering the cost of the benches was incredible.
Water rates on the car park area. Thanks to a nationwide protest, mostly by Scout groups, a decision to change the way water rates were charged was dropped. As these were going to impose rates according to the amount of land owned, places like ours with large car parks would have been affected.
The Finance Committee meets quarterly and reviews the financial position, looking at budgets and potential expenditure.
ELECTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS
The Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer all agreed to stay on for another year.
PARISH COUNCIL
Cecilia and Clyde Webb stood down from the Council, as did Marianne Ahearne. All those present, who were due to stand down, agreed to remain on the Council for another two years.
Felicity Brown is now an official member as our Ecumenism representative.
ECUMENISM
Churches Together has just produced the June Compass. Barnet have a mobile Youth Club. The Night Shelter went well in the winter. OLOL is very prominent, with a big article on our Easter play, Born for This.
St Catherine’s Greek Orthodox Church is a new member.
Paddy Lyons, who edits Compass, is the new chairman of CT. Compass has gone back into black and white because their advertizing has been reduced. If anyone would like to offer advertizing, they can speak to Felicity.
PRAYER AND EVANGELISATION
Organization of the Papal Visit is underway. As a state visit, there wont be many opportunities for us as a Parish to do anything.
We have submitted the name of a young Parishioner who will take part in the Hyde Park event.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Taps in Gents Toilet.
Apparently they are too close to the edge of the basin. Would it be possible to reset them?
Rotas.
There was a plea that if people volunteer for, and are placed on, one of our many rotas, they should organize swaps and cover themselves and not call the church at the last minute. If they are really stuck they should call the person who organises their rota. Most rotas have phone numbers on them.
Fr Kevin and Deacon Vincent thanked Fr. Tom for his leadership and “wise counsel”.
The meeting ended with a prayer at 8.20 pm.