PRESENT
Fr. Tom Egan, Gerard Barden, Fr Vincent Malone, Jane Landi, John Donnelly, Sean Carroll, Gregory Howard, Libby Biberian, Edoardo Albert and Ramon Landi.
APOLOGIES
Brian Hunt, Patrick Bolger, Felicity Brown, Joe Sutton and Patrick Madigan.
OPENING PRAYER
The meeting started with a prayer.
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING ON MAY 9th
The minutes were signed as correct.
MATTERS ARISING
BABY CHANGER: Currently being kept in the space between the Gents and the Ladies toilets because there is not enough space for it in the disabled toilet. It is hoped that it will be safe there.
ALTAR SERVERS: A new training programme will start in January. We have a couple of adults who are showing an interest. Most masses are covered. Boys at secondary school tend to give up because it’s not “cool”. Libby has a couple of Special Needs youngsters who would like to give it a go – get them to have a word with one of the priests.
Some servers only come to mass if they are on the rota.
CHURCH CLEANING: We have had a few new volunteers, but could always do with more. They do a very good job cleaning the church on Mondays after all the weekend activity.
REPAIRS AND RENEWALS: The car park wall, presbytery windows and the church floor have all been done since the last meeting as well as important maintenance to the front of the presbytery, taking advantage of the scaffolding.
FINANCE
In the absence of Brian Hunt there was no financial report, but Patrick Bolger sent an email with a brief summary of the situation to date.
The balance as per OPAS on 1st October was £16,000 less than that of 1st July. This is mostly due to the expenses mentioned above. The finances are holding up well, taking this into account. The new wall is a great improvement. We also need to change the plants in the small garden between the two car parks, as the roots are causing damage to the brick work.
The Gift Aid claim has been submitted to the Diocese. Hopefully we will receive something slightly under £20,000 in reclaimed tax. (£20,606 in 2010)
The Knights of St Columba are going to look after the Calvary statues, which have now been cleared of their overhanging foliage.
It is also hoped that the Scouts will take the patch at the side of the church in hand, and create a space for their trailer.
The area beside the Scout shed behind the church is very uneven, and could be dangerous to walk on, but it could be useful if it was cleared of vegetation and levelled out.
WEBSITE
Eddie is still looking after the website, and needs a picture of Gerard for the Parish Council section. Always on the lookout for interesting articles and links.
Have we considered social networking? Twitter or Facebook? We could make announcements through it. Gerard and Eddie will discuss it further and report back.
We need a cheap and easy way to upload pictures to the website – could we use Flickr?
We could also use the website/computerization to store Parish records. What would be the advantages/disadvantages? Once it is set up it would be quite simple to keep up to date.
PRAYER AND EVANGELISATION
People are making strenuous efforts with the new translation, but they do lapse as mass goes on! The priests are also finding it hard to concentrate Some of the punctuation leaves a lot to be desired with some very long sentences to be read aloud.
First Holy Communion. 44 children have signed up for next year’s course. Those who go to non-Catholic schools are only doing one year, if their parents are regular church-goers, rather than the usual two. We do ask if anyone has Special Needs, to make sure they are given extra help, which is provided by Libby and her team.
The annual mass count is taking place throughout October. Yesterday’s figure was 1393. The Parish Statistics, which include this figure as well as all those who receive the sacraments each year, are sent to the Vatican.
The latest AYWL booklets are not selling well, and were not particularly helpful. We will cancel them from now on.
This year’s Advent Talks will be about the new translations, and how they were developed.
There will be exposition on Sundays during Advent.
There will be a day for Readers and Extraordinary ministers in late November.
Parish “Open Doors” Day. An opportunity for all our volunteer groups to advertise for new helpers, and to let the parish at large know that they exist, to be held around the end of next May. We could also use the website to let parishioners see the range of things we do here.
We are short of readers at the 12.30 pm mass and some more help in the Paper Shop would be welcome.
We need a database of all those who volunteer in the parish. Would be useful for a number of reasons. “Leaders” of groups should be asked to provide the details they have, and we can build from there.
ECUMENISM
Our parish was represented on the Churches Together trip to Lindisfarne, which seems to have been enjoyed very much by all those who went.
FUND RAISING
All the Diocesan priests have held meetings with Archbishop Vincent to discuss the finances over the next twenty years. They are expecting a shortfall of £60 million over all their commitments if things continue at the present rate.
Their suggestions are:
1] Priests should directly approach “wealthy” parishioners. These ideas are coming from an American company, which will provide training if required. Apparently it has already been tried in Northampton and Portsmouth and has proved successful
2] Parishes hold fund-raisers and give a percentage to the Diocese.
3] Ask people to donate more through their Sunday offering.
Church of England parishes collect four times what we do each week.
We need to educate our parishioners: what does the church mean to you? A fixed sum, or the change in your pocket? It is a very old mindset and needs education to change.
If we had more people paying Gift Aid, and paying straight into the bank, it would all help. A well reasoned case would help – people do need to be informed. Give them the Diocesan arguments as well as our own.
At some point we will be given a local target to aim for and we expect more information from the Diocese in the New Year.
PARISH HALL
Lights have been fixed, but fuses still need doing. There are some repairs needed to the lights at the front of the presbytery.
PARISH TEAM
Fr Kevin has now left for Radlett.
Fr Thomas has had to return to India because of visa problems – the Diocese was downgraded by the Home Office so we could not ask priests to come here if someone already in the country could do the work. This has now been reversed, so overseas priests can continue to work here. Unfortunately, Fr. Thomas did not find out about this in time to renew his visa. Hopefully he will be back soon.
Fr. Anthony Homer has kindly agreed to come and say the Sunday 6.30 pm Mass. He is an Ordinariate priest and replaces Fr. John McDade. There will be no 8 am masses whilst Fr. Thomas is away, although those booked for the next few weeks will be said by him in India.
Fr Tom and Fr Vincent are off to France on retreat at the end of the month. Fr Fred de l’Orme from Barnet hospital chaplaincy has agreed to cover the masses whilst they are away.
We welcome Fr. Johnson Alexander, who is going to be staying in the house for a couple of weeks.
In the next ten years some 30 priests will retire, or leave the Diocese, who wont be replaced by new priests.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Replacement of Parish Secretary. Kevin Keenan has agreed to take over
Security. There was a break-in two weeks ago, when the door at the bottom of the steps to the upstairs room was left open. Not much was taken, but a glass panel in the upstairs door was broken. A stronger door for the foot of the stairs is being considered. The Hall was in constant use that night, with people coming and going.
There is constant vandalism on the side of the hall that faces the flats Fencing has been broken and one of the extractor fans is broken. We should continue the school fencing along that side – ask Chris Fanning for some firms we can approach for a quote.
We should also move the security camera so that it can see the ramp outside the Hall front door. Are dummy cameras effective? There are many things we can do, but are they too expensive? We could place other cameras in other positions around the building. There are many spots that are not covered. Cameras don’t work in the dark, but leaving the lights on is costly. Should we change the camera suppliers? Currently Tindalls.
Churches are vulnerable because they are open. A feeling of security is necessary for those who are alone in the church/presbytery. The church is always locked before it gets dark.
Hall users must consider the safety of the Hall before they leave – check toilets/make sure all doors are closed/lights are off.
Car park. Lines will be repainted soon.
Child Protection. Currently up to date. Nicky would like a definitive list of all our volunteers (see above under Prayer and Evangelization).
FUTURE MEETINGS
Monday 28th November at 8.15 pm.
Finance meeting: 14th November at 8 pm.