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MINUTES OF THE PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL
HELD ON TUESDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2005
Present:
Fr. John Kealy, Barry O’Halpin, Judith Carr, Paddy McEneaney, Walter Huyghe, Brian O’Neill, Mark Price, Ferran Tarradellas,
Yvonne Stausbøll, Johny Van Der Bracht and Susanne Lehne.
Apologies:
Fr. Vincent Gallogley, Yvonne Nielsen, Brigid Alty and Horst Dengler.
Mark said the opening prayer and the meeting began at 19.45hrs.
Matter Arising from the July Minutes:
Room names- it was decided that the rooms would be named after Belgian towns and are as follows;
Bruges is the back kitchen
Ghent is the back, back kitchen where the crèche will now be held
Leuven is the conference room and
Mechelen is the new classroom in the car park.
The July Minutes were approved.
Rosary:
Ferran proposed that we should do something on the theme of the Rosary during October and will prepare booklet and put an explanation and prayers on the website. He has found a shop selling low cost Rosary beads and would like to put together a “kit” that could be sold at Church. He suggested praying the Rosary as a community on Saturdays before the 18.00 Mass and is willing to give a short talk one weekend. An announcement should be put in Words.
Fayre and Meet ‘n’ Greet:
Yvonne sent the following report:
The Fayre, as always, was successful although the Tombola receipts were down from last year. This may have been due to an early Easter and possibly to the earlier fundraising for the sewage fund i.e. the 350 Club. Over the summer, we had more revenue from clothes, bric-a-brac and books, so our profit margin will rise.
Proposals for next year;
1) More money tickets – we ran out despite buying more than last year.
2) Give the Tombola tickets to all the Catechetics classes not just First Communion.
3) Need 1 or hopefully 2 people to run the Tombola as it is a major source of revenue.
4) Need to encourage more people to volunteer as early as possible.
The Meet ‘n’ Greet saw the highest turn out ever seen and there was a very good atmosphere. The Knights barbecue was excellent and it was noticed that new parishioners were actually meeting new ones!
Barry thanked Judith and Paddy for their preparation and work.
Maintenance:
The outside work is finally underway. We are only waiting for the pump to be installed then the pipes can be connected and everything can be closed up. Johny is hoping that everything will be finished by 24 September. There had been a blockage in our system for the last 4 ½ years but when everything was opened up, it had disappeared!
Five companies had given quotes but the work was given to De Vries as he knew the site, gave the best quote and came to look to see what had to be done. The pumping option has been gone for but there is an overflow to the river should it break. The papers are on the way from the Gemeente to confirm approval of the work. There is an alarm on the pump so we’ll know if there is a problem. It has self cleaning filters and there is a 10 year guarantee on all the work.
With all the work in progress, the site has also been prepared for electrical gates should they be required in the future.
Decorating: this was started last week in the existing office (which has new flooring), the new office (for archives)/Fr. John’s consultation room and the Ghent room.
Outside: the extension to the parking area will be started this year and should provide 13 – 15 extra spaces. The tennis court will be converted into 30 spaces once sand had bee put on it to drain it. It is hoped that this work will all be done together. The existing parking needs to be re-laid and this may be done next spring.
Education:
Registration took place on Sunday and about 160 children were registered, 46 for First Communion and 31 for Confirmation. This is in keeping with previous years figures. Bernie Lindop has taken over from Judith as First Communion Co-ordinator, Judith is overseeing administration, Helen is co-ordinating Confirmation and Yvonne and Jeremy are in charge of the 10.00 Choir. They will take classes on a rota basis and practice the hymns.
We are continuing to use 2 rooms at the Cultural Centre for Café and the Reconciliation group.
New Testament has been renamed Liturgy (with Melanie and Anne Roland) and they will be involved with some of the preparation for Mass.
The First Communion teachers are Aideen Daly & Maureen Coyle in one class and Carol Crowe, Nicole Smith and Sue Lindsay with the other. All the books have arrived and all the material for Café but we need to find where to buy crosses and hire any extra robes.
It was suggested that in 2006/7 that a second Café group be established for those people who have seen the first set of videos. Or there could be a discussion group as a natural progression from the David wells videos.
Autumn talks:
There has been a change of date so the first one will be on 13th October not 12th. Subsequent ones will be held on 19 & 26 October and 9 November plus a day away at the Centre Horeb in Uccle. There will be a gradual build up in the promotion and leaflets will appear 2/3 weeks beforehand. Fr. Vincent and Fr. John will mention it from the altar on the Sunday preceding the talks. The focus will be on practical things and the day to day experiences of life and faith.
Youth:
10 people turned up for the meeting in May and later 2 girls talked to the congregation about what they were hoping to do. A pizza gathering was arranged at the end of June and 30 young people attended. They are going to manage their own group with Dorothy Boyer and Anne Roland in the background. It was suggested that Dorothy be invited to the next PC meeting to say how thing are progressing. The group could also be invited to talk to this year’s Confirmation group.
Worship and Evangelisation:
4 or 5 new people have signed up for the Lector or Eucharistic ministries and Mark is hoping to arrange a training session in October.
Prayer garden: Mark gave a very interesting power point presentation showing how the garden looks now and the plans they have for the future. There will be a ramp down to the base level of the garden as it is a sunken garden. There will be statues in each wing, benches to sit on and terracotta pots for planting. The statues will not stand up to the weather as they are marble and so will have some kind of roof and sides for protection and to house lighting. They will be screened behind and there will be plants such as wisteria. There is a hope that a fountain will be placed on the middle raised section.
Barry thanked Mark for his presentation.
Christian Service:
Charity collections: September 24/25 St Vincent De Paul
October 8/9 Helga McCourt
November 12/13 Little Sister of the Poor
November 27 Charity Sales and Toy Collection
December 3/4 St Gilles
Parish Life:
15 October is the Folk Group concert.
December 18 is the Family Carol service.
A.O.B.:
Office Organisation: plans for the office etc have been taking place and there will shortly be a meeting with Angela, Meg and Sharon.
Posters: there will be a policy of no more posters and adverts being put up except in their proper places i.e. not on windows or doors. Fr. John proposed that we bought more notice boards.
Electric screen: this is on the back wall of the hall and can be used by groups using the hall. It is linked to the sound system.
Money counter: more are needed so we need some volunteers.
Parish cookery book: it was decided that we should go ahead with this so we need to let people know. Mark will bring in a selection from previous parishes.
World Day of Prayer: to be held here on 3 March 2006.
Parish Council: the new council will be coming in in November. Interested parties are asked to put their names forward.
Joint Councils meeting: to be held on 13 December.
Franciscan situation: since our last meeting, it has been confirmed that both our priests have been appointed to serve for another 3 years.
The next Finance Council meeting will be held on 20 September at 20.00 hrs.
The next Parish Council will be on 11 October at 19.30 hrs.
Yvonne said the closing prayer and the meeting ended at 22.20 hrs.
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