PARISH OF THE SACRED HEART – PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL
Minutes of the meeting held on TUESDAY 23rd JANUARY 2018
PRESENT: Father James Walsh, John Bolger, Carol Shippey, Robert Hardie, Becky Walker, Frances Dickerson, Peter Rylands, Antonia Martinez, Frances Green, Secretary Clare Hardie
- APOLOGIES: Deacon Ron O’Toole, Elaine Haughton, Ginny Keane
Fr. James began the meeting with prayers for parishioners. Robert welcomed Antonia Martinez, Peter Rylands and Ginny Keene (in her absence) to the PPC.
- It was agreed to try and finish the meeting by 8.45 p.m.
3. MINUTES OF THE MEETING of the 10th October 2017 were approved.4MATTERS ARISING
‘Cool Catholic Kids’ – Ginny was unable to attend but sent the following report – ‘CCK meetings after Mass are now being held in Aylsham as there are more committed children and families in Aylsham and the Forum agreed we could set up a table for our activities. Family Masses have continued to be a success and most services are very well attended attracting old and new faces into the Church. The weekly meetings are more challenging and I hope by introducing the odd hot dog lunch or breakfast club in North Walsham that we can encourage a more regular attendance.
The dates for the Family Masses at the Sacred Heart this year are: 5th February, 11th March (Mothering Sunday), 30th March – Good Friday, Fr. James will lead a service for the children in the morning, 6th May, 3rd June, 1st July, 7th October, 4th November and 24th December.
I also hope to introduce an ‘Order of Service’ for the younger folk to use and also for those not familiar with the church, Fran Luddon, Head of St. Francis Primary School in Norwich is assisting with this’
Frances Green said she had not been aware that there was the CCK Club each week in North Walsham and thought other mothers in North Walsham would also be unaware. She asked how the Club had been advertised and promoted and she asked if Ginny had an up to date email list of parents and children? She was aware and had attended some of the Family Masses. Frances was asked to contact Ginny as it was explained that Ginny really does need more support from parents at the Sacred Heart. Further discussion followed about the lack of young families in our communities. St. Helen’s have no young at all and no Children’s Liturgy although there is one young child joining the First Communion preparation. There are a further 5 children being prepared in Sacred Heart and Aideen Shiell will be leading the course this year and hopes to start next week. There is no longer any Children’s Liturgy at Sacred Heart either as no parent seems willing to take the lead and organise this each week. St John of the Cross does still have a regular Children’s Liturgy although there are no children being prepared for First Communion this year. As all our communities are diminishing and parishioners getting more elderly we all felt we should be trying to reach out to new families coming into our towns. Rob showed the meeting the Churches Together in Aylsham’s leaflet giving details of all the churches in Aylsham, this had been produced to be placed in the show homes on the new estates and she will endeavour to find out if this is still happening. Fr. James will check with the local fraternals in Hoveton and North Walsham to see if any other leaflets are being used elsewhere. The Parish Church in Aylsham has a full page promoting their activities in Just Aylsham each month.
Action – Fr. James, Ginny, Frances, Clare, Parish Forums
Safety of Clergy and Parishioners in our Churches – Frances Dickerson thought Michael Haughton was satisfied with the measures put in place at St. Helens. Michael Hawley from St. John of the Cross has met with the local police in Aylsham and is at present compiling a list of suggested actions and their costs to present to the next Forum. Sacred Heart community still need to check if anyone has taken on that role and done an assessment. John asked Fr. James if he thought the police should be contacted to make an assessment of the Presbytery but Fr. James said he was very happy with his safety in the Presbytery.
Action – Parish Forums
New Evangelisation – Fr. James had been unable to attend this day on ‘Creating Missionary Parishes’ and was not aware that anyone from the parish had attended. Clare will check with Celia Cooper as she had expressed an interest in attending. There is a full report on the day on the Diocesan website and it will be in the Diocesan News.
Action – Clare
Catechetical Certificate Training – Ginny is still very keen to study for the Catechetical Certificate and Fr. James said he would discuss this with her.
Action – Fr. James and Ginny
National Eucharistic Congress in Liverpool – As yet Fr. James still has no further details about this event. He will check at the next Deanery meeting
Action – Fr. James
Parish Communications and Diocesan Events – Antonia and Fr. James will prepare and insert for the parish newsletter each month with details of all the parish events that they have been notified about and the Diocesan events that are relevant for the Parish.
Action – Fr. James and Antonia
4. LIVE SIMPLY AWARD UPDATE
St. Helen’s community had organised a Liturgy of the Word with special prayers in support of the ACN’S Red Wednesday. The Parish had yet again donated about 70 boxes in support of the Food Banks Reverse Advent Calendar and had also supported CAFOD’s World Gifts; there would be a notice in the bulletin this week with thanks from CAFOD. At present the collection of clothing for the refugees in Calais is taking place and next week there will be a working group to sort the clothing prior to the bags being delivered over to CamCRAG in Cambridge for onward transportation to Calais. The next convoy departs for Calais over the weekend of the 23-25th February. At the next Steering Group meeting they will be planning how to take part in CAFOD’s ‘Share the Journey” which is a global campaign to urge people in Britain to ensure that the human dignity of migrants and refugees is at the heart of the global agreements to be agreed in September 2018. They think they are about ready to submit the evidence of what we have been undertaking in order to gain our Live Simply award so to that end Jane Crone our Community Participation Co-ordinator from CAFOD will be attending the next steering group meeting. Lent Family Fast Day will be on the 23rd February this year and CAFOD have asked if we would like a speaker from CAFOD to give the Fast Day appeal but Fr. James felt we were well able to make the appeal ourselves. The Government is offering ‘match funding’ for every £1 raised this year by CAFOD
Antonia suggested that it would be a good idea if we were to focus our efforts on trying to encourage people to use less plastic particularly the soft plastic wrapping which is unable to be recycled. Carol said that she really valued the weekly suggestions printed in the bulletin, as she felt encouraged to continue to Livesimply, Rob said that was exactly what they were meant to do
Action – Live Simply Steering Group
5. MAUNDY THURSDAY & STUDENT CROSS PILGRIMAGE
Fr. James raised the issue of the Student Cross Pilgrimage celebrating Mass at St John of the Cross in Aylsham on Maundy Thursday. He appreciated that whilst parishioners in Aylsham might feel it is more convenient for them to join with the students that evening they really should be joining with the Parish in celebrating the first part of the Triduum which would be celebrated at our Parish Church in North Walsham. He questioned whether it would be feasible for the students to come and join in the Parish Mass that evening rather than celebrating on their own at St. John of the Cross. Rob and Clare explained the history of the pilgrimage which has taken place since WW2 and said the logistics of transporting about 30 students and their accompanying priests over to North Walsham in time for Mass would be impossible as they would then need to return to Aylsham where they have some supper and a place to sleep for the night in the Methodist church hall. Last year there were only about 10 parishioners attending the Student Cross Mass, most of whom would not have made the journey over to the Sacred Heart for the Parish Mass. Frances Dickerson asked if would be possible for the Maundy Thursday Mass to be held at St. John of the Cross rather than at the Sacred Heart. It was decided that would not be possible due to the numbers involved, there are usually about 80 people at the Maundy Thursday Mass. Fr. James asked that the Student Cross Mass in Aylsham should not be promoted as an alternative to the Parish Mass at the Sacred Heart. As yet we have no confirmation that the Student Cross Pilgrimage will be taking place again this year, Clare will try and contact the organisers for details of their plans.
John Bolger asked if it would be possible for the choir at St. John of the Cross to be asked to lead the service on Maundy Thursday rather than trying to form a joint choir for the Easter Triduum services with the difficulty of finding rehearsal times for a joint choir. Antonia explained that Anne Griffiths would be away right up until Easter so joint rehearsals would be very difficult. Fr. James will explore the possibilities with Katie Maidment and the St John of the Cross choir members.
Action – Fr. James and Clare
6. PARISH PASTORAL CONCILLOR’S REPORTS
St. Helens – The Women’s World Day of Prayer service will be held at St. Helens on Friday 2nd March from 9.30-12. As there hasn’t be a recent Forum there is nothing else in particular to report.
Sacred Heart – Parking by people not entitled to do so is becoming more of a problem at the moment. Antonia will discuss possible solutions with Annabelle.
Action – Antonia
St. John of the Cross – Carol reported that the visit to Cambodia by three of our parishioners was going well and that they are due in Svay Sisophon, our twinned Parish on Thursday this week (25th Jan) and Pauline Andrews would be able to present the gift of the sanctuary bell. Carol had been upset to hear that one of our oldest parishioners had been in hospital for about 10 days and very few parishioners or Fr. James had be told. This will need to be discussed at the next forum although sometimes people wish for privacy when they are ill. The Women’s World Day of Prayer on 2nd March will be held in St. Michael’s Church in Aylsham and Clare will attend the planning meeting on 31st January. Kay would like to help a young family in the parish by running a Bible Study group and Rob has agreed to help with this. The community would like to be involved with the Aylsham Churches Lent Soup Lunches as we have not been included for the past few years. Next Forum is 18th March
7. A.O.B.
The Parish Directory needs some updating so Fr. James, Rob and Clare will work on this and print out some up to date copies for each church community.
Action – Fr. James, Rob and Clare
Fr. James will be giving 3 Lenten Talks to the Parish, the first on Friday 16th February at Sacred Heart, then on 27th February at St. Helens and finally on Tuesday 13th March at St. John of the Cross. Each talk will commence at 7 p.m. and be followed by a simple soup supper with donations to CAOD if people so wish.
Action – Fr. James and parish communities
8. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Tuesday 17TH April at 19.30 at St Helen’s Hoveton
Fr. James then concluded the meeting with a prayer.
