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Minutes of October 7th Meeting

Attending: Fr Kieron, Fr Peter, John Cummins, Stephen Phillips, Tom Aldred, Kay Howlett, Brian Pointer and Delia Floyd.

Chair: Martin Downy

Minutes: Mary Downy

The Meeting opened with prayer – a decade of the Rosary as it was the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

1. Apologies: Deacon David, Megan Hadden and Judy McGregor
2. Matters Arising from the Minutes of 9th September.
• 3a Readers’ Formation Day to be rearranged. The feedback from Witterings Parish was that it might be easier to arrange 2 evenings than a whole day. Fr. Kieron said providing the time for readers needs to be done regularly and flexibly, perhaps on a Deanery basis.
• 4 Youth Matters. At the next Deanery Meeting the possibility of employing a Youth Worker would be raised.
• 5 Churches Together in Chichester (CTIC). The vision statement had been accepted by the Committee and was going ahead.
3. Gathering Together (Autumn sessions for small groups)
   Judy McGregor had formed a planning meeting at which it was agreed that this year the Parish would meet in 3 large groups, St. Richards, Bosham and Witterings, and sub-divide when people met. Young people would meet with material tailored to them, other groups would be encouraged to meet for the 3 weeks.
4. Baptism Preparation
   Mary Downy had been in touch with 6 potential catechists. Fr Kieron envisaged having 2or 3 meetings before Christmas and to run monthly cycles from the New Year. Usually there were about 35 or 40 baptisms a year, most of them were babies.
5. Plans for alterations to St Richard’s Church
   Fr Kieron showed plans for the re-ordering of the porch and outside the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. There were no costings attached. Fr Kieron said he wanted as many people’s ideas as possible at the moment. Stephen Phillips asked what was happening in Bosham church, that the altar had been moved. He said the people of Bosham would have liked a warning that the work was going to begin. Fr Kieron agreed to keep the Bosham parishioners informed. Action: explanation at Bosham Mass.
6. Welfare Group – co-ordination with other ministries
   Fr Kieron explained that with Deacon David moving away soon, the Parish responsibilities of Parish Welfare, Eucharistic Ministries and sick communion visiting needed to be shared. More members had recently joined the Parish Welfare and Support Group allowing more parishioners to be visited and more regularly. Mary Downy requested new software which would allow the different parish packages to be integrated. Action: Kay Howlett offered to look at the present computer system.


7. Healing Mass – 14th December
   Fr Kieron linked this to the last item because it was a job that Deacon David had co-ordinated in previous years. Request for a Co-ordinator. Action: Mary agreed with help from Kay.
8. Sacramental Preparation updates.
   Reconciliation & First Communion Under Fr Peter’s guidance 6 catechists, two of them new, were leading 40 children in the Programmes with a significant proportion of these children coming from non-Catholic schools.
   Confirmation So far 10 young people had signed up.
   RCIA had already started with 4 candidates.
9. Any Other Business
   Fr Kieron mentioned a Youth Topic – Christchurch hosting a joint event on 19th October. John Cummins asked whether the PPT was reactive or proactive. Agreed to circulate the Pastoral Plan and the resumé in the Vineyard to new members. (See Pastoral Plan on index) - and to post the Minutes of this and subsequent meetings on the Parish Website and have copies in the church porches.

Next meeting: 11th November
Chair: Mary Downy
Minutes: Megan Hadden

Parish Pastoral Plan

In the latter part of 2002 Father Kieron decided to institute a parish plan aimed at enhancing and developing each of seven pastoral areas of parish life:

Nominations were invited from parishioners to recommend those with some experience in these areas who would be willing to become members of a Parish Pastoral Planning Group.

As a first step the group defined the following Parish Vision Statement in order to have a base from which to identify actions that will help the Parish to develop.

Through God's power we are striving to be an active, welcoming community that proclaims Christ through its worship and spiritual and social life.

Firstly, the group listed liturgical, pastoral and catechetical activities currently in existence and endeavoured to address any gaps and improvements in these areas.

Over the next few months the group identified a number of different activities in each of the seven areas that could be strengthened to help the parish to move closer to realising this Vision. Whilst not neglecting other areas whose plans will be started as soon as is practical, three areas were focused on for initial action; Prayer and Liturgy, Adult Formation, Young People. The following is a brief outline of these areas:

Prayer and Liturgy: in which we unite ourselves more closely with Christ using various forms of prayer. To identify with Christ in the worship of His Father, participation by the whole community is encouraged. This required making full use of all areas of ministry open to the baptized, both eucharistic and non-eucharistic, and would include welcomers.

Adult Formation: where adult members of the parish are given the opportunity to develop their faith. This takes many forms and includes lectures, faith-sharing and discussions on subjects such as prayer, worship, sacraments, modern ethical issues, marriage and family life, reconciliation, church unity and pilgrimage.

Young People: The aim is to draw the young (early teens to mid-late twenties) more deeply into parish life, making use of the vibrancy and enthusiasm they can offer. This may include recruiting and training Youth Leaders and Confirmation Catechists; supporting the Guild of St. Stephen; prayer groups for young people; increase in the membership and range of the Youth Group activities and finding new ways to cater for those prior to Confirmation and in their twenties.

(Parishioners were invited to suggest their own most important priority to be addressed by a Parish Plan in any of the seven areas mentioned in the first paragraph, and were invited to the open Parish Meeting on Tuesday 14th May, where areas and plans were elaborated.)