St. Laurence’s Parishioners’ Open Meeting (Forum)

Next Parishioners' Open Meeting

Thursday, 25th January, 7.30pm

This meeting will be a hybrid meeting. It will be held BOTH in the Parish Room (for those who want to join in-person) AND on Zoom (for those preferring to join from home).

Zoom details will be posted here and in the Newsletter.

Minutes of November 2023 meeting (minutes of all meetings are at the foot of this page).

At this meeting we aim to confirm arrangements for our new Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) - see below for more information.

Please send any additional items to openmeetings@saintlaurence.org.uk by 20th Jan.

Proposal for a Parish Pastoral Council (PPC)

Our Parishioners' Open Meeting on 21st Nov approved the proposal to establish a Parish Pastoral Council.

Why is this proposal being made?

We want to strengthen the involvement of parishioners in the management of the Parish and its pastoral life and provide better support to our Parish Priest. All parishes in our diocese must have structures for lay involvement – either a Parish Pastoral Council (PPC), or regular open meetings of the parish, or both. At St Laurence’s, we have used the open meeting approach. These provide a valuable place to share and discuss Parish issues. However, open meetings are not suitable for detailed planning, and it often proves hard to get things done between meetings. The informal groups that try to fill this gap do not have clear responsibilities, are small, and have no process to renew and refresh.

Key points of the proposal

We will create a Parish Pastoral Council at St Laurence’s, consisting of 10-14 people and meeting at least 3 times per year.
In addition, we will create core teams for key areas of Parish life. Each team will have 3-4 members, including at least 2 PPC members. No-one should be on more than 2 teams. This will help to ensure clear responsibilities and involve more people in running Parish life.
Exactly what teams we create is open to discussion. The initial suggestion is:

Finance committee (already exists)
Liturgy, education, and faith sharing
Parish office and staff support
Communications and outreach
Social activities
Buildings, grounds, and facilities.

It was noted at the November meeting that these teams are intended to add to, not replace, existing activities and teams in the Parish (for example, SVP, CAFOD, Tech Team).
It was also noted that ecumenism and inter-faith dialogue are important aspects that should be recognised, possibly within the remit of "outreach".
Parishioners’ Open Meetings will continue as a focus for discussion and communication that everyone in the Parish is encouraged to attend – there will be 3 meetings per year.
PPC and core team membership will be for 2 years, after which we will aim to refresh the membership and to rotate members between core teams. This means people need not feel they are ‘committing for life’, will make us actively seek involvement from more people, and will ensure we regularly get new perspectives on all our activities.

More details are available in the Proposal for Parish Governance agreed at the last Open Meeting.

Proposed next steps

Parishioners will be invited to express interest in joining the PPC and/or core teams (and also to nominate other people) as a ‘New Year’s Resolution’ in January.
We will research and draft a constitution for the PPC (based on other Parishes' experience) durng December
We aim to discuss and approve PPC and core team initial membership and constitution at the September 2023 Open Meeting
Our ojective is for the PPC to meet for the first time in February 2024.

Any comments on this proposal or suggestions for improvement are very welcome. Please email openmeetings@saintlaurence.org.uk and/or come along to the Open Meeting!

Future meetings

Saint Laurence’s Parishioners’ Open Meetings are held every 2-3 months.

Next meetings:

Thursday, 25th January, 7.30pm

All parishioners are warmly invited and encouraged to attend all meetings.

Further information

More information on the Parishioners' Open Meetings can be found here.

St. Laurence’s Roman Catholic Church Diocese of East Anglia
Parish Priest: Fr. Simon Blakesley (Tel: 07946 390060)	91 Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 1XB Tel/Fax: 01223 704640 Email: office@saintlaurence.org.uk Office opening times: 10am−1.30pm Monday to Friday	Deacon: Rev. Geoffrey Cook (Tel: 01223 351650)

St. Laurence’s Roman Catholic Church

St. Laurence’s Parishioners’ Open Meeting (Forum)

Next Parishioners' Open Meeting

Proposal for a Parish Pastoral Council (PPC)

Future meetings

Further information

Minutes of previous meetings