Minutes of St Laurence’s Parish Forum : 26 March 2009

Chair: Jim O’Sullivan

Fr David opened the meeting with a prayer.

21 other people were present.

Apologies were received from Michael and Eileen McEwan.

Minutes of the last meeting on January 13th had been posted in the Narthex and were taken as read.

Matters arising from the minutes

Parish Update

Five Year Review of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan

This consists of 25 pages under 5 sections:

  1. A Community of Welcome.
  2. A Community of Mission.
  3. Together in Trust and Partnership.
  4. Together in Prayer − Living the Sacraments.
  5. Finances, new structures etc.

The document was reviewed by the meeting and numerous suggestions and comments added for inclusion in the final report. This is available on the parish website.

AOB

Paul Edwards was concerned about the spread of aggressive secularisation. There was no time to discuss this. Fr David will add it to a future agenda. Paul Simmons again raised the suggestion of a group to keep up the interest in between meetings of the Parish Forum. It was reiterated that the purpose of the Forum is not to inhibit or stifle individual good ideas or initiatives, but to provide a place where ideas can be shared and discussed. Any individual or group with good ideas is free to put them to Fr David at any time. Tony Brotchie congratulated Peter and Anne Maddocks on their Golden Wedding anniversary. We all joined in. Date of Next Meeting: May 14th 8pm The meeting closed at 9.40 pm.