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

Offertory prayers: Paul Edwards reminded the meeting that he had previously suggested we could pray for Christians being imprisoned for their faith in our monthly prayers for prisoners of conscience. Fr David agreed to consider this.

Parish Update

More than 50 children will celebrate their First Holy Communion at 5 masses this year.
Recently a very good preparation day was held on a Saturday for all the children i.e. both those at St Laurence School and those prepared at church.
26 candidates are preparing for Confirmation on July 7th when Bishop Michael visits St Laurence’s.
New Building Work:
- Irial MacGinley has drawings ready for work described last time (new disabled toilet) and may ask that the removal of rubbish be included in the project.
- The Garage needs replacing.
- Permission has been given from the Diocese to release funds over £3,000.
Registration/Census/Skills Audit: will start on Sunday 29th March and may take 3-4 weeks. During the same period Offertory boxes and Gift Aid forms will be distributed.
Statue of St Laurence: A parishioner has commissioned a statue: it is to be carved in Germany and will be shipped very soon. A picture was circulated. The statue will be placed in a window niche on the right side of the church and visible to 97% of the congregation.
Accounts were presented by Lynda McIntyre and she and the team were thanked by Fr David. They include Brian Phillips, Jim Scally and those who count the collections.
All statistics and ‘counts’ are up. The parish has grown numerically over the last ten years.
Notices indicating the location of toilets etc. were suggested for the Narthex and entrances to the church.
An OFSTED Report recently completed at St Laurence’s primary school was excellent, with ‘Outstanding’ being the main description among the criteria applied. RE was said to be ‘Outstanding’ and St Laurence’s one of the best Catholic schools visited.

The Forum sent congratulations to all at the school.

Five Year Review of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan

This consists of 25 pages under 5 sections:

A Community of Welcome.
A Community of Mission.
Together in Trust and Partnership.
Together in Prayer − Living the Sacraments.
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.