Parish Pastoral Council and Core Teams

During 2024, we set up a series of Core Teams to help better manage key aspects of Parish life, and a new Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) to coordinate the work of these teams and provide advice and support to the Parish Priest.

We would welcome more Parishioners who are prepared to help out with any of these these teams. Please consider volunteering.

If you are interested to find out more, email ppc@saintlaurence.org.uk.

The next scheduled meeting of the PPC will be on Tuesday, 10 December, at 7.30pm in the Parish Rooms.

Current membership of the PPC is:

• Stephen Warde (Chair)
• Michanne Haynes-Prempeh (Vice-Chair)
• Sarah Sykes (Secretary)
• Fr Simon (Parish Priest)
• Geoff Cook (Deacon)
• Ciaran Ward (SVP & Finance Committee rep)
• Edward Acton (Office & Staff core team coordinator)
• Guillaume Henniquin
• Helena Judd (Social core team coordinator)
• Jim O'Sullivan (Safeguarding rep & Finance Committee rep)
• Leonie Issacson
• Margaret Martin
• May Agustin
• Nora Darby
• Roberta Canning (Liturgy, education, and faith sharing core team coordinator)
• Ronald Haynes (Communications and outreach core team coordinator)

Current discussions and activities:

• Minutes from the Sep 2024 PPC meeting (26 Sep).
• Update (18 Sep): Fr Simon Davies will be joining us from this Friday (20th) until a permanent appointment is confirmed.
• We have now drafted our Parish Self Appraisal and welcome input from the Parish. More details here.
• Notes from the PPC catchup meeting on change of parish priest (4 Sep).
• Latest on change of parish priest, including communication with Bishop Peter (14 Aug)
• Notes from the emergency discussion on change of parish priest (25 July).
• Minutes from the July 2024 PPC meeting.
• Minutes from the April 2024 pilot PPC meeting.

The PPC Constitution

To contact the PPC (e.g., to raise an issue), please talk to any member or email the Chair: ppc@saintlaurence.org.uk

Core Teams

These are our teams, focused on organising key aspects of parish life. Each team is represented on the PPC, but has volunteer members who help with its work, and we always need new members! Please get in touch if you can help.

• LITURGY, EDUCATION, AND FAITH SHARING TEAM helps to ensure that Masses and other services are well-planned and supported (e.g., with Sacristy assistance, rotas, planning for feast days, etc.). It coordinates between existing liturgy, educational, catechesis, and faith sharing activities in the Parish, and proposes and supports new ones.


• SOCIAL ACTIVITIES TEAM ensures that social activities are organised, both working with existing activities (such as the Saturday coffee hub & 11am Mass Coffee) and supporting and generating new ideas. We welcome anyone who enjoys bringing people together.


• COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH TEAM considers the face that St Laurence’s presents to the world and how to better communicate with both parishioners and people living within our Parish who are not yet parishioners. It also aims to promote contact with other parishes, Christian churches, and faith communities. We welcome volunteers with communications, marketing, social media, website, publishing, or similar experience.


• BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, AND FACILITIES TEAM ensures that our buildings and gardens are brought into good order and maintained. We welcome volunteers with skills or experience in facilities management, building, DIY, gardening, or similar.


• PARISH OFFICE AND STAFF SUPPORT TEAM helps the Parish Priest in managing administration of the Parish and Parish staff (e.g., in objective-setting, appraisals, coaching and mentoring for staff). We welcome volunteers for this team who have human resources, management, or similar experience.

The PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL (PPC) brings the work of all of these teams together and be a place to discuss issues, propose new ideas, advise the Parish Priest, and ensure that things get done.

We also hold Open Meetings, providing a forum for everyone in the Parish to get involved in discussions of Parish Life. More about Open Meetings.

Could you help?

We are still looking for people who would be willing to join one or more of these teams, making a time-limited commitment for one or two years. For some of the teams, particular skills would be helpful, as mentioned above. But anyone with a little time to give and a willingness to help can join in. This invitation is to everyone – whether you have been here for thirty years or three weeks.

If you have questions about these new teams, or would like to express interest in joining (with no commitment at this point) please just email ppc@saintlaurence.org.uk.

You can also call the Parish Office or speak to any PPC member.