St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Epsom

Minutes for Parish Pastoral Council

Meeting Monday 8^th December ‘03 12^th Meeting

Present: Fr William Davern, Michael Brennan, Richard Davieson, Carlos De Souza (Paul Killoughery), Selina Hough (Alice Williams), Jan Madden, Tony Prince, John Sharpe, Chris Sibthorp, John Turner, David Walsh. Apologies: Theresa Kenefick, Margaret Rates and Michael Tripp.

1.Opening Prayer and Reflection from John Sharpe

2.Road Stewards. The Road Stewards meeting had a very good attendance although there was a mixture of opinions as to how the scheme would continue. There was a small sub group formed to discuss the best way forward to help make their role clear and comfortable, as well as to try to recruit new people to help.

3. Contrasts for Christmas. The concert earlier this week showed a wealth of talent from in the Parish, from some of our neighbouring parishes and from our Catholic schools. Many thanks to all those involved in organising such a successful evening, particularly Keith Merrett the organiser

4. Future Pastoral Planning. Fr Bill asked the PPC to read and consider, in preparation for our January Meeting, the deanery draft response to the issue of reduced numbers of priests in our Diocese and in particular to the possibility of only 6 priests in our Deanery by 2010. This will then be discussed at Deanery level again before going to the Diocese.

He also asked that the PPC take a role in planning for the future of the Parish, this could include organising a Parish Day in June to add to the Spiritual and practical life of the Parish.

5. Youth. The 9.30am and 6.00pm Masses on National Youth Sunday were very successful particularly in terms of the number of young people involved. A lot of work has gone into the preparation of both the Liturgies particularly by the School children in the morning and by the Confirmation Candidates and the musicians in the evening, The refreshments in the hall afterwards went down very well and a number of young people took advantage of the table tennis sets! The next Youth Mass is on 28^th December but unfortunately the Folk Choir is away and an alternative form of music will be needed.

On a less positive note there were no takers for the two issues Discussion Groups planned for December despite 40 individual invitations being sent out. It is hoped that we can utilise Ray Mooney from the Diocesan Youth Office to set up something in the near future.

6. Spiritual Groups and initiatives in the Parish. This year, amongst the huge number of successful events in our Parish life, a number of new ventures, Landings, Faith in our Family and also the Advent Preparation Groups have had disappointing take up rates. It was questioned as to whether these events are well enough publicised or whether people are just not keen to take time out of busy lives. These are questions we need to keep under review.

8. The Social Group Update. Tony Prince and Selina Hough reported on a meeting of the Social Parish Group. A provisional social programme for the year has been proposed, which looks very exciting. The aim is for two events per month, some small some big, some specifically to raise money others not. The events will cover all age groups and hopefully all sorts of interests.

Next meeting: Wednesday 14^th January 2004 at 7.30p.m. in the Chatterton Room

Closing Prayer.

Actionable Points From Minutes:

Action Responsibility

Opening prayer and reflection for next meeting Jan Madden

Fr Bill to get some ideas to us re the Parish Day FR Bill

Find Musicians or something for Youth Mass. John Turner?

To read Future Pastoral Planning Draft Everyone