Minutes of St Autustine’s Parish Pastoral Council Meeting



Minutes of St Augustine’s Parish Pastoral Council Meeting

Held on Wednesday 14th October 2015 at 8.00pm

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| |Item |Action |

| |Present: | |

| |Fr Peter Stodart Tony Barnes By invitation: | |

| |Fr Josaphat Ezenwa Tolly Tomlin Luke Goymour | |

| |Fr Agnelo de Souza Paul Lambert David Weatherley | |

| |Deacon Kevin Dunne Peter Querstret | |

| |Gerard Garcia (Chair) Stephanie Heymer | |

| |Robert Tricker Aaron Saunderson-Cross | |

| |Jeremy Lester Richard Pooley (Secretary) | |

|1. |Opening Prayer | |

| |Opening prayers were led by Fr Peter. | |

|2. |Apologies | |

| |None. | |

|3. |Minutes of Meeting | |

| |The minutes of the meeting held on 17 June 2015 were approved subject to replacing “Alliance” with | |

| |“Partnership” in section 7(g). | |

|4. |Matters Arising | |

| |(a) Church Car Park Arrangements | |

| |The Chairman invited DW to address the meeting. DW said the car parking scheme, which had been in place for | |

| |nearly two years, was in general, working successfully. Its operation took up very little time of the church | |

| |office team and had generated a surplus of donations (for blue “concessionary parking discs) over expenditure | |

| |of approximately £1,600, half of which had been donated to Kompong Thom at the end of the first year of | |

| |operation. | |

| |DW explained the genesis of his appearance at the Council meeting: the car park team was seeking Council | |

| |approval of, and support for, a small number of specific actions designed to deal with some problems regarding | |

| |car park use. | |

| |DW reminded the meeting of the fundamental principle of the scheme: that those attending Mass or visiting the | |

| |church on church business have priority for car park spaces. Over the past few months, the car park team had | |

| |received numerous complaints from parishioners who had been unable to find a space when attending Mass. The | |

| |majority of these complaints came from parishioners attending the 10.00am Mass on the first Monday of the | |

| |month. The current scheme, approved by the Council before being put into operation, allows members of external| |

| |groups to park for the duration of a group meeting if in possession of a formally issued dashboard permit. One| |

| |such group is the Townswomen’s Guild to meet in the church hall on the first Monday of the month at 10.00am. | |

| |In August, the team had received an application from the Guild for additional parking permits which, if issued,| |

| |would bring their total to 23 vehicles; the car park has spaces for 36 vehicles. | |

| |DW invited Council approval and support for a proposed means of dealing with this Mass attendee/visitor | |

| |conflict, namely (a) to limit the number of dashboard permits issued to each external group and (b) to forbid | |

| |parking for attendees of external group meetings until after 10.15am. There followed a general discussion | |

| |during which several options were considered. It was resolved that the car park team should proceed in line | |

| |with its recommendations. | |

| |DW also told the meeting that the AA/NA community has a similar arrangement to the Guild. The car park team | |

| |had received complaints from parishioners who had been unable to find a parking space when attending the | |

| |10.00am Mass on Saturday. This group of parishioners had also complained about misuse of the “disabled” | |

| |spaces, inconsiderate parking and damage to vehicles. There followed a general discussion following which it | |

| |was agreed that the Council supported the course of action proposed by the car park team: to contact AA to | |

| |remind their members of the conditions of parking and to notify their members that penalty charge notices will | |

| |be issued and enforced , where the conditions continue to be flouted. | |

| |It was noted that concern had been expressed about the absence of any public notice, within the grounds of the | |

| |church, excluding liability (to the extent the Law allows) for damage done to cars parked in the car park. It | |

| |was resolved that this issue would be looked into forthwith. | |

| |It was also agreed that the Council supported the proposed enforcement of the general parking conditions and | |

| |the publication in the newsletter of a notice to that effect. | |

| | | |

| |(b) Parish Hall Kitchen Refurbishment | |

| |RT reported that this project was going well. At a meeting in August, some changes to the proposed layout had | |

| |been agreed. Quotations had | |

| |been requested from two builders. There was general discussion about the revised plans during which some | |

| |concern was expressed that the work should not adversely affect the Fire Evacuation route through the Hall. GG| |

| |confirmed that, as project manager, advice about that point will be obtained. | |

| | | |

| |(c) Pedestrian crossing in Crescent Road | |

| |GG reported that he had attended the Joint Transportation Board (JTB) meeting at TWBC earlier this week when | |

| |the first item on the agenda was the Crescent Road central crossing. The comment from Steven Noad, the KCC | |

| |Officer handling the process, was "the possibility of a refuge looks promising". | |

| |GG said matters were still at an early stage as design work should commence in the next financial year 2016/17 | |

| |and construction will depend on many factors, not least funding, and this may run into 2017/18 or beyond. His | |

| |recommendation for accelerating this to a construction project was to get funding from Cllr Scholes, the KCC | |

| |representative of the church’s ward. REP reported that Cllr Scholes had not replied to any of his emails and | |

| |letters and had not returned his phone calls. GG recommended the most appropriate way to get Cllr Scholes’ | |

| |attention would be to gather 10-12 residents of his ward, preferably living not too far away from Crescent | |

| |Road, and request a meeting with him to discuss using Member’s funds to design and build this refuge as a | |

| |matter of urgency. It was resolved that this should be done now. | |

| | | |

| |(d) Parish Welfare | |

| |PQ reported that the problem was how the parish could continue its welfare work once the only remaining member | |

| |of the old team, Tess Negri, retires. He said a new welfare team is in the process of being formed (with input| |

| |from Tess Negri, David Glynn and TB), a plan for attracting volunteers is being worked up and the SVP had |GG/RT |

| |promised its support. | |

| |There was a general discussion about the funding of the new team during which it was agreed with PQ that the | |

| |new team would not need a separate bank account as most of the funding comes from the Parish. | |

| | | |

| |(e) Parish Community Event 2016 | |

| |There was unanimous agreement that a free, non funding raising event to which every parishioner would be | |

| |invited was a good idea. There was a general discussion about (a) whether the event should include a Mass, (b)| |

| |where the event should take place and (c) the reason for the event (for example, to celebrate Daniel | |

| |Weatherley’s ordination as a priest). It was agreed that all members of the Council would give further | |

| |consideration to the location of and reasons for the Event before the next meeting. | |

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| | |GG/REP |

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|5. |Reports from sub committees and teams | |

| |(a) Finance and Buildings Committee | |

| |The Chairman asked if FBC meetings could be rescheduled to take place before PPC meetings. JL thought this | |

| |would be possible. | |

| | | |

| |(b) Ecumenical | |

| |Fr Peter reported that St Augustine’s will host the service, to be held on 21 November, to launch the Winter | |

| |Shelter this year. PQ remarked that he would be surprised if more than 40 people attend. | |

| | | |

| |(c) Liturgy | |

| |Deacon Kevin said that plans for the Sunday afternoon Advent services were well under way and that there will | |

| |be a Deanery Service of Reconciliation on the 4th Sunday in Advent. | |

| | | |

| |(d) Welfare | |

| |Please see Section 4(d) above. | |

| | | |

| |(e) Young Parishioners/Youth Worker | |

| |The Chairman invited Luke Goymour to address the meeting. A full summary of LG’s presentation will be found in| |

| |the Youth Leader’s Report attached to these Minutes. | |

| |LG drew the meeting’s attention to his presentation “Our Hearts are Restless” (available for download from the | |

| |parish website) in which he identified four stages of his mission plan, an ambitious project that would not | |

| |produce any overnight results. He said he was at the second stage, “Foundations”, and that this work was being| |

| |supported by AS-C and others. | |

| |For 2016, he is planning an Epiphany Youth Mass a parish evening for young people grounded in prayer. | |

| |There was general discussion about the mission plan during which it was suggested that the Youth Team | |

| |advertised for new members and supporters in the Newsletter. Fr Peter reminded the meeting that supporters | |

| |would need DBS (Disclosure and Banning Service) (formerly CRB) clearance which takes quite a long time to | |

| |obtain. | |

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| |(f) Safeguarding/Child Protection | |

| |Fr Peter reported that Jan Mann, the former headteacher of St Augustine’s Primary School, had now joined the | |

| |Safeguarding Team where her principal responsibility is to update our church policy (familiarity with current | |

| |policy being one her skills). GG requested that the SCP team send a brief note to each PPC meeting giving an | |

| |update on its work. Fr Peter agreed that this should be done and would discuss the matter with the SCP team. | |

| | | |

| |(g) Deanery | |

| |Fr Peter reported that the last Deanery meeting was held on 13th October when there had been a discussion about| |

| |the forthcoming Year of Mercy. Further details will follow shortly. |PS/KD |

| | | |

| |(h) Evangelisation | |

| |Deacon Kevin reported that: | |

| |(i) the Café meetings were going well, attracting between 25 and 30 attendees. | |

| |(ii) Advent Service plans are well advanced (see section 5(c) above). He said these will have an international|PS |

| |flavour to reflect the many nationalities of our parishioners. | |

| |(iii) On 15th December, the Filipino community in the parish will celebrate Simbang Gabi. | |

|6 |Any Other Business | |

| |(a) The Chairman reported that he had received emails or letters from 6 parishioners which would be dealt with | |

| |in an appropriate manner. | |

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| |(b) TT asked if it would be possible for St Augustine’s to arrange for a Christmas crib to be displayed in the | |

| |town. Fr Peter said he would raise this suggestion with his fellow trustees at C4TW. |PS |

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| |(c) AS-C enquired whether Fr Stephen Langridge (the Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Southwark) could | |

| |be invited to talk about vocations. Fr Peter said he would make enquiries. |PS |

| | | |

| |(d) Fr Peter reported that , last month, he had received a request from the Catholic Youth Theatre in Poland to| |

| |be allowed to present a performance about the life and works of St John Paul II at St Augustine’s and that the | |

| |parish help to provide accommodation for 32 children and about 10 adults. Fr Peter thought the parish had no | |

| |choice but to decline the offer, at least this year, partly because it will be impossible for DBS checks to | |

| |completed in respect of every host family in time and partly because of the difficulty finding a sufficient | |

| |number of willing families in a short time. The Council agreed with Fr Peter’s position. | |

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|7. |Next Meeting | |

| |There being no further business, the meeting ended at 22.15 hrs. | |

| |The next meeting will be held at 20.00 hrs on Wednesday, 3rd February 2016. | |

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