Pastoral Parish Council - Minutes from the meeting held on Tuesday 31st May 2022.
Present: Fr George, Deacon’s Kingsley & Lawrence, Chris Hurford, Paul Crowley, Bob Sheehan, Jane Parker, Elaine Godfrey, Grace Hanney, Gillian Pollard, Lesley Morrissey
Apologies: Tim Sherwin
Meeting opened with a prayer. Followed by introductions.
Appointment of Chair & Vice Chair: According to the Constitution one of these seats must be held by a Christ the King Parishioner with the other being from Holy Cross. It also states there should be 3-4 meetings a year with at least one held at Holy Cross.
Volunteers were asked for with Gillian Pollard (CTK) being elected as Chair and Elaine Godfrey (HC) Vice Chair.
It is hoped that by the next AGM (April 2023) we have been able to move forward and show a significant progress on a number
of issues See below.**
Finance
Chris Hurford, parish treasurer, summarized the finances of each church. As he had explained at the recent AGM, the records for gift aiders had yet to be transferred to the parish from the diocese and this was preventing the parish from claiming tax relief for each of the churches and so tax relief for each of the churches was currently under-claimed.
He also explained that the accounts and bank balances for each church were held separately and were separately reported to the diocese.
As for CTK, there were no areas of particular concern in the first four months of the current year. Fr George and Graham Hunter had fitted new windows in the church and the materials costs were reflected in “Premises”.
The current balance on CTK’s current account was £47k and it held £62k in reserves in the diocesan general fund.
Charities: The Treasurer to itemize the amounts we pay over.
The primary costs in Holy Cross accounts were its payment of the diocesan share and its contribution towards the costs of supporting the clergy.
The current balance on Holy Cross’ current account was almost £21k and it held £11k in its House Account.
In response to a request at the AGM, Chris had agreed to provide a short note explaining the financial position regarding the house and its planned sale and that this would be circulated to Holy Cross parishioners.
A question was raised about the current position on the sale and it was explained that the tenant had been served notice and that when the property was vacant steps would then be taken to begin the sale process. The treasurer agreed to keep the pastoral council informed with progress and will also investigate the possibility of returning the present church 'office' to the house in order to remove the 'flying freehold' and increase its' potential value.
**Future agenda discussions
A paper had been circulated before the meeting highlighting some key issues to help the council determine its future agenda. The five areas suggested for discussion were:
- the potential effect of a shortage of priests upon the parish; (15 years there will be only 22 Diocesan Priests. Although our priests are Salvatorian there are none in the ‘pipeline’. If Fr George retires there is no-one to replace him)
- bringing together the communities in CTK and Holy Cross.
- cope with an aging population of parishioners.
- learning lessons from coping with Covid; and
- +the effect of the Synod’s outcomes upon the parish.
The council discussed how best to explore each of these issues, and it was agreed that it would be important to gather the wider views of parishioners.
+Synod Fr George paid tribute to Bob & Georgina Sheehan and Angela Clarke who had taken the initiative to attend the meetings at the Diocese. Bob explained the process of the meetings and he hoped that out of the collection of points raised there will be a useful working document that Parishes can build on. The results of the consultations will be reported by Bishop Declan at the Cathedral on 22nd June which Bob will report back on.
New Website
It was agreed to send out the ‘link’ to the development website for comments and material to be included.
AOB
By the next meeting please:
- Suggestion of a Mission Statement
- Look at Website
- How to take our parishes through the 5 areas above. There is an option to co-opt young and old parishioners for Focus Groups to gather opinions.
- Availability of next meeting, early August or early October (Lesley will check with everyone)
- Meet at Holy Cross
The meeting closed with a prayer.
Date of next meeting TBC to be held at Holy Cross