The Council met for the first time in 2011 on Wednesday 2nd February.
Over the Christmas period the members of the Council had been asked to identify three areas they would want to see the Council focus on during 2011. Their replies formed the basis of discussion at the meeting which agreed that our three key objectives for the year would be:
Promoting an understanding of the role of the laity and encouraging an active involvement by the laity in the life of our parishes. We recognise that community building is an important step in creating a culture where people want to be actively involved.
The development of good liturgical practices, continuing the work begun by the parish staff to make our liturgical year better focused and more event-centred as well as developing “best practice” in all aspects of our liturgies. We will also promote the setting up of small group discussions on various areas of the liturgy, eg scriptures and consider workshop style meetings about different and interesting ways of making our liturgies inspiring to all who participate.
The building of a welcoming community that reaches out, getting to know parishioners and their needs and helping to bring people back to the church.
We also recognised that the continuing spiritual development of our Parish Council is integral to the life of the Council. Therefore we decided that another key objective would be the ongoing formation of the Council in the spirit of Saint Ignatius. To that end the members of the Parish Council will be attending an Ignatian Province Introduction program over the weekend of 18th to 20th February. And marque 2 of that program will also be attended by Council members later in 2011.
At the meeting we also considered an interim report from the sub-committee of the Council which is looking at how we might reach out, building community across our three parishes and inviting Catholics not involved in Church, to become part of our parish community. All members of the Parish Council are presently in the process of giving feedback to the sub-committee on the ideas developed so far and we expect the final report by Easter. The sub-committee has done a considerable amount of research on the issues
involved, including what is being done elsewhere that might be useful for us to consider.
We already have a representative from each of the three Pastoral Teams on the Parish Council and it was agreed that we will develop even closer links between the Council and the three Pastoral teams.
Jan Brady
Chair of the Parish Council
9th February 2011