Parish Council Minutes – November 2025

11 November 2025, 7:30pm

Present: Mike Campbell (chair), Deacon Stephen Parker, David Bellamy, Jen Benzies, Maria Levesley, Sarah Lynch (minutes), Richard McQuinn, Ben Ryan, Sian Price, Bob Levesley

Apologies: Father Kevin, Richard Bushell, Sam Caldwell, Stephen Spooner, Eva Kaltenthaler

Opening meditation: two minutes’ silence, led by MC

Minutes of the last meeting: passed without debate

Matters arising:

  • Boundary wall: It has been repaired, there were some issues about the work done initially but it has now been completed. David noted he was not qualified to approve it as appropriately completed, but has passed that back to the Diocese for comment.
  • The roof in the Upstairs Room has not progressed. The builder initially chosen has not been available so David is now pursuing the second option. The leak seems to be fixed.
  • Welcome sheet/committee: There used to be a group who welcomed/visited new parishioners, but it is no longer exists. Discussion highlighted that new parishioners would be likely to vary in terms of what they wanted, ie a phone call, a visit, coffee after mass. It was agreed there would be mention made in the Franciscan to see if anyone wanted to volunteer for this. Ben linked this to how we link in existing parishioners who aren’t as engaged, whether any small group who met would want to look at this as well. David observed it might be useful to have a welcomers’ group, in terms of those who greet on Sunday mornings and hand out the books (MC to pursue this). He also mentioned that it might be that welcomers should know the procedure if there were a fire, noting we don’t have a fire policy/plan which we should. That led to a wider discussion about fire safety regarding the building and consideration as to whether we should look into seeking advice in this regard. It was agreed we would put something in the Franciscan to see if we have anyone with such expertise in the parish (DB to do this).

Safeguarding

BL said he felt it would be sensible for him to attend PPC meetings a few times a year, to keep safeguarding at the forefront of our minds and to answer any questions PPC members may have.
He has also spoken with Fr Kevin and MC about the fact we should have done a parish safeguarding audit earlier this year. He intends to pursue this now, along with Fr Kevin and MC. SL offered to help with this, given a former work role in this area.

Mention was made that we don’t have a safeguarding section on the website, which BL will ensure is addressed. There are signs up at church about it, although they maybe need to be more prominent.

Parish Council makeup

SL has offered to be the secretary, which our constitution says we require. No one else sought to act in that role so she was appointed.

MC queried if anyone would volunteer to be deputy for his role. DB said he would act in that role at the moment but would not necessarily want to take over from MC on him standing down.

David Bellamy’s role

MC suggested that DB’s role should be recognised. In practice what he is doing is acting as our (unpaid) parish administrator and it was suggested that name could be given to his role. Deacon Stephen advised that this title has a formal meaning, in the absence of a parish priest, so it was felt that was less appropriate. The title of office manager was suggested but Parish Clerk was ultimately approved.

A parishioner had recently raised some concerns about the informality of DB’s role and also the absence of any deputy for him. DB is conscious of the need for writing up what he is doing in his role and is on to that, also he is looking into data protection issues, how we process and record it in accordance with the legal requirements. We store data in different places with only limited people having access to those.

  • The Parish Register (a list of those people in parish who have given this information – name, address, telephone, email) which is held by the Chair of the PPC and it is password protected.
  • The Gift Aid data is being put on a spreadsheet accessed the parishioner who has responsibility for Gift Aid, which information goes on to the responsible person in the archdiocese of Leeds.
  • Safeguarding information is recorded by the parish safeguarding officer on a national database, although that system is changing.
  • Paper records and emails are held in the parish office, though being digitised and are password protected.
  • Finally, the phone numbers of those parish WhatsApp groups will be public to others in the group, but those are people who have chosen to join these groups.
  • There is a list of those people who choose to have the Franciscan by email, held by the two parishioners who administer this.

Spirituality & Liturgy:

Deacon Stephen reported back that the parish day on spirituality/Lectio was a success with about twenty-five people attending. Other future topics are being considered.

Justice & Peace:

SP said there has been a successful monthly awareness campaign, the toilet twinning being a particular success. We await a date around consideration of our application to CAFOD for Live Simply status. World Gifts are being looked at as an Advent focus.

Youth Ministry:

Final confirmation preparation is underway tonight.

Finance:

SC had given apologies but sent a written update:

  • ⁠The boundary wall – the wall between our car park and the Football Club has been repaired: we agreed to split the cost evenly between us.
  • ⁠The roof – Three quotations had been received, from MHA Roofing, AT Roofing, and Thornton and Wood to repair the roof. That from MHA, of £2200, had been accepted a month ago but no date had yet been offered and the work needed to be done before the weather deteriorated. DB would send a final reminder, failing which the contract would be offered to AT.
  • ⁠Income – The appeal earlier this year for parishioners to increase their gift aided standing orders has had a positive effect on income. Overall, parish finances are helpful despite the large unexpected expenditure noted above.
  • ⁠Garden maintenance – It was noted that, whilst the garden is generally well maintained, some of the shrubs and trees have grown and spread significantly. We agreed that it would be provident to commission a full tree survey and that DB would initially look to see when this was last done.

A decision was required regarding the PA System. As noted at the last meeting, a number of enhancements had been made. As a further refinement, it would be possible to acquire – for £700 or so – a new mixer-amplifier. This would have the effect of boosting the quieter readers at the lectern and moderating the louder ones and would also assist with the clip-on mike. A parishioner has given some advice on the question of the sound system in the church and may be willing to assist further if necessary. It was agreed this purchase should proceed.

Maintenance:

No discussion took place on this topic on this occasion.

Visit from Franciscan Friar

This is a Diocesan event rather than a parish one, but there is clearly an expectation that the parish, if it agrees to host this, will be significantly involved in the organising. The email we received from the Diocese was as follows: “We are inviting a team of Franciscan Friars who are visiting the UK from USA, to add Sheffield to their itinerary and they are very happy to do so. The date they are offering is April 17th 2026. St Francis parish seems an appropriate venue, with the support of yourself and your Parish team/PPC? One of the team, Fr Casey Cole, is known for his use of social media platforms to evangelise; (Fr Patrick Harrigan has heard him speak and was very enthusiastic and complimentary about him). If you would be willing to host these visitors, and can identify a team from your parish to steer the enterprise, please let us know. We did mention it to David Bellamy who is part of the Emerging Pastoral Ministries group who have been undertaking Formation in the past few years, and there may be some other of St Francis parishioners who may also be part of that group and would like to be involved?”

Given time pressures on the meeting, it was agreed Deacon Stephen and DB would consider this further outside the meeting.

Parish Survey – preliminary results

BR advised there have so far been 76 responses, giving us a lot of information about what parishioners want and what we may therefore need to deliver.

  • Community and Welcome was a key topic, responses generally being largely positive. People value the community, welcome and support. A few people said it can feel a bit cliquey, that it can be harder to come in.
  • Music was constantly praised in the responses, how meaningful it was seen as being – “the best in Sheffield”.
  • Liturgy was also largely positive, with some concerns re microphones, some varying responses re sermons.
  • Inclusion and diversity were seen as a positive, although a lot of people did raise some church-wide issues which are not necessarily things we can address, a desire for a more visible inclusion and a more specific welcome for diverse parishioners.
  • Faith formation was raised, whether more can be done for adults rather than up to confirmation and then it ending. Bible study groups, prayer groups, life-long learning and education were mentioned.
  • Communication: there were a few comments about more practical things, eg the length of what is read out from the Franciscan at the end of mass (maybe more focus on just a couple of highlights), also some requests for paper copies of the Franciscan.
  • Outreach and social justice: this was seen as a positive for the parish, but also a desire to do more with the wider community, more inter-faith events and ecumenism.
  • Children, youth and family: this was seen as good but there were concerns about declining numbers, also a need for more for children between first holy communion and confirmation.
  • Leadership and future planning: what happens when Fr Kevin retires, a need for more lay leadership including liturgical leadership and whether we should be considering that more in areas other than mass, eg as we do for Taize services.
  • Parish administration: questions of whether we should have a paid administrator, given we are a time poor cash rich parish.
  • Practicalities:
    some questions about the mass time, although that probably cannot be changed given we have a link with St William’s, as we may ultimately share a priest, and their mass is at 9.30am.
    for those who arrive late, some difficulties with finding seating.
  • Demography: twice as many women than men replied to the questionnaire, also the median age is about 60 with a big gap of people aged between 18 and 29. We are also 95% white in terms of the respondents, which is not reflective of those who attend mass on Sundays.

The question for us now is which of these can be covered by existing parish groups and which need new groups. There will need to be discussion at a future meeting on these topics, to work out how we respond to the parish as to what we are going to be done, then how we take things forward. MC will put something in the Franciscan soon just to confirm to people that we have started discussing the results, that we have a few areas where we can give quick answers but most will need more time.

Matters raised by Fr Kevin

Fr Kevin had not passed on any matters he wished to have addressed.

Closing prayer: led by Deacon Stephen.

Next meeting: 27th January at 7:30 pm in the parish room.