Parish Council Minutes – July 2026

14 July 2026, 7:30pm

Present: Father Kevin, Father Craig, Deacon Stephen Parker, Mike Campbell (chair), David Bellamy, Jen Benzies, Richard Bushell, Sam Caldwell, Eva Kaltenthaler, Sarah Lynch (minutes), Sian Price (SP2), Ben Ryan, Stephen Spooner

Apologies: Maria Levesley, Richard McQuinn

Opening meditation: two minutes’ silence, led by MC

Minutes of the last meeting: passed without debate

Matters arising

  • The article in the Chronicle about the Franciscans’ visit has been written and the publication is due to come out this weekend.
  • The diocesan reunification meeting took place as scheduled, attended by MC, SC, SP, DB and Clare Byrne, and was felt to be positive, although the questions to which responses were sought were not of the simplest. There has been no feedback since, but it is understood a report has to go from Bishop Marcus to the Pope as the next step in the process.
  • The guidance for readers has been written by DB but has yet to be circulated, but his observation was that it seems to be happening anyway. Some new young readers have come forward to read the Liturgy of the Word.

Fr Craig FitzPatrick

Transport is only required to get Fr Craig back to St William’s, a rota being in existence for Sundays. There was some anxiety about whether people might forget what they have promised, Eva volunteering to send out a reminder of who has signed up to take him back (a parishioner from St William’s travels this way and brings him here). She will also liaise with the person at St William’s who is doing transport on a Wednesday, to ensure there is cover when she is away or otherwise unavailable.

Action: Eva will obtain contact details for the contact person at St William’s and set up a system such as a GoogleDoc for people to sign up.

Spirituality & Liturgy

There is no particular update from this group as the meeting of the three members has been postponed. One idea is to take over what St William’s used to do until Covid, which is a blessing of animals. Another idea is a day on the historical Jesus, how he has been presented over the centuries. There is an idea of having a lay led morning prayer on weekdays other than Wednesdays; SC expressed an interest in doing this on a Friday, at 10am in the chapel. Mention was also made of the St William’s group which has Morning Prayer on Zoom, which parishioners from St Francis could join if they wished.

Fr Craig needs an altar missal, which would be easier to read, and approval was given for this to be purchased.

Recent bidding prayers are being shared with St William’s and adapted for our parish, but this has meant a change to the format from our previous approach without responses to one where there are responses. SP advised that theologically the bidding prayers are prepared by and read by the deacon, but that has never happened. It was agreed that the new process would continue, with any additional prayers for specific occasions being fed in via SP. That needs to happen early enough for them to be given to the Eucharistic ministers, so by 9am on Sunday morning. DB advised it would be helpful if they were with him by Friday morning, so SP would need any additional prayers by Thursday. It was also agreed it would be good if they could be shared on the parish WhatsApp group.

Action: SC will begin Morning Prayer this Friday and will advertise it on the WhatsApp group initially for this week’s and then in the Franciscan.

Bidding prayers will be prepared in the new way from now, SP leading on this.

Justice & Peace Report

The J&P group propose that the Live Simply award be presented at Mass on 25 October. SP confirmed there was no likely clash at church about that. CAFOD fast day is on 4th and 18th October is World Mission Sunday. SS advised that 18th October is also the national Poverty Sunday (Church Action on Poverty). As that cannot take over from World Mission Sunday, the J&P group will rethink how best to do this, whether to combine it with the Live Simply presentation or have it on another day. The Mass for Live Simply could focus on it in terms of the bidding prayers and possibly the homily.

Fairtrade products are not always being used at church, which is not in line with the parish policy, so a reminder on the WhatsApp group might be a good way to reach the parishioners who take turns at doing the coffee.

Action: The award will be presented on 25th, with the J&P group considering how they might want to reflect it in the Mass. SP will send out a reminder on WhatsApp about the Parish’s Fairtrade policy.

Youth Ministry

RB advised that Youth Group/Confirmation Group are having their confirmation celebration this coming week.

Finance Committee

SC confirmed the parish remains in relatively good financial health but there are some big costs anticipated (see Maintenance).

Maintenance

We have just had to pay almost £1000 for an electrical survey covering junction boxes, two of which will need to be replaced, and also lights need to be replaced with ring cameras and detection to enhance security, requiring the renting of a scissor lift. The dimmer box in the sacristy is also going to need to be replaced. Many of the light bulbs in the church also need to be replaced, including ones which are environmentally poor. The electrical work might be done in the later part of August.

Regarding security of the church, the door is being left open as much as possible but that does raise some security issues. Initially there was access only to the narthex and the Blessed Sacrament chapel, more recently more areas have been open, and SP suggested we return to just the narthex and chapel being open with the balance of the church being locked. After mass on a Sunday, Jonathan Yewdall or DB lock the church. The question is who would be available to take responsibility for locking and unlocking on a daily basis. The Yewdall family would do this until the end of the summer but cannot commit beyond then.

RB queried the quality of the church’s PA system, and there was some discussion about this. When Fr Craig began to say Mass, the lapel mike had to be changed. It was proposed that John Dale is asked to give views and a quote could be obtained.

Action: A small group will meet to consider access to the church and security issues.

Parish Survey Follow Up

BR recapped that we agreed there would be conversation groups to take forward some of the actions from the Parish Survey. BR advised it is proposed the groups will be independent of the PC and will self-organise in terms of how they meet, etc. They will see the parish survey results so they can consider how they want to interpret those and move forwards. BR proposes that there do not need to be formal minutes of the meetings but there does need to be some record which can maybe be brought to the Parish Council and/or the parish community so progress can be seen.

Groups would be Welcoming & Inclusion, Community & Social Life, Leadership/Mission/Future Strategy, Faith Formation, Children & Young People, Music, and Social Justice & Outreach. The latter three of these fit with existing church groups so those who have expressed an interest would be directed to those groups.

BR will contact people who have expressed an interest in the near future, to put them in touch with each other, and would be willing to facilitate the first meeting of groups if needed.

SP expressed concern at how many of those in our community who are sacramental Catholics and are sick are not visited and would like to see how we as a parish could provide visits.

Action: BR will take the steps set out above to approach those who have expressed an interest and bring them together.

Matters raised by Fr Kevin or Fr Craig

Neither Fr Kevin nor Fr Craig raised anything. There was a short discussion about Fr Kevin’s practical arrangements, which remain under review.

Any other business

  1. SP advised that Jonathan Yewdall had raised the possibility of norovirus, that it is present at a significant level in Notre Dame currently. The question of what precautions are needed at church has been queried. JB felt there had been an event before the weekend which may have contributed to this and figures may well drop off. RB suggested a proportionate response would be a warning on the WhatsApp group and in the Franciscan, with possibly an announcement at Mass. EK has expertise in this area and said if people have symptoms then a simple solution would be that they should not attend mass for 48 hours.
    Action: JB will give an update tomorrow to MC, who will get something put in the Franciscan and put it on the WhatsApp group.
  2. Thanks were given to Stephen and Eva who have been on the Parish Council for eleven years and are standing down.
  3. SC advised that we had overlooked a thank you gift for Ed King for his years of dealing with Gift Aid.
    Action: MC will deal with this.
  4. SC queried how decisions are to be made, while certainty is awaited on the leadership of our church. SC suggested that could be done to an extent by emails between the Parish Council. EK proposed a Parish Council WhatsApp group could be set up to discuss matters, and it could be agreed if it is something MC/SP/DB can decide, something we can deal with by agreement over WhatsApp, or whether it should come back to the Parish Council. There was discussion about whether there was a need for a separate group purely for Parish Council members, and ultimately the consensus was there would be a separate group at this time.
    Action: BR will set up a WhatsApp group for the PPC.

Closing prayer: led by Fr Craig

Next meeting: 8th September at 7:30 pm in the parish room.

Subsequently, meetings will continue bimonthly on the second Tuesday of the month.