Present: Father Uche (President), Maureen Sampson, Agnes Vella, Sr. Margaret, Philip Cook, Lorraine Butler, Wendy Wentworth, Carmel Micallef, Deacon JohnSimon, Pat Heery
Apologies: Declan Dixon, Felicity Surridge, Chinwe Azuh, Jan Downes
Opening Prayer: Father Uche opened the meeting with a prayer at 8.00 pm.
1. Maureen welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Gemma Duncan and Raphael Maurin as new members of the committee. Apologies for absence were given.
2. (i) Identity of Charity to benefit from fund raising in Advent. Father Uche suggested that this year’s proceeds are donated to the “Queen of Apostles” Nursery and Primary school in a small village in Nigeria. Money raised could sponsor a child through secondary school or help with the infrastructure of the school building. There are 100+ children in the school. (ii) Date of the Advent Fair: This will take place at the end of November/beginning of December. (iii) Volunteer to be a representative for Churches Together Deacon John-Simon explained that as Carmel was stepping down from “Churches Together” after 5 years, a new lay representative was urgently needed. The new representative would attend meetings,contribute and report back to St. Joseph’s. There are 6 meetings a year. It was felt that the position should be open to all parishioners. Maureen suggested that John-Simon prepare a note for the Bulletin.
3. Parish Activity:
(i) Parish Outreach: Report from the Evangelisation Committee Philip informed the committee that on 10th November there will be a “Reframe Day” organised by Catholic Voices. At the heart of the Catholic Voices method is a technique called ‘re-framing’. It is an approach that seeks to turn controversy into an opportunity to share the story of the Church. “Reframe” is their parish programme for introducing the Catholic Voices method of reframing. This will be a Taster Day to be followed by five evening sessions. Since the Mission, the Mission prayer group has continued to meet and they are forming a new Cell group. Philip told the committee that all main presentations from “Adoremus” can be found on the Internet – www.catholicnews.org. He thought that details could be included in the Bulletin or on the website. There has not been an Evangelisation Committee meeting since their postMission meeting.
(ii) Marriage & Family Life: There are no marriages arranged for the immediate future. There may be a course held in January/February.
(iii) Deanery Matters: Father Uche informed the committee that at the moment, the deanery is without a dean. There are new priests at St. Agatha’s and Our Lady Immaculate. We look forward to welcoming Father Christian Onyigbuo who will be our new “Priest in Residence”
(iv) Provision for youth: Maureen invited the 2 new members to contribute to this section. Raphael said that a youth worker is to be employed and hopefully should start in January. The youth club has recently restarted and is held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month. The 4th Sunday is a Youth Mass and it is hoped to encourage Confirmandi to attend the Club. The Youth Club is for young people in Years 7+ and it is hoped that the Youth worker will organise activities for all age groups. Wendy agreed that a new Table Tennis table may be purchased. There are games and spare apparatus in the Loft. Gemma informed the committee that the “Flame Congress” will take place in Wembley Arena on Saturday 2nd March. It is open to young people between the ages of 14-21.
4. Reports:
(i) Finance Committee Wendy submitted her report to the committee. The Finance Committee last met on 5th June and is due to meet again on 25th September. The church finance accounts are updated on a weekly basis. The procedures run smoothly with a team working together. The queries over the council tax have been clarified and rectified and all the monies owed to us finally returned. Agnes organised the signs for the car park. Church and house maintenance is up to date. We are financially secure but still have to be responsible with all church expenditure. Gift Aid: Envelope re-numbering is now sorted. A new update which is installed but as yet won’t run, is to be further investigated. The next Diocesan Finance meeting is on 2nd November.
(ii) Safeguarding: A group of Eucharistic Ministers is to be trained soon and is undergoing GDPR checks. A vote of thanks was given to Andrew Stables for his hard work in this area.
(iii) Fund Raising: This was covered earlier with regards to the Advent Fair.
5. Parish Infrastructure – repairs and projects: Father Uche said that there had been a repair to the Church roof. Wires in the parish and treasurer’s offices had been sorted
6. Parish Website report:
Pat reported that work had not been straightforward. There had been two outages as he swapped from a limited account to a different provider. The latter is easier to update. The domain name had expired but it has been renewed and the website is now up and running. Pat would welcome any feedback about the website.
7. Calendar:
(i) Feedback on recent events; The International event, held in July, was a great success.
(ii) Forthcoming events: On 14th October, after the 11.30 Mass, there will be a presentation made to Fr. Michael Gwinnell. It will also be an opportunity to meet our new “Priest in Residence”, Fr. Christian.
8. AOB : John-Simon reported that Churches Together plan to hold a Passion Play in 2020 in New Malden. The date is still to be confirmed. Volunteers are needed to help and to contribute ideas. John-Simon also reported that two GDPR information sessions had been arranged for 7th and 16th October. All group leaders/co-ordinators must attend one of the sessions. Other parishioners may also attend including those who have already attended a session.
9. The date of the next meeting is Wednesday 12th December. Deacon John-Simon led the committee in the closing prayer.