Parish Council Meeting Minutes 28th April

Present

Fr Colm, Margaret Wallace, Graham Donachie, Joanna Pallister, Fred Hayward, Kathleen Murray, Tom Hoban, Tony Power, Erica Smith, Peter Thompson, John Thompson, Mike McNally, Chris Parker, Katie Flood, Leanne Heseltine, Maria Melia

Apologies John Lavery, John Reilly O’Donnell

Summaries of the reports from SVP, Lunch Club and Inclusive Church Group had been forwarded prior to the meeting

Fr Colm opened the meeting with a prayer

Actions arising from the last meeting

Review of parish Registers

The digitisation of all the available paper lists was complete and comprises of 508 names

Dealing with Mental health Issue

John Thompson lead the discussion on this difficult subject.

A number of members had watched and taken part in the workshops of: Citizens UK event: Helping Communities Deal with the Mental Health Crisis in COVID-19. This will be followed by a further session this Thursday 30th

It was felt that the session was informative, tremendous amount of information was available but the scale of the task dealing with mental problems was huge.

The question was posed as to who we would set out to help Young, Old, Children, Teenagers, those finding it difficult to cope during ‘lock down’ the list was endless. It was suggested that we should be there for all individuals

Do we have the skill necessary to help in these situations? Are there parishioners who already possess mental health experience? Not only nurses but also first aiders who have had mental health training. It was important that willing people did not get out of their depth

How do we target those needing help? Existing parish groups were thought to be an ideal vehicle. The bereavement group and SVP were mentioned. Despite the perceived need and the close links that has been established with parishioners there had been no requests for help in this field

The illness is not one that is spoken about freely. There was still a reluctance on the part of those who may need some support of discussing their difficulties.

John Thompson read out what was thought to be an apt quotation from Kitty O’Meara, the poet who wrote, People Stayed Home

And the people stayed home. And read books and listened and rested and exercised and made art, and played games and learned new ways of being and listened more deeply, some meditated, some prayed, some danced, some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently

Graham Donachie was asked to look at how we as a parish go forward with this initiative.

ACTION

Assisting with technology

There was little time to discuss this topic in any depth and it was something to be returned to in further meetings, it was felt that it was a worthwhile task with a great need in the present climate.

The requirements were diverse, made doubly difficult by not being able to sit with a person and show them ’how it is done’ The rewards were great, the ability to communicate with people using new technology such as Zoom lessened the isolation being felt by people.

Fr Colm’s Summary

Father thanked everyone for their cooperation and support for the life of the parish. He had other concerns that would become more pressing as the present situation changed. Schools, was one of the topics that he wished to be considered and he thought that it may be helpful to invite Emma Turnbull along to take part in a discussion.

Next Meeting

Wednesday 29 April 7pm via zoom

Parish Council Meeting Minutes 21st April

Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting 21 April 2020 (via zoom)

Present

Fr Colm, Margaret Wallace, Graham Donachie, Joanna Pallister, Fred Hayward, Kathleen Murray, Tom Hoban, Chris Parker, Erica Smith, Peter Thompson, John Thompson, Mike McNally, Marjorie Towers, Katie Flood, Leanne Heseltine, Maria Melia

Apologies John Lavery, John Reilly O’Donnell, Tony Power

Actions arising from the last meeting

To establish a more comprehensive list of our parishioners – Katie has received from Joanna & Marjorie their respective parish register information from previous files and expects to have an updated electronic version by the end of the week.

Kathleen also added that she has some records, but these are hard copies. Katie suggested these could be share electronically and Chris reminded us that any info shared will need to password protected to satisfy GDPR.

Feedback on Latest Parish Pack

These have been gratefully received and very welcome. Feedback has been positive and includes Fr Colm being told so by a parishioner’s husband in the street! Many thanks again to all involved.

Citizens UK Zoom Meeting

Graham felt that as a parish we were aligned to wider national efforts in relation to distribution of our Parish Pack and the only possible area to consider in addition was to include crafts.

One idea for consideration was a ‘tech champion’ who could help parishioners who may have technology but are unsure how to use it to access online content. He also suggested we should consider providing access to devices for parishioners who didn’t have tech. Erica noted that ‘old’ tech was probably unreliable, and Graham agreed that it should be new if we did this. Chris suggested we could offer help based on parishioner’s capability.

Graham also highlighted that next week’s Citizens UK meeting is focused on “Helping Communities Deal with the Mental Health Crisis in COVID-19” which would be particularly relevant for our parish based on our recent discussions. Graham has shared the invite for anyone who would like to attend and noted it will also be recorded and can be accessed afterwards.

John Thompson shared some insights on dealing with mental health and we agreed to discuss further once we have attended the Citizen’s UK session mentioned above.

Bereavement Support Group

Erica advised that this is still operational and Easter cards were sent to families of those who had relatives die this year, and they have also been in touch with relatives who had family die since Jan 2019. The Bereavement Mass usually scheduled to take place near Pentecost will be rearranged.

Fr Colm’s Summary

Father highlighted that changes to church and society will be inevitable as we come out of this pandemic, with new communities, ‘virtual piety’, and a changed landscape in our schools as examples. He re-emphasised the importance of supporting the increased Mental Health problems within our community and commented on how quickly we have all adapted to the changing environment.

Next Meeting

Tuesday 28 April 7pm via zoom

Parish Council Meeting Minutes 14th April

Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting 14 April 2020 (via zoom)

Present

Fr Colm, Margaret Wallace, Graham Donachie, Joanna Pallister, Fred Hayward, Kathleen Murray, Tom Hoban, Tony Power, Chris Parker, Erica Smith, Peter Thompson, John Thompson, Mike McNally, Marjorie Towers, Katie Flood, Leanne Heseltine, Maria Melia

Apologies

John Lavery, John Reilly O’Donnell

The group were told of the sad death of John Reilly O’Donnell’s mum yesterday and expressed their sorrow and sympathies to him and his family.

Actions arising from the last meeting

To establish a more comprehensive list of our parishioners – Katie has started typing up a list of all recorded in the 2015 data collection and is up to “H”. We know that this doesn’t represent everyone but it is a starting point. Marjorie suggested adding information from previous files from 2009 and will be locating all such folders for work to begin on this mammoth job.

As our main priority at the moment is making sure all our folk have access to parish resources and help if they want to, Katie reminded us that the St Leonard's weekly email to parents does include our parish links.

We considered that we will need to re think carefully about what information we want to collect for our upcoming Parish register data collection.

To allow parishioners to give to parish funds. – As some have expressed a wish to give financially, a message has been put into the bulletins giving parish bank details to allow this. This is in no way an appeal, just an answer to a request.

Feedback on Easter Resources

The online resources and prayer packs which have been delivered have been most gratefully received and are reaching far beyond the parish and across the globe. Many thanks to all involved, especially Katie and Leanne.

Content of the next Packs

Another pack is being printed to go out this Friday and a further one in a fortnight. These include 2 bulletins, 10 reflections, meditation reflections, puzzle and activity pages and a letter from Fr Colm. The final pack may contain some letters from our schoolchildren.

Fr Colm’s Summary

Father pointed out the need for us to look soon to the growing issues of grief and mental illness, such as depression, which are increasing throughout this crisis.

Next Meeting

Tuesday 21 April 7pm via zoom